'Millionaires battle to takeover Liverpool FC'

[Kindred]

>>>>>>>>>

 

(LONG ARTICLE - a little speculative but it is from the Daily Post and Morgans head rears again)

Edited September 20, 2006 by Kindred

[cestrianred]

That's spot on.

 

The issue of who owns my Club is very important to me. So much so that I have looked into the characters supposedly involved and come to the opinion that Morgan is 100% the wrong man for the role. Some seem happy to sit here and ask "why not?" - I find that attitude amazing. It would be the ultimate honour and privilege to own Liverpool Football Club - how can people sit back and say things like "oh, he's a Local (living in Jersey!!) so he'd be better than some foreigner".

 

Like me you obviously mean!

By the way, living in Jersey some of the time to pay less tax-what a crime! He should live in the Dingle & give it all way & offer to pay 80% Tax on everything. There is so much hyprocisy on these matters it beggars belief.

 

Well you and I both don't have 100% knowledge on every matter related to this, or indeed foresight to predicting the future as it would be under every scenario of ownership.

 

But do us a favour please-don't get all sanctimonoius that only you & your cohorts feel that Liverpool FC is so special, ownership priviliges etc. I am sure we all feel like that, and wouldn't be on here most days (or part own it in your case) if we weren't passionate about the club.

 

I'd be happy with Kraft, IF what people say is true (and I'm sure I've less knowledge than you in your position) but I remain amazed at the venom Morgan seems to draw for the wrong reasons.

 

No doubt the 'clique' will put me in my place, but it's a free country still...just!

[Leo No.8]

Morgan is absolutely odious, plus although I'm sure he has a few more quid than most of us, in terms of ownership of one of the World's biggest football clubs he's practically skint. His fortune is small change to most of the guys getting involved in the Premier League at the moment.

 

So let me see - short tempered, seeks the limelight and no great funds to back him up. What exactly is in his favour? He's from Liverpool - so f*cking what, so am I can I make a bid? Fortunately, never in a million years would David Moores allow him to gain control, so I really wouldn't worry about it.

 

I also definitely favour Kraft of all the names I've seen put forward. He seems to be of the same kind of profile as Lerner, whom I've been very impressed with. Lerner by all accounts annoys many other NFL owners by refusing to put his ticket prices up; Villa will really progress with him and O'Neill in charge.

 

Having done my research on Kraft, he does seem like a man who would run things properly here, and not look to be too involved out of the chairman's remit.

 

I believe Kenny is very much behind him, which is a big plus.

[Guest rednose]

There are many many reasons but in my opinion he is a self-promoting gob*****, totally in love with himself. And then there's his wife. He doesn't have the financial acumen that many credit him with - as he has repeatedly demonstrated at AGMs.

 

Yes, he is rich. But he is not THAT rich - he wouldn't be able to pump tens of millions into a transfer kitty, for example. So we would be left no better off than we are now, but we'd have our very own Ridsdale/Ellis/Shepherd in charge of the Club.

 

No thanks.

 

I think I have said this before, I have never like Morgan because of the image that has been portrayed in the media, but my boss, another self made Multi Millionaire, has meet Morgan and thought he was a really nice guy.

 

Although the thought of a Risdale/Ellis/Shepherd... scared the crap oyt of me.

[RP]

Like me you obviously mean!

By the way, living in Jersey some of the time to pay less tax-what a crime! He should live in the Dingle & give it all way & offer to pay 80% Tax on everything. There is so much hyprocisy on these matters it beggars belief.

 

What a ridiculous comment.

 

 

 

 

But do us a favour please-don't get all sanctimonoius that only you & your cohorts feel that Liverpool FC is so special, ownership priviliges etc. I am sure we all feel like that, and wouldn't be on here most days (or part own it in your case) if we weren't passionate about the club.

 

I'm not getting sanctimonious - I am discussing why I would be distraught if Morgan ever gained control of my Club. You seem happy to support him - good for you. But there is a huge amount of evidence to suggest your faith may be misplaced. And what precisely does he have in his favour? The fact that he is local? Not as local as the Moores family though who have invested in and supported projects throughout the City over many decades. The Club is more than a football team - as Barcelona say "mes que un club".

