It’s a good point you make, and they can’t let it slip too much or it will be counterproductive.
I think it’s a matter of degrees. They may gamble on staying there or thereabouts, I.e. finishing top four with no meaningful investment, before an ownership change.
That’s why I hope whatever change is going to happen does so swiftly. Ideally over the World Cup break, but that might be unrealistic.
If Klopp is on board with whoever the new shareholder or owner is, then that will go a long way to helping the fans too.
I think JH needs to amend his google search filter. As popular as a club we are, I am sure many of the Ford tuning/cruising groups will be short of a pound or 4bn to.
They aren’t going to be flooded with lowball offers. Even if they were, that volume should still help put an upward pressure on price, not a substantial cut
The obvious thing here being if they aren’t actually being flooded with offers, making it clear that they might accept £3bn may lead to some offers being forthcoming.
The only other reason to accept less is if the £4bn is coming from an less desirable owner but they might accept less from a group that they know will be good owners going forward.
The journalists know precisely zero factual information when it comes to the numbers, and they will not, even if/when a deal is done. It’s all for the clicks and to be seen to be in the know/ITK.
This is going to take a long while - I’d not get hung up on valuations and the opinions of journalists.
If the first part isnt true, i don’t expect the second part to be either. Cutting 25% so quickly from the expected price sounds like it would be a firesale and I don’t see FSG doing that.
I think it’s a bit of both. Need the cash for other ventures, either NFL team, Washington Commanders, or possible NBA Vegas expansion team. Arguably they might also want to realize some profits now too, as old men. So it’s not a fire sale or desperate, but it seems to me like they need the cash.
As for trouble ahead, that could come in various guises. There’s the trouble they experience in staying competitive, within the confines of their model I.e. club pays for itself, owners don’t inject their own cash to grow their asset, and costs are going up with competitors injecting revenue from external sources. So there’s plenty of trouble there.
In addition, there’s the wider global financial trouble we are at the start of. There is some debate among economists as to whether or not it is a recession yet, but it’s coming. How long for, and how deep it goes, remains to be seen. But taking $4Billion now might be a wise business move from the owners, given the storm clouds that are gathering.
One other comment on the value - the Forbes valuation is a guideline, but as ever, the value of an asset at a given time might be measured in the transaction price.
On that point, I could see them possibly leaving some money on the table to ensure a good fit with the new owners, but within reason.
If nice guy offers $3B and evil overlord offers $4B there will be a limit to FSG altruism. But I could see them leaving some money on the table to ensure a good fit, if it came to it.
FSG are too financially savvy and decent sports owners to just drop the price for a quick sale or sell to the highest bidder but wrong people,they’ll know the sale process will take time and will sell LFC for the right price and to the right people,even if it is for a slightly smaller fee.
I very much doubt,they’d have spent over 10 years building up not just LFC but their own name,to take the highest offer and leaving LFC behind to a massive cunt and getting years of bad publicity afterwards,like H&G have got.
No-one ever starts an auction at the highest bid… get everyone interested at a lower starting offer then let them battle it out… in the frenzy to acquire LFC, who knows what the final selling price will reach eh
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