Do you want it?

[Sangria]

Rash dont even think about it mate. Moral highground.

[Stu Monty]

Be careful what you wish for; it might come true.

 

I'll be weighing it up as things progress but I think I could become less interested in the whole affair if we start playing with loaded dice.

[rebel23]

makes me laugh these chelsea fans.. they need to get it through their thick heads that we've won stuff for years without any investment and whilst we've not won the league for 16 years we've won just about everything else, including the European Cup for a record 5th time.

 

Chelsea didn't win FUCK ALL until their "investor" came along, the best they could hope for pre Abramovich is to finish 5th in the league and a bit of a run in the FA cup.

 

it makes me laugh that they actually have the audacity to look down on us just because they've had a taste of some success. well guess what, we're on the up again..

[Thants]

Be careful what you wish for; it might come true.

 

I'll be weighing it up as things progress but I think I could become less interested in the whole affair if we start playing with loaded dice.

 

Yep me too. Or with loaded mice - but that would be a whole different game then. Anyway . . . I've got a chelsea mate who's become very disenchanted with them. Its no longer about football, its about money.

Some people on here think somethings better than something else because its got more money. Its quite tasteless. If our club do go down that route and not use money wisely i wont be following them.

[Kurt]

I was livid at missing out on Owen, and Rafa must have been so missing on Alvez. It will be nice to be able to afford reasonable targets.

 

What doesn`t make you livid??

 

As for the poll... I really cant decide...at least not yet... Im really torn, and miss the I havent got a fargin clue option...

[rebel23]

Yep me too. Or with loaded mice - but that would be a whole different game then. Anyway . . . I've got a chelsea mate who's become very disenchanted with them. Its no longer about football, its about money.

Some people on here think somethings better than something else because its got more money. Its quite tasteless. If our club do go down that route and not use money wisely i wont be following them.

 

it won't be like that, we have history, tradition, respect, class manager, class chief executive and hopefully if Moores stays on a class chairman.

 

we will not end up like Chelsea who have no respect, no class, no history or tradition and who have simply splurged £400 million on transfers in a bid to buy themselves to the top whilst simultaneously pissing off a lot of people and going about it in the most vile manner.

 

They also have little to show for that "investment" in transfers except for a bunch of whinging overpaid "stars", the most expensive of whom has proven, so far, to be shite. at least we'll have a new 60,000 seater stadium which will become a valuable asset

[RoboRiise]

I voted yes. The reason is that it seemes to be pretty clear from the last couple of years that if the club want to progress the new stadium, investment is needed and that in order to attract that investment, the ownership of the club will have to change. Investors just aren't interested in ponying up the kind of cash we're looking for in return for a minority stake.

 

If we accept that some change at the top is inevitable, I'd rather have us taken over by a guy who is richer than God with a proven history of successful investment in sport than by some knicker baron from Poland with £150m going spare. What I'm trying to say is that if we've got to accept change anyway, I'd rather it bring in someone with the financial clout to enable us to really compete with the Chelseas and Utds of the world than continue in essentially the same situation with different owners. That seems so obvious as to hardly bear mentioning.

 

Of course I'd rather a local philanthropist with £2B burning a hole in his pocket bought us out, but the truth is that we've been after that for years and we can't spend any more time waiting for Godot.

 

The last thing I'd like to say is that I'm surprised so many people seem to see the money (if it comes) as almost automatically turning us into Chelsea. I've never seen the money at Chelsea as being the issue in itself - it's what they do with it that pisses me off. We aren't suddenly going to lose our class if we have money - the two don't have to be mutually exclusive and the talk of possibly keeping Parry and Mores in some capacity suggests that these guys have some sensitivity to the values and traditions of the club and recognise the value of people to help them with those issues, at least in the short-term.

 

For all I hate the concept of everything being a brand these days, the fact is that our tradition and heritage are a fundamental part of the "brand image" of our club - in other words, they are one of the things that makes us an attractive investment in the first place and I would hope that any investor in the club would realise that and seek to preserve those aspects of their investment.

 

Those are also the things that differentiate us from Chelsea - what history do they have? That's why they have no class to go with the money - they have no experience of having to do it the hard way first. They're like those witless bastards that live in Cheshire in plastic mansions, with their plastic wives, ritalin-stupefied children and a Range Rover Sport. Nouveau-riche interlopers who never learned that money can't buy you class. Or indeed love.

[Owen]

I can't bring myself to say yes, and I can't make myself excited or enthusiastic about it, so it has to be a no.