 

No doubt the 'clique' will put me in my place, but it's a free country still...just!

 

More b***ocks. Shame, I thought the discussion was continuing in a pretty adult manner.

[fyds]

i don't mind the idea of kraft, he seems decent and honourable from what i've read - although i do wonder what his motives would be, purely from because i don't get my head round it. is he really into his footy and he'd be a top chairman, or is he just concerned there's other owners of american sports franchises branching out and he feels he needs to be apart of it? sticking with the status quo on the face of it seems the most comfortable option for me, although i realise that just might not be an option. as for morgan, i don't see what his offer can possibly bring to the table - unless it's totally re-structured from his previous bids.

Well, like I said - I've done a bit of digging...so here's an outline.

 

He is as close as you'll get to a modern US capitalist/philanthropist, believeing in unity, community and social responsibility. he and his son are both into footy, and Steve Nicol manages his successful Boston based 'soccer' team, New England Fire. With this connection many ex Liverpool legends have been over and befriended him including Dalglish, Craig Johnston, David Johnson, Alan Hansen, Ron Yeats and he and his son have been friends with Rick Parry for the better part of a decade.

 

The Krafts love sport, and in an interview given in Atlantic Monthly a couple of years back Kraft Snr remarked that the sporting success of his teams gave him more pleasure than that which could be found in 'the usual realms of a successful business venture'. He loves US gridiron football, but enjoys the more passionate, world-wide appeal of REAL football, and finds the following for Liverpool unlike anything anyone could experience in US Sport. He has a tradition of making money available to a manager without going nuts, while not interfering with team or backroom decisions - he sees his job as maintaining a true community and family ethos. He's not in it to make bundles of cash as he doesn't need it - but he wouldn't be in it to go broke either.

 

After reading tons of stuff in the last year or two, my conclusion was that the Krafts were like David Moores, but with US business savvy and a lot more money.

[chrisbonnie]

obviously i cant offer anything new to the discussion here, ive no inside information what so ever, but as for that Morgan fella, he comes across a right slimy get, i for one would not be happy if he got control of the club ive loved longer than i can remember, sure he may be a fan, but so is Peter ridsdale, and frank Shepard, but their both t***s

 

from the offers ive heard, the yanks always seemed the best option, decent people, have a few bob, definetly have connections in the sponsorship department, and of course they seem to have links to a few liverpool greats

 

i dont know who the Saudi based funder is, perhaps someone could shed more light on this

 

wheres new york red and his boogey board when you need him

[cestrianred]

RP-I don't think I'm talking bo**ocks, any more than you do!

 

I'm trying to discuss it an adult fashion also, it's just the importance of the club to you and I both that draws the reaction.

 

On a re-read the sanctimonious bit was OTT-apologies on that point!

[Kopfaithful]

I think I have said this before, I have never like Morgan because of the image that has been portrayed in the media, but my boss, another self made Multi Millionaire, has meet Morgan and thought he was a really nice guy.

 

Although the thought of a Risdale/Ellis/Shepherd... scared the crap oyt of me.

 

I've got mates in the building trade who've worked with him in the past and they think he's a c*** of the highest order.

[Gravy]

 

I was at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and looked around myself at the epitomy of all that is bad in football. Our fans were superb - supportive, dedicated, witty. Their fans were pathetic. Everything about that Club stinks. And that is the way football is heading - down the tubes on a tidal wave of dirty money, selfishness and egos. I am desperate for us to make a stand and not sell our soul to the highest bidders 'in order to compete with the big boys'. If we do, and we sell out to some **** like Morgan, then that'll be it for me.

 

Yep, I was as well and thought the exact same thing. Orchestrated songs fro blokes in Barbours. I think Chelsea could be a bit differenmt than other clubs though due to the people that go an watch them - the money set or the hoolies, but don't kid youirself that Liverpool may not go that way whether it be Kraft or Morgan, and we will eventually sell to someone as without doing so we won't get the money to compete with Chelsea, whatever the rights and wrongs of it. That's just the way football is going now, and Anfield on a Saturday can also be a depressing place and have you thinking of days gone by.

