On the first day of January...............

[teesred]

Time for FSG to stump up for the signings we need starting THIS WINDOW with immediate and rapid effect, or find a buyer and fuck the fuck off in my view, I've finally snapped

Not going to happen though is it 19.
Even if we do sign someone it needs to be an immediate impact signing and that's very unlikely I'd say.
Even in the unlikeliest scenario of us signing the Monaco lad you like he would undoubtedly take time to settle etc.
The damage was done to this season in the summer. I've read elsewhere that this coming summer is when FSG will really go big, not sure why or where that's come from but even if its true its all a case of after the horse has bolted.

LEGS has said for ages that nobody will compete with that shower, I've always thought it unlikely but not impossible whereas now, being 10 points behind on 3rd Jan I've came to the realisation. They've ruined football in this league, I don't care what anyone says. Neville and Souness saying they're the best ever but not a murmur of how that's came about.
That bald, little creepy oddball always playing the hard done to violin yet spends a fucking billion. It would be funny if he wasn't serious but he is. Sour grapes some might say, yeah it is but its also true.

[Steveo]

There are plenty of sour grapes but it is understandable.

Silver lake - interesting their purchase of a stake in City happens the year we took the CL and while City were under FFP investigation.

As I have said these predatory US investors are never far away from the big money in this sport.


From the FT

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.f...6-62bf4f9e548a

Silver Lake’s journey: ugly tech to the beautiful game

Six months ago, Hollywood impresario Ari Emanuel introduced Egon Durban, one of Silicon Valley’s most successful investors, to Khaldoon Al Mubarak, one of Abu Dhabi’s most powerful officials and chairman of Manchester City football club.

Last Saturday, the trio met again on a drizzly Manchester day to sign one of the biggest deals in sports history. Mr Durban, managing partner of US private equity firm Silver Lake, agreed to pay $500m for just over 10 per cent of City Football Group, the parent company of the English Premier League champions.
Afterwards, Mr Emanuel napped on a couch at CFG’s offices to sleep off the effects of a transatlantic flight the night before. Hours later, the trio celebrated as Manchester City beat Chelsea in a Premier League match. An energised Mr Durban proudly wore a scarf emblazoned with City’s blue and white colours.


The deal has helped realise Mr Durban’s ambition to embark on a new phase of his career — as a power broker in the world of entertainment, media and sport.

“He’s one of four managing partners at the most important technology private equity firm in the world,” said a Wall Street veteran who has tangled with Mr Durban. “But he’s tried to reinvent himself as something more than that, someone whose contact book stretches from Michael Dell to Elon Musk to Ari Emanuel, who can make deals that rely on bringing unique combinations of people together.”

In early 2013, as Mr Durban was preparing to sign a $24.9bn deal to take the computer maker Dell private, he was also keeping an eye on the Golden Globes award show where WME clients were collecting trophies.

Silver Lake’s deal for CFG forms part of the private equity group’s plans to gather sports, media and entertainment groups that command the attention of millions of consumers globally. Its interests also include mixed martial arts franchise UFC, and the Miss Universe pageant, which was formerly owned by Donald Trump.

Silver Lake had sought to invest in football for several years, according to people familiar with its leadership, who said the private equity firm had also assessed clubs in the English Premier League, the world’s highest earning domestic competition, such as Chelsea, as well as other major teams in Europe.
A person close to Mr Durban said the opportunity in football is partly driven by trends in media and technology. For now, CFG continues to gain from the multibillion-dollar broadcasting deals that matches between top clubs attract. A longer-term bet is that the value of football media rights will increase even as viewers increasingly switch to watching matches online.

“We definitely see global super premium football rights values rising gently but surely,” said Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis, a media research group. “[Sports] franchises are valuable. Live rights even more so.”

Mr Durban settled on CFG and has valued the company at $4.8bn — by many measures, the most valuable sports group in the world — believing it had discovered a formula to “systemise” success on the pitch.

All clubs in the global network — which include sides in the US, China and Australia — are directed to play in the attractive, attacking footballing style pioneered by Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. They also benefit from shared sponsorship deals and youth player development programmes.
The football transaction also deepens Mr Durban’s ties to the Middle East. CFG is majority-owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the billionaire businessman and Abu Dhabi royal who bought Manchester City in 2008.

It comes months after Endeavor, where Mr Durban serves as board chairman, returned hundreds of millions of dollars to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The knock-on effects of the deal were felt across the industry. The New York-listed shares of local rivals Manchester United on Wednesday jumped almost 13 per cent, bringing its market capitalisation to $3.1bn as investors reassessed the value of the world’s biggest football clubs.


HMMM. Very interesting indeed.

And then there is this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/s...lver-lake.html

Snippet:

Aleksander Ceferin, the UEFA president, was at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium on Tuesday for the team’s latest Champions League game. Durban, who will join City Football Group’s board, also was present.

[justincredible]

All just a desperate attempt from us all as we wait with baited breath for your input Justin.

Unfortunately Steveo, nothing I put in here will ever lengthen FSGs arms, nor shorten their long pockets. Hahaha...

[teesred]

Wow, it just shows the network they now have. Picture what the landscape will be like in ten years.
Utd will be trailing them in every way aside from league titles. Nothing will or really can be done to stop these predatory schiesters from buying PL football clubs.

[Steveo]

In a free market everything is for sale.

[Steveo]

https://www.silverlake.com/?v=2

So, to date, Silver Lake invested more dollars in City than FSG have in us for just over 10%. Wow the PL/UEFA is generating some wealth - strange how all this TV/Media money has flooded into the sport in recent years.

Seems the UAE got some very clever (creative) legal insurance against sanction. Jump in bed with a US equity firm worth over $90 billion and revenues exceeding $225 billion.

That’ll run a UEFA investigation into the sticky stuff and stop it in its tracks.

You do wonder how this has been done so quietly. No media stink at all.

[fiordearg]

It isn't just that the squad needs strengthening it needs strengthening in certain areas. Kelleher Williams Tsimikas Konate Gomez are very good replacements. It's midfield where the problems begin. We don't have a replacement for Fabinho. We lack squad depth and some of the replacements are injury-prone or too old. Up front we need replacements for Salah and Mane. Origi is a good impact sub. Firmino is past it. Minamino is a good player but he's a misfit in Klopps system

[LEGS]

You are right TEES I have said its very hard to compete with them it isnt impossible for the odd season as we proved but over 5 years its hard.

Id say Chelsea are most likely to compete as they have football people around the club.

United have the money but seem to have idiots making the decisions but that wont last.

Newcastle are unknown at the minute but with their wealth it not take that long 7-10 years.

If Pep was to leave City id be more confident their points total would drop slightly.

Being blunt Pep/Klopp are the best in the world and if one of em gets 5/6 times more money its clear who is likely to come out on top.

It comes over as sour grapes maybe it is but like Mourinho said "Why did City pay £20m fine if they did nothing wrong"

[Steveo]

Indeed - HOW did they get away with it…?

https://www.sportbusiness.com/2020/03/silver-lakes-stake-in-city-football-group-is-no-mindless-gamble/

[Steveo]

Snippet:

In corporate terms, Uefa plans to ban Manchester City from its competitions but it can’t ban CFG. This is an important detail, as City increasingly represents just one element in a growing and increasingly diversified investment portfolio. It has long been the intention of CFG’s chief executive Ferran Soriano to create a global entertainment company, founded on a franchise model that derives its operating principles from Walt Disney.