denver

RIP YNWA

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Hard to say for sure if that is the case. There is a lot of speculation he is willing to sell all or part but it's taking time to find buyers and they aren't actually in administration. It's also not so common for US teams to float on the stock market (to my knowledge). I'm also not sure if they are in the same situation with regards to debt as we are. If we go into administration the debt would be cleared before he or Gilette got a penny.

I do get what you're saying, but I just don't feel it's a justifiable comparison as 1) Leeds had nowhere to turn if they dropped out of the top few places, we do, although we'd have serious problems ever regaining that spot. Even if we dropped from the top four we'd be unlikely to enter administration 2) We haven't spent massive amounts of money on variable assets (players), the debt is the cost of buying the club. It's an asset which appreciates -- or should be! 3) It's a bit insulting to Leeds fans to compare our losing top four status with their club entering administration twice and dropping two divisions. In my opinion it diminishes SOS -- by making a facetious comparison like this it casts doubt on other elements of the organisation, which is unfortunate. I do realise that there is a need to motivate people to take some kind of stand against G&H, and I commend that. I just think there is enough ammunition to throw at them with out getting into fairly extreme worst case scenarios. Imagine how things could have gone in 2005 if we hadn't had Rafa, and hadn't won the CL. Owen gone, Gerrard gone, out of the top four, a hugely overpaid and under performing squad needing massive reinvestment with money which wasn't there... That is a more realistic worst case scenario than administration.

And this is exactly my point about the Leeds comparison being spurious. The biggest asset the club has is the club. Leeds had already sold that off AND gathered a load of debt. This isn't to say we do not face serious problems, it's just that making these comparisons doesn't help us at all, as we lose sight of what is really happening. G&H want to make money out of club, no doubt. To do that they need the club to be wroth more. Probably the original plan *was* to run us into massive debt -- the stadium would not be paid for by them, and to start with they were happy to spend -- even last season. All of that would have been more debt, but also an increase in the asset value, and they could seel the club on. With the closure of the debt route (at least temporarily) their next best bet is to pay off the debt. That way when the business is sold they can command a much higher price (and they are selling everything, rather than Moores percentage). For this plan to work they need to maintain the club at a certain level. Is that level top four? Preferably. If we drop out the finances can be rejigged, loans changed, G&H will not lose everything, they'll just make less of a profit. We need to consider though how hard it would be for the club to challenge again if we drop out of the CL regularly. With the spending power of the others we would seriously struggle. My worry is we will see players sold off at their peak while they still command a large fee, and replaced with younger versions -- always a risky strategy in football. I think it's foolish to paint G&H as cartoon evil maniacs who are out to destroy the club. They are not. They are out only for themselves, to make a profit, They are bad for us, certainly, but they do not want to see us enter administration. That would be very bad for them. In many ways we are lucky the credit crunch didn't hit a few years later, when we would have the debt of a new stadium as well. If that had been the case the Leesd comparison would have been slightly more appropriate.

Why would we go into administration? If we couldn't pay our debt for a sustained period of time, and could not come to agreement with our creditors, the club would float, or at least sell a portion to a private investor. It would be madness not to for the owners. If the club enters administration, yes, we'd be docked points, but we'd then be in the hands of an independent administrator who would sell or float the club, clearing the debt, and leaving H&G with nothing. There are serious concerns about the club, but this bogey man Leeds nonsense doesn't help in my opinion. We are suffering for the method in which we were bought, no doubt. There are major questions facing us to do with our budget, and maintaining our position in the top four, never mind winning the league. A wrong move now could see us drop out of the top four for many, many years. I don't believe we're in danger of the club ceasing to exist, or plunging into multiple administrations like Leeds. Our debt is caused by ownership, not onerous ongoing operating expenses.

It's not really the same situation as Leeds though is it? Apart from anything else Leeds were a PLC, we're private, and most of the debt comes from cost of ownership. If things got that bad the club could simply be floated. We're fairly unlikely to go under. We are however hamstrung by that debt eating up our profit every year, making it much much harder for us to compete. The real danger for the club long term is dropping out of the top four, as, without that money, it would be much harder for us to regain that place. We could drop down to the level of an Everton, or Spurs.

I think some episcopalians might, but generally no.

Well we were nearby, but no. We got in late Friday night, after the ticket office was closed, and went out for dinner and a few drinks. Saturday we got up bright and early at about mid day and made out way to the ticket office address from the website. Initially they told us they didn't sell them. We pointed to the big sign saying they sold them, and they said oh, but they couldn't today, the system was down or something, and we'd need to get them somewhere else like the stadium. No worries we think, a bit of a stroll and all that. We get to the stadium and the ticket office has a closed sign up, so we ask some of the police standing around when it opens, and they tell us about 5pm. It's around 2 at this point so we figure, what the hell, we can kill a few hours at a nearby bar, which we do. At five it is still shut though, and we're told to try at 6, and at 6 it is still shut. And at 7pm we are told the police have banned them from selling tickets on the day because of Napoli fans! So we spent the whole day waiting around for nothing. We ended up seeing the game in a bar. A couple of us had been really looking forward to it and were pretty gutted. Standing outside the stadium as the crowd were going in, and hearing the noise ramp up, and then finding out we'd to walk away... Ah well. Wouldn't have been so bad if they had at any point just told us we wouldn't be able to get the tickets!

Legends would be my pick, watched us play Barca there a few years ago and the atmosphere was great. Rocky's will probably have the Celtic game on, it's not bad for the fotty though, I remember seeing Josemi's debut game in there, funny the things you remember. Garcia was never offside either. There is also O'Che's (Irish-Cuban fusion bar, I kid you not) down near Karlov Most. There is an Aussie bar that would put on any game you asked for, but I can't remember it's name, or where it is other than "near the old town square". In my defence, I drank a fair bit when I was there....

Thanks for the replies guys. I did try to do the online booking from the inter website, but the game isn't listed yet. Is it possible to reserve tickets through that and pick them up on match day? Failing that I think we might take the chance and just get them in Milan. Do you need to go to the stadium ticket office or are there resellers around the city? Thanks again!

I'm going to Milan with some mates next weekend for a mates stag do, and part of the plan was to take in Inter V Napoli. Online ticket sellers want thirty quid for the cheapest seats, but checking the inter website they say the cheap seats are twenty euros! Am I right in thinking we should be able to get tickets when we get there no problem? Thanks!

Daily Record today is saying it's to do with Boumsong.

East Fife V East Stirlingshire should be a laugh. (The later being among the worst teams in the UK for the last few years. Although I'm sure there was some story last year about them getting a rich investor -- think he put in about 50k or something)

I have big news, but I can't tell you? Cue people falling over themselves for hints... Sounds familiar. Can't be arsed with this to be honest. Off to RAWK.