Qatar Bollocks (AKA Qatar consider MUFC takeover?)

[RedRover]

Can you give an example of other long running bullshit stories that had zero truth in them? Most get dropped after a short while.

Its by no means certain that their interest is genuine, but - as the old adage says, no smoke without fire. Clearly someone, somewhere had reason to believe that at some stage there was some interest.

This isn't like transfer stories where only the club and agent would know - if (and its a big "if") the Quatari's were interested in a takeover a lot of people would be involved - people who work for the investment fund, bankers, lawyers (often huge law firms with many staff working on a deal), the bankers lawyers, press agents etc, right down to secretaries and PA's. Info could have come from someone who actually knows something - however small.

Its also the case that with all big deals even if something was in the offing neither side would talk about it until it was done - confidentiality clauses etc.

It is of course the case that even if interest was held in the past theres no certainty it'll ever be followed up - but the point is that only those in the higher echelons of the club could confirm or deny, and would do so only in teh strictest confidece, so people on here saying "its all bullshit" clearly don't know any better than any one else.

 

[ciderman9000000]

While I agree with most of your points, the health of the club does come first and if our current ownership is a threat to the club's existence in the long term future I would obviously prefer the debt being wiped out. Of course we all want United's great traditions well and truly as part of its present and future, but not at the risk of the club's general health.

Keep up, man, there's no threat to the club's general health.

 

[Red Dreams]

there obviously is interest from Qatar to buy the club. but an awful lot of the 'reports' are rehashed guesswork from poor journos.

 

[Denis' cuff]

if it means we can afford the wages of top players like Sneijder instead of buying "promising players" I'm all for it. At the moment we are getting 30,000+ more through the turnstiles than almost any other club yet still can't afford the top players because we're paying off the feckin debt. We've spent decades getting to this position and not only find ourselves playing 2nd fiddle to Shitty and Chav$ but we're stuck with the same level of transfer target as Liverpool. Getting 30,000 + through the gates going to waste, effectively, for those feckin parasites.

 

[GCHQ]

if it means we can afford the wages of top players like Sneijder instead of buying "promising players" I'm all for it. At the moment we are getting 30,000+ more through the turnstiles than almost any other club yet still can't afford the top players because we're paying off the feckin debt. We've spent decades getting to this position and not only find ourselves playing 2nd fiddle to Shitty and Chav$ but we're stuck with the same level of transfer target as Liverpool. Getting 30,000 + through the gates going to waste, effectively, for those feckin parasites.

Yes, because we frequently signed players like Sneijder before the Glazers bought the club. Or maybe not.

We've had a 50% wages to turnover limit in place for the last 20 years and it's served us bloody well.

 

[CantonaVeron]

Yes, because we frequently signed players like Sneijder before the Glazers bought the club. Or maybe not.

We've had a 50% wages to turnover limit in place for the last 20 years and it's served us bloody well.

We frequently spent big when required and this summer there is definatley a need for a world class central midfield player, just like when Robson was coming to the end and we broke the transfer record to get Keane in, just like when we were missing goals we broke the record to sign Cole. We were lacking in defence so went out and bought Stam for another record fee, Nistelrooy, Veron the list goes on.

It was David Gill himself who said we could compete with Chelsea and Man City in the transfer market, nows the time to prove it and bring to the team the player(s) that are required to not only prove his point but also help us compete and overcome Barcelona. Like your always telling everyone the Glazers have done all this work to increase the money coming in, surely the whole point of that is to help on the football side of things? The more money coming in the bigger that 50% is add that to the fact Scoles, Hargreaves, VDS, Neville and possibly more are all off the wage bill there can be no more excuses.

 

[Denis' cuff]

Yes, because we frequently signed players like Sneijder before the Glazers bought the club. Or maybe not.

We've had a 50% wages to turnover limit in place for the last 20 years and it's served us bloody well.

