Her er en evighet med stoff og spekulasjoner om TOMA 2:
Leeds United Lippy on the takeover mess: It is all about credibility stupid.
By Editor on January 23, 2014
Credible?
Early to free up the weekend for more Take Over More Angst. Forget who is talking to who about buying what? Focus on what the participants actually can deliver, and in the case of the competing interests looking to buy Leeds United all sides are found wanting!
So what do we credibly know?
GROUP 1:
Haigh and Flowers aka Sports Capital (maybe with Fisher, maybe not) have an exclusive period (or did have depending on who you listen to) to purchase 75% of the remaining GHF-C shares (which leaves GFH-C with 10%). GFH (or GHF-C) need money fast, they have built expectation in that they will be cash rich enough to service some debts already rescheduled 2 years ago. Sports Capital are struggling to meet the sale terms of GFH, that has prompted speculation that GFH are talking to others:
GROUP 2:
Farnan/Parkin/Pearson/Radabe. If they are then we can assume the exclusivity period is over and its now about how much, except their is the complication of
a) the reported £6m Sports Capital has given the club to run the place since October and
b) the interwoven personal relationships involving Haigh, Nooruddin and Patel.
In response to the perceived threat from Farnan and co Sports Capital have entered into dialogue with Miami based Massimo Cellino, owner of Cagliari in the Italian league who may or may not have a “fit and proper person†issue depending on how you look at the Italian justice system. A meeting between Haigh and Cellino is confirmed by “sources close to the club†but “no shares have been sold†(code for the legals are being done first). So in short, it is all a decided incredible mess.
HVA BETYR SÃ… DETTE:
So what can we deduce from all this? Well it is now clear that McDermott has been left high and dry by this whole process (and if Cellino is involved will have the first credible threat to his tenure) and the fantasy of him “being able to sign who he likes†has turned into Haigh’s unfunnest joke ever. GFH’s previous mutterings about being “in it for the long term†are scattered to the four winds and the 10% they intend to retain is a small gamble for a further profit making sale a year or two down the line. We can deduce without any fear of legal correspondence GFH will be disposing that 75% to someone come what may. If anyone had any doubts that Sports Capital were struggling to fully fund their purchase and ambitions the delays and the chats with Cellino blow that away. Haigh is as exposed by his thin PR veneer, whether he likes it or not (and I suspect he will like it), as Cameron is by his and we, the punters, season ticket holders, the support are being treated to version 13 of the mushroom school of communication (in other words we are required to sit in a dark place and have manure thrown at us). Again in short patience and more importantly credibility is being stretched to the limits.
KREDIBILITET:
No-one is immune from the credibility vacuum at Elland Road as we speak, McDermott was seen to raise the flag for Haigh and co earlier in the week, whilst he was more than entitled to say closure would help with securing transfers it was a classic managers mistake to suggest who should win the process. Equally players, whilst not yet dropping ownership related comments all over twitter, can’t rest easy knowing we are all incredulous when the fantasy of making the play-offs is dangled before our eyes.
The normal business of the club, in creating a Disney style alternative reality, continues, Lorimer, Gary and Matteo do their ambassador jobs suggesting knowing who Dominic Poleon would prefer for the first game of a season is some kind of transparency and the “all United†bandwagon overtakes the “welfare reforms are fair†as the most perverse twisted concept since the PL was launched as good for football. The whole apparatus at Leeds United seems concerned with only one outcome, how to pull the wool over our eyes (and given how much wool we have allowed to be pulled since 2000 we can hardly be surprised).
MEDIEKJØR:
In a world where people born into families from Martinique can be accused of racism, Stan Collymore isn’t a misogynist thug anymore and where fairness and Liberalism have been detached I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to learn some people don’t think their is a connection between people who do the job of co-ordinating the PR and press out of a football club and the constant stream of zero credibility spewed out. All I can say to that is you can’t have it both ways, either someone has been working a long time for owners he didn’t influence or the constant stream of negative headlines and pitiful customer communications is there work. Either way it is amazing how we just don’t expect any different these days. Luckily we have a free press, local, regional, national to rescue credibility by asking questions, you know like the probing and surgical questions they asked between 2002 and 2013, oh wait… Again marvel as whilst you and I might think some investigative journalism might be in order to help fans get to the bottom of the mess of this week in reality all you have to do is take an off the record, very short, brief off the clubs spin-doctor and hey presto, morning and evening headlines. As twitter brings forth a series of extreme positions on the personalities involved (and in some cases goes from hatred to support in two tweets) maybe some people whose professional reputation depends on their “knowledge†of Leeds United could have established what exactly Cellino’s financial and FPP status is? It is not like they don’t have contacts with Italian newspapers!
