Confimred new owners of Raeding Footbal Club

[Hampshire Royal]

It always makes me laugh when people talk about 'investing' in players. You're not investing, you're gambling! QPR invested huge amounts of money in lots of good players and ended last season below us. One of our best ever players (Gylfi) came through the academy!

Unless you're Man City or Barcelona, you just cannot spend the sort of money needed to buy really top class players, and when will we ever be able to extend a player's contract to pay him £300,000 a week, like Man U. We will never compete with clubs like this, and I'm not sure I really want to. I quite like things the way we are. The odd season in the PL, followed by other seasons fighting for promotion. If we went up, the best we could hope for is a battle against relegation (not too bad once in a while, but not every season).

[SPARTA]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet or not, but there were two US bidders, not one. One had nothing behind them and were sent packing, the other sounded like they had money but for whatever reason weren't SJM's cup of tea, or perhaps had a different vision for the club that he shares.

[Ian Royal]

Since 2003 we have been in the Prem for 3 seasons, we have been promoted as Champions in the Championship twice, we have been in the Championship Play Offs three times, have finished seventh in the Championship once and ninth twice.
I could cope with bumbling along like that.

+ 1

I would rather we invested in the team when we were in premiership and were an established premiership side. Yes things could be worse but they could also have been a lot better. We missed two golden chances to do that. I doubt we will have those again for quite a while

Invest what?

[Royal Rother]

These threads are mildly depressing - not because of "opportunities lost" and "missed golden chances" but because of the mind boggling combination of sheer ignorance / naivety / short-sightedness / stupidity and ingratitude that some of the club's supporters display.

[multisync1830]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet or not, but there were two US bidders, not one. One had nothing behind them and were sent packing, the other sounded like they had money but for whatever reason weren't SJM's cup of tea, or perhaps had a different vision for the club that he shares.

my understanding is none of the 3 bidders were offering enough. As mentioned the term 'derisory' was pinned against all 3. The only card Chairman holds is to say he won't sell his share. The three were for 100% therefore he can veto the sale on that aspect but if AZ gets desperate or bored to sell his 51% then he could find a buyer for that and leave the club with a new majority shareholder who may or may not have any vision past asset striping.

A shark could vote the club to spend a lot of money and force the other shareholder to pay 49%. SJM could easily be squeezed or forced out at little or no expense by a clever majority shareholder...

To some it's a passion about football. to others is business pure and simple.

[JIM]

someone call ROONEY on £300,000 per week he can afford to take out credit to buy us.

[SpaghettiHoop]

Earning 50p a second 24/7 for the next five years!

[SPARTA]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet or not, but there were two US bidders, not one. One had nothing behind them and were sent packing, the other sounded like they had money but for whatever reason weren't SJM's cup of tea, or perhaps had a different vision for the club that he shares.

my understanding is none of the 3 bidders were offering enough. As mentioned the term 'derisory' was pinned against all 3. The only card Chairman holds is to say he won't sell his share. The three were for 100% therefore he can veto the sale on that aspect but if AZ gets desperate or bored to sell his 51% then he could find a buyer for that and leave the club with a new majority shareholder who may or may not have any vision past asset striping.

A shark could vote the club to spend a lot of money and force the other shareholder to pay 49%. SJM could easily be squeezed or forced out at little or no expense by a clever majority shareholder...

To some it's a passion about football. to others is business pure and simple.

That makes me feel even less optimistic about new ownership. I have to admit even I am asking myself whether I want to be part of the game any more. I hate almost everything about it these days. Perhaps a season or three away from the club will do me some good. I might find that love for it that I lost several years ago then, and if not, well it's a lot of money saved.

[FridaysGhost]

We're on a knife-edge. No investment, inconsistent performances and unbelievable problems with the Ownership. We could be heading for the lower divisions if this carries on!
Not immediately, but eventually!

We need a sensible buyer who is willing to pay what the club is worth OR a Manager who can slowly turn the club around (without finance) to make us attractive.

I did think one thing. Were the RFC supporters able to find enough money to buy 2% of the shares from Anton, we could be the power brokers! This, of course, presumes that Anton needs liquid funds!

[Royal Rother]

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Yes the club is on a knife edge. Top 6 with a completely new management team & having to get over a relegation hangover. It is outrageous that every other team has not rolled over for us & let us get 107 points already.

Even more outrageous that John has not stumped up a gazillion pounds to buy us out of this league & then spent more gazillions to ensure we finish 17th in the Prem. Why won't the guy spend all of his own money on the club whilst I pay my £375?? It's disgusting!!! The least the cnut could do is sell up to just one of the many multi-billionaires queuing up to buy the club - I saw them all outside the megastore today.