Yes we did. United have always been at the forefront in the transfer market repeatedly breaking transfer records down the years. Now we're earning more than ever we find ourselves limited as i've already pointed out.

served us well because of Ferguson's management. What will happen when he goes? We'll be back to the United of old or worse. At least in the 60s/70s/80s we had the means to spend at least as much as the best of the rest to plug the gaps and make up for inadequate management. Not only will we not have a boss of Ferguson's calibre but we won't have the money to help plug the gaps either.

I've noted your past contributions to the argument and you regularly make some good , even excellent points. I have neither the time not inclination to get involved but where you lose credibility is that you clearly have taken a stance to back the Glazers and constantly seek to justify it with little admission for the harm they have done to the club. I can see they have brought new business/sponsors to the club but it doesn't come near what is going out on the debt and anyone who denies we are hamstrung by the debt really has their head in the sand. I'm sure you'll come back with many pointers that your research has shown but really mate, it's ABC.

 

[devilish]

Yes we did. United have always been at the forefront in the transfer market repeatedly breaking transfer records down the years. Now we're earning more than ever we find ourselves limited as i've already pointed out.

served us well because of Ferguson's management. What will happen when he goes? We'll be back to the United of old or worse. At least in the 60s/70s/80s we had the means to spend at least as much as the best of the rest to plug the gaps and make up for inadequate management. Not only will we not have a boss of Ferguson's calibre but we won't have the money to help plug the gaps either.

I've noted your past contributions to the argument and you regularly make some good , even excellent points. I have neither the time not inclination to get involved but where you lose credibility is that you clearly have taken a stance to back the Glazers and constantly seek to justify it with little admission for the harm they have done to the club. I can see they have brought new business/sponsors to the club but it doesn't come near what is going out on the debt and anyone who denies we are hamstrung by the debt really has their head in the sand. I'm sure you'll come back with many pointers that your research has shown but really mate, it's ABC.

We were never big spenders however we could easily get anyone in the EPL. The 'value' strategy brought mixed results and proved unable to build another winning team by itself. Hernandez and Smalling proved to be good players with great potential but the rest (Bebe, Obertan, Toxic etc) were pure rubbish and should have never worn the United shirt. Im glad that SAF changed his way by bringing in Jones and hopefully the gay one and Ashley Young. We need to target potentially great players before they end up in the radar of Real, Barcelona etc.

 

[elmo]

Yes we did. United have always been at the forefront in the transfer market repeatedly breaking transfer records down the years. Now we're earning more than ever we find ourselves limited as i've already pointed out.

served us well because of Ferguson's management. What will happen when he goes? We'll be back to the United of old or worse. At least in the 60s/70s/80s we had the means to spend at least as much as the best of the rest to plug the gaps and make up for inadequate management. Not only will we not have a boss of Ferguson's calibre but we won't have the money to help plug the gaps either.

I've noted your past contributions to the argument and you regularly make some good , even excellent points. I have neither the time not inclination to get involved but where you lose credibility is that you clearly have taken a stance to back the Glazers and constantly seek to justify it with little admission for the harm they have done to the club. I can see they have brought new business/sponsors to the club but it doesn't come near what is going out on the debt and anyone who denies we are hamstrung by the debt really has their head in the sand. I'm sure you'll come back with many pointers that your research has shown but really mate, it's ABC.

We've never been able to compete with the likes of Madrid and Barcelona when it comes to transfer fees and wages, be it before the Glazers or now.

You're a bit thick if you honestly think we should go out and plonk a large sum on a marquee signing and kill our wages/income ratio just to prove that we can compete. Do you honestly think it's prudent to offer a player (who is not guaranteed to succeed in our team) 200k a week after tax, and not forgetting a transfer fee north of 40m?

 

[Denis' cuff]

We've never been able to compete with the likes of Madrid and Barcelona when it comes to transfer fees and wages, be it before the Glazers or now.

You're a bit thick if you honestly think we should go out and plonk a large sum on a marquee signing and kill our wages/income ratio just to prove that we can compete. Do you honestly think it's prudent to offer a player (who is not guaranteed to succeed in our team) 200k a week after tax, and not forgetting a transfer fee north of 40m?

