Odear

You’re all a bunch of savages.

Initial research - Negotiations - Proof of funds - Heads of Terms - Virtual Data Room - Share Purchase Agreement - Sale It’s safe to say we’re in the middle of this process right now. The average time for data room is 3 months. Which we must be more than halfway through by now. The price might drop a little depending on what they find etc. Ashley then has to accept the final offer before it can be completed.

Again. 10 days to go. If Rafa knew nothing and was just waiting on his contract to run out. It would be out there. That’s what he does. He’s a politician.

I havent followed that closely in recent days so forgive me but is any of that based on what we know or is it your idea about what's happening? I mean "looking into the structure of how it works"? Where are you looking? Quite a few different resources actually. I contacted a guy from Telangana who explained their BZG deal to me. So basically they signed an MoU of 2 billion investment. That 2 billion is spread around through various construction and telecommunications companies over a period of time. They come in and do the work and absorb the costs, the region gets the infrastructure (roads, fibre optic lines etc) which BZG owns. They make the money back (and then some) on tolls and then contracts with other service providers to use what they have built. They’re in everything for the long term. They’ve built many sky scrapers over there. I’m not in any way worried about their credentials. Now that is interesting The fact they have various big projects like that over the World in reflection is a good sign. The Sheikh is also partners in business with people who have invested $100million into Sports companies like One Championship which makes me think their credentials to get investment for us is far better than I first thought. It’s easy to get fooled by the terrible website into thinking they are third rate. They have thousands of employees, a quick check on LinkedIn and there is an abundance of them up there. All doing various roles in different sectors. Think a part of what they do is business services. Not unlike Mitie in the UK. But they also have their finger in energy (oil, gas and renewables), construction (civil, residential and professional) and then an investment arm for their wealthier members.

I havent followed that closely in recent days so forgive me but is any of that based on what we know or is it your idea about what's happening? I mean "looking into the structure of how it works"? Where are you looking? Quite a few different resources actually. I contacted a guy from Telangana who explained their BZG deal to me. So basically they signed an MoU of 2 billion investment. That 2 billion is spread around through various construction and telecommunications companies over a period of time. They come in and do the work and absorb the costs, the region gets the infrastructure (roads, fibre optic lines etc) which BZG owns. They make the money back (and then some) on tolls and then contracts with other service providers to use what they have built. They’re in everything for the long term. They’ve built many sky scrapers over there. I’m not in any way worried about their credentials.

I think people will be very happy when it all gets done. And fuck it why not? We deserve something good after so many years of shit. Personally I’m delighted now as I will be able to bring my lad to the games and he’ll see a team able to compete properly.

I was a bit worried at first as to how wealthy BZG were as that info is not readily available online. In fact anything you can find plays it down. But looking into the structure of how it works, so you have the Sheikh as the glue who holds it together. The rest (all the other companies) follow his guidance. He’s a smart one. Midhat Kidwai to me seems more like a Mike from Breaking Bad. Knows all the comings and goings and manages it. Knows his place in the organisation and makes sure all the companies involved tow the line. Heavily involved in the Human Resources side of things. To put it into perspective, you literally could have a hundred or more companies the size of or bigger than Sports Direct and many more smaller ones who carry out specific services to compliment the bigger ones. We could quite potentially match Man City for wealth when this is all done. The ethos will be completely different though. They’re buying the club for it to realise it’s potential and also for all the companies within the group to take a slice of the pie in providing said services. It’s as strategic as Mike Ashley’s move but for very different reasons.

I wish people would stop having meltdowns because the takeover didn’t happen today because some freak on twitter said it would. Examine the facts. BZG made 2 statements, the second to clarify the first. They said terms had been agreed and signed by both parties and sent to the PL. They have also said that proof of funds were sent to Ashley’s legal team on 17th April. Ashley has not refuted any of this. The PL has issues a no comment any time asked, just like they should. The club keep issuing a no comment as well as they are bound to by the terms of the NDA. Right now this is firmly with Pinsent Masons and Ashley’s lawyers to sort out. There’s no last minute moving of goal posts, any of that would have happened in the negotiating stage which happened before April 17. Just for perspective, we were a PLC when Ashley bought us. The first news of it broke on the 23rd May that he’d bought 40something percent of the club. It wasn’t until the end of June before he’d bought up the remaining shares. These things take time. Also, St James Holdings were incorporated on the 21st May and the next step was a Resolution of Memorandum which happened on the 12th June of 2007. Still have total confidence that this is happening. 👍

I sent him a WhatsApp message last night.. taunting him over the whole twitter thing. It delivered but he didn’t open the last time I checked.

I’ve never said it was done at any stage. It’s in the process and has been for a few weeks. My guess is it will be done by the end of the month. Not today, not Thursday.. it’s a very messy transaction and first before anything can be transferred to a new owner, Ashley has to start moving the assets into one holding company. That process might have started already. They don’t have to announce it on the companies house database so we have no way of knowing.