 

I understand what the old fella was saying and fleetingly the thought has crossed my mind. It isn't the same any more, things have changed and for the worse. What can you do!

[RP]

RP-I don't think I'm talking bo**ocks, any more than you do!

 

I'm trying to discuss it an adult fashion also, it's just the importance of the club to you and I both that draws the reaction.

 

On a re-read the sanctimonious bit was OTT-apologies on that point!

 

 

Apology accepted - and I totally agree about the depth of feeling being the reason for the impassioned (and ocassionally OTT) vocabulary.

[chrisbonnie]

actualy didnt robery Kraft go to watch his "soccer" team play a cup final instead of his American football team play in the playoffs last year, dont ask me what games, i hardly support the american egg chasing

[Stevie H]

 

I was at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and looked around myself at the epitomy of all that is bad in football. Our fans were superb - supportive, dedicated, witty. Their fans were pathetic. Everything about that Club stinks. And that is the way football is heading - down the tubes on a tidal wave of dirty money, selfishness and egos. I am desperate for us to make a stand and not sell our soul to the highest bidders 'in order to compete with the big boys'. If we do, and we sell out to some **** like Morgan, then that'll be it for me.

 

well said RP, agree with every word of that. i'm sick to the back teeth of the game i love becoming entertainment for the masses and the clubs becoming rich mens' playthings. if we were taken over by a self-promoter like morgan or a highly-suspect foreign 'businessman' like an abramovich or a gaydamak, a major part of LFC would cease to exist for me.

[RP]

Yep, I was as well and thought the exact same thing. Orchestrated songs fro blokes in Barbours. I think Chelsea could be a bit differenmt than other clubs though due to the people that go an watch them - the money set or the hoolies, but don't kid youirself that Liverpool may not go that way whether it be Kraft or Morgan, and we will eventually sell to someone as without doing so we won't get the money to compete with Chelsea, whatever the rights and wrongs of it. That's just the way football is going now, and Anfield on a Saturday can also be a depressing place and have you thinking of days gone by.

 

I understand what the old fella was saying and fleetingly the thought has crossed my mind. It isn't the same any more, things have changed and for the worse. What can you do!

 

Vote with your feet?

 

Everyone has a limit - maybe I am close to mine, I'm not sure. I don't make half the efforts I used to, to get to the match. But then again, the players don't give a f*** so why should I?

 

I agree that Chelsea will most likely remain unique in the game, but the other Clubs will just be varying degrees of them.

[Ed the Wool]

There are many many reasons but in my opinion he is a self-promoting gob*****, totally in love with himself. And then there's his wife. He doesn't have the financial acumen that many credit him with - as he has repeatedly demonstrated at AGMs.

 

Yes, he is rich. But he is not THAT rich - he wouldn't be able to pump tens of millions into a transfer kitty, for example. So we would be left no better off than we are now, but we'd have our very own Ridsdale/Ellis/Shepherd in charge of the Club.

 

No thanks.

 

Spot on.

[Benitez]

That's spot on.

 

The issue of who owns my Club is very important to me. So much so that I have looked into the characters supposedly involved and come to the opinion that Morgan is 100% the wrong man for the role. Some seem happy to sit here and ask "why not?" - I find that attitude amazing. It would be the ultimate honour and privilege to own Liverpool Football Club - how can people sit back and say things like "oh, he's a Local (living in Jersey!!) so he'd be better than some foreigner".

 

 

eggsacerley

 

The idea of Morgan in charge of LFC is just really really horrible.

 

The guy is a twunt of the highest order.

[fyds]

Vote with your feet?

 

Everyone has a limit - maybe I am close to mine, I'm not sure. I don't make half the efforts I used to, to get to the match. But then again, the players don't give a f*** so why should I?

 

I agree that Chelsea will most likely remain unique in the game, but the other Clubs will just be varying degrees of them.