I may be a bit thick but I've managed to run a successful business for nearly 30 years and have supported United for even longer, so although I'm not Einstein I must have something going for me and I've lost count of the amount of times we've broken transfer records. Those days are clearly over and JCLs like you have obviously become conditioned to having to wait for the umpteenth year for the likes of Anderson to finally prove his worth for a place in a team already well short of midfield quality. Having spent a lifetime supporting the club recovering from Munich and seeing us achieve the position we are now in it's a bit galling watching us scratching around for who we can afford when we have possibly the biggest profit margins in the world depending on who you want to believe, but I don't expect you'd grasp that. We'd never had seen the likes of Law, Robson, McQueen, Jordan, Cole, van Nistelrooy etc with the Glazers leeching money out. It doesn't have to be Schneijder, that was just an example, not that it hindered us in the past. It'd just be nice to be able to compete.

As for competing with Real and Barca, I'm aware they've always had greater spending power than we have. It wasn't I that brought them into the argument.

 

[Rood]

For the record, we have never come close to breaking global transfer records and we broke the British transfer record just recently with the purchase of Berbatov so I have no idea what you are on about.

Not much has changed in our transfer policy under Fergie, apart from a massive increase in transfer muppets amongst the fanbase.

 

[elmo]

I may be a bit thick but I've managed to run a successful business for nearly 30 years and have supported United for even longer, so although I'm not Einstein I must have something going for me and I've lost count of the amount of times we've broken transfer records. Those days are clearly over and JCLs like you have obviously become conditioned to having to wait for the umpteenth year for the likes of Anderson to finally prove his worth for a place in a team already well short of midfield quality. Having spent a lifetime supporting the club recovering from Munich and seeing us achieve the position we are now in it's a bit galling watching us scratching around for who we can afford when we have possibly the biggest profit margins in the world depending on who you want to believe, but I don't expect you'd grasp that. We'd never had seen the likes of Law, Robson, McQueen, Jordan, Cole, van Nistelrooy etc with the Glazers leeching money out. It doesn't have to be Schneijder, that was just an example, not that it hindered us in the past. It'd just be nice to be able to compete.

As for competing with Real and Barca, I'm aware they've always had greater spending power than we have. It wasn't I that brought them into the argument.

If you've supported the club for so long, surely you know by now that our club has never been about buying the best players just for the sake of buying?

You're complaining about our lack of activity when the transfer window only opens next month, and this when we have recently just spent 16.5m on a promising defender which just about assures our defense is set for the next decade or so.

This is the first season that Gill and SAF has said that we will spend and you've not even given them a month and you're blaming the Glazers already for our lack of competitiveness for transfers. Your remarks might have been better timed if the transfer window had closed and we ended up with Phil Jones as our only signing, but I reckon you should give them the benefit of doubt till then at least.

 

[elmo]

For the record, we have never come close to breaking global transfer records and we broke the British transfer record just recently with the purchase of Berbatov so I have no idea what you are on about.

Not much has changed in our transfer policy under Fergie, apart from a massive increase in transfer muppets amongst the fanbase.

We've broken the British transfer record about 5 times I think, much lesser than what most other football fans would think.

 

[Wumminator]

For the record, we have never come close to breaking global transfer records and we broke the British transfer record just recently with the purchase of Berbatov so I have no idea what you are on about.

Not much has changed in our transfer policy under Fergie, apart from a massive increase in transfer muppets amongst the fanbase.

Didn't break it then did we? Robinho went for more.

 

[CantonaVeron]

For the record, we have never come close to breaking global transfer records and we broke the British transfer record just recently with the purchase of Berbatov so I have no idea what you are on about.

Not much has changed in our transfer policy under Fergie, apart from a massive increase in transfer muppets amongst the fanbase.

and the need of a world class central midfield player to replace Paul Scholes... We clearly need to spend big you keep going on about how good the Glazers are now is the time for them to show it. What is the point of signing sponsor deals if the money isn't being reinvested in the club? Scholes gone, Hargreaves gone, VDS gone, Neville gone etc so we have a gaps in the team to fill its not mupperty its common sense.

