Sure thats a possibility too
Club Sale | It’s done!
- Thread starter JB08
- Start date
- Status
I'd be happy to see us 17th if it got rid of those fecking parasites once and for all.
In reality we both know that would not be the case.
Just look at how angry fans are getting at EtH (not saying you) for not doing the treble in his first year
There will still be players sitting on the fence waiting to confirm which teams have qualified for Champions League Football and that will not now be decided until the end of May, hopefully by then , the United ownership will be announced if not confirmed and this will allow people to work in the background on potential deals
I think a lot would take new 100% ownership right now and finish 5th with two domestic cup finals, the only issue is Qatar might actually sack ETH if that happened and we had a bad start 5 or 6 games into next Season !
“Okay cafers, rise, and shine, and don't forget the Glazers-exploring-potential-sale thread, ‘cause it’s club buyout day out there… it’s club buyout day out there every day.” Happy Groundhog Day!
Wake me up when something actually happens.
Wake me up when something actually happens.
I would take relegation to get rid of them but fortunately that seems like it won't be necessary.
Its funny how some are trying to make SJR look like a worse option that being owned by Qatar..
its a no brainer..
Glazers need to accept a bid and feck off..
its a no brainer..
Glazers need to accept a bid and feck off..
Oh yeah sure, this place would be an absolute shite show. The 17th thing is just my personal opinion.
Yup. Piss off and let us plan for the summer and competency.
No definitely not. I’m not an expert in the slightest, it could have just been practice for running a bigger club, but it could also be to do with building a multi club model before buying the biggest club. We know INEOS were in for Chelsea so it’s clearly something they’ve been wanting to do.
Makes sense to put the smaller pieces of the jigsaw in place first, not to mention they probably would have needed to pay more if the selling club’s owners knew that Manchester United were going to the head of that model.
You have way more faith in the process than me my friend!
I think if INEOS take the debt off of us and are able to have us run so we can sign and sell players efficiently we could be ok. We earn enough with commercial avenues to compete without a state sponsor.
A cash injection to improve stadium and training facilities would make us a top option for young stars in the making. Something that we are more successful with than just outright buying the top stars in the market.
I don’t like that the glazers stay in some capacity though. It does just seem like they do wanna hang on to the cash cow for as long as possible. The way they’ve ran Nice is another concern but there’s absolutely no guarantee that SJ comes in and runs us like Man City either.
The wait for this to be completed is frustrating and should’ve been done by now. Yet another indicator of the Glazers not caring about the club.
A cash injection to improve stadium and training facilities would make us a top option for young stars in the making. Something that we are more successful with than just outright buying the top stars in the market.
I don’t like that the glazers stay in some capacity though. It does just seem like they do wanna hang on to the cash cow for as long as possible. The way they’ve ran Nice is another concern but there’s absolutely no guarantee that SJ comes in and runs us like Man City either.
The wait for this to be completed is frustrating and should’ve been done by now. Yet another indicator of the Glazers not caring about the club.
Maybe if they continue to dig their heels in we should create a petition and send it to the commons and EPL asking why nothing was done about this and man united fans would like the club to be relegated because it was bought on debt and it’s still never been repaid.
With Relegation they would 100% leave ?
I told you to bore off with the race card.
You got a stick up your backside about being called out and got hostile.
Get a grip.
Going through your posts, seems all you do with your time is search for arguments online for some pathetic reason.
Tataa, waste someone elses time.
Desperate to the an oil club and spend 300M every year on transfers for Twitter fandom clout.
We’ll miss out on as few but we’ll also get a few, and let’s be honest it’s not difficult to upgrade on ; H Maguire, Fred, A Martial, Mctominay, Weghorst, Antony and Martial
There's no guarantee of anything but do you honestly think if Qatar do buy the club that they're not going to want to have the best people in the best positions? Do you think they want to be embarrassed, on and off the pitch by Abu Dhabi and Saudi? And any other big investors? Of course not, PSG is one thing but if they buy the club the world will be watching, they won't want to screw it up. I see people say, look at how PSG have been ran and when it's pointed out Nice are not doing well it's "oh well it's Manchester United, it'll different to Nice" Well that same logic applies to Qatar and PSG as well.
Why do you think (implied) that INEOS wouldn’t want that too?
