Media thread 2022/23

[Jazzyblue]

The one thing most of them have in common is that they are London-based posh boys who have enriched themselves from the property boom in the South of England. The Guardian has become a parody of itself. It is totally out of touch with people outside the M25 especially those who weren't born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

The Guardian has no real interest in, affection for, or understanding of Manchester. They dropped the city from their name in 1959 and then left for London. They've never been profitable so they used the ads from MEN, all the old weeklies and Auto Trader to prop them up financially, but they never employed anyone from there because the G was completely hijacked by Oxbridge public school kids from Establishment families a good while ago and they looked down on Mancs. When the financial crash came they sold the MEN for well under its value, put the money in a tax-avoiding trust which was not ethically invested, and then very quickly burned through the cash. Every so often they run an 'isn't what's going on in the north/Manchester terrible' piece to burnish their credentials. I know people who worked for them at the time of the sale who can talk all day about the hypocrisy of that outfit.

 

[Jesus H Gabz]

The growth of the Uae in the last 20 odd years has been in order to move away from reliance on oil. It couldn’t be more wrong.

Looking forward to the day we are known as a dirty solar powered club

 

[Gray]

It would have even far better for us to buy up some of the houses around Maine Road, leave them empty and to go derelict, thereby forcing the other residents out. We could have then bought these houses at a knockdown price. Once we owned whole streets, knock them down and build a new stand.

Now where did that happen, let me think?

 

[bluealf]

How a great English city sold itself to Abu Dhabi’s elite – and not even for a good price | Aditya Chakrabortty

Manchester’s Labour council let Sheikh Mansour buy up acres of public land for seemingly a fraction of its worth, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

www.theguardian.com

Another anti city article from the beloved guardian.

From the guy who moved to Abu Dhabi

Aditya Chakrabortty​

He was born and raised in London and later settled near Guardian Towers in Abu Dhabi.

Imagine my shock at the double standards.

 

[Jazzyblue]

Why does nobody ever question Chelsea money ? also oil money, also Russian money laundry

Because morality is whatever the leaders of the richest and most powerful western nations say it is. There are many wonderful things about Britain and the US and the societies we live in, but the reality is 'we' also perpetuate all kinds of abuses of human rights directly and indirectly, at home and abroad, to further all kinds of corporate and geopolitical interests, but somehow it's 'different' when 'we' do it. That's not to justify any human rights abuses. Just that the idea that it's only 'them' who are capable of behaving badly is the most disingenuous of fairytales.

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

Not forgetting the Council Tax being raked in. No criticism of big Rag Fred Done of Betfred Bookmakers and Peninsula who has now entered the property market and developing tower blocks under the Salboy brand. I’ll bet he’s on favourable terms with the Council.

Because that's classed as localised and organic growth - do keep up...........

 

[ancoats]

The money is a different colour.

so blood money was OK

 

[Pingu the Penguin]

There may be some cause for criticism of the Council's actions, but the transparent bad faith of the article lies in the fact that not once does the author care to look at what the alternatives might have been to doing the deal MCC did with ADUG. Strikingly reminiscent of David Conn and his lamentable hand-wringing bilge when he starts droning on about rich foreigners benefitting from the public money invested in the stadium that became CoMS/The Etihad.

Not once does Conn care to mention that the alternative would have been a 10K athletics venue on site which would have been knocked down after MCC stopped having the cash to pay for it in the age of austerity (as happened with Don Valley in Sheffield). And not once does he mention that the rent MCFC have paid for the main stadium has been responsible for helping to keep other sports facilities open in the area, the money being ringfenced for this purpose.

This latest article is the same. Want to have a pop at the relationship between MCC and ADUG? OK, fair enough. But tell us what alternative developers were around and why they would have paid more for the land or would otherwise have been a better bet. As that hasn't been done, maybe we should assume that there weren't any other options, in which case tell us why for nothing at all to have been built would have been preferable.

Totally agree. There may well be a legitimate point to make about influence and power. But as you say, there's no balance here. That's my problem with coverage of our club and the owners generally. It's an organised and clear smear campaign.

 

[waspish]

Why does nobody ever question Chelsea money ? also oil money, also Russian money laundry

American the other American owners love American owners they see football as a cash cow or a status symbol to go with there other sports they own!

Chelsea though they rarely if ever made a profit under the Russian!
So these yank owners know where it’s going and how there owners are going to take British football..

 

[hammocity]

Because that's classed as localised and organic growth - do keep up...........

He’s also building on brownfield sites, no difference.