Would PCP actually be a good owner for NUFC?

[Conjo]

Doesn't have to be a sugar daddy kind of thing. Fuck, I'll even give them the benefit of doubt that they were honest mistakes if they fuck up a bit in the start. As long as they have the best interest in NUFC, show that they can learn from their mistakes and don't take the fans for fools they will already be a massive improvement on what we got now.

 

Win win situation no matter how bad they are.

[Unbelievable]

It's almost impossible to say until we know more about the people behind it. It's clear that Staveley is leading the bid, but we have no idea who the mysterious Middle Eastern backers are.

 

I'd say there's two broad possible scenarios. The first one is the people involved are business people looking to be involved in the PL gravy train, and for a way to turn their financial assets into something that is likely to appreciate or at least retain value. This is what most of the owners coming into the Premier League are (Everton, WBA as the two notable recent examples). In this scenario you'd imagine that NUFC would be run as a business, but one that is focused on growing it's potential in line with the size of the club and the growth of the Premier League. This in itself would be an upgrade on the manner in which Ashley has been running the club.

 

The second, and more unlikely option, is that the backers are representing (either directly or indirectly) a state in itself. This is more in line with what happened at Manchester City and PSG. In this instance money is not really an object as the goal is soft-political power on an international scale. That would truly be the time to get excited, or not I guess if this is particularly distasteful to how and what you wish NUFC to be.

 

Either way I'd say it's unlikely that any new owner could truly be worse than Ashley. The fact is he has been running the club to the detriment of its progress on the pitch, and severely undercutting the potential of the club. It's absolutely worthwhile the dice is rolled.

 

Excellent post

[HaydnNUFC]

It's almost impossible to say until we know more about the people behind it. It's clear that Staveley is leading the bid, but we have no idea who the mysterious Middle Eastern backers are.

 

I'd say there's two broad possible scenarios. The first one is the people involved are business people looking to be involved in the PL gravy train, and for a way to turn their financial assets into something that is likely to appreciate or at least retain value. This is what most of the owners coming into the Premier League are (Everton, WBA as the two notable recent examples). In this scenario you'd imagine that NUFC would be run as a business, but one that is focused on growing it's potential in line with the size of the club and the growth of the Premier League. This in itself would be an upgrade on the manner in which Ashley has been running the club.

 

The second, and more unlikely option, is that the backers are representing (either directly or indirectly) a state in itself. This is more in line with what happened at Manchester City and PSG. In this instance money is not really an object as the goal is soft-political power on an international scale. That would truly be the time to get excited, or not I guess if this is particularly distasteful to how and what you wish NUFC to be.

 

Either way I'd say it's unlikely that any new owner could truly be worse than Ashley. The fact is he has been running the club to the detriment of it's progress on the pitch, and severely undercutting the potential of the club. It's absolutely worthwhile the dice is rolled.

 

I wish I fully understood either of these things.

 

To what extent does owning a PL football club protect a company's financial assets? Do they take all their investments out of whatever they're in, and shove them in the club because it's theoretically more sustainable?

 

And how does owning a PL club represent a state and how does it effect political power?

To answer your second question, I'll use ADUG and Man City as the example. The purchase of MCFC as well as the plethora of clubs owned in the City Football Group is actually just, well, reputation laundering. Buying a football club buys you an advertising space, seen here at NUFC with Sports Direct and at Man City with Etihad Airways and Etihad Holidays. It also buys leverage with the press who need access to your stadium, training ground and players as well as allowing you to talk about the fantastic Abu Dhabi and UAE values and draw the attention away from the utterly grim record on human rights and the treatment of workers.

 

All in all, it gave the royalty in Abu Dhabi leverage in the UK.

[Dave]

I totally agree with the concept that they must want to increase or at least maintain their assets and the only way to do that is by doing well (enough) on the pitch, but why isn't Ashley doing that? You could obviously argue all he's doing is maintaining the exposure for Sports Direct without caring about what actually happens in the league but who's to say the same won't happen for some Middle Eastern or Chinese company instead?

[HaydnNUFC]

I totally agree with the concept that they must want to increase or at least maintain their assets and the only way to do that is by doing well (enough) on the pitch, but why isn't Ashley doing that? You could obviously argue all he's doing is maintaining the exposure for Sports Direct without caring about what actually happens in the league but who's to say the same won't happen for some Middle Eastern or Chinese company instead?

Because he's a cunt.

 

It's just worth the roll of the dice.

[Figures 1-0 Football]

I totally agree with the concept that they must want to increase or at least maintain their assets and the only way to do that is by doing well (enough) on the pitch, but why isn't Ashley doing that? You could obviously argue all he's doing is maintaining the exposure for Sports Direct without caring about what actually happens in the league but who's to say the same won't happen for some Middle Eastern or Chinese company instead?