From voetbal international (Dutch website and magazine), translated with deepl into English:
Qatari billion-dollar PSG project threatens to fall completely into ruins
Paris Saint-Germain is in a massive crisis. The turmoil surrounding the top French club is steadily growing, while star players seem to be shrugging off their wages. Meanwhile, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi's prestige project continues to crumble.
It seemed such a nice scenario. In 2011, Paris Saint-Germain was acquired by the Qatar Sports Investments group. Under the leadership of its president, Al-Khelaïfi, it was going to build an international superpower in top European football. Financially, the possibilities seemed endless. The big goal: winning the Champions League. The end justified the means, so the petrodollars were greedily spent.
The start was promising. With Carlo Ancelotti, a seasoned top coach was snared. By immediately paying over 40 million euros for Argentine attacking midfielder Javier Pastore, the Qatari made their intentions immediately clear. Over 100 million euros were spent by Paris Saint-Germain in the first season of football. The starting shot of an era where the club caused a stir in the market. And only a fraction of the amount that would be spent the following year.
In the summer that followed, the Parisians in the stands only really knew where they stood. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, at the time one of the most feared players in Europe, is recruited. Thiago Silva follows in his wake. Italian prodigy Marco Verratti comes to the Ligue 1, while Lucas Moura and Ezequiel Lavezzi together are paid over 70 million euros. The transfers of Netherlands international Gregory van der Wiel and David Beckham are luxury deals on the fringes that year. They finally manage to win the Ligue 1 again. Paris Saint-Germain had not managed that since 1994.
No expense is spared in the City of Love. And the fans are beginning to embrace the methods of Al-Khelaïfi, who is remarkably committed. Paris Saint-Germain was known as nothing more than a drab mid-table player, with more often than not an upward outlier. The club made losses for years in a row. Until oil dollars suddenly enticed the world's greatest players to come to the Parc des Princes. Although the club has become a plaything of Al-Khelaïfi from the nevertheless fanatical French supporters, success dazzles the fans.
Actually, it is a stark contrast. The city's posh posh club versus the breeding ground of talent in the suburbs. During the 2016 European Championship, held in France, 25 per cent of the players in the host country's squad will come from the so-called banlieues. No golden cranes, no private jets and certainly no sports cars in Paris' authentic working-class neighbourhoods. Unemployment is huge, in suburbs like Saint-Denis. Only football can make the boys on the streets forget their worries. It is the ultimate way out of misery.
Where people in the banlieues have to rely on survival instincts, in the Parc des Princes then everything is different. Thanks to the Qatari, the possibilities are limitless. This is especially evident when the club pays more than two hundred million euros for the arrival of Kylian Mbappé in 2018. Noted exponent of the street, from the poor working-class Bondy district, becomes the face of the club that plays with a wheelbarrow full of money. The story is written in the stars. In the city of the banlieues, the epitome of multiculturalism and integration, the son of a Cameroonian father and mother of Algerian descent must go on to bring France the biggest prize in Europe. The prodigy, already world champion as a teenager, should become the inspiration of the city of Paris.
The pride of Bondy, where a giant effigy of him is on display, signs off on a fairy-tale project. 'Love your dream and it will love you too,' reads his motto. Only, Mbappé has also unwittingly become the face of the Qatari's hole in the hand. After he extended his contract last summer, his fee went up to around €72 million on an annual basis for good reason. Especially special because he is not the Parisians' only star. On the contrary: he is never alone at the top of the monkey rock.
If, seven years after the entrance of Al-Khelaïfi and his friends, Mbappé gives Paris Saint-Germain his yes, the Qatari's impatience is already high. They have won the national title in five of the seven seasons, but they did not come to Europe from the Gulf state for that. Of course, for the Ligue 1, PSG do not need to spend more than two hundred million euros on Mbappé. Certainly not because a year earlier Neymar also came for an even bigger sum. The Brazilian struggled with his situation at Barcelona. In the shadow of Lionel Messi, he was never going to be the all-time great and, apart from the golden mountains, his ego also drew him to Parc des Princes.
Impatient Paris Saint-Germain want more and more. Neymar and Mbappé need to team up. Indeed, four times in a row, the club failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League, while the word Remontada made its appearance the year before Neymar was brought to Paris. In his first season, Neymar immediately scored 28 goals in 30 games, but again things went wrong. Frustration accumulates and the wolverine from Qatar tries everything to complete their dream. And the decisiveness is telling, because the sky is the limit. And so too comes Mbappé, who has already created a furore in billion-dollar football with AS Monaco.
