SJM Interview - BBC South Today (Wednesday)

[Tommy Youlden's Ears]

I won £25 on the lottery yesterday. Worth a bid?

[Extended-Phenotype]

No. I think Madejski wants a trillion pounds and his face etched into the pitch.

[Eaststandman]

No. I think Madejski wants a trillion pounds and his face etched into the pitch.

I bet the groundskeeper at Soton could do that with his unique approach to pitch mowing!

[Cureton's Volley]

regressing back to where we were over 20 years ago.

IN for Aldershot away

[RoyalBlue]

I won £25 on the lottery yesterday. Worth a bid?

It would seem that you don't actually need the money to make a successful bid, just a Russian accent, public school education, rich daddy and model wife!

Flip side, if he had 100M, why not get the club valued at the time, invest 5M whether in players or wages (Baird/Sharp was all NA asked for at the time I believe), get yourself over the line and promotion and reap the balance of the profit from the subsequent sale. I can only see our value lower now than a year ago.

Sharp and Baird would not have guaranteed us promotion. In hindsight, they would probably have got us into the playoffs.

With Sharp and Baird, odds of playoffs = 100%, odds of winning = 20%. Odds of promotion therefore 20%.
Without, odds of playoffs = 80%, odds of winning = 20%. Odds of winning therefore 16%.

You can fiddle with the odds if you like, but I think it's questionable whether it's rational to gamble 5% of your wealth on those odds.

Baird and Sharp would have been paid that much in 3 months?!

[Sutekh]

Buyers market really. As JM did when he bought the club originally, those interested are going to wait until desperation starts setting in to get the best deal for themselves.

[loyalroyal4life]

I can see this getting to the point whereby 'what's right for the club' will go out the window and be replaced with sell at any cost!

If he does not sell in next 12 months seems only thing that would save him/us is promotion

[Extended-Phenotype]

I can see this getting to the point whereby 'what's right for the club' will go out the window and be replaced with sell at any cost!

If he does not sell in next 12 months seems only thing that would save him/us is promotion

Is there any evidence that "what's right for the club" has ever been anything other than "for the best price"?

[RoyalBlue]

Seems to me that JM may have got his tactics wrong here. Whilst 'we are broke and have no money' might work when we are trying to sign players on the cheap, I'm not sure it is a good tactic when you are trying to sell something!

Telling the world and its wife how his personal fortune has diminished due to failing businesses in his portfolio is surely like to lead to lower, rather than higher bids. To make matters worse, any bid has to be acceptable to Zingarevich (no one will want to buy a minority 49% stake) and the lower the bid, the less likely he is to agree. Maybe it's just a perverse way of trying to hit back at Zingarevich by driving the value of his holding down!

[philM]

If he's worth around £100M now and one of his companies owes £50M, and around 20 of his other companies are losing money, and probably have debts too, then he could well be starting to see possible bankruptcy on the not too distant horizon. Total profit from one business of £300k isn't going to keep the empire alive for long.

Even if he doesn't personally go bust, without any cash to put in it's possible a lot of his businesses could end up insolvent and go into Administration.

[Pseud O'Nym]

Seems to me that JM may have got his tactics wrong here. Whilst 'we are broke and have no money' might work when we are trying to sign players on the cheap, I'm not sure it is a good tactic when you are trying to sell something!

Telling the world and its wife how his personal fortune has diminished due to failing businesses in his portfolio is surely like to lead to lower, rather than higher bids. To make matters worse, any bid has to be acceptable to Zingarevich (no one will want to buy a minority 49% stake) and the lower the bid, the less likely he is to agree. Maybe it's just a perverse way of trying to hit back at Zingarevich by driving the value of his holding down!

It was stated in the programme that he hadn't approved it or been interviewed for it and had declined to answer written questions about his finances. I suppose your weird obsession with the man didn't allow you to notice any of that.

