The Soccerlens awards are upon us once again, whereby the best blogs in various categories will be decided upon. Last year we were voted as Best British Blog, which was great, and of course we’d like to win another award this year too.
The categories are: Best Writer, Best Podcast, Best Community, Best News Site, Best Team Site, Best Competition Site, Best Team Writer, The Expert, Best Gossip Site, Funniest Site, Best Mobile Application, Best Online Game, Best Babes Site, Best Betting Site, Best Online Store, Best Videos Site and Best Stats Site.
Of course I would massively appreciate you nominating RoM for any of the categories you see fit, but of course nominate other blogs and websites you visit for other categories too. Simply e-mail your nominations to: awards@soccerlens.com. The final date for nominations in January 18th then the voting will begin and continue until the end of the month.
For more information, check out the 2009 Soccerlens awards page.
Man Utd News 24/7
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_5858869,00.html
this better be a fucking joke!!!
I voted for ya Scoot!
@Long John O’Shea: If they do, they won’t get out of the country in one piece. And to be honest, they won’t be safe anywhere in the world.
please please please someone tell me this won’t happen. I’ve been quite optimistic on the glazer issue, reasoning they are businessmen who will have it in their best interests to ensure united are left in a good position but this would rip the heart out of me. I can only hope it’s in the prospectus as a possibility but not something that would be given any serious consideration at all
Things have to start picking up on the field fast. The only thing I’m scared of is player’s moral being affected by all this bullshit.
Voted for you mate, keep up the good work!
Nominated
Scott – I’m trying to get the people behind my book to send you a copy ASAP.
Will keep you posted.
@ Androo & Long John O Shea
Dont worry….its not gonna happen. Things are not that bad (at least according to the information by the club in the public domain) Our Operating earnings are good enough at the moment to steer clear of such a disaster.
Its just a far-fetched possibility, especially if we drop out of the top four, because that would mean a straight loss of 40 mn from the cash flow of the club. The tabloids are just too eager to fore-say doomsday possibilities for the club in an attempt to destabilize the players…
Dont pay too much attention..at least at the moment.
To put it simply: GLAZERS ARE RUINING US.
Worst case scenario, we could end up like Leeds scum.
Whoever let the Glazers take over like this should be ashamed [including the Government and the FA].
Red Devil, I read your aritical the other day and it was quite interesting, I work in the same industry as yourself… but when I read things like this it just realy pisses me off
@Long John O’Shea
Its just another case of the Media blowing everything out of proportion. As part of the Bond offer they have to lay out what assets are available to secure the bond. Its much like if you go to get a loan you will have to disclose your assets.
The whole thing with our debt is being blown out of proportion
- The Glazers aren’t the Idiots they are being made out to be. The didn’t put both themselves and the club in debt without a solid plan. After all they are business people who have generally been successful in business. They aren’t going to risk not only devaluing such a major asset AND also risk their own finances without having a plan from the start that’s viable
- The PIK’s. They are potentially troublesome for the Glazers and indirectly that could impact the club as its an asset of theres. These are however in the Glazers name and from the off they have stated they were taken out because the other assets and money they had available gave a better return to them than the interest on these PIK’s. Now the economy has changed and I’m sure its not quite as a good a deal for them now, however its not United duty to pay these off but the Glazers whole empire. The Money they will receive themselves from the Bond issue will help as they will almost certainly use it to pay off some of the PIK’s and that should get them back on track to the pre economic meltdown target.
- The Debt attached to the club doesn’t look great BUT debt isn’t always bad in a business. Its actually fairly common for companies to operate in debt as its more profitable to them.
- They would have no doubt have planned to refinance this club debt more than the single time they have but unlike Liverpool they got it done while the market was still fairly good. The Bond issue in itself isn’t a bad thing, alot of business are doing it atm as refinancing debt isn’t viable atm
- The Management and Loans in themselves aren’t a major concern. The Management fees for example are normal in a company and actually they are significantly less than the Shareholders when we were a PLC would take every year as Dividends despite our Turnover being so much better. The Management Loans will no doubt just be for account/tax reasons. They are loans rather than payments so its not really as if anything has been lost
Hi guys.
The report about the Glazers contemplating selling OT as well as player like Rooney is based on a prospectus that they sent to potential investors. Damn leeches.