Just when the fanatical hard core is unwelcome due to corona woes, Al-Khelaïfi seems to have the world at his feet. In Portugal, PSG can enter the final. At last, the pieces of the puzzle seem to be falling together. Neymar, Mbappé and the slick Ángel Di María follow a barely-stoppable tridente. Behind them, coach Thomas Tuchel has built a squad that rolls up its sleeves and is prepared to run through a wall. Only against Bayern Munich, things go wrong again. A breakaway by the Germans ends with Kingsley Coman, of all people. The outside player, who grew up in the banlieues of Paris, carries out the verdict. It is the striker sent to Juventus by Al-Khelaïfi himself in 2013 that shatters the dream project again for the time being.
In the summer of 2021, the Qatari will now have owned the club for 10 years. The goal they came for has not been achieved. Indeed, the Parisians have made a loss of over €883 million since the owners' entrance. Hundreds of millions, all of which are on account of the investment group. And then the title was also taken out of their hands by Lille. Anger all around, but no reason to abandon the dream, because that very summer is when the biggest prestige project comes on the market: Lionel Messi.
The Argentine has an expiring contract at Barcelona, but due to financial chaos at the Catalans, that commitment cannot be broken open. Suddenly, Al-Khelaïfi smells an opportunity. A two-year contract worth 40 million euros a year is up for grabs. Neymar is deployed to tempt the Argentine. And promptly it succeeds. 'I am delighted that Lionel Messi has chosen Paris Saint-Germain. It is with great pride that we welcome him and his family to Paris,' the president speaks as proud as a peacock.
The president decides to pat himself on the back a bit more and immediately makes his intentions clear. Messi is to form a triangle with Neymar and Mbappé that will bring the Qatari's toy the silverware it wants: the Champions League. 'Adding Leo to our squad, which was already world-class, confirms the relevance and success of our player policy. I cannot wait to see our team, at the hands of our great coach and his staff, make history in front of all our supporters around the world.'
He brings misery into the house with the Argentine. Not because of La Pulga's personality, but mainly because of the hierarchy being brutally disrupted. Mbappé and Neymar cannot stand each other. The two cockers both want the lead role, while the French striker has been accused of trying to force a transfer. The striker flirted with Real Madrid, almost forced a departure and caused turmoil for months. And for headaches for Al-Khelaïfi, who would do anything to keep the great global star of the near future in Paris for longer. Messi himself, meanwhile, is mostly struggling to find his feet and is having a rare mediocre year.
The dance with Real Madrid appears to be the beginning of the end for the Qatari's big prestige project. By trying to keep Mbappé for the club at all costs, relations are growing lopsided in Paris. Mbappé is said to have commandeered penalty kicks, can interfere with transfers and earns about as much as Neymar and Messi combined. The Brazilian in particular has a hard time swallowing the fact that he is in danger of ending up in second place.
The heated relationship culminated in a home game against Montpellier at the start of this season. Mbappé missed a penalty, after which PSG were allowed to take another shot from the spot. Again, the French prodigy wanted to get behind the ball, but Neymar claimed the penalty. The Brazilian scores, but Mbappé cannot stand it. When he is denied the ball moments later, he makes furious miscreants and refuses to make another move for his team. This is the first time that the rumoured battle between them has been visible to the general public.
At the time, Messi was still slipping through all the criticism. The Argentine is given the freedom to focus on the World Cup in Qatar and is allowed to take an occasional day off from the club. The dribbler nevertheless finds his top form and the click with Mbappé is evident. When the pair pull out all the stops in the final in, of all places, Qatar, Al-Khelaïfi can rub his hands. Indeed, the two best players in the world, signposts of Qatar, in a Qatar final, soon return to Paris. One as an overjoyed world champion, the other as the man who scored a hat-trick in the final. Both are making history.
What is clear at that moment, however, is that things in Paris can no longer be saved. After the World Cup, coach Christophe Galtier's team collapses like a house of cards. Messi seems to have his head in the game only incidentally after all the festivities, while Mbappé performs even less. Neymar is completely invisible and misses the fatal knockout games in the Champions League eighth finals. Painfully, Bayern is once again the executioner. Three years after the Lisbon final, it is Bayern again. The Germans are the end of a trial of the three best attackers in the world.