I think pants day 2 is in order.

I despair. Even more so when you read the comments on the back from the QPR game thread that was oh.......6 fcuking days ago.

[From Despair To Where?]

I was confused as how owning 2% could be a power broker when the other 2 major shareholders both want out. Add to that, the supporters are unable to find a consensus on a website, I'd hate to see them in the boardroom.

What we really need is a manager with a track record of getting a team to perform above expecatations and/or bringing on academy players and making them regular first teamers. What about that bloke who used to be at Scunthorpe. Got them playing decent football at a level above their norm. If not him, how about that bloke who took Southampton from League 1 to the Premiership with a team built around academy graduates.

[Sutekh]

Now I like that idea, what's that bloke's name again?

[Royal Rother]

I was confused as how owning 2% could be a power broker when the other 2 major shareholders both want out. Add to that, the supporters are unable to find a consensus on a website, I'd hate to see them in the boardroom.

What we really need is a manager with a track record of getting a team to perform above expecatations and/or bringing on academy players and making them regular first teamers. What about that bloke who used to be at Scunthorpe. Got them playing decent football at a level above their norm. If not him, how about that bloke who took Southampton from League 1 to the Premiership with a team built around academy graduates.

Power post.

[Wimb]

And let's not pretend that just because you throw money at a team you'll ensure survival either.

As mentioned QPR struggled despite tons of cash but even previously 'stable' teams just drop out eventually through one bad season of mismanagement. Middlesbrough, Charlton, Bolton, Sunderland, Southampton, Coventry, Sheffield Wednesday. All teams that have had long periods of time in the Premier League but still fell down the leagues eventually.

The top division is getting harder and harder to stay in because those at the top are just getting stronger.

Part of me just wants the big teams to leave England and form a European Super League because what's the point in competing in a division where the dream is to finish inside the top 10?

[Royal Rother]

Indeed - that's entirely the point really. One season of bad financial management can set you back a decade or 2. But certainly, although there's a CHANCE of it coming good, get on that particular path it's far more likely that before you know it it'll be taking you down a road to ruin.

Whatever the temptations, unless you've got owners prepared to w4nk off vast sums of money, best to resist and continue operating on a prudent financial basis.

Stoke City, often cited as a good example for Reading to model themselves are far from that, having already cost the Coates family circa £30m in loans converted to shares, now sitting on another £39m of loans after the club made a loss of £31m in 2012/13. Now they are talking about making the club self-sufficient...

[Wimb]

Exactly and you begin to wonder what's the point?

For me it just seems silly to now have Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal in the same league structure as Oxford, Reading and Swindon.

I applaud the intent behind the various financial fair play rules but if anything they'll just cement the monopoly rather than break it up.

[winchester_royal]

As far as I can tell the financial fair play rules are there to make sure clubs remain self sufficient, which is absolutely right imo. For sure it will mean that the smaller clubs will get penalised if they try to compete financially with the bigger clubs, but they shouldn't be trying to. Oxford will never be able to compete with a club/brand the size of Arsenal, that's just the way of the world, and if FPP stops over ambitious chairmen putting their clubs in danger of potential insolvency through the pursuit of an impossible dream then good.

[Wimb]

As far as I can tell the financial fair play rules are there to make sure clubs remain self sufficient, which is absolutely right imo. For sure it will mean that the smaller clubs will get penalised if they try to compete financially with the bigger clubs, but they shouldn't be trying to. Oxford will never be able to compete with a club/brand the size of Arsenal, that's just the way of the world, and if FPP stops over ambitious chairmen putting their clubs in danger of potential insolvency through the pursuit of an impossible dream then good.

I agree they're a step in the right direction to keep clubs afloat but it's a shame that's coming at the expense of totally shutting the door on any club daring to dream they'll compete with the very best.

[winchester_royal]

As far as I can tell the financial fair play rules are there to make sure clubs remain self sufficient, which is absolutely right imo. For sure it will mean that the smaller clubs will get penalised if they try to compete financially with the bigger clubs, but they shouldn't be trying to. Oxford will never be able to compete with a club/brand the size of Arsenal, that's just the way of the world, and if FPP stops over ambitious chairmen putting their clubs in danger of potential insolvency through the pursuit of an impossible dream then good.

I agree they're a step in the right direction to keep clubs afloat but it's a shame that's coming at the expense of totally shutting the door on any club daring to dream they'll compete with the very best.

Yep, but for me that's where the PL should look at distributing more of their revenues to the lower leagues, that will then give clubs in the lower reaches to build.