Quarterly Quarrel - The Financial Discussion Part 5

Qataris will be our new owners.. hopefully by summer the Glazer cancer will be gone.

 

I will order a kit on Thursday, then? Lol

 

Starting to feel like it might actually happen. Reports are saying the Qatari bid will be close to the Glazers evaluation and that in the meetings they prioritized buyers over investors.

Still won’t rule out anything with the Glazers but we’re creeping closer to the end hopefully.

 

I am hearing there could be up to 5 bids?? Did one of you asshats put a bid in?

 

How many kids do you have?

 

Your children are hideous.

 

Apparently Jimmy's bid will involve funding from JP Morgan. Also no mention of clearing the long-standing debt, which goes alongside a lack of a clear, structured vision for the club and its future both on and off the pitch.

Seems like the INEOS bid is nothing more than "Glazers out" and vibes.

 

Getting rid of the debt and being able to spend our own money is vital.

The INEOS bid doesnt clear the debt apparently. Also includes new debt to finance the bid (though this may be put on the parent rather than the club).

The new debt will need to be financed from somewhere though.

So we end up with;

- still having to finance our clubs LBO Glazer debt

- still having existing shareholders who are used to dividends (as INEOS intention is to only buy Glazers share)

- having a parent company with new debt to finance and its own shareholders to keep happy

So the Glazers go but all the old debt / dividend problems remain along with some new debt and new shareholders …

 

As long as we get erling haaland this summer and @JC7rox finally gets one of these mundane adidas kits, it doesn’t matter who wins the bid.

 

Agree the INEOS bid doesn’t seem like a good fit. Ratcliffe is hoping to win the fans over by being a local guy and that’s it. Doesn’t seem to have the plan or money to do what’s needed.

It’s Qatari or bust from here.

 

Don't agree 100% here. Would have to see more of the plan but if the debt they are taking on is to retire the glazer debt, it could work.

Part of the glazer issue is not only them taking money out, it is more decision making. We have spent money under the glazers, but it is how and where we're spending that's part of the issue. Mismanagement. If a bid takes out the glazers and put proper management in place proper decision making spending money wisely right areas it could work .

Question: is your only criteria who has the most money?

 

The issue many will have with the INEOS bid is a) their track record, or lackthereof, with Nice, b) the lack of clarity on the structure of their bid, and c) the lack of a clear plans for the development of the club both on and off the pitch.

 

All good points. I was trying to gauge whether people wanted the deeper pockets just because it is a deeper pocket.

 

For me, personally, no. Liverpool and Arsenal have proven you don't need oil money to compete, just good commercial and footballing management to take full advantage of the resources we already have at our disposal. The didn't have that with the Glazers, what we do have is money being hemorrhaged on a weekly basis, a rotting stadium, piss poor footballing management, and debt that poses an existential threat to the club.

The Qataris have come in and pledged to make all of that go away in one fell swoop. That's what makes them attractive.

 

Starting point is just for the club to be able to spend the money the club is already generating.

That means getting rid of the existing debt anchor the Glazers put on the club and taking the club private to get rid of the dividend anchor.

That already takes deep pockets.

Only one bid seems to be doing this AFAICT.

That said, we want to be able to compete with City plus the emerging threat of Newcastle as their investment ramps up. So that will take deep pockets after the bid. Football is becomming an arms race - it is what it is. Plus the stadium etc.

So the Qatari bid ticks both boxes for me, but it is the first box of getting rid of the debt/dividends (and obvs the Glazers) that is paramount for me (especially in the short-term).

 

Lol

*whoops! Fax machine keeps ********ing up!

 

Can’t even do this right. Lol

 

No, my criteria is who has the most concise plan, the most transparent plan, is the most likely to get the Glazers to sell, and who has enough money to invest in all the ways needed to get us back to the top of the footballing world.

Say what you want about the Qataris and sports washing. That’s all true. I wish there were better options interested but there aren’t. And either of these options are better than the Glazers.

So, I guess I’ll ask you why do you want Ratcliffe? The Qataris public statements lay out a clear plan for investment and wiping debt. Ratcliffe has given vague statements about investing in the team and getting the club back to where they should be or something along those lines. It’s also been reported that he would have to take on debt to buy the club and he’s made no public statement about wiping the current debt. And that’s not even touching the subject of him being relatively unsuccessfully as Nice owner.

The better of the two options is pretty clear to me. But I’d like to hear what you think.

 

Exactly this. People don’t understand that United generate a giant amount of revenue. If a large chunk of that revenue doesn’t have to go towards servicing debt and paying dickheads dividends, then we’re self sufficient for the most part. We don’t need an owner with ridiculously deep pockets to still be able to invest in players and infrastructure. An owner with deep pockets is needed because the initial injection of cash to fix all the Glazer related issues (debt, crumbling stadium, subpar training ground) will be huge.