Galtier is losing all grip on his stars. Neymar is in the sack, Messi is doing what he feels like and Mbappé is also stumbling along at times. That the coach has lost all control, however, is not for the first time. It happened to Tuchel, while Mauricio Pochettino couldn't cope either. A bigger problem, however, is that it is now also slipping out of Al-Khelaïfi's hands. The proud glutton from Qatar who could buy anything all his life suddenly has a problem that even his credit card cannot handle. Meanwhile, discontent is growing in the stands in Paris.
PSG's supporters have been unhappy with the players' attitude for months. Messi is often the target of whistling concerts, Neymar receives threats. Mbappé is protected as a child of the banlieues. Yet the bucket seems to be overflowing. The situation in their own stadium is becoming increasingly hostile. Especially as PSG suddenly, after debacles in the Champions League and the cup tournament, threaten to lose a comfortable lead in the title race. The staggering home defeat against FC Lorient (1-3) is the low point. Although the biggest pain point followed only a day later, after which the supporters went on a rampage.
Messi, already unwilling to renew his expiring contract, has been flirting with Barcelona for weeks. The Argentine is spotted several times in Catalonia, lets his father and business manager talk about his old love and never quells rumours of a return to Camp Nou. That already does not please the French public, but when the Argentine flouts all the rules and misses a training session the day after the humiliation against Lorient, things are over. Messi prefers a commercial trip to Saudi Arabia to Galtier's punitive training, even though the club management has urged him not to travel to the Gulf state. According to L'Équipe, Messi, who is ambassador to Saudi Arabia, will be reprimanded upon his return to France by way of a two-week suspension. A split seems inevitable.
On Wednesday night, hundreds of protesting fans gathered in front of the Parc des Princes. Insulting slogans against Messi, Neymar and Italian Verratti dominated for minutes. The Argentine's departure was demanded. Above all, however, the arrows were aimed at Al-Khelaïfi. The Qatari billionaire who brought Paris Saint-Germain out of anonymity has become persona non grata at his own plaything. A statement follows. It calls the Qatari's policies catastrophic. Al-Khelaïfi is said to have rolled out the red carpet for "mercenaries and overpriced players with little interest".
Furious fans are worried about the club's future. Slowly, the ambitious billion-dollar project seems to be crumbling. Meanwhile, the situation escalates completely, as a day later hundreds of fans also demonstrated at the homes of Neymar and Verratti. In a hostile atmosphere, the rioters threatened not to leave until the players packed their belongings and left Paris. The low point in an era full of pomp and circumstance, but without a Champions League trophy.
All in all, the Qatari's prestige project looks set to be a faltering failure. The transfer-free Messi is on his way out, so is the considerably depreciated Neymar and Mbappé does not hide the fact that Real Madrid is still his dream club. And the trophy cabinet? It still does not contain the cup with the big ears. It proves once again: even with one and a half billion euros, not everything is for sale in football.
Qatari billion-dollar PSG project threatens to fall completely into ruins
Paris Saint-Germain is in a massive crisis. The turmoil surrounding the top French club is steadily growing, while star players seem to be shrugging off their wages. Meanwhile, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi's prestige project continues to crumble.
It seemed such a nice scenario. In 2011, Paris Saint-Germain was acquired by the Qatar Sports Investments group. Under the leadership of its president, Al-Khelaïfi, it was going to build an international superpower in top European football. Financially, the possibilities seemed endless. The big goal: winning the Champions League. The end justified the means, so the petrodollars were greedily spent.
The start was promising. With Carlo Ancelotti, a seasoned top coach was snared. By immediately paying over 40 million euros for Argentine attacking midfielder Javier Pastore, the Qatari made their intentions immediately clear. Over 100 million euros were spent by Paris Saint-Germain in the first season of football. The starting shot of an era where the club caused a stir in the market. And only a fraction of the amount that would be spent the following year.
In the summer that followed, the Parisians in the stands only really knew where they stood. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, at the time one of the most feared players in Europe, is recruited. Thiago Silva follows in his wake. Italian prodigy Marco Verratti comes to the Ligue 1, while Lucas Moura and Ezequiel Lavezzi together are paid over 70 million euros. The transfers of Netherlands international Gregory van der Wiel and David Beckham are luxury deals on the fringes that year. They finally manage to win the Ligue 1 again. Paris Saint-Germain had not managed that since 1994.
No expense is spared in the City of Love. And the fans are beginning to embrace the methods of Al-Khelaïfi, who is remarkably committed. Paris Saint-Germain was known as nothing more than a drab mid-table player, with more often than not an upward outlier. The club made losses for years in a row. Until oil dollars suddenly enticed the world's greatest players to come to the Parc des Princes. Although the club has become a plaything of Al-Khelaïfi from the nevertheless fanatical French supporters, success dazzles the fans.