 

Would much rather sell the naming rights to the new stadium for ten, hell, even twenty years to finance it than this. It just doesn't feel right.

[Sangria]

No one on here wants us to become Chelsea. Infact it was we dread most.

If we get the new ground built, we will be self financing.

How many people wanted us to get Alves in the summer and were pissed of we did not. It does not mean we pay 30 million for a striker who is coming past his sell by date.

We are and always will be Liverpool Football Club and sorry but if anyone out there is less interested or whatever - well it says it all - you never where to begin with a true red.

Football has changed and not always for the better, my idea of utopia is some cunt pissing down the back of my leg on the spion kop. That ended and I moved on. It was not the same but nothing ever is.

Onwards and upwards lads.

I said earlier on this thread, that I agreed with Paul and know his heart is in the right place but sadly we need to progress and the only way for us to this is to move ground. What better way to move if can do this without a massive amount of debt hanging over our heads.

[Owen]

I voted yes. The reason is that it seemes to be pretty clear from the last couple of years that if the club want to progress the new stadium, investment is needed and that in order to attract that investment, the ownership of the club will have to change. Investors just aren't interested in ponying up the kind of cash we're looking for in return for a minority stake.

 

If we accept that some change at the top is inevitable, I'd rather have us taken over by a guy who is richer than God with a proven history of successful investment in sport than by some knicker baron from Poland with £150m going spare. What I'm trying to say is that if we've got to accept change anyway, I'd rather it bring in someone with the financial clout to enable us to really compete with the Chelseas and Utds of the world than continue in essentially the same situation with different owners. That seems so obvious as to hardly bear mentioning.

 

Of course I'd rather a local philanthropist with £2B burning a hole in his pocket bought us out, but the truth is that we've been after that for years and we can't spend any more time waiting for Godot.

 

The last thing I'd like to say is that I'm surprised so many people seem to see the money (if it comes) as almost automatically turning us into Chelsea. I've never seen the money at Chelsea as being the issue in itself - it's what they do with it that pisses me off. We aren't suddenly going to lose our class if we have money - the two don't have to be mutually exclusive and the talk of possibly keeping Parry and Mores in some capacity suggests that this guys have some sensitivity to the values and traditions of the club and recognise the value of people to help them with those issues, at least in the short-term.

 

For all I hate the concept of everything being a brand these days, the fact is that our tradition and heritage are a fundamental part of the "brand image" of our club - in other words, they are one of the things that makes us an attractive investment in the first place and I would hope that any investor in the club would realise that and seek to preserve those aspects of their investment.

 

Those are also the things that differentiate us from Chelsea - what history do they have? That's why they have no class to go with the money - they have no experience of having to do it the hard way first. They're like those witless bastards that live in Cheshire in plastic mansions, with their plastic wives, ritalin-stupefied children and a Range Rover Sport. Nouveau-riche interlopers who never learned that money can't buy you class. Or indeed love.

 

Well said dude, especially the highlighted paragraph. You've been on fire recently!

[RoboRiise]

it won't be like that, we have history, tradition, respect, class manager, class chief executive and hopefully if Moores stays on a class chairman.

 

we will not end up like Chelsea who have no respect, no class, no history or tradition and who have simply splurged £400 million on transfers in a bid to buy themselves to the top whilst simultaneously pissing off a lot of people and going about it in the most vile manner.

 

They also have little to show for that "investment" in transfers except for a bunch of whinging overpaid "stars", the most expensive of whom has proven, so far, to be shite. at least we'll have a new 60,000 seater stadium which will become a valuable asset

 

Absolutely right.

[Dirk]

I can't bring myself to say yes, and I can't make myself excited or enthusiastic about it, so it has to be a no.

 

Would much rather sell the naming rights to the new stadium for ten, hell, even twenty years to finance it than this. It just doesn't feel right.

 

Tim posted this on YNWA. We probably won't ever spend Abramovich cash but we'll be comfortable.

 

"I agree, in fact I don't think they will even need to. Presently the club brings in about £25m in operating cashflows each year when in european cup action. From next season that will increase by atleast £15m with the new tv deal and prospect of new sponsorship deal, which could push it to £25m higher. When the new stadium opens we'll be looking at potentially anwhere from £25m to £40m per season more there. In a couple of years the club could, in theory, be looking at free cashflows well in excess of £70m, helped greatly because there looks to be no debt involved with the new stadium. By having no debt there it saves upto £20m per season. That's just short of our present annual transfer budget."

