The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[DB]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

Tottenham become minted might just push me over the edge....

Shudder.

[joe_c]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

Tottenham become minted might just push me over the edge....

Shudder.

Relax, I'm confident they'll still be shit no matter how much money is thrown at them.

[Billy Walker]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

It's not just Randy's problem.  What on earth are the movers and shakers in the Birmingham business and political communities doing?   Are they not able to attract high-end international investment into the UK's second largest city?  Apparently David Cameron made a big sales pitch for Manchester that led to the Man City takeover - can't he do the same for us?   Why is it that everywhere but Brum is getting the attention?

[pauliewalnuts]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

It's not just Randy's problem.  What on earth are the movers and shakers in the Birmingham business and political communities doing?   Are they not able to attract high-end international investment into the UK's second largest city?  Apparently David Cameron made a big sales pitch for Manchester that led to the Man City takeover - can't he do the same for us?   Why is it that everywhere but Brum is getting the attention?

We have already been bought by a billionaire once in recent years, though.

And by that measure, why haven't Everton been bought? How must they feel?

[Sexual Ealing]

Listening to to Talkshite, the Qataries are interested in buying  a EPL club, but prefer London....Randy, pick up the phone and do your best sales pitch.

It's not just Randy's problem.  What on earth are the movers and shakers in the Birmingham business and political communities doing?   Are they not able to attract high-end international investment into the UK's second largest city?  Apparently David Cameron made a big sales pitch for Manchester that led to the Man City takeover - can't he do the same for us?   Why is it that everywhere but Brum is getting the attention?

Cameron was leader of the opposition when City were bought. I don't see that he would've held much sway.

[brian green]

The collapse of the rouble is a very large straw in the wind.   Oil prices are sliding and ISIS is spreading across the middle east.   The sources of the mega money which has bloated clubs like Man City and Chelsea are going to be squeezed.   I have a gut feeling that the Monop[oly money days of football are about to come to an end.   All the things which make a successful football club other than throwing a lot of hot money at it, will, I think, become the norm again.   I hope so.

[N'Rexy]

Good point however the Qataris are rich from gas  not oil. Might impact Roman though.

[brian green]

I would imagine that Roman's money is under the pavements of Zurich.   The Communists got 25% of the vote in the last Russian election and it would not take much for them to return to power and send the oligarchs running for cover wherever they can find it.   I heard on the radio that the Russian economy needs oil prices above $100 a barrel to balance its budget.   The current price is almost down to half of that.  Energy prices must affect the Qataris, given the way they piss away their money.

[ChicagoLion]

Suggesting that the gazillions of dollars generated from oil and gas is going to somehow dry up and change the game is, I have to say somewhat fanciful.

No at some point the Sheiks  will get bored and move on.

[brian green]

Cant ever remember not agreeing with you Chicago and the word gaz illions for Quatari money is very neat. However as far as oil is concerned however much money they had under their feet at $100 a barrel, they only have half that amount at $50.   The oil and gas is not going to dry up it is going to be less profitable and in less demand.   On the sheer numbers the downturn need not be that great to trigger big shifts financially.

I would refer to potatoes because I know a bit about spuds.   If there is an over production by 10% it does not reduce the price by 10%  it simply triggers a buyers' market and the price slumps.   Likewise a shortfall in production of 10% does not  result in a rise of 10% in the price of potatoes (or whatever) it triggers a sellers' market and the price spikes.

Same with oil.   If Venezuela starts dumping oil to save its economy, Saudi oil devalues and the dominoes start to topple.   It might be fanciful to think the middle east will go from camel trading to camel trading in a century but their gravy train has hit an incline to be sure.

[Villa in Denmark]

Good point however the Qataris are rich from gas  not oil. Might impact Roman though.

Gas / oil = to all intents and purposes the same beast in global economic terms.

The prices of the two are coupled. Every gas field produces a certain amount of heavier hydrocarbons that get separated out as part of the gas purification process.  This gets sold to refineries as gas condensate.  Very good feedstock for making lots of gasoline and keosine / winter diesel products.

Every oil field contains a certain amount of natural gas components. Refineries like this as it's an almost free source of fuel for furnace heaters for driving fractionator distillation towers and catalytic de-sulphurisation units.

The Russians are screwed because of the gas price as much as anything (it has also adjusted the balance of power in their game of brinkmanship with the most of mainland Europe over sanctions and the threat of turning of the gas supplies in response.) There's a reason their biggest oil company is called Gazprom.

[Villa in Denmark]

Cant ever remember not agreeing with you Chicago and the word gaz illions for Quatari money is very neat. However as far as oil is concerned however much money they had under their feet at $100 a barrel, they only have half that amount at $50.   The oil and gas is not going to dry up it is going to be less profitable and in less demand.   On the sheer numbers the downturn need not be that great to trigger big shifts financially.

I would refer to potatoes because I know a bit about spuds.   If there is an over production by 10% it does not reduce the price by 10%  it simply triggers a buyers' market and the price slumps.   Likewise a shortfall in production of 10% does not  result in a rise of 10% in the price of potatoes (or whatever) it triggers a sellers' market and the price spikes.

Same with oil.   If Venezuela starts dumping oil to save its economy, Saudi oil devalues and the dominoes start to topple.   It might be fanciful to think the middle east will go from camel trading to camel trading in a century but their gravy train has hit an incline to be sure.

I'd agree with pretty much all of that Brian apart from countries like Venezuela dumping to prop up their economy.  They're pretty limited as too how much volume they can shift, so need maximum value out of each barrel.  No-one in OPEC can balance their budgets below $75 per barrel.  It's a game of politics to stuff the Russians with a side benefit of stuffing Iran at the same time.  The traditional middle-eastern opec members have the cash reserves to prop this up for 12-18 months without it seriously damaging their sovereign wealth funds.

The Russians on the other hand will soon have to impose capital movement restrictions to keep cash in the country.

[OCD]

If hes as brilliant as people say he is, why did Arsenal not fight to keep him?

How do you know how hard Arsenal did or didn't try to keep him?

And he's not a player under contract - he's received a promotion and I would assume a pay-rise to join us. What are Arsenal supposed to do? Kick out their own Chief Executive to make room for him?

Exactly, it is a bizarre line of argument.

He's got a promotion. He's not a footballer, he's been offered a role as Chief Executive Officer of a Premier League football club and decided to accept.

How anyone can "know" how much Arsenal rated him based on that is beyond me.

Also, Brian Doogan must have been a rubbish Head of Media as we didn't fight to keep him when he decided to leave for a better job.

And Jonathan Calderwood, clearly a hopeless groundsman as we didn't fight when he decided to leave to go to Paris St Germain.

Didn't Calderwood go to Barcelona?

[dekko]

Didn't Calderwood go to Barcelona?

Nope, PSG: http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-groundsman-head-hunted-paris-4014816

[Jimbo]

The idea that Abu Dhabi will get bored and abandon Manchester City is, in my opinion, hugely unlikely. What they spend there is the equivalent of the shrapnel in your trouser pocket after a good night out. They're not going anywhere.

I think some of us like to console ourselves with fanciful notions like this because what we hope will happen to Man City is exactly what happened to us. Our rich owner lost interest and wants out. The sad thing for us is we can't get rid of him.

The difference between Sheikh Mansour and Randy Lerner is that Randy bought us on impulse, while Mansour had a plan. We were just an accessory for a billionaire heir who doesn't seem to have any direction or sense of purpose, whereas Man City is all about legitimising and establishing Abu Dhabi on the world stage. One club was bought on a whim, the other was bought as part of a wider long-term strategy.