United Thread 2015/16

[Thaksinssoldier]

Fair play to van gaal. Worms the lot of them.

 

[mufc1988]

When we were in Dallas recently, most of the City fans we spoke to started following us before Sheikh Mansour bought us, so your assumption is false in that regard.

My assumption is based on the fact that I have never seen City shirts or people swearing loyalty to City prior to your success.
I have lived for a significant time in both Asia and North America.

 

[SWP's back]

Firstly, there is NOTHING wrong with a leveraged buy out.
Whenever you use your credit card or take a home or vehicle loan, you are essentially 'leveraging' your ability to generate future cash flows in order to pay for an asset right now.
The bet that the Glazers took were:
1. Premier league would get more cash through TV deals and Sponsorship.
2. SAF would maintain sustained success on relatively lesser funding. Prize money would be greater than cost of playing.
3. Utd would be able to attract sponsorship over and above its rivals due to its success.
All 3 came true and that to me makes them excellent businessmen.
By allowing SAF to run the team as he pleased (spending on wingers at the cost of midfielders, spending 20 mil on a 30 year old striker, etc.) they moved from being good businessmen to being good owners.
Also, Manchester United have the 3rd highest Profit before Tax even after accounting for interest and loans payable.
The loans are all under control. There is a schedule according to which it has to be payed.

The Arabs are betting on the fact that:
1. Oil prices will remain high (oil prices have collapsed by over 50% since January 2014).
2. Their regime won't collapse (There was an unsuccessful Arab spring, people remain dissatisfied).
3. They can use their influence to inflate Sponsorship deals.
4. Even if points 1, 2 and 3 turn out to be wrong bets then by that time City would have been sustainable.

The Arabs? How many times must you say it you racist prick.

If you want to label them, call them Emiratis.

Fuck off.
Ps. There was no unsuccessful Arab Spring in the the UAE, you may be thinking of Bahrain. There are very very few, if any, dissatisfied Emiratis. You're fucking clueless.

 

[mufc1988]

ADUG is in the business of expanding the business assets/portfolio range of Abu Dhabi. Manchester City offers a relatively inexpensive (as in he can sell the club at almost any time and get a sizeable amount back) and very high profile method of imagemaking. Rising from the dark, greasy shadow of the swampdonkey neighbours in the most hyped league in the world, playing the greatest teams in Europe.... all gives visibility. One big thing for businessmen in that part of the world is 'face' - they don't like looking bad, they like looking benevolent; regenerating large areas of East Manchester can be shown as benevolent.
As a result of the football ownership, they have a partnership now with Chinese state-sponsored investment/media conglomerate, and will be allowed more freely to operate in China.

Sport is a tiny aspect of ADUG's range. It is useful for what it gives them and not for how much cash it can make them; I don't think they care about that side of things really.

And yes, I believe they own Sky Arabia or something; and then there's the Chinese media conglomerate - push City, push ADUG, get returns. This is quite similar to how Murdoch tried buying the Swampdwellers in the 1990s, and why he was so desperate to make football a cash cow. It was an attempt to break into the Chinese market with Star TV.

All of this will be quite readily available to find. WIkipedia almost certainly will have pages on it.

Got it.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

I have always maintained that success is the fastest way of getting a new fan and 'sustained' success is long term binder for converting new fans into loyal fans.

If a multinational media company ludicrously hypes every last drop of sweat, that tends to help, especially if they do it for years and years of saturation and completely one-eyed coverage. Murdoch's doing.

 

[mufc1988]

The Arabs? How many times must you say it you racist prick.

If you want to label them, call them Emiratis.

Fuck off.

I didn't use it as an offensive term. Its like calling our owners Americans.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

My assumption is based on the fact that I have never seen City shirts or people swearing loyalty to City prior to your success.
I have lived for a significant time in both Asia and North America.

Where are you actually from, by the way?

 

[mufc1988]

Where are you actually from, by the way?

East Coast of the US.

 

[coleridge]

I am not racist.
The word 'Arab' has never been used to insult them.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

East Coast of the US.

Well, there's definitely enclaves in New York to start with.

People tend to support who they can see/hear about. e.g. Fox show English football and have no qualms about the bias they preach. Coincidentally Fox is part of Murdoch's conglomerate, and for about 10 years, Murdoch owned 10% of Utd, and was trying to buy them. If Fox favoured Utd, it would not be a surprise to anyone British.