[BatChainPuller]

Agree with most of what RoboRiise says - can't really see any alternative, much as the whole idea goes against the grain. In an ideal world we'd have a set up like Barcelona, but we've been a private company for a long time.

 

The Makas record in horseracing looks encouraging, and presumably they are buying into the history and traditions. They already own a string of very 'English' institutions and don't seem to have mucked around with the identity too much.

[Owen]

Tim posted this on YNWA. We probably won't ever spend Abramovich cash but we'll be comfortable.

 

"I agree, in fact I don't think they will even need to. Presently the club brings in about £25m in operating cashflows each year when in european cup action. From next season that will increase by atleast £15m with the new tv deal and prospect of new sponsorship deal, which could push it to £25m higher. When the new stadium opens we'll be looking at potentially anwhere from £25m to £40m per season more there. In a couple of years the club could, in theory, be looking at free cashflows well in excess of £70m, helped greatly because there looks to be no debt involved with the new stadium. By having no debt there it saves upto £20m per season. That's just short of our present annual transfer budget."

 

Which, honestly, would be brilliant, and if Moores, Parry and whoever else stick around to ease the new regime in, then even better.

 

It's probably just me not liking the idea of change. Reading this thread though, I'm siding much more with the concerns of Pete, Paul, Brownie etc than the giddy "I want it all, and I want it now" Violet Beauregard sentiments of others.

 

I've been signed up for a shitty course tomorrow, which is probably a blessing in disguise - I'd be on here all day faffing.

[Moo]

Just voted yes, mainly on the basis that Moores & Parry have made it clear all along that they would not go ahead with any deal unless it's in the best interests of LFC. And as they are aware of the values of the club and it's fans then I'm choosing to trust them on this.

 

As previous posts have mentioned it does not really matter who invests in the Club, all that should matter to us is that it is run in the manner befitting our great name.

This if course remains to be seen so I am not without my reservations.

 

"Keep LFC Red" is just an ideal in the current football climate IF we want to give ourselves the best chance to remain sucessful and go on to even better things.

There clearly isn't a suitable "true Red" out there ready to make us the right offer, otherwise he'd have made himself known by now.

 

I think Rafa is the best manager in the Europe and has shown he can work miracles, but I am not convinced he's here long term (by which I mean 10-12 years plus) unless we try build the Club up into a bastion of invincibility.

And in my heart of hearts I don't believe that's possible unless we have the clout to at least compete financially with other clubs - like we were always able to do in the past.

[RSM]

In principle I feel slightly uneasy at the deal, however as stated before I do believe it to be necessary if we are going to compete with the likes of Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Man Utd etc...

 

It just seems that football is the new playground for billionaires, that said if we can maintain our heritage and "The Liverpool Way" of doing things it seems like the best option.

 

I guess the devil is in the detail.

 

Now lets sign Fernando Torres, Hunterlaaer and Alves in January. :thumbup:

[thechap]

I think that Moores and Parry have done a truly fine job here and I trust that they would not for one second let the club be taken over by anyone who did not understand the soul of the club.

 

There has been a lot of talk of DIC making money out of Liverpool FC. I seriously doubt that this is how they see it as we all know that there is little real money to be made out of the game. Where they will make their money - and I believe this is where M & P have pulled off a masterstroke - is by DICs association with the club.

 

These people truly love their sport and it brings prestige for them. This is evident in their racing businesses, which is clearly more money-spinning than football club ownership. I can understand them wanting to get involved in football as it is the the only global mass-appeal sport. And if they're going to get involved then they would surely choose the club with the greatest soul, history, values, traditions and successes. That's us.

 

I understand why people are uneasy about foreign ownership. I am too and I, like every poster on here, wish I had 10billion squidly in the bank because I would now be the new owner of LFC. However, I don't and neither do any of you so we have no choice but to look where we can get the investment. The alternative is to stagnate or shrink while others grow around us.

 

I am far happier than otherwise about these people coming to LFC as I think they are more interested in just being associated with LFC than trying to change us into something else.

 

You don't buy a Bentley and then hang furry dice from the mirror or put go-faster stripes down the side.

 

The deal is not yet done. See what Moores and DIC have to say before dismissing it but I think we have a lot to be optimistic about.

 

Liverpool Football Club - Onwards and upwards to even greater glory.

[Nunavut Patrick]

No.

[Strontium]

I voted YES because I trust any new owners to respect our heritage.

 

What I hate about Chelsea isn't the fact that they have money (we were the richest club in the country for years after all) but the fact that they use that money to bully, badger and browbeat.