I know what you mean, but am equally sure that on another day you'd feel more optimistic. We don't have a journeyman Chairman and board who'd sell purely for a quick buck - oddly something some unthinking posters in recent times have complained about them not doing!

 

Despite the selfishness of certain players - which although there is more money around is not much greater than it ever was as they've always been selfish being not overly eductaed sportsmen - we are a long way from being even close to having the Chavista ethos of Chelsea.

[fred milne]

i'd sooner we kept the current regime and financed the stadiums through loans and sponsorship, like arsenal have done.

Me too.

 

Better the devil you know and all that.

[Roscoe]

Obviously hypothetical, I mean that I would no longer feel the same way about the Club as I have done my whole life.

 

As an aside, I remember an old fella I used to go to the game with - he had a Season Ticket for 40/50 years or whatever. Anyway, one year he just decided not to renew. It was early 90s and he said "it's not my Club any more. They don't care about me, why should I care about them?" At the time, I thought he was off his f***ing rocker - but from that day he never went to the game. He just switched off from the Club totally. I can now honestly imagine myself doing the exact same thing.

 

I was at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and looked around myself at the epitomy of all that is bad in football. Our fans were superb - supportive, dedicated, witty. Their fans were pathetic. Everything about that Club stinks. And that is the way football is heading - down the tubes on a tidal wave of dirty money, selfishness and egos. I am desperate for us to make a stand and not sell our soul to the highest bidders 'in order to compete with the big boys'. If we do, and we sell out to some **** like Morgan, then that'll be it for me.

 

couldn't agree more. I left the bridge thoroughly depressed on sunday and that had little to do with the result or performance. I could not support a 'club' that went down this route or was run by people for self gain (financial or otherwise).

[RP]

I know what you mean, but am equally sure that on another day you'd feel more optimistic. We don't have a journeyman Chairman and board who'd sell purely for a quick buck - oddly something some unthinking posters in recent times have complained about them not doing!

 

Despite the selfishness of certain players - which although there is more money around is not much greater than it ever was as they've always been selfish being not overly eductaed sportsmen - we are a long way from being even close to having the Chavista ethos of Chelsea.

 

 

But how far are we away from that really?

 

One AGM/Board Meeting, that's all. If David Moores wakes up today and thinks "f*** this, I've had enough" (there is enough evidence around that would make such a possibility not that remote), how far are we from "doing a Chelsea" then?

[Gravy]

Vote with your feet?

 

Everyone has a limit - maybe I am close to mine, I'm not sure. I don't make half the efforts I used to, to get to the match. But then again, the players don't give a f*** so why should I?

 

I agree that Chelsea will most likely remain unique in the game, but the other Clubs will just be varying degrees of them.

 

Yep, me too. I just want to watch my team play. If the game's on the box nowadays, nop matter if it's Man U, Everton ior whoever, 9/10 I won't go and I'll watch it on TV. Maybe that's coz I live so far away, but up until a couple of years ago I went to ALL games - regardless. Not any more and different priorites, but even at West Ham a couple of weeks ago I didn't get that first match of the season feel pre-match. That excitement you get y'know?

[Gomez]

Doug Ellis is the first name that springs to my mind when I hear Morgan's name being linked to control of our club. I just don't think he has the forsight required and fear a shared stadium and when the time comes Rafa will be replaced by a mediocre manager because he's English.

 

Hopefully I'm wrong.

[liverbird04]

It doesn't seem that morgan is much richer than david moores anyway ,can't see the point in trading a dignified chairman in for a gobby shared stadium supporter .

[Kopfaithful]

There has been a board meeting called this morning to vet three offers currently on the table.

 

are you sure it's today? the post seem quite certain it's tomorrow. It seems very odd no other web sites are picking this story up.

Edited September 20, 2006 by js

[JRC]

From the Post Article -

 

It is also likely that the NWDA will want to determine the attitude of a new owner towards sharing a stadium with Everton FC.

 

They just won't let it lie (NWDA AND the Daily Post). Or is that, from what I'm reading, a nod in the direction of favouring Morgan?