[Royal Biscuitman]

If he's worth around £100M now and one of his companies owes £50M, and around 20 of his other companies are losing money, and probably have debts too, then he could well be starting to see possible bankruptcy on the not too distant horizon. Total profit from one business of £300k isn't going to keep the empire alive for long.

Even if he doesn't personally go bust, without any cash to put in it's possible a lot of his businesses could end up insolvent and go into Administration.

Which I assume is why he took Anton's money in the first place, £25m for 51% shares and £xm of loans to the club repaid..... Assuming he got cash, he can then use that to trade his way out of the mess.

I think there is a lesson here, he sold Autotrader for £260m and Hurst Publishing for £174m..... he should have just retired from business and joined Dragons Den to get attention.

[Uke]

Now, if someone tracked down the mysterious Mr Zingarevich and filled in a few blanks there, that would be another story..........

Why blanks? Live rounds would be better

[RoyalBlue]

Apparently a very honest insight into how tough things are for him now and why he needs to sell the club.

Wonder whether he will be honest enough to admit that he made a very public commitment to provide transfer funding in the January transfer window and explain why he then failed to deliver on that commitment? Bet the BBC won't have the balls and integrity to ask him about that or pose any other difficult questions. Wouldn't do to put a Knight of the Realm on the spot would it!

He never made a public commitment to provide funds. He said that he hoped that funds would be made available and at the time did not see any reason why they would not. Blame Zingarevich.

Completely wrong but once again the Madejski apologists seek to rewrite history and pretend things don't exist. He publically stated in an interview with Tim Dellor on BBCRB just before Xmas that funding would be available. No qualification of that statement at all. The word 'hope' was not used. Dellor seemed surprised by this so pushed him and got him to repeat the statement. Dellor also asked him who would be providing the funding and IIRC Madejski said both AZ and he. The tape exists, Adi Williams said the were going to dig it out and play it. They dug the tape out, but guess what? Williams and the BBC are so matey/in awe/in fear of Madejski that they stopped playing it before they got to Dellor's questions and Madejski's statements regarding transfer funding! Anyone who claims that Madejski didn't make the commitment either didn't hear the original interview, or has been conned by the BBC's subsequent editing or is a liar.

*SIGH*

1. Just because he may (or may not) have a value of £100M does not mean that he has £100M sitting in a sealed bank vault just itching to be spent. Any net worth for SJM would take into account assets, holdings and property (which probably includes his share of the club, and may even include his loans to it). I'm also pretty certain he took a huge hit in the crash.

2. I have to wonder what many of the people on this board would do if someone related to one of the richest people in the world wanted to buy something they had for sale? I am sure many times, even before the buy out, that the term 'The Zingarevichs' was used quite often. Anyone who thinks AZ bought this club on his own, without at least the implied support of daddy's roubles, are probably a little bit deluded. I don't know why AZ p*ss*d off, we may never know. Chances are the due diligence that they say SJM cocked up, encompasseed BZ's wealth as part of the assessment, and who is going to say no when a billionaire comes knocking? SJM can be grumbled at for a few things, but I seriously can't see this being one of them. On paper this was the perfect purchase for us, shame it turned out to be toilet paper

Nothing about due diligence would have predicted BZ throwing a wobbly and refusing to fund the deal. Unless you had get Mystic Meg involved....

+1 Due diligence (I believe!) only involves them checking the criminal record of prospective parties, and that their actual wealth is comparable to what is claimed.

Having been involved on several occasions on both sides of a due diligence process, I can assure you that it involves a lot, lot, more than that. And even if you can excuse the due diligence process, how can you excuse the idiot(s) who drew up/agreed to a sale and purchase agreement that was so obviously flawed and has allowed Zingarevich to behave in the manner he has with impunity?

Lol at anyone who thinks JM went on air and said that HE would be providing funds for transfers. HE DIDN'T. He was speaking on behalf of the owners who have let everyone down. I guess some people are so incredibly thick that they actually thought he would be ploughing his own money into a company that he didn't own. You Bellends.