On another note, what the hell is this idiot on?
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=724765&sec=england&root=england&cc=5739
As if it ever mattered what people outside Man United thought of the great man!
Costas, Norman Hubbard is as we call in my part of the world a geebag…
RoM > Soccerlens
@Long John O’Shea
I didn’t know who he is until today. I googled geebag and he is definitely that, lol.
Seriously, does anyone think that Fergie has lost his sleep because Leeds and Liverpool fans don’t hold him in high esteem? What a joke.
@Costas
How does it being in the prospectus make them leeches. This isn’t some some PR Puff piece like Michael Owens prospectus. Its a serious financial document where you can’t just whitewash everything. You have to lay down to potential investors all the risks and the assets you can strip should the worst happen to ensure they get their money.
Lets say Apple, Sky, ExxonMobile or any other major company were to offer bonds, they too would include all the possible risks and information on what could be done in the event of the very worst happening. That doesn’t mean that these companies would start selling off all the assets right there and then, its just laying out what added security there is on peoples investment
@Wakey
Man United was an example of how to run a football club until 2005. If you take the debts out of the equation, it still is. What makes them leeches is the fact that they bought the club with loans and now they are willing to sacrifice assets that have been in the club’s possesion for decades just to cover their butts. I know that we might never reach that point, but the gesture itself is insulting enough.
We had to sell Ronaldo(and probably sacrifice the remaining 60 million of his fee) for the same reason. The prospectus states that there are no money for transfers.
If they took over the club, we wouldn’t be in the position we are in now. And I know that it also means that we wouldn’t have had the success we have had on the pitch, but I was willing to accept that if it guaranteed the club’s long term financial health.
I understand what you mean about Apple or Sky. However Man United is a different case. We never needed Glazer to survive as a company.
“If they never took over the club” I meant.
Costas
H mate
2nd in the League having your defence out for a month and in the last 4 of the league cup and last 16 of the champions League isnt good enough when you compare it with the position of Liverpool and Leeds.
Leeds and Liverpool fans are right. I mean they have beaten us this season.The mighty Leeds United are in League One. Something we will never be able to taste the feeling of.And for Liverpool well what can you say about them. They have been so unlucky this season to lose these many games especially in 2nd half stoppage time. They still have the mighty Europa league to concentrate on.Oh and as far as the league goes for them their fans are right to be optimistic because
THIS IS THEIR YEAR!!!!
Scott
Youll win again mate. The number of readers and followers that i see on ROM i have never seen on any other site.
Great work. Keep it up. We enjoy the blog.
AIG
Hi mate. If one thing is cheering me up this week, it’s Liverpool’s plight. Looking at what targets a big 4 club has, they have lost all of them by January 13th! But I hear quite a few people talking about Rafa quitting. I think it’s time we started the KRAP campaign again.
Keep Rafa At Pool!
Scott,
Voted on you under Best Babes site. yes thats right, we are the busby babes!
@Costa
Lets assume that you have assets to your name worth 500k and you decide you want to buy a house for 450k. You have two options you can sell the assets you have and buy the house outright or get a mortgage. What complicates matters more is that the yearly interest on the mortgage is 4 times lower than amount your assets bring in.
So what do you do? You go the loan route, it makes more sense.
And they HAVEN’T made any gesture towards selling the ground or training complex. They have fulfilled their legal requirement of disclosing the assets connected to the club and the possible things that could be done with them if needed. The simple fact is its the same for EVERY football club that owns their stadium and training complexes and this same thing will be included in any ‘Investment pack’ that they release.
As for Ronaldo, where’s the proof we had to sell him? Remember the accounts we have seen are for the Holding Company and the LOSS without the impact of Ronaldo leaving was due to be around the same as the Loss the Holding company made the year before and for all years. It seems inline with the expected loss that the holding company is expected to make.
As for the No Transfer Funds. Have you read the whole thing, or even read it at all? Or are you just going on the scare scaremongering by the Media and the likes of MUST? I really would like to know on what page you saw the “No Transfer Money”
On the Summery alone it says on Page 8
“• Continue the consistent success of the First Team: We aim to maintain and build upon the historical success of our First Team by continuing to seek to attract some of the best players in the world and committing significant resources to developing the highest quality players
through our Youth Academy. We intend to support these efforts by continuing to provide state of the art training facilities and a world class coaching team.”