 

We won't become the New Chelsea, we'll become the anti-Chelsea; the Ted Turner to Chelsea's Rupert Murdoch.

 

It's a sad fact that money rules, and to be honest, this is just the inevitable result of what happened when Division 1 became the Premier League.

[Alan Sex]

I think that Moores and Parry have done a truly fine job here and I trust that they would not for one second let the club be taken over by anyone who did not understand the soul of the club.

 

There has been a lot of talk of DIC making money out of Liverpool FC. I seriously doubt that this is how they see it as we all know that there is little real money to be made out of the game. Where they will make their money - and I believe this is where M & P have pulled off a masterstroke - is by DICs association with the club.

 

These people truly love their sport and it brings prestige for them. This is evident in their racing businesses, which is clearly more money-spinning than football club ownership. I can understand them wanting to get involved in football as it is the the only global mass-appeal sport. And if they're going to get involved then they would surely choose the club with the greatest soul, history, values, traditions and successes. That's us.

 

I understand why people are uneasy about foreign ownership. I am too and I, like every poster on here, wish I had 10billion squidly in the bank because I would now be the new owner of LFC. However, I don't and neither do any of you so we have no choice but to look where we can get the investment. The alternative is to stagnate or shrink while others grow around us.

 

I am far happier than otherwise about these people coming to LFC as I think they are more interested in just being associated with LFC than trying to change us into something else.

 

You don't buy a Bentley and then hang furry dice from the mirror or put go-faster stripes down the side.

 

The deal is not yet done. See what Moores and DIC have to say before dismissing it but I think we have a lot to be optimistic about.

 

Liverpool Football Club - Onwards and upwards to even greater glory.

 

agreed, well said.

 

We will always be Liverpool - class is permanent.

[Red Sun Rising]

I suspect that many of the posters who are not in favour of this deal really mean that they are not in favour of the new stadium. No new stadium, no investment needed, DT on the blog for example didn’t seem to make that link.

 

I agree with those people that have talked of how the club was built, on the successes of the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s – what you won created revenue that let you invest that gave you more success. (Excluding Chelsea) It still holds true today, except that the mix has changed, gate money, TV money, sponsorship and prize money are all in play today. Our biggest weakness is gate money.

 

The reality is that most weeks we give Man USA and, now, the Arse a roughly 15,000/20,000 seat advantage. Chelsea make up for that by using Roman’s cash (although it is often forgotten that that cash is loaned to Chelsea not given, there will be a payback required there some day.) The current owners of Liverpool think that we cannot compete with 40,000 seats a week QED we need to move.

 

Moores knows how significant that is. The guy could maintain the status quo, stay chairman, win trophies on a fairly regular basis but he’s decided that is not enough for him or LFC. The problem he has is that he cannot afford to fund it out of his own pocket or LFC’s projected revenue stream. He could borrow it and hope that everything goes swimmingly and the debt does not drag the club down but has decided that is not the best option, so right or wrong, we will have outside investment.

 

Is the Dubai investment the best option is really the question we should be asking, although even that is a moot point as it seems clear that their offer must be close to what the shareholders want. Next decision rests with Dubai.

[philyhamann]

The only reason I voted Yes was because I believe that Moores nor Parry would accept an offer from someone who didn't understand the club.

[kop]

Where's the "undecided" option?

 

I know that we need financing to build a new stadium, and we need financing to be able to compete in the transfer marked. We need more money to be able to keep up with Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal. Still; I'm getting this sick feeling in my stomach when I read about this deal. I've always thought that I would be happy when a deal like this were about to be done, it's just that I'm not. I don't know why, I'm just not sure if this is what I want anymore. It's probably the fear for change, or maybe a fear for what can happen if these investors turns out to be someone who ruins our club. We've had a few days to think about it now, but Parry & co have worked on this for a few years. Should we trust them in having done a good job? I'm not sure about that either. My head says "do a deal" but my gut feeling says "stay away". My relationship with Liverpool FC has never been a well thought one, it's not something I've choosen, so maybe I should use the same approach when deciding on this issue? If so, then it's "no". Come to think about it; I'm 99% certain I will be happier as a Liverpool-supporter if we stand on our own feet rather than being fed by a silver spoon. You can't buy happiness they say.

[Wig]

The times, they are a changin'. Keep up or get left behind.

[kop]

The times, they are a changin'. Keep up or get left behind.

 

Depends on what the times are changing to. Do we really want to keep up when the times are changing into to something we don't want to be associated with?