Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2010-2011 Football Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Mind, the article does go on to mention that the Allams have taken on the rather urgently-needs-to-be-paid debt - the Hull Daily Mail reported on the £1 sum a day or two ago, but the legal wrangling has continued well into this afternoon and I'm still not certain that everything is finalised.

I hope it's a Scottish note, Bartlett will be hard pressed to spend that around here. Heh. :D
 
I'm arriving a bit late to the Man U Arsenal discussion. Is there a reason that Walcott hasn't been starting much recently? Arsenal really could have used his speed and ability in the first half, they seemed outpaced by Man U throughout. One of the commentators here (on ESPN) said something about Nasri playing so well that Walcott was on the bench. I couldn't make sense of that though.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
I hope it's a Scottish note, Bartlett will be hard pressed to spend that around here. Heh. :D
Click to expand...

It's a sad fact that clubs are being bought for the price of their debt nowadays. Frankly, I'm surprised Liverpool went for as much as it did considering the amount of debt the new owners had to service. And Liverpool's debt is nowhere near as bad as a few other clubs.
 
Indeed, but Liverpool's name – despite the problems of recent years – still carries a lot of weight and they're still a hugely marketable club, far more so than us.

Mind, the size of our debt has to be put into perspective – it's said to stand at around £20million, compare that to Bolton who recently recorded a £35million loss for the year and currently have a total debt of over £93million. That's for a relatively small, at best mid-table Premier League club. No wonder Gartside wants to pull the ladder up.

I think the problem with our owings aren't so much that we've been massively in debt – at least compared to some other clubs – but the fact that they're based mainly on short-term loans with tight payment dates. Add in a high wage bill and the obvious loss of revenue compared to when we were in the Premier League and it's not a pretty picture, especially when one of the major creditors is HMRC – and we all know what they've been like with football clubs of late. It's been reported that the Allams had to put over £800,000 into a holding account to keep the taxman happy while the sale went through, otherwise we'd likely have had a winding up order issued.

The due diligence process has dragged on and on, the word is that this process has opened several more cans and spilled out their wormy contents for all to see. Allam Snr was talking very grandly about his plans for the club a few weeks back, he's calmed down a little now and it looks like he's going to be forking out more than he first envisaged to get the debts settled. We'll see if the figure of around £20million that was touted was accurate, I suspect there are further debts that will come out.

Anyway, we'll see what happens at the press conference tomorrow. No doubt it'll all end in tears. :p
 
Last edited:
And so, the last 16 draw for the Champions League looks like this:
AC Milan v Spurs
Inter v Bayern M
Lyon v Real Madrid
Barca v Arsenal
Valencia v Schalke
Roma v Shakhtar
Copenhagen v Chelsea
Marseille v Man Utd

Certainly tuff draws for Spurs and especially Arsenal, who meet Barca again as they did last season
 
Yup and Wenger will be forced to acknowledge it as a noteworthy cup. Well...if they actually end up winning that is. It IS Arsenal we're talking about afterall.
 
Once again Man U avoids the top teams. Spurs are finished, though it will be fun to watch. Bayern v Inter could also be interesting, both teams are underperforming right now.

Arsenal hasn't a chance in hell. I say sack Wenger, bring in Big Sam and his physical longball. :)

Jaffa Cake said:
EDIT: It's official then – we've been bought.
Click to expand...

Good news! A bit of an early Christmas present for the fans...
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Good news! A bit of an early Christmas present for the fans...
Click to expand...
Funnily enough, Pearson (Adam) described it as a bit of a gift in the press conference...

"This is a substantial investment and in these days in football when most deals are being done through debt, to have a local benefactor putting this much money into football is quite a unique situation.

"It certainly makes no business sense, it is purely a gift to the city of Hull and the local sporting community and we are extremely grateful."

Worthy of note though is the fact that – as well as the shiny Pound paid to Bartlett for the club – the Allams are paying £30 million into the club to clear the majority of debt over the next 12 months, and are also putting up a further £10 as guarantees against the remainder. Looks like the due diligence process did indeed turn up a few things, then.

