It wouldn't be their money so no investment needed. And surely if say Felix is bought in on loan for 16m then yes the value of the product increases, but the cash spent by the business offsets it.
Club Sale | It’s done!
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Think of it like a house sale.
Would you put an offer into a house and then pay for all repairs and upgrades before the purchase is completed?
No.
You could claim that it's stipulated in the contract that should the sale collapse then all repairs/upgrades are null and void
The question then diverts to the owner. Would they be prepared to have that stipulated in the contract? The answer is again. No.
If they sell stock now it will drop the share price and impact the valuation
I think what you are describing already happened last summer, albeit using the clubs money to fund it
Knowing they were selling they wanted us in contention for UCL so spent big and that’s what’s happened
They are never in a trillion years selling their own shares to buy players when the sale is likely Q1 though.. or even if it wasn’t
Well yes you would. If you are buying a house and the house inspection shows problems then the owner has an obligation to fix before the sale. If new owners are coming to United then not being in the Champions league is a big problem. More so with the new fair play regulations. It will affect us over 2 years at least and even oil rich owners will have problems circumventing it. Liverpool being sold is also a major factor. Its like your next door neighbor putting up thier house at the same time. If their house is in better condition then you will have to do some fixes. In the football sense Liverpool being in the Champions league and us not, might affect the sale and it would be stupid not to spend 30-50 mill plus over a potential buy out of billions.
Think of it like this, it’s a house sale, but the sellers are a group of siblings who are retarded. When there is a viewing of the house, can you expect all the boxes in the checklist to be ticked? Or is it more reasonable to expect stains on the floor covered with newspapers? A toilet to be flooded? A plate with mac n cheese in the micro covered with mold?
Owner has no obligation to fix anything. If they choose to want to do it, then they can. It is then up to the seller to decide if they wish to continue with the risk of fixing anything (mortgage provider permitting).
If the next door neighbours house is in better condition, however, my house is in reasonable condition and has more land then the neighbours, then you would say mine is more valuable. There is more scope with my property.
When you purchase something as a business owner, more often than not, you look at the future scope of the business you're purchasing. Manchester United is worth more than Lfc now, and has a bigger scope to outperform them even more so in the future.
I dont even think this is that true. The price Liverpool is up for sale is a fraction of Manchester United's and I doubt profits this year or last will be that different.
On paper? You maybe correct. But what will they actually go for? United will go for more.
No. They don't.
If it’s oil money then the profit is irrelevant - it’s about the size of the brand, the association and prestige.
Globally Utd are on a completely different level to Liverpool.
If it’s an investment consortium (US) then it’s a totally different thing - Liverpool would be a much more sensible investment as much cheaper to buy, less investment needed and profitable at similar levels much quicker.
I see Liverpool going to US investors and Utd going to a state backed ME fund.
Yet United are routinely out of CL places, no success etc while Liverpool are maxed out in all fronts
Good summary on the motivations, but I think it will also come down to the valuation differences.
I expect more progress now we are in 2023. Wonder if we finally get an indication of who the Glazers are selling to in the next few weeks
I'd doubt it. Nobody actually involved in the deal is going to be stupid enough to leak anything. There's zero motivation to do so. It isn't a transfer with agents, club representatives and the players mum, girlfriend and dog sitter leaking tidbits of information.
This a serious, multibillion-pound business deal. Only those with an imperative to know will know and none of those people are going to talk to the press about it. So I don't imagine we'll hear anything until after it's tied up. These people don't run to the press to leak information or give interviews and the Glazer's are so secretive the steam off their own urine is kept in the dark about whose piss stream it came off of.
Journalistic stabs in the dark aside, anyone who seems to be actively linked with promotion of the idea they're involved such as Ratcliffe a few months back, can probably be ruled out completely.
Has Q1 started?
Are we sold?
These Glazers sure are inept.
Are we sold?
These Glazers sure are inept.
cheery soul aren’t you
On the contrary, where there will be so many people knowing that certain talks are happening, I think it’s likely something will come out. Talks that big can’t be kept under wraps
Any smart investors will want to have the Utd support on board too when things are closer. Example given is getting a club legend to front their bid and ambitions for the club
I'd prefer an ownership that didn't buy into stupid gimmicks like that. Like having Lorraine Kelly as the 'acceptable face' of a consortium looking to buy Tunnocks.
"They can't be bad, they've got Rylan on board!"
Surely United fans aren't the fickle or dumb to think it must be a good idea if someone's paid David Beckham a lot of money to read a statement full of words he doesn't understand in order to endorse it?
We're not a shampoo brand.
And there will be many more like you who’ll see it that way
But it also works and many would go for it
Unfortunately it does work. You only have to remember how much leeway the smiley one got while at the wheel.
Nah, multi-billion pound deals don't happen in the media.
Nobody knew who were in for Chelsea!