 

[Wumminator]

and the need of a world class central midfield player to replace Paul Scholes... We clearly need to spend big you keep going on about how good the Glazers are now is the time for them to show it. What is the point of signing sponsor deals if the money isn't being reinvested in the club? Scholes gone, Hargreaves gone, VDS gone, Neville gone etc so we have a gaps in the team to fill its not mupperty its common sense.

Scholes gone - ?
Hargreaves gone - Jones
VDS gone - De Gea
Neville gone - Rafael

We've got over a month before the season starts yet, let's not start worrying about who we have/haven't signed already.

 

[DFreshKing]

Scholes gone - ?
Hargreaves gone - Jones
VDS gone - De Gea
Neville gone - Rafael

We've got over a month before the season starts yet, let's not start worrying about who we have/haven't signed already.

We've signed another Raphael?

I think Denis's point might be the ? bit so not sure why you are disagreeing.

I'm not worried though to be fair we can hardly complain about transfers this year so far, but this Midfield weakness has been there for some time and really hope this is the season we plug it.

 

[Red Dreams]

Manchester United in Turmoil as New Investors Want Fergie out

Manchester United in Turmoil as New Investors Want Fergie out | Bleacher Report

For months now, there have been stories suggesting the Glazer family was considering an offer from the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund (QSWF) for the sale of Manchester United.

A couple of months ago, the heavily indebted Glazers were somewhat surprisingly able to clear high-interest-bearing PIK note debts of over £200 million from an unknown funding source.

What has become clear tonight is the Qatari royal family has made an offer for Manchester United and was the source of the funds to repay the PIK notes.

However, in an unusual twist, the QSWF is now threatening to pull out of the deal unless Sir Alex Ferguson is sacked immediately!

The reasons for their desire to see Sir Alex out of United were at first thought to revolve around the recent Bebe transfer, when United bought a truly awful player for over £8 million.

Speculation as to where those transfer funds went remains a hot topic, but it is now understood that the QSWF have other, more specific reasons for its stance.

As adherents to the Muslim faith, the Qatari royals cannot live with the idea of a man commonly known as 'Baconface' being in the same room as them, never mind being the public (bacon) face of their club.

More to follow...



rest easy lads.. just saw this.

 

[phelans shorts]

True Blue's Sportswriter Profile | Bleacher Report

Red dreams you idiot.

 

[Red Dreams]

that baconface one is still good.

 

[RK]

It's not even close to being funny.

 

[misterredmist]

Wesley Sneijder would seem to fit our requirements but we probably don't fit his, nor does Manchester fit his model missus.....

We've been here before pre-Glazer , Ronaldinho was persued but we eventaully had to settle for a certain promising kid called Ronaldo.....

A lot of the top class stars with Italian or Spanish Clubs probably prefer the lifestyle and weather in southern Europe.

Obviously there'd be more cash available if the debt was'nt in place, however, we'd still struggle for top class established foreign stars as teams like Madrid seem to have a bottomless mine of wealth, the tax regime in this country means salaries have to be hiked, and let's face it, on that score, Abramovich and the Abu Dhabi lot could blow us out of the water financially anyway, just like Chavski did pre-Glazer.

 

[MauritianRed]

Manchester United in Turmoil as New Investors Want Fergie out | Bleacher Report

For months now, there have been stories suggesting the Glazer family was considering an offer from the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund (QSWF) for the sale of Manchester United.

A couple of months ago, the heavily indebted Glazers were somewhat surprisingly able to clear high-interest-bearing PIK note debts of over £200 million from an unknown funding source.

What has become clear tonight is the Qatari royal family has made an offer for Manchester United and was the source of the funds to repay the PIK notes.

However, in an unusual twist, the QSWF is now threatening to pull out of the deal unless Sir Alex Ferguson is sacked immediately!

The reasons for their desire to see Sir Alex out of United were at first thought to revolve around the recent Bebe transfer, when United bought a truly awful player for over £8 million.

Speculation as to where those transfer funds went remains a hot topic, but it is now understood that the QSWF have other, more specific reasons for its stance.

