I’d be very shocked if we found out that Henry had lured a journalist into a building where he was brutally murdered and dismembered.
Does that seem likely?
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Hicks and Gillett on the other hand…
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I think the argument is would every middle eastern billionaire have done that? And would we know that John has not done any unethical stuff? And what is ethical enough? What is that line? The question that Klopptimist brought up is valid because its as if people are against Middle Eastern ownership because they are middle easterns and not based on individual (de)merits.
EDIT: and for clarity, I rather just have FSG stay with us because to me they have managed the club very well and for a middle eastern or any rich fucker for that matters who will come and spend 200mil every single season for no reason or rhyme, I rather not.
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I’d draw the line at murder, torture, rape, slavery, child abuse, mass exploitation and supporting Man U or Everton.
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hmmm … Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen … care to pick one that’s not.
I respect that line and certainly, no one like that you describe should come anywhere near our club. But precisely that is the problem. Then how about gross tax evasion? A billionaire who used the system, abuse the system and not pay tax to a country where they earn their money from and as a result not pay towards social policies that their money could have helped. Is that billionaire ok? I would guess some would be ok, some would not be.
Nobody on the planet would level the same accusation at the USA or us for that matter. No siree bob.
And you’re talking governments, not individuals.
Wasn’t my suggestion.
But having worked there and seen first hand how ‘nationals’ view and treat migrant workers, they’re mostly shithouses in my view
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Of course I’m talking governments. We are talking about Saudi Arabia here , who already own one PL club , and apparently would quite like to own three of them now , including ours.
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I’m fairly certain that owning more than one premier league club goes against all FA/Premier League rules.
So they’re nailed on to buy us then!
Livercastle Utd?
Not sure about this. We all know his humility and his ability to work within a team of different competences. He has gone on record numerous times about how important it is to have a functioning club at all levels and how he respects other people’s work. I can’t see that suddenly changing.
My concern is rather that the support structure crumbles now because fsg have given up on the club and are actively trying to sell it. And honestly, if Klopp is expected to be the glue holding everything together until the sale is done and dusted, I can’t see him play that game too long. He’ll rapidly think that he too has arrived at the end of a cycle.
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I’m sure he still respects other people’s work but I think Zorg hinted at similar battles with Klopp at Dortmund. I can’t remember who, but someone in the summer at or close to the club (was it Pep Lijnders)? said the club was moving to a strategy of a world class player in each position backed up by talented youngsters.
I’m not sure how we do that without our analytical team though as we lack the cash to go head to head for those sorts of players on a regular basis.
For me, these supposed power conflicts are just a journalistic invention. They see that the support structure around Klopp is crumbling, and they count 2+2=5. Why on earth would Klopp and Lijnders want to change a formula which has seen them reap so much success over the last years? And why would fsg want to initiate a change in their manners, if not because their focus is now on selling the club?
Maybe I’m completely wrong about that though, we’ll see.
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That´s totally nonsense, never heard of such a thing!
I can not believe what kind of “conspiracy theories” are doing the rounds here in the meantime. Someone claims Klopp has too much power atm and now he’s to blame for everything. That is ridiculous.
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These changes appear to have been agreed and acted upon a while ago, it is unclear whether FSG have committed themselves to a sale, or whether they are simply open to it while looking for additional investment partners but if it is the former it is also unclear whether that decision was made whenever any change in strategy was taken or if it is a more recent decision.
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I think saying conspiracy theories is a stretch, it’s simply looking at all the developements over the last 12 months and trying to guess, educated but yes still a guess what is actually going on.
There are some facts, for example Klopp did intervene in the Henderson contract which did cause friction between Edwards (who was saying the data was showing Hendo was on a decline) and Klopp. That is public knowledge and reported by key people so not some “conspiracy”.
I do wonder what the point of a forum is at times, you can’t pose a theory without hyperbole leaps. Not seen a single post saying Klopp has too much power - I’ve seen some say Klopp has got more power… Very different things.
Every single article - Pearce, Reddy, King, Joyce have all catagorically said Klopp is getting more power. They are very good journalists with good sources in the club. It’s not a conspiracy theory to read their story and then discuss it on a forum and what it could mean along with all the other changes going on.
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Yes. Even if fully accepting the mantra that every billionaire is an example of policy failure, we really dont need to bend over to create false equivalencies to pretend there is no difference being owned by a western billionaire vs people who made their money from being part of a despotic ruling family and who will wield that ownership for further political gain. And lets be clear, there is no one from the middle east buying a PL club who does not meet that definition. We’re not throwing out anti arab sentiment at the prospect of being bought by Mohamad Al Fayad (the Egyptian guy who owns Harrods and used to own fulham)
Given how robustly the PL assessed the claims over the supposed independence of the PIF, the expectation is the saudis could just roll out a new fund, claim that too was independent of the government, and independent of PIF, and it would pass all the PL’s tests.
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That’s utter fucking bollocks, wrong place to go into it but I’m calling shit like this out.
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I think that was probably the final nail in the coffin, didn’t we vote against them as owners? They probably lost what little faith they had in the EPL/FA as a body based on their public acceptance that Newcastles new owners weren’t backed by the SA gov…