 

Ambition and motivation.

 

Ashley’s motivation is money, whereas a Middle Eastern or Chinese company would probably dwarf his wealth with theirs and wont be buying Newcastle United to try and make a few quid. Of course they’ll promote their own companies, but that wont be their only purpose.

 

As has been mentioned before, Middle Eastern’s love a dick measure competition and Saudi’s having a more successful football team than the Qatari’s for example, would be a massive victory for them.

[ponsaelius]

It's almost impossible to say until we know more about the people behind it. It's clear that Staveley is leading the bid, but we have no idea who the mysterious Middle Eastern backers are.

 

I'd say there's two broad possible scenarios. The first one is the people involved are business people looking to be involved in the PL gravy train, and for a way to turn their financial assets into something that is likely to appreciate or at least retain value. This is what most of the owners coming into the Premier League are (Everton, WBA as the two notable recent examples). In this scenario you'd imagine that NUFC would be run as a business, but one that is focused on growing it's potential in line with the size of the club and the growth of the Premier League. This in itself would be an upgrade on the manner in which Ashley has been running the club.

 

The second, and more unlikely option, is that the backers are representing (either directly or indirectly) a state in itself. This is more in line with what happened at Manchester City and PSG. In this instance money is not really an object as the goal is soft-political power on an international scale. That would truly be the time to get excited, or not I guess if this is particularly distasteful to how and what you wish NUFC to be.

 

Either way I'd say it's unlikely that any new owner could truly be worse than Ashley. The fact is he has been running the club to the detriment of it's progress on the pitch, and severely undercutting the potential of the club. It's absolutely worthwhile the dice is rolled.

 

I wish I fully understood either of these things.

 

To what extent does owning a PL football club protect a company's financial assets? Do they take all their investments out of whatever they're in, and shove them in the club because it's theoretically more sustainable?

 

And how does owning a PL club represent a state and how does it effect political power?

 

Wealthy individuals invest their money all the time. It is rare and often not beneficial to just have money sitting in a bank. One of the most common examples of investing is in property - as the saying goes an investment in land/property is generally regarded to be as 'safe as houses' in developed anglophone countries. This is why you have so many properties across London sitting empty under the ownership of foreign buyers where house prices will continually inflate or in a worst case scenario not depreciate. An other example is to invest in a business portfolio and expand wealth in this manner. A Premier League club right now represents a worthy place to invest money because with the TV deal and exponential growth of the sport you're unlikely to see a loss for your investment. It's a safe and sustainable place (in theory) to stick your cash.

 

On the second point it's all about promoting a country's wealth and power to the world. There is no doubt that Abu Dhabi's investment in Manchester City has brought the UAE to the knowledge of the world. It has pushed the Emirates as an international airline and Abu Dhabi/Dubai as tourist resorts. It's a dick waving contest essentially, a way of showing off wealth, but also potentially being to the long term benefit of a country like the UAE which only has so much oil to rely on in the long term. Qatar is much of the same. Same reason they bought the World Cup, same reason they signed a deal with Barca, same reason they bought PSG. It shows off Qatar to the world, but also attracts investment, tourism and whatever other things. How much of it is wasteful extravagance and how much is sensible long-term branding in light of limited oil wealth is open to individual interpretation.

[ponsaelius]

Haydn makes a good point with regards to UAE and Man City as well. It gives leverage and legitimacy to states with significant problems in terms of human and civil rights. The benefits of enormous financial investment for a state in a football club may not seem apparent at first hand but they are numerous. These people aren't blowing hundreds of millions on football clubs just for the craic.

[mrmojorisin75]

Let's put it this way: it seems unlikely that these guys, whoever they are, will spend +£300m to buy a football club and then run it like a corner shop.

 

Would we be the second most expensive club behind manyoo btw?

 

So yeah, please can we get taken over now. Ta.

[ponsaelius]

I totally agree with the concept that they must want to increase or at least maintain their assets and the only way to do that is by doing well (enough) on the pitch, but why isn't Ashley doing that? You could obviously argue all he's doing is maintaining the exposure for Sports Direct without caring about what actually happens in the league but who's to say the same won't happen for some Middle Eastern or Chinese company instead?

 

It might. That's always a possibility. However I'd say it's more likely that you get somebody who would have a 'think big' approach to developing the club and expanding revenue, especially with the amount of sums involved in purchasing us outright.

 

Either way it's got to be worth rolling the dice.

[Happinesstan]

Was it PCP that bought skybet?