In the Risk section it also talks about Transfer Fees being a ‘Risk’ and how we may have to pay more than expected to aquire players we want. It also reiterates that transfers are essential as success on the pitch is required to keep increasing the profits
Utterly shameless Scott. Clearly people should be voting for United Rant
Is there a worst blog category – I can think of a bunch of vile scouse sites we could manipulate to the top.
all this finance talk is freaking alot of people out,i don’t understand any of it but wakey seems to understand whats going on and doesn’t seem worried about it i’m going with media looking for stories to write.
the roony to real/barcelona won’t go away either and that has to be total bullshit,roony many times has stated he wants to be at utd for life and has no interest in going aboard,as i understand utd are in talks to extend his contract and sir alex would quit before selling him.
the glaziers are not mugs they have a real estate empire in the states and like alot of people got hit hard by the recession.in my mind they are parasites and hate that they own utd but i think we have to give them credit for understanding finance and looking for a better way to control the debt
@Wakey
Of course I haven’t read the prospectus. I am not a potential investor. All this is my interpration on things. Here’s the quote from the article that Goal.com posted:
“Furthermore, it is claimed that the prospectus also reveals that United have no money of their own to finance new player transfers, while the club may have to sell players to service the debt in the future.”
Now if this is sensationalism on the part of the media, I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be susrprised if the Glazers were more revealing in a private prospectus to future investors than they were in their summary. As far as Ronaldo goes, again, it’s how I see it. I have seen certain moves from the club that make me think that we are in dire need of money. Like the Ronaldo sale, the Ljajic deal collapsing, the free transfer of Owen, Fergie’s constant claims about the “no value in the market”, as well as a claim by the media(sorry I can’t remember the article) that we have already asked 36million from our new shirt sponsors upfront. Of course Ronaldo made things easier by practically demanding a move, but a United company not burdened with debts probably wouldn’t have granted his wish.
That’s what this is about for me. You are right that the Glazers are doing what they had to do to get rid of the debts. They are doing the best they can. And in a way they own Old Trafford or Wayne Rooney, so they can do whatever they want with them. I just feel that we were better off as a PLC. Would we have ever reached this point as a PLC? That’s why I am upset with the Glazers. Because no one asked them to take over Man United and put us in this position.
Costas – Hi mate . Goal? Come on man, you have more sense than that. As I said I ain’t getting bogged down with the shit as I know fuck all about it save to say I used to work in Corporate Recovery. Any prospectus has to list all assets. That is the reason the ground etc will be listed. No where does it say it will have to be sold. It is just worst worst case scenario.
As for Ronaldo you know as well as I do Fergie had to sell him. He was a cunt for most of last season so that much is obvious.
@King Eric
Hi. At the moment I am not afraid that they will sell Old Trafford. However, looking at the whole situation, it’s very frustrating. They are parading the club’s assets around because they want to raise funds to pay for the debts they created. Manchester United was doing just fine without them in my opinion. Goal.com could be wrong about that quote being included in the prospectus. If that’s the case I will say sorry. All we have to do is wait until the summer and see United’s activity in the transfer market.
Ronaldo was out of line last season, but I have often wondered how things would have turned out if we were debt free. Players are fickle these days. They make all kinds of noises, but in the end, you raise their salary and they sign their contract extensions. Unless we reached the point were Ronaldo was never going to commit to the club and give his all for it.
@ Costas
King Eric is right mate, you have to list all possible worse case scenarios on the prospectus eg. the assets the club could potentially sell should they run into more finacial problems in the future. These include Old Trafford, the players and any other asset that can be sold to service any future money trouble, but it would be highly unlikly the investors would choose to sell players should this happen coz they would want to keep the club going and being successful to insure they get their investment back. Its all bollocks tho coz like you said earlier if we were still a PLC and hadnt had these trailer trash rat shagging bastards take over the club we would have been fine now. Thank the FA for bringing the fit and proper persons rules in to late!!
Guys. Let’s hope something positive happens because I’m very very worried on this situation !
Manchester United are the ONLY and the MOST important thing in my life, beleive me and I don’t want to loose it !