There will be a high number of people with principally full insight into the process conducted by the Raine Group. More than 500 but less than 1 500. People talk. Especially colleagues. Business partners.
*Law firm and financial advisor for the Glazers
*Law firm and financial advisor (Raine) for the plc
*Law firm and financial advisor for each of the 2-3 bidders (they are surely put up against each other)
*There will surely be some kind of loan syndicate (a group of banks giving ‘a loan’), you defiantly have a group of 5-10 people per bank in the know
*PR people will be involved
*There is an element of British, US and Cayman law involved in this transaction, plus perhaps native legal issues if the buyer is from another country, which means that some of the law firms will have teams involved at several locations
In addition to this, you have many other parties with information about the process that would be headline worthy more or less. Like that someone will make a bid. We have not had a single report on that “X” has made a bid. Will make a bid.
The reason we have so little actual news is that — nobody — is putting any effort into looking for news on this topic (like they would have 20-30 years ago before the media industry changed). How can I be certain of that? Well we for example do not have a single quote from Jim Ratcliffe. Not one. Put a mic in his face every time he leaves his home, he will say something sooner rather than later. ‘We are in the process’, ‘we will not make a bid’, ‘the Glazer’s demands are outrageous’. This guy flew to the USA just a few months ago to buy the club, he is the only one that we de facto knows has had a recent interest.
What is Samuel Lockhurst doing, making searches on Twitter? David Ornstein? He has basically not had any substantial to report other than the ‘aiming for a full sale in Q1’. There were 27 bids for Chelsea deemed sufficiently serious to be evaluated. Won’t be less for us. An auction process has a time line. You must at least be given a deadline. Like if we win the auction process, when will the sale be executed? At what point must financing be in place? If you are one of xx number of interested investors, you must be given some sort of time line. A deadline for indicative bids etc. where is that info? So many will know about it.
My sense — very speculative — is that (a) the first deadline is for interested parties to submit a written indicative bid describing who they are, their motives and how they intend to finance a bid, and of course what they are willing to pay. And (b) this deadline is passing out right about now or have already around Christmas. Like we haven’t even heard anything from butt hurt investors who have been kicked out of the process. Somebody will go ‘they are nuts, it’s too much’ or something like that, like that Red Knight guy did before the process started.
That Raine is looking for a full sale in Q1 could very well mean that they aim to have an agreement in principle with a preferred buyer, while it will take place to get everything in place from an administrative point of view (nor sure if a full quarter is enough for that). If they even are looking for a full sale in Q1. Doesn’t have to be true.
This definitely do not have to be the case, but could be one scenario.
*Law firm and financial advisor for the Glazers
*Law firm and financial advisor (Raine) for the plc
*Law firm and financial advisor for each of the 2-3 bidders (they are surely put up against each other)
*There will surely be some kind of loan syndicate (a group of banks giving ‘a loan’), you defiantly have a group of 5-10 people per bank in the know
*PR people will be involved
*There is an element of British, US and Cayman law involved in this transaction, plus perhaps native legal issues if the buyer is from another country, which means that some of the law firms will have teams involved at several locations
In addition to this, you have many other parties with information about the process that would be headline worthy more or less. Like that someone will make a bid. We have not had a single report on that “X” has made a bid. Will make a bid.
The reason we have so little actual news is that — nobody — is putting any effort into looking for news on this topic (like they would have 20-30 years ago before the media industry changed). How can I be certain of that? Well we for example do not have a single quote from Jim Ratcliffe. Not one. Put a mic in his face every time he leaves his home, he will say something sooner rather than later. ‘We are in the process’, ‘we will not make a bid’, ‘the Glazer’s demands are outrageous’. This guy flew to the USA just a few months ago to buy the club, he is the only one that we de facto knows has had a recent interest.
What is Samuel Lockhurst doing, making searches on Twitter? David Ornstein? He has basically not had any substantial to report other than the ‘aiming for a full sale in Q1’. There were 27 bids for Chelsea deemed sufficiently serious to be evaluated. Won’t be less for us. An auction process has a time line. You must at least be given a deadline. Like if we win the auction process, when will the sale be executed? At what point must financing be in place? If you are one of xx number of interested investors, you must be given some sort of time line. A deadline for indicative bids etc. where is that info? So many will know about it.
My sense — very speculative — is that (a) the first deadline is for interested parties to submit a written indicative bid describing who they are, their motives and how they intend to finance a bid, and of course what they are willing to pay. And (b) this deadline is passing out right about now or have already around Christmas. Like we haven’t even heard anything from butt hurt investors who have been kicked out of the process. Somebody will go ‘they are nuts, it’s too much’ or something like that, like that Red Knight guy did before the process started.
That Raine is looking for a full sale in Q1 could very well mean that they aim to have an agreement in principle with a preferred buyer, while it will take place to get everything in place from an administrative point of view (nor sure if a full quarter is enough for that). If they even are looking for a full sale in Q1. Doesn’t have to be true.