[The College Dropout]

Seems like every club in the Birmingham or surrounding areas (West Midlands) has Chinese ownership.  I believe the logic here is to buy up the land the football clubs own and have an in on further imvestments in the cities. HS2 on the way, the raw value should increase.  Good investments. Also scope to launder money. 

[Skeletor]

Hundreds of billions please.

 

Nah, as long as they actually keep us competitive on and off the pitch and don't treat us as an advertising vehicle for some shitty company they can't really go wrong.

[Superior Acuña]

I'm pretty confident that the club would be more competent under these lot and unlikely to be flirting with relegation.

 

However, it could well amount to us being a non-laughing stock midtable team playing in the HSBC Arena or some s****. Pretty sure we will be at least in a better situation.

[Mole_Toonfan]

None of us actually know the answer to this tbh, mainly because there's little information about who the prospective owners might be. But considering how shite it's been and the likelihood based on the little we do know about them i find it highly unlikely it won't be much better than anything we have experienced over the last decade or so.

[Ketsbaia]

Doesn't need to be Abu Dhabi sugar daddies, as long as our owners have us on a level playing field again. We're handicapped by Ashley.

[mighty__mag]

Will we suddenly go from paying nobody at the club more than 70k a week  to suddenly paying 150k a week or signing players who want more.

 

I think it will be a slow progression to get to anywhere near the top 6, I can't see a policy of Rafa here's 200m go get who you want, and top class players will need seriously convincing to jump on board. I would be seriously blown away should it end up with man city type approach.

[Stottie]

There will be a lot of reasons as mentioned above. Diversification out of oil in an non-ME country will another. The PL has a high guaranteed income stream so long as you can remain in the league. With tech like AI and the Internet, other businesses face potentially massive disruptions. Property seems to be in a bubble, so maybe its not the time to buy in there.

 

Assuming the PCP deal goes through, it would be interesting to know what they know about Man City and if lessons there have been learnt. City kept Hughes on for a season and a half and let him piss away something like 100m, which must be the equivalent of 300m now. City's pockets were bottomless, so ultimately it didn't matter, but with other clubs, poor investments on the pitch have resulted in the owner pulling the plug. What can be seen to be a good owner turns into a bad one. Having Rafa to spend the budget that is provided could be key in how all of this goes.

[The College Dropout]

Lerner went from a good owner to worse then Ashley.  It can happen.

[Kanj]

The entire thing obviously hinges on what type of money is behind the bid as majority and their view of this. I believe we’ll be pushing for European places with this owner based on the reputation of AS and the stable of capital partners her firm works with/for. There’s absolutely no reason to park money in a PL club and not spend (do worse than MA) it degrades the overall value of your asset; if the new owner doesn’t spend their purchase will be an absolute waste.

[Stottie]

Lerner went from a good owner to worse then Ashley.  It can happen.

 

The exact example I was thinking of.

[Zero]

At the very least, Amanda has better knowledge to the industry and so she should run the club in a more sensible way, rather than just trying to run like other business.

 

No downside for me, because of the fat cunt.

[madras]

At the very least, Amanda has better knowledge to the industry and so she should run the club in a more sensible way, rather than just trying to run like other business.

 

No downside for me, because of the fat c***.

How come ? She's been involved in the sale of one club and never ran one, Ashley has owned one for years 

[Kanj]

Well you just have to look at the history of Amanda Staveley’s business dealings and the capital funds she represents, Middle Eastern mostly and Far East.

 

She’s getting involved in a very high profile and public business that is football so her success will have a massive impact on her career and her ability to raise money / funds for further investment in the future for PCP and the funds and AUM of the firm.

 

Just don’t think any sound business group getting involved into PL football would spend £300m+ to buy a football club and not further invest into it to grow and be successful. You may do something like that for a £80-100m clubs in lower leagues or something to park money, but not for a PL club.

 

But if I’m going to be worried about the source of funds I’d be VERY concerned about the country of origin / company and hopeful that their money isn’t controlled by government policy (China) or subject to having assets seized or something with unrest or crack down on corruption etc.

[Zero]

At the very least, Amanda has better knowledge to the industry and so she should run the club in a more sensible way, rather than just trying to run like other business.

 

No downside for me, because of the fat c***.

How come ? She's been involved in the sale of one club and never ran one, Ashley has owned one for years 

 

She has to have some in depth knowledge re football industry to act as a middleman in the Man City takeover. And the fact that Rafa is her mate adds further credibility.

 

Ashley problem is he didn't have the knowledge beforehand, and he refused to adapt to this industry.  He was trying to do his own way by running the club like his SD and failed. And, what's even worse, is the people he wrongly trusted are pure shits.

 

On the other hand, as long as Amanda listens to Rafa, we simply can't fail.

 

Really no downside from my perspective even if Amanda is purely buying for future profits.