It's not a question of 'thinks' it is a question of record and fact that he said funding would be made available and that it wasn't just coming from AZ. Those who deny that are the bellends. If only BBCRB would have the intergrity to play the full interview so everyone can hear exactly what was said.

Even if it was as you said, then the hero Madejski is the bellend for speaking that way on behalf of the owners who had already spectacularly failed to deliver on their previous commitments.

Seems to me that JM may have got his tactics wrong here. Whilst 'we are broke and have no money' might work when we are trying to sign players on the cheap, I'm not sure it is a good tactic when you are trying to sell something!

Telling the world and its wife how his personal fortune has diminished due to failing businesses in his portfolio is surely like to lead to lower, rather than higher bids. To make matters worse, any bid has to be acceptable to Zingarevich (no one will want to buy a minority 49% stake) and the lower the bid, the less likely he is to agree. Maybe it's just a perverse way of trying to hit back at Zingarevich by driving the value of his holding down!

It was stated in the programme that he hadn't approved it or been interviewed for it and had declined to answer written questions about his finances. I suppose your weird obsession with the man didn't allow you to notice any of that.

Strange how he has suddenly gone so publicity/camera shy. Very unlike him.



Anyway I'm going to leave all of you Madejski fans to continue to bury your heads in the sand and commiserate with each other, as the great man's reputation continues to be threatened, particularly by the mess that the club is now in, his judgement over the sale of the club questioned, the halo slips and eventually even you have to start to accept that he might not be quite what you thought.

[royalgrumpy]

Perhaps SJM has gone very quiet because he is aware of the media attention about his finances, and also a high profile journalist who is close to releasing his story that RFC have suddenly become a very big part of. It seems our John has been in a lot of trouble for a very long time, and the take-over wasn't as clean cut as we were lead to believe. It may be an eye-opening read when it comes out.

[Uke]

Buyers market really. As JM did when he bought the club originally, those interested are going to wait until desperation starts setting in to get the best deal for themselves.

They're even cheaper once the administrators sell

[Royal Biscuitman]

I think the problem with SJM is that he wants to remain a millionaire (who doesn't) and maintain his lofty position in the public eye.

He should probably focus on exit strategies that leave him with his house and a comfortable retirement.

You have to know where to draw the limit and be ruthless - actually, selling to AZ and recouping the loans made to the club could well be an example of this.

[BraisingsteakRoyal]

Perhaps SJM has gone very quiet because he is aware of the media attention about his finances, and also a high profile journalist who is close to releasing his story that RFC have suddenly become a very big part of. It seems our John has been in a lot of trouble for a very long time, and the take-over wasn't as clean cut as we were lead to believe. It may be an eye-opening read when it comes out.

[Nameless]

Anyway I'm going to leave

Really couldn't find the time to read yet another rehash of RB's bizarre conspiracy theories but that one little phrase leapt out.

We can but hope.....

[Y21]

Completely wrong but once again the Madejski apologists seek to rewrite history and pretend things don't exist. He publically stated in an interview with Tim Dellor on BBCRB just before Xmas that funding would be available. No qualification of that statement at all. The word 'hope' was not used. Dellor seemed surprised by this so pushed him and got him to repeat the statement. Dellor also asked him who would be providing the funding and IIRC Madejski said both AZ and he. The tape exists, Adi Williams said the were going to dig it out and play it. They dug the tape out, but guess what? Williams and the BBC are so matey/in awe/in fear of Madejski that they stopped playing it before they got to Dellor's questions and Madejski's statements regarding transfer funding! Anyone who claims that Madejski didn't make the commitment either didn't hear the original interview, or has been conned by the BBC's subsequent editing or is a liar.

Unfortunately, while I don't agree with most of what RoyalBlue posts, and don't understand quite the level of bile in most of his posts about JM, he is correct on this. I heard the same interview with BBCRB and he did quite clearly state that funds would be available in January, either from himself, AZ or both. At the time, I'm sure he fully believed it too, and was as disappointed as the rest of us when it became apparent AZ was planning on doing a Lord Lucan.