Have a little hope man, like suicide watch in here! This time he’s in a position where he has to sell to make up for other losses. If not he wouldn’t sell. But that’s not the case. He’s lost close to a billion of his personal wealth over the last 12-18 months.

So bad they couldn’t even show the whole thing at once.

Staveley hasn’t done all that much since lucking out with that Barclays finders fee. Google PCP Capital partners and all of the news stories are about trying to buy us. Not one newsworthy story since last year. I find that strange. Bin Zayed Group on the other hand are involved in lots. And this is the thing, it’s a conglomerate or group of companies we don’t have the full list of companies so we’re not seeing what individual ones are doing on a year to year basis. The Sheikh will own somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of the club, the rest all the other members of the group. You can’t compare the two.

Curious to why he is using a UK number while based in the UAE? Keith Bishop? That’s Keith Bishops number

It’s not bullshit. His number is available online. +44 7984 377881

I believe Rafa can do as good a job as a Mourinho type albeit probably not as quickly. He’s more methodical in how he does things. Most importantly is that he’s been loyal to the club and fans. And us to him too, why spoil a good thing for the sake of it?

I hear you’re a racist now Darth

If there’s another group perhaps she’s part of a consortium and when he mentioned on Twitter that if he shared his info then it probably wouldn’t happen. Maybe he means that if Mike knew Staveley was involved he’s start messing her about or something like that. Personally I don’t believe there’s any other serious buyers. BZG is as close as it’s ever been and it will happen. It’s a matter of when.

Why? Because Newcastle fans have a tendency to go into panic mode over the slightest thing and Mike Ashley and Co are known to be vindictive c***s. Has Midhat been on the blower? Something has to give by the time Rafas deal ends. And no, what would be the point? He’s given enough indication that it’s reasonably close, have to take his word (or emoji) on it.

It’s like an ongoing therapy session this thread.. seriously chill the fuck out. If KBA leaked that story to Sky Sports, why did they do it? If Mike is selling the club, he has zero interest in fucking Rafa over. More likely it’s to put pressure on BZG to get the deal finalised, which they won’t rush as they won’t be making any mistakes like finding out Ashley still has merchandising rights to half of everything or some other bollocks like that.

I believe you Odin, but can they only announce it when Ashley hands over the keys to them or once all documents have been signed and verified by lawyers? Well more like everything going on with the club is on hold until it’s complete. Even the business development girls selling corporate packages at the club have been extremely quiet all summer. They haven’t been told anything. I honestly don’t know any dates or anything like that, just more the inner workings of how this deal can take place. It’s incredibly messy hence why I’ve not been worried or surprised by the lack of news over the last few weeks. It would be nice to get some sort of confirmation from Mike Ashley but I’m not expecting any more communication from him at all to the supporters. Think as far as he’s concerned now he’s cut his ties with the club. Lee Charnley might be kept on for a brief spell to keep things going until they can bring in their own people. Well we already know Midhat Kidwai will be the General Director of the club, but do they keep on the existing press team or bring in their own people from BZG etc. He’s going to need time to settle into the role, unless he’s a bull in a china shop type. A more realistic scenario is that they’ll have some well placed agents or advisors (Peter Kenyon type?) advising them on how to negotiate player transfers and contracts etc. Or Rafa is going to assume a DoF role as well as being a coach, hard to tell. They’re not going to get everything right from the start. Think as long as they don’t hire Keegan and then fuck him over they should be grand for at least a few seasons 🙂

No. It will be a far more complicated transaction. If it were simple they wouldn’t have about 30 lawyers and even more legal secretaries working on this. It’ll just be announced soon and there’ll be a brief statement. Rafa will announce he’s staying on the same day and then we have about 8 weeks to get a squad together. Everything regarding players leaving has gone quiet. Even Ayoze and Hayden. They know there’s something big coming..

Shock horror Liverpool a more attractive investment opportunity than us.. There’s no conspiracy there. Just one club is an easy sell to investors over there. The other not as easy. Until we start seeing activity on the companies which all of the involved parties are directors of, I wouldn’t get carried away by spurious twitter rumours. Ashley will need to do a share or asset transfer of all of the little pieces of the club that he’s broken it into. Easiest way to do this is to create a new company or use one of the existing companies to achieve this. I’d imagine all that paperwork is done and waiting to be sent in. Ann Pearson from a company called Eacotts is the one who has been looking after all of this. Her dainty little hoof prints are all over everything.

So many numpties on Twitter..

Appearances can be deceptive. Geremi was a highly respected player in his day but well past his sell by date when he came here. Enrique and Beye were class. It’s a shame we couldn’t keep hold of both for longer than we did. The rest... just a whole load of baggage really. A fat, unfit, unmotivated Australian, a thug, a wannabe thug and a pair of defenders who couldn’t.