IF this takeover goes through, I wonder if the first piece of business will be securing the services of Yiadom?
A question for Cambridge Red ( whilst totally accepting the reasons for your views) : Given that Cryne wants / needs to sell and has done so for quite some time, where do you see a buyer coming from? You believe that it is somehow distasteful for a Chinese/ American to take over the club as an investment. What else did you think might happen? If you haven't got money to buy the club then someone has to.
Well the Chinese think red is a lucky colour, and we have a dog as a mascot and a French CEO , coincidentally the prospective owners name Chien is French for dog , so its got to be happening
I fully agree with everything CambridgeRed is saying. For a fanbase that has always gloried in beating the odds, killing the "likes of Barnsley" jibes etc there are some who, seemingly, would buy success at any price. Being a Barnsley fan does not require membership of the Greed League or even of the Championship. All it requires is being proud of the club and the desire to go and watch them play football, whatever level they're at. Buying success would mean so much less and, to be honest, even large investment would likely just have the same arguments but at a higher level. There would be complaints that we weren't challenging in the Prem as opposed to the Championship is all that would change. Having said all that, the club IS going to change ownership at some point soon. It will be sad and somewhat worrying but it's inevitable. Let's hope we get lucky and end up under benevolent control.
The day we start paying the Sam winnalls of this game 20k per week to sit in the stands due to having 7 strikers unfortunately as much as I love going to watch my super reds it will have to be the end of me going to oakwell as that is not how the money I put in to the club should be used it is an obscene waste, would it still be my club if we bought a multi million pound players that couldn't get in the team or take a penalty in a playoff final as per other Wednesday strikers. I do think the takeover is inevitable and we should support it, let's hope with it we don't lose the heart of our club and start thinking we are massive.
The point is folk are happy to accept the way we're doing it now. Which up until very recently was by spending money we didn't have. This may now have stopped given we've brought about £25 million on in transfer income.
No matter what I think about it, or them, it's going to happen one way or another. All this is likely to be is an extension of how we've operated under PC until the recent glut of transfer income i.e. spending someone else's money and folks seem to want to ignore this. All the insular stuff is rubbish too.
Seems to be conveniently forgotten. We got promotion to the Championship not because of any grand plan but because in L1 we are financially powerful and we invested heavily. Given our financial advantages in that League we would expect to get promoted over a 3-5 year cycle. Unfortunately in the Championship we would expect to get relegated over the same 3-5 year cycle. We are a classic yo yo club. The argument about living in your means does not mean very much when we lose money every year ( even if to an extent we choose to lose that money by funding the academy). I can't say I'm over enthused by the news of a take over from some investment capitalists. It doesn't make the heart sing. However given Mr Cryne's illness change is inevitable and it is what it is.
i think you've misunderstood what many of us are actually saying. we dont want to buy success , at any cost or otherwise ( it has been pointed out by some we may have already at our own relative level) what we want is a stable club that attract players and then holds onto them, if that requires investment, something the owner has been looking for a number of years then thats all well and good. lets give hecky the tools his skills deserve, what a thing that would be! Having a rich owner guarantees nothing, as them idiots down the road in S6 could testify if they weren't so far up their own arses. If and its still a massive if this happens we will all still be immensely proud of our club and our team. and if taking the working model at Nice into consideration PC may indeed still own 20% of the club. a win win situation.
I'm not having a go at anyone or railing against the situation. I wish it didn't have to be like this in football these days. As I said, we're going to be taken over anyway eventually. I'd prefer us to be stronger than weaker as a result. If, in the long run, ee end up weaker I'll stil support them even if we end up playing in the Hallmark Security League.
There's a lot saying further investment will turn us into a challenger in this league and/or a Premier League club. That isn't true. It puts us on a more level playing field with about 20 other clubs in this division who have invested heavily in a hope of getting into the Premier League. It isn't a guaranteed method of securing success, and would lead to a period of uncertainty. Again, this isn't me against investment, it is required, I fully appreciate that. All I'm saying, is manage your expectations better. Sheffield United have been part owned by a billionaire for about 3 years. They haven't gone overboard with spending. They've installed a bright young manager and took the patient and measured approach in getting reinstated in this division. I think they'll finish around where we did last season. They then have the platform to build on, and negotiate better deals with their better players, which is the only area we've been severely behind in, in my opinion.
At least we're in a position now where the majority of our playing staff have 2 and 3 years left on their contracts. For the next 18 months at least, we shouldn't see a mass exodus like we have just experienced. That gives us ample opportunity to fix our previous problems. The problem now is that we have to accept that this season might be another of transition as we have such a large amount of new faces. I have no doubt already that we'll finish higher in the league in the 18/19 season than we will this season. It's what happens thereon that will be defined by how the club has progressed over the last 5 years.
I personally feel that further investment doesn't have to change any of that. The one thing I feel we're lacking, is the ability to keep hold of our better players when the big money teams come sniffing. We are turning a huge profit at present on players, but we can't remain competitive. I would love to see my club fighting at the top end of this division than at the bottom, and the ability to keep hold of players like Conor Hourihane and Sam Winnall is the only thing stopping us. I don't want us to spend £10million on Jordan Rhodes, just more competitive in terms of wages and contract offers.
Got to agree with this. I'd balk at the thought of paying average journeymen players the kind of wages that other clubs pay but paying our best players, whom we've developed, more competitive wages is a different proposition.
I don't think any decision will be taken lightly. It's so easy these days to get the opinion of the fans, just by looking at social media.