This definitely do not have to be the case, but could be one scenario.
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Come on already. We’re almost a full day into Q1.
Yeah should already be in the basket by now
Shit I mistook the Q in the title for a D. Was wondering why it wasn't done today.
Announcement soon please. Manifest it.
If they’re selling strategy is anything like their transfer windows, we’ll spend 3 months speaking to Amazon, Apple, Dubai etc only to be sold late on the 31st of March to MySpace.
Surely it's financial quarters? Q1 doesn't start still April...
Id expect that the first real information on any potential bidders will probably come out of US sources - ESPN or the like as most of the players on the sale side are Stateside. Id imagine that the first definitive things we will hear will be regarding the timescales for interested parties to have completed/submitted some form of indicative proposals.
Depending on the effort on the sellers side to get all their ducks in a row to enable a faster due diligence process will be one of the first major hurdles - when spending the kind of money being quoted plenty of work needs to go into this.
Maybe if it’s Middle East money then it may not be such an issue but if it’s a US consortium then the process may take longer than everyone would like.
Depending on the effort on the sellers side to get all their ducks in a row to enable a faster due diligence process will be one of the first major hurdles - when spending the kind of money being quoted plenty of work needs to go into this.
Maybe if it’s Middle East money then it may not be such an issue but if it’s a US consortium then the process may take longer than everyone would like.
Not this again
You mean Q2? The 2023 Q1 results are already out
In any case, the athletic says “the first quarter of 2023” and not “q1” or “q2” etc - also Simon stone of BBC said specifically that if it is a full sale then it would likely be done by spring (spring starts late March)
Financial reports, Stocks prices, NYSE market schedule. Anything else they need to be paying attention on? maybe zodiacs and tarot reading.
Football journalists have links within the club (ex employees) and yet this deal is probably done in Tampa Bay not Manchester. We're more likely to get information from economy/business journalists rather then football ones
There is no news because there is no news. I very much doubt there have even been any official bids yet. Someone somewhere would leak something. It's not like all the Glazers have gathered in one room and are taking the buyers in one by one with bags over their heads. Or getting it done over Messenger.
No they wouldn't. Raine Group are handling the sale and to even get into a discussion you have to sign a non-disclosure. Plus, the level of cnuts they're going to be speaking to won't want to have their name leaked so everyone can delve into what party they went to 30 years ago and who was there.
Nope. Chelsea sale was made official on the 7th of May. Sky reported on the 25th of March that Boehly was shortlisted, while Woody Jonson and the Saudi Media Group are out of the bidding process. And Chelsea's was an emergency sale. Ours isn't. Dozens, if not hundreds, of people are involved in the process. Someone somewhere would leak something. Just that there has been nothing to leak.
Bizarre how people keep talking as if the Glazers are personally going to dig into their wallets, check behind the sofas for any spare cash for a transfer. When has that ever happened and why would it suddenly happen now?
A transfer isn't going to threaten a sale, and a sale probably isn't going to threaten a transfer. What is more likely to threaten a transfer is the boat load we've spent recently. They probably budgeted for winding down transfer activity, at least until next summer, and my theory is they probably aren't doing anything different just because a sale may or may not be in the offing. It's all based on our budgets not a sale that may be miles off.
A transfer isn't going to threaten a sale, and a sale probably isn't going to threaten a transfer. What is more likely to threaten a transfer is the boat load we've spent recently. They probably budgeted for winding down transfer activity, at least until next summer, and my theory is they probably aren't doing anything different just because a sale may or may not be in the offing. It's all based on our budgets not a sale that may be miles off.
What I can't get over is how short-sighted that thinking is. They're saying we're not going to be able to do something like a 16m loan for Joao Felix, because we only have 10m available. They've decided the money spent this summer was enough. And it's not the first time we've heard that logic: A certain sum has been made available, it's spent, and that's that. A more competent owner would perhaps be prepared to actually analyse expenditure from a cost/benefit perspective, rather than just authorise a certain sum and then go to sleep. In this case, we're not talking about strengthening the team (which pretty much every manager in the world always thinks is necessary). We're talking about plugging a gaping hole in the squad. We lost our number one striker, and our number two is constantly injured - just as we are embarking on the most gruelling schedule imaginable. Getting a decent striker in could very realistically be the difference between making the CL and missing out. Is that smart, compared to investing 16m rather than 10m? Even financially, that's penny wise, pound foolish. And it's not the first time either.
I do agree in general with what you're saying, however, more debt on the club whilst trying to sell isn't attractive. We have over billion in what we owe to others, adding to that isn't smart.
Also, them not paying themselves dividends seem quite significant. They need as much money to stay in the club, to try and keep the books looking good as they can, when selling.
Do will we be plastic now when we will have oil based owners or will this be different to other oil based owned clubs?
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