Actually, it is a stark contrast. The city's posh posh club versus the breeding ground of talent in the suburbs. During the 2016 European Championship, held in France, 25 per cent of the players in the host country's squad will come from the so-called banlieues. No golden cranes, no private jets and certainly no sports cars in Paris' authentic working-class neighbourhoods. Unemployment is huge, in suburbs like Saint-Denis. Only football can make the boys on the streets forget their worries. It is the ultimate way out of misery.
Where people in the banlieues have to rely on survival instincts, in the Parc des Princes then everything is different. Thanks to the Qatari, the possibilities are limitless. This is especially evident when the club pays more than two hundred million euros for the arrival of Kylian Mbappé in 2018. Noted exponent of the street, from the poor working-class Bondy district, becomes the face of the club that plays with a wheelbarrow full of money. The story is written in the stars. In the city of the banlieues, the epitome of multiculturalism and integration, the son of a Cameroonian father and mother of Algerian descent must go on to bring France the biggest prize in Europe. The prodigy, already world champion as a teenager, should become the inspiration of the city of Paris.
The pride of Bondy, where a giant effigy of him is on display, signs off on a fairy-tale project. 'Love your dream and it will love you too,' reads his motto. Only, Mbappé has also unwittingly become the face of the Qatari's hole in the hand. After he extended his contract last summer, his fee went up to around €72 million on an annual basis for good reason. Especially special because he is not the Parisians' only star. On the contrary: he is never alone at the top of the monkey rock.
If, seven years after the entrance of Al-Khelaïfi and his friends, Mbappé gives Paris Saint-Germain his yes, the Qatari's impatience is already high. They have won the national title in five of the seven seasons, but they did not come to Europe from the Gulf state for that. Of course, for the Ligue 1, PSG do not need to spend more than two hundred million euros on Mbappé. Certainly not because a year earlier Neymar also came for an even bigger sum. The Brazilian struggled with his situation at Barcelona. In the shadow of Lionel Messi, he was never going to be the all-time great and, apart from the golden mountains, his ego also drew him to Parc des Princes.
Impatient Paris Saint-Germain want more and more. Neymar and Mbappé need to team up. Indeed, four times in a row, the club failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals of the Champions League, while the word Remontada made its appearance the year before Neymar was brought to Paris. In his first season, Neymar immediately scored 28 goals in 30 games, but again things went wrong. Frustration accumulates and the wolverine from Qatar tries everything to complete their dream. And the decisiveness is telling, because the sky is the limit. And so too comes Mbappé, who has already created a furore in billion-dollar football with AS Monaco.
Just when the fanatical hard core is unwelcome due to corona woes, Al-Khelaïfi seems to have the world at his feet. In Portugal, PSG can enter the final. At last, the pieces of the puzzle seem to be falling together. Neymar, Mbappé and the slick Ángel Di María follow a barely-stoppable tridente. Behind them, coach Thomas Tuchel has built a squad that rolls up its sleeves and is prepared to run through a wall. Only against Bayern Munich, things go wrong again. A breakaway by the Germans ends with Kingsley Coman, of all people. The outside player, who grew up in the banlieues of Paris, carries out the verdict. It is the striker sent to Juventus by Al-Khelaïfi himself in 2013 that shatters the dream project again for the time being.
In the summer of 2021, the Qatari will now have owned the club for 10 years. The goal they came for has not been achieved. Indeed, the Parisians have made a loss of over €883 million since the owners' entrance. Hundreds of millions, all of which are on account of the investment group. And then the title was also taken out of their hands by Lille. Anger all around, but no reason to abandon the dream, because that very summer is when the biggest prestige project comes on the market: Lionel Messi.
The Argentine has an expiring contract at Barcelona, but due to financial chaos at the Catalans, that commitment cannot be broken open. Suddenly, Al-Khelaïfi smells an opportunity. A two-year contract worth 40 million euros a year is up for grabs. Neymar is deployed to tempt the Argentine. And promptly it succeeds. 'I am delighted that Lionel Messi has chosen Paris Saint-Germain. It is with great pride that we welcome him and his family to Paris,' the president speaks as proud as a peacock.