The natural instinct of a City fan is to be suspicious, we've had plenty of false dawns before. However, the Allams have a track record of gifting money locally – the University of Hull, Hull Truck Theatre and local hospitals have been on the receiving end of large donations from Allam Snr over the years – so one would like to conclude that his motives are genuine. We'll see, but hopefully the mood at the KC tomorrow will be a positive one.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Once again Man U avoids the top teams. Spurs are finished, though it will be fun to watch. Bayern v Inter could also be interesting, both teams are underperforming right now.
Click to expand...

don't overestimate Milan ... in a fast paced game their age sure might hurt them

bayern vs inter sure is going to be a harsh fight ..especially since inter isn't going to all out defend like in last CL final

real, chelsea and manu sure got the easiest choices


i'm going to look forward to Valencia vs schalke i suspect rather even teams and a fully motivated Raul palying against a spanish club
 
Jaffa Cake said:
The natural instinct of a City fan is to be suspicious, we've had plenty of false dawns before. However, the Allams have a track record of gifting money locally – the University of Hull, Hull Truck Theatre and local hospitals have been on the receiving end of large donations from Allam Snr over the years – so one would like to conclude that his motives are genuine. We'll see, but hopefully the mood at the KC tomorrow will be a positive one.
Click to expand...

He is at least not some foreign-based owner with limited knowledge of the community who swooped in with big ides. He may succeed or fail, but at least he probably won't be another Mike Ashley or Hicks & Gillette.

takao said:
don't overestimate Milan ... in a fast paced game their age sure might hurt them
Click to expand...

Possibly, but Spurs defense is slow and fragile as well. Both teams have a strong attack, so I expect it to be a goal-fest, and that would be great.
 
Well, here's a contender for the 2010 Pointless Article Award. I mean, what was he supposed to say, "Actually I saw it cross the line, but I think Lampard's a *****r so I choose to ignore it" ??? I guess with the weekend's games being largely cancelled, there wasn't much to write about...
Honestly! :rolleyes:
 
Meanwhile, the meeting of SPL bigwigs to discuss changes to the structure of the League – including the introduction of a winter break to lessen the impact of wintery weather – has been postponed due to... wintery weather. Heh. :D
 
In what turned out to be a huge non-event, Fox Soccer Channel broadcast a Ligue 1 match between Sochaux and Bordeaux in the Derby-Of-French-Clubs That-End-in-'X'. The reason being that US international forward Charlie Davies had finally made the bench for Sochaux and was set to see his first action since surviving that horrific car crash in early 2009.

In the end, Davies never made it on the pitch, but I'm glad to see he's back. It remains to be seen if his once-promising career can be saved though. He's been out of the game a long time.

Fizzoid said:
I guess with the weekend's games being largely cancelled, there wasn't much to write about...
Honestly! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Bingo. This weekend I discovered just how depressing and empty life is without football. Don't tell Lady Blackadder that, mind you....;)

If you are reading this dear, I am of course completely kidding....
Jaffa Cake said:
Meanwhile, the meeting of SPL bigwigs to discuss changes to the structure of the League – including the introduction of a winter break to lessen the impact of wintery weather – has been postponed due to... wintery weather. Heh. :D
Click to expand...

Well, that means they won't even need to use a powerpoint to show how bad weather effects games - just pull up the blinds and look outside, you silly Scottish-types! :D

EDIT: Tevez is such a primadonna. To be fair, he generally seems committed once on the pitch, but as soon as he steps off it he turns into a big baby. Oh, and nobody mentioned the "Konchesky's mum ripping on Scousers" debacle. I really don't think Konchesky's all that terrible (better than Dossena anyway), but this little spat probably won't help things.
 
Last edited:
Lord Blackadder said:
EDIT: Tevez is such a primadonna. To be fair, he generally seems committed once on the pitch, but as soon as he steps off it he turns into a big baby. Oh, and nobody mentioned the "Konchesky's mum ripping on Scousers" debacle. I really don't think Konchesky's all that terrible (better than Dossena anyway), but this little spat probably won't help things.
Click to expand...
Guess he got his payrise though ;)
 
If I huff and puff about not liking it here any more, and say that I'm going to go and post over on PCRumors.com instead, do you reckon the Mods will come in with the offer of a big money contract to keep me?

It's got to be worth a try... ;)
 
Jaffa Cake said:
If I huff and puff about not liking it here any more, and say that I'm going to go and post over on PCRumors.com instead, do you reckon the Mods will come in with the offer of a big money contract to keep me?
Click to expand...

You'd first have to say that all your friends and family are over at PC Rumors.com, and you miss them - and then when you're given leave to visit them, go hang out on the LinuxRumors.com forums instead. :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back