As adherents to the Muslim faith, the Qatari royals cannot live with the idea of a man commonly known as 'Baconface' being in the same room as them, never mind being the public (bacon) face of their club.

More to follow...



rest easy lads.. just saw this.

Who needs Scousers when we can denigrate our manager ourselves?

 

[kiristao]

Manchester United in Turmoil as New Investors Want Fergie out | Bleacher Report

For months now, there have been stories suggesting the Glazer family was considering an offer from the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund (QSWF) for the sale of Manchester United.

A couple of months ago, the heavily indebted Glazers were somewhat surprisingly able to clear high-interest-bearing PIK note debts of over £200 million from an unknown funding source.

What has become clear tonight is the Qatari royal family has made an offer for Manchester United and was the source of the funds to repay the PIK notes.

However, in an unusual twist, the QSWF is now threatening to pull out of the deal unless Sir Alex Ferguson is sacked immediately!

The reasons for their desire to see Sir Alex out of United were at first thought to revolve around the recent Bebe transfer, when United bought a truly awful player for over £8 million.

Speculation as to where those transfer funds went remains a hot topic, but it is now understood that the QSWF have other, more specific reasons for its stance.

As adherents to the Muslim faith, the Qatari royals cannot live with the idea of a man commonly known as 'Baconface' being in the same room as them, never mind being the public (bacon) face of their club.

More to follow...



rest easy lads.. just saw this.

I wonder how they will handle having players / Managers / Coaches / Misc Staff who eat Bacon..

 

[Wumminator]

We've signed another Raphael?

I think Denis's point might be the ? bit so not sure why you are disagreeing.

I'm not worried though to be fair we can hardly complain about transfers this year so far, but this Midfield weakness has been there for some time and really hope this is the season we plug it.

My point is hardly anyone has signed players so far. Man City/Chelsea/Arsenal all haven't made a move yet, so why are we still worrying about our supposed midfield weakness. If when the transfer window closes we're in the same boat, well we'll see then won't we.

 

[GCHQ]

We frequently spent big when required and this summer there is definatley a need for a world class central midfield player, just like when Robson was coming to the end and we broke the transfer record to get Keane in, just like when we were missing goals we broke the record to sign Cole. We were lacking in defence so went out and bought Stam for another record fee, Nistelrooy, Veron the list goes on.

It was David Gill himself who said we could compete with Chelsea and Man City in the transfer market, nows the time to prove it and bring to the team the player(s) that are required to not only prove his point but also help us compete and overcome Barcelona. Like your always telling everyone the Glazers have done all this work to increase the money coming in, surely the whole point of that is to help on the football side of things? The more money coming in the bigger that 50% is add that to the fact Scoles, Hargreaves, VDS, Neville and possibly more are all off the wage bill there can be no more excuses.

Keane wasn't regarded as a ''world class central midfield player'' when we signed him from a relegated Nottingham Forest. Not even close. Cole, Stam and Van Nilstelrooy certainly weren't ''world class players'' when we signed them either. Those signings are no different to the likes of Carrick, Hargreaves and Berbatov so why can't you accept that we've continued to go out and buy good/very good players under the Glazers?

Veron falls into a different category, I agree, but even then we signed him from a financially troubled Lazio and it didn't exactly work out very well!

Sneijder is in a completely different league to any player we've ever signed before. He's widely regarded as one of the best players in the world (top 10?), is certainly one of the top ten best paid footballers in the world (if not top 5) and he plays for an elite European club. I therefore find it pretty incredible that people are criticising the club for failing to sign him or for not attempting to sign him. I also happen to think he'd be a terrible fit for us and would offer poor value for money but clearly a lot of people think differently.

I'm very confident that we'll sign a good/very good central midfield player this Summer. He won't have the profile of someone like Sneidjer but if he ends up doing a cracking job for us, like Keane and Carrick, then it doesn't bloody matter.