HVEM VIL VI VELGE - FIT AND PROPER:
And so to the participants, starting with Cellino. Well it kind of depends on which Cellino is involved.
** It is not beyond the wit and wisdom of even our present managing director to recognise that if Cellino Jr is the “investor†in the Sports Capital pot the FPP test is fudged.
** If however it is Massimo who is on the paper-work we need not detain ourselves much on this, he hasn’t got a prayer passing FPP unless his “alleged†prison terms and recent arrests are all related to politics (and even then its iffy). If Cellino Snr is in for a majority stake in the club the credibility of the Football League will be on the line, luckily we have Shaun Harvey to sort that out!!! We all know what the game is if Cellino takes a stake, it would be to take a bigger one in a year or two, we can only guess how many managers we will go through (lets assume only one called Zola) in that time but if he keeps it down to under 2 a year maybe he can rescue his football credibility a touch!
AKTØRERE 1:
In terms of Farnan and co (with as yet no confirmation of who co is except Adam Pearson’s recent comment) the level of credibility is proportionate to what they bring to the table. On one hand knowledge of the football business (something lacking in Sports Capital) on the other Mr Farnan has been around the block and has an association with that mid-table team from across the Pennines that not even Pearson’s LUFC past can magic away. Basically, even with St Lucas in the team until such time as funding is explained, who they are talking to, what plans they have for the club etc taking them seriously is very difficult. Recent tweets from Farnan don’t help, they imply they are waiting for Sports Capital to implode and thus never intended to own us before the transfer window closed. That cheap shot about “Leeds should be buying Cagliari not the other way around†was strange from someone who has extensive Italian football contacts! Perhaps the best explanation of the credibility gap here is to remind ourselves how many times Pearson and Parkin have been associated with attempts to buy us and then note they just never happened.
AKTØRERE 2:
Which brings us nicely to Sports Capital, let us be nice to Mr Flowers and say we can see why he keeps asking for patience to complete the deal, he is apparently a proper (as opposed to born again) Leeds fan. However I can’t be the only one who has missed the news that the sale of his insurance business has been completed so therefore am struggling to see what he brings to the table (except perhaps a Gibraltar postal address). We haven’t been told who the other Sports Capital “English based investors†were but the suspicion has always been that the s on the end of investor is superfluous. This site said it last week and has said it since December, Sports Capital is the continuity outcome, unfortunately continuity means no cash for transfers, no competitive squad, no credible push for the PL, its just Team Haigh with new mates.
HAIGHS "POLITISKE" STIL:
Speaking of our Tory MD we should perhaps pause to reflect that if their is one path in life where the only way is up with credibility it is when you train as a lawyer, working in the banking sector during the “out of control†years, have a specialism in property and run an ex-pat fundraising arm of the Conservative party. Yes it is possible to run a football club and try to become a Member of Parliament and have your stock rise! Haigh is the equivalent of a juggler, a bit of public entertainment designed to stop you seeing beyond. That some of you fell for his slickness is more a reflection on you than him, his struggles with reality as he promotes his commitment to the club whilst parades himself around the safe seats of the shires actually stand him in good stead for the Ribble Valley’s of this world, he may have lost total credibility in terms of this takeover but he won’t be needing that much to start with in the House of Commons.
KONKLUSJON:
So where does this all leaves us? Well let me put it this way: imagine some kind of Devil’s pact is arranged, where GFH get their quick sale but everyone, Haigh, Nooruddin, Patel (on behalf of GFH), Cellino Snr, Cellino Jnr, Farnan, Pearson, Parkin, Radabe, Fisher, uncle Tom Cobbely agreed to a share ownership. It would look incredible and yet such an messy compromise is actually more credible than all the other potential outcomes in the mix.
1) Whether its potless Sports Capital or
2) Sardinian supported Sports Capital,
3) whether it is vague Farnan and co or Chairman Radabe,
4) whether we have continuity of paucity or an explosion of investment all these outcomes are flawed.
It would be completely lacking in credibility to point to any realistic outcome and see a stable club with a plan and to say that about Leeds United after the last 15 years (Ridsdale, Krasner, Bates et al) is the most incredulous thing of all.
Don’t believe for a minute this will be resolved this weekend but if it is feel free to slag off my credibility as a blogger (which isn’t worth owt).