@Gee
Yeah, I agree. They had to list OT as part of the assets. I just wish we were never in this position to begin with. The thought of someone putting Old Trafford, Carrington or any other prized Man United asset on sale(even if it’s just a formality and nothing official), just to wash their hands clean makes me sick. I know the Glazers are the owners now, but in my opinion (and call this eutopic) they have no right to deal with assets that have been in the club’s possesion fo generations.
@Zulu-Malta
Me neither mate. I think Manchester United will come through this. I don’t want to sound like those Newcastle fans last year, but it’s a very historic club with strong roots and it can’t simply disappear or suffer the fate Leeds did.
Duty done, nominations in. Ready to vote when needed!
@ Costas
I feel exactly the same mate, the fact that we built our own fantastic training complex and not only expanded OT but rebuilt it after the war when it was bombed, to have these disgusting fucking things decide what can be done with our clubs assets is a crime, the goverment should step in and force them out, if it was the virus of madrid (and I know they have a different system over there with voting and stuff) the king of spain would have the Glazers hung, drawn and quarted!! but like everything else in England the goverment havent got a fucking clue!!
Costas – fair enough mate. One thing I wondered is if the Glazers own Old Trafford now (which I assume they do) what difference will it make them actually selling it to someone else? Any ideas please anyone?
Costas – Thats just the point though. Regardless of how bigger cunt’s they are they DO own the club and consequently Old Trafford.
@ King Eric
Well they can get a massive intake of revenue and syphon it off into their own pockets and rent it back for a small fee every season for the next 50 or 100 years mate. So they get money straight off and when they are dead some other fucker has to worry about the lease being renewed or OT becomes flats or a Tesco if the owner decides to ‘redevelop’.
Oh and I think it will take all maintenance bills and stuff like that away from the Glazers as well if Im not mistaken mate.
Here’s a worse case scenario for you too, if we couldnt agree to renew the lease then the owner could well sell the stadium or lease it to SHITTY!!!! but that is a worse case scenario that just popped into my head like a fucking nightmare!!!!
@King Eric
I think it’s what Gee said. It’s all about cashing in on the stadium, then renting it back at a smaller sum. I think United would still get a percentage of the tickets’ income.
And I don’t like thinking like that, but if someone else owned OT, they could bring the prices for season tickets back to what they were pre-Glazer. That’s just a wild guess mind you…
@Gee
Shitty would no doubt like to replace us in any way possible. Lets face it. They can’t succeed on their own, so they tried to emulate us.
I don’t know if anyone heard, but they replaced us in our deal with Sporting Lisbon. I don’t think we were making many deals with them recently, but it just goes to show what copy cats City are.
@ Costas
Yeah I saw that mate, hoping they get the next Ronaldo no doubt. Muppets!!
@Gee
If only it was that easy! They don’t have a Sir Alex to nurture a Ronaldo. Knowing City, they probably would have sold Ronaldo after the World Cup of 2006 just to please the media! If they had held on to him for that long…
I’m getting so pissed off that everytime I go online or everytime I read the newspaper there is a yet another article referring to the Glazer’s killing another piece of this wonderful club we all love.
The Glazers can fuck off and I would not piss on them if they were on fire, I’d walk past with a massive smile plastered on my face.
LUHG
@ Costas
And that is what they can never buy mate the great man that is SAF!!!!
@ Bchilds
I think that is something we can all agree on without doubt!!!!
It’s a piss take how a team who have done nothing to deserve riches get bankrolled but a team that has made history in so many ways gets fucking raped!!
Gee and Costas – Been out tonight and just got back and seen your comments in response to my query about Old Trafford. Cheers lads. Oh and Gee couldn’t agree more with your post at 1.16 am.
If the Glazers sell Carrington what does that actually mean. As a building and fileds its just land to someone else! Do they mean sell the rights so it becomes known as “the Coca Cola Training facility” or do they mean sell it off completely, say to City. Because realistically what other Premier league football club from Manchester is there that needs a training facility of this standard?
Keep Up the good work scott. Anyone else checks out these guys : http://manunitedyouth.wordpress.com/
You deserve every award you get Scott, RoM has my nomination!
@ Goat
No its the same as the stadium, they would sell to anyone who wants to buy it and lease it back for a small fee each season.