 

[Red Dreams]

I wonder how they will handle having players / Managers / Coaches / Misc Staff who eat Bacon..

it will all have to be Hallal food mate

 

[CantonaVeron]

Keane wasn't regarded as a ''world class central midfield player'' when we signed him from a relegated Nottingham Forest. Not even close. Cole, Stam and Van Nilstelrooy certainly weren't ''world class players'' when we signed them either. Those signings are no different to the likes of Carrick, Hargreaves and Berbatov so why can't you accept that we've continued to go out and buy good/very good players under the Glazers?

Veron falls into a different category, I agree, but even then we signed him from a financially troubled Lazio and it didn't exactly work out very well!

Sneijder is in a completely different league to any player we've ever signed before. He's widely regarded as one of the best players in the world (top 10?), is certainly one of the top ten best paid footballers in the world (if not top 5) and he plays for an elite European club. I therefore find it pretty incredible that people are criticising the club for failing to sign him or for not attempting to sign him. I also happen to think he'd be a terrible fit for us and would offer poor value for money but clearly a lot of people think differently.

I'm very confident that we'll sign a good/very good central midfield player this Summer. He won't have the profile of someone like Sneidjer but if he ends up doing a cracking job for us, like Keane and Carrick, then it doesn't bloody matter.

Apart from the obvious fact that back then we were competing on a English only scale, with us only just being back in Europe and now we are competing on a world scale because of the genius that is Alex Ferguson. Roy Keane was sought after by all the top clubs in England, it was pretty obvious he was going to be a special player and we paid a British record fee for him. Cole British record, Nistelrooy actually turned down Madrid and I think was a British record, Stam was sought after all over europe, Rio £30 million for a Defender. The point is we were allowed to buy what we needed within reason. Now with a player like Scholes retiring we need that extra special player in the middle of the park we should be looking at the top players we should be competing with the very best in Europe. David Gill himself said we can compete so he needs to go out and prove it.

I personally don't like the Glazers putting our club in so much debt is not something I can agree with, putting the ticket prices up again I disagree with that but can see it from the point of view of comparing with the top clubs. On the commerical side I will give them credit for the growth they have brought but that growth should be used to improve the team especially at a time when we are loosing alot of key players. Its a big summer for us and I think this is the acid test for the Glazers, they must so they are comitted to the footballing side of the club, not just paying off the debt until a big enough offer comes in.

 

[Red Dreams]

was it not 18 mill for Rio?

 

[phelans shorts]

was it not 18 mill for Rio?

That's what Leeds bought him for.

 

[Red Dreams]

That's what Leeds bought him for.

oh ok

 

[Baby Faced Assassin]

Manchester United target new £1.5billion-plus takeover bid by Qatari royal family - News - MirrorFootball.co.uk

 

[Ramshock]

Manchester United target new £1.5billion-plus takeover bid by Qatari royal family - News - MirrorFootball.co.uk

nothing story, no details in there whatsoever!

 

[Nate Dogg]

Is this an old story, i guess this will rumble on as long as United continue to be in debt?

 

[Sultan]

These stories will prop up a lot more now we're nearing share flotation.

Ramping up interest and share price.

 

[sglowrider]

These stories will prop up a lot more now we're nearing share flotation.

Ramping up interest and share price.

Not sure how the story helps the floatation.

Glazers hope to raise.. and I am pretty sure they will have assurances of it by the various sovereign funds ie Temasek in S'pore that they will get US$1 Billion for around 25% to 30%.

So the I.5Billion story is mooted.

Btw. They have been showing MUTV on the free to air (license fee funded channel) since last month/start of the season. Twice a week -- Mondays (from 11pm to 2am) and Saturday (4pm to 7pm.) There are more Liverpool fans here and yet you dont have LFCTV shown here on the publicly funded station.

So I suspect some deal has been sorted with some government organisation to drum up United interest. Thus I suspect Temasek will buy a chunk of the tranches to ensure that the strike price is achieved.

 

[misterredmist]

Daily Mirror.....oh dear let's troll through some old stories....

 

[Valentino]

would anyone like for Qatar to buy United?

 

[UnofficialDevil]

would anyone like for Qatar to buy United?

I think so

 

[Drifter]

would anyone like for Qatar to buy United?

Not really