The president decides to pat himself on the back a bit more and immediately makes his intentions clear. Messi is to form a triangle with Neymar and Mbappé that will bring the Qatari's toy the silverware it wants: the Champions League. 'Adding Leo to our squad, which was already world-class, confirms the relevance and success of our player policy. I cannot wait to see our team, at the hands of our great coach and his staff, make history in front of all our supporters around the world.'
He brings misery into the house with the Argentine. Not because of La Pulga's personality, but mainly because of the hierarchy being brutally disrupted. Mbappé and Neymar cannot stand each other. The two cockers both want the lead role, while the French striker has been accused of trying to force a transfer. The striker flirted with Real Madrid, almost forced a departure and caused turmoil for months. And for headaches for Al-Khelaïfi, who would do anything to keep the great global star of the near future in Paris for longer. Messi himself, meanwhile, is mostly struggling to find his feet and is having a rare mediocre year.
The dance with Real Madrid appears to be the beginning of the end for the Qatari's big prestige project. By trying to keep Mbappé for the club at all costs, relations are growing lopsided in Paris. Mbappé is said to have commandeered penalty kicks, can interfere with transfers and earns about as much as Neymar and Messi combined. The Brazilian in particular has a hard time swallowing the fact that he is in danger of ending up in second place.
The heated relationship culminated in a home game against Montpellier at the start of this season. Mbappé missed a penalty, after which PSG were allowed to take another shot from the spot. Again, the French prodigy wanted to get behind the ball, but Neymar claimed the penalty. The Brazilian scores, but Mbappé cannot stand it. When he is denied the ball moments later, he makes furious miscreants and refuses to make another move for his team. This is the first time that the rumoured battle between them has been visible to the general public.
At the time, Messi was still slipping through all the criticism. The Argentine is given the freedom to focus on the World Cup in Qatar and is allowed to take an occasional day off from the club. The dribbler nevertheless finds his top form and the click with Mbappé is evident. When the pair pull out all the stops in the final in, of all places, Qatar, Al-Khelaïfi can rub his hands. Indeed, the two best players in the world, signposts of Qatar, in a Qatar final, soon return to Paris. One as an overjoyed world champion, the other as the man who scored a hat-trick in the final. Both are making history.
What is clear at that moment, however, is that things in Paris can no longer be saved. After the World Cup, coach Christophe Galtier's team collapses like a house of cards. Messi seems to have his head in the game only incidentally after all the festivities, while Mbappé performs even less. Neymar is completely invisible and misses the fatal knockout games in the Champions League eighth finals. Painfully, Bayern is once again the executioner. Three years after the Lisbon final, it is Bayern again. The Germans are the end of a trial of the three best attackers in the world.
Galtier is losing all grip on his stars. Neymar is in the sack, Messi is doing what he feels like and Mbappé is also stumbling along at times. That the coach has lost all control, however, is not for the first time. It happened to Tuchel, while Mauricio Pochettino couldn't cope either. A bigger problem, however, is that it is now also slipping out of Al-Khelaïfi's hands. The proud glutton from Qatar who could buy anything all his life suddenly has a problem that even his credit card cannot handle. Meanwhile, discontent is growing in the stands in Paris.
PSG's supporters have been unhappy with the players' attitude for months. Messi is often the target of whistling concerts, Neymar receives threats. Mbappé is protected as a child of the banlieues. Yet the bucket seems to be overflowing. The situation in their own stadium is becoming increasingly hostile. Especially as PSG suddenly, after debacles in the Champions League and the cup tournament, threaten to lose a comfortable lead in the title race. The staggering home defeat against FC Lorient (1-3) is the low point. Although the biggest pain point followed only a day later, after which the supporters went on a rampage.
Messi, already unwilling to renew his expiring contract, has been flirting with Barcelona for weeks. The Argentine is spotted several times in Catalonia, lets his father and business manager talk about his old love and never quells rumours of a return to Camp Nou. That already does not please the French public, but when the Argentine flouts all the rules and misses a training session the day after the humiliation against Lorient, things are over. Messi prefers a commercial trip to Saudi Arabia to Galtier's punitive training, even though the club management has urged him not to travel to the Gulf state. According to L'Équipe, Messi, who is ambassador to Saudi Arabia, will be reprimanded upon his return to France by way of a two-week suspension. A split seems inevitable.
