The times are 'a changing (from Billig)
It took me a while to get my head round yesterday’s takeover. Initial reaction was “brilliant news”, then my optimism dwindled as I read a couple more pessimistic articles (and in hindsight, poorly written garbage) about it. Generally I think now it’s exactly what our club needed and am pleased with what happened…although a lot of credit (bad word, sorry) needs to go to BG for the work he did in keeping us going after a turbulant couple of years.
I’ve read that there could be some “asset stripping” going on from some sensationalist areas of online media (comes as standard with West Ham these days), whilst we’ve also been reading that Trevor Brooking welcomes the takeover.
This comment from Georg Andersen, the CB Holdings spokesperson, makes particularly pleasing reading:
“We want to make a clear distinction between the financial side of the club and the football side,
We will leave the football side of the business to Gianluca Nani, Scott Duxbury and Gianfranco Zola while we focus on the financial side.
Selling our best players would make absolutely no business sense, because it would jeopardise the potential future price. We will try to hold the value of the club and enhance it if possible.”
(speaking to the BBC)
I personally had a lot of faith in the ideas and vision of BG and the Gang, but it was clearly time for him to move on – for the sake of our club. Reading what the new owners have been saying is an encouragement and with a huge sigh of relief I feel we can all continue to look forward to next season.
Interested to know what everyone else is thinking about this…any concerns, or generally well accepted? Discuss here or in my new forum (which is still under construction, but the basics are in place!)
IRONS
Sam
Most important outcome is that we still have a club.Run on proper financial guidelines and with continued improvement on the field we will have every chance of a major investor buying the club when the recession comes to an end.
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Having slept on it for a bit, i agree that it has stabilised our club financially and we can now look forward again
Im a happy hammer right now!
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The board all seem to be talking common sense to me
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i like what i’m hearing from them…hopefully it will continue
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It seems to me that Eggie had to move WHU from his company ownership or there could have problems when his debts get called in.
So he sells us for £100m – he gets most of his investment back, and we are now owned by a Country and financially safe.
This gives the new owners time to sell the club on to a more suitable buyer. I think they have to invest in the club to get a better return. Invest, say £30m and try and sell for £150m.
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It doesn’t seem good to me the banks aren’t secure see the guardian today.
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that is the flip side to all this…
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Not sure we’re out if the woods yet – still a lot of debt and the foundations of the new owners are not that stable. Fingers crossed for a period of stability in financial markets – if so think the Club will be fine.
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hey sam,
must say i am pleased to see that our financial difficulties are not so difficult to overcome. we have got some money now, not a lot compared to other teams in the league, but i think if a good couple of young bargin signings will make us a steady club for next season. we did punch above our weight this year regarding the league position. we were only 9th because man city didn’t perform, newcastle, middlebrough and tottenham had a dreadful season, we made the most of their disadvantages. but i still think we need to guarentee those defo 6 points off lesser teams. i.e hull, blackburn, wigan etc, we are not consistant enough to even compete for europe. if we can get those results and pull off a few shockers against tottenham, aston villa and everton, then maybe we will be a force. you will have to forget about getting a point off the top four, resign to lose 24 points and concentrate on the lesser teams, that is where we will gain hugely.
i dont think the owners are there for the long term as there priority is to get the nation of iceland back on their feet, so when you think about big transfer targets, think about teh icelandic economy, that is where all the profits will go.
gonna be a tough couple of years, but i predict that we will be sold AGAIN by 2012 to an investor who wants whats best for west ham and nothing else.
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I feel confident that the club is secure financially (well, as secure as can be expected all things considered). I just don’t think we are going to progress much over the next couple of years in terms of league position. I’m not convinced we’ll have the cash to compete for the kind of players we need to progress.
I’ll be happy when we are in a position where we don’t have to sell, before we can buy.
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