On Wednesday night, hundreds of protesting fans gathered in front of the Parc des Princes. Insulting slogans against Messi, Neymar and Italian Verratti dominated for minutes. The Argentine's departure was demanded. Above all, however, the arrows were aimed at Al-Khelaïfi. The Qatari billionaire who brought Paris Saint-Germain out of anonymity has become persona non grata at his own plaything. A statement follows. It calls the Qatari's policies catastrophic. Al-Khelaïfi is said to have rolled out the red carpet for "mercenaries and overpriced players with little interest".
Furious fans are worried about the club's future. Slowly, the ambitious billion-dollar project seems to be crumbling. Meanwhile, the situation escalates completely, as a day later hundreds of fans also demonstrated at the homes of Neymar and Verratti. In a hostile atmosphere, the rioters threatened not to leave until the players packed their belongings and left Paris. The low point in an era full of pomp and circumstance, but without a Champions League trophy.
All in all, the Qatari's prestige project looks set to be a faltering failure. The transfer-free Messi is on his way out, so is the considerably depreciated Neymar and Mbappé does not hide the fact that Real Madrid is still his dream club. And the trophy cabinet? It still does not contain the cup with the big ears. It proves once again: even with one and a half billion euros, not everything is for sale in football.
That doesn’t sound like a sustainable ‘best for the club’ approach. In fact, loses like that sound positively Glazeresque.Interesting discussion by Howson and Motta
“Okay cafers, rise, and shine, and don't forget the Glazers-exploring-potential-sale thread, ‘cause it’s club buyout day out there… it’s club buyout day out there every day.” Happy Groundhog Day!
Wake me up when something actually happens.
I see you are a man of culture.
Has to be at least by the end of the coming week doesn't it? Has to be.
Has. To. Be.*
*from the perspective of the Glazers it definitely doesn't have to be
Has. To. Be.*
*from the perspective of the Glazers it definitely doesn't have to be
In my opinion, based on what I've read over the last year or so, I'm inclined to believe that it is true that the Glazers are split on what to do. This is pretty much confirmed by the 51% offer by SJR. So I imagine there's a lot of discussions on what they'd all prefer right now and trying to work out what sort of money they'd stand to make it they all, or some, remain.
It's obvious they're split though, no? If SJR is offering to keep Joel and Avram then that implies they are probably in two minds at least. I think that's only a small assumption to make to come to that conclusion. Unless you don't believe that SJR has even made that offer at all, then we're all in the dark. In that case, can we be sure the club is even for sale?
No offense taken, by the way. I dish it out so have to take it too!
I can see a scenario where Jim snuffs it in a few years before he has a chance to get them out fully and then the Glazers buy back their stake at a cheaper rate (see: the actual market valuation of the stake compared to what SJR will be paying). That would be so funny
Ignoring the bit about it being funny, is this something that is possible, or is it more like a “stretch of the imagination worst possible thing that can happen” ?
Slightly off, yet surprisingly on topic, I am quite pleased we are starting to see opposition to Qatar at games.
In the event Qatar were to takeover, I'd hope these protests continue and grow, regardless of success or not and as per usual, whether we do well or not, we show other clubs how it's done.
In the event Qatar were to takeover, I'd hope these protests continue and grow, regardless of success or not and as per usual, whether we do well or not, we show other clubs how it's done.
He doesn’t know anything. Starts out with ‘there is one obvious destination’ and then turns to ‘my feeling is’.
Maybe but the big difference is they make up those losses with equity investment rather than loans held on the club’s balance sheet. It’s the same situation with Chelsea when Abramovich sold the club.
Couldn’t agree any more with that honestly. It would be quite embarrassing for them.
tl;dr the Qataris have run PSG insanely badly. In the same way the Glazers put money making above football, the Qataris put signing big names and pointless prestige above football. Would be a disaster in the EPL.
You could almost call their PSG project quite..... embarrassing
The clock is ticking down to Utd being fully sold, and it will be to Sheikh Jassim who I suspect will be named very soon as the preferred bidder.
Personally, I am excited that Utds prospective new owner will clear ALL debts, invest in the local community, and invest in the stadium,
infrastructure, training complex, and both the mens and womens teams.
Personally, I am excited that Utds prospective new owner will clear ALL debts, invest in the local community, and invest in the stadium,
infrastructure, training complex, and both the mens and womens teams.
PSG are run idiotically and their fans seem perpetually unhappy.
Yeah but SJR left a Nice game before the added time ended!!!
The Glazers dragging their feet over this sale is perfectly emblematic of their time at United.
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