Originally Posted by
Crimson Dynasty
I see.
Although I think there's a level of delusion or at least naivete if you truly believe that these Oil Sheikhs (and Russian Oil Barons) own these clubs because of,....."love of the game"
Roman bought Chelsea because it was another offshore investment for him, where he could park some of those ill-gotten billions of rubbles he's "appropriated" from Russian people like his fellow Putin-buddy Oligarchs.
It's no different than when Chinese billionaires park their millions and billions in Swiss villas and mansions in the Caribbean.
It might be a bit different with the Middle Eastern state owned petro Barons, but with them its more of a status and ego thing than anything to do with love of the game.
They don't care about the football community in Manchester or East London or Paris.
Otherwise why choose those (coincidentally) large cities with great football histories in which to buy clubs and not the Aston Villas and the Newcastles as you pointed out?
At least the Americans are openly more honest (more or less) about their motives to make money and profit, and to the extent that the club succeeds, they get what they want out of their investment, and are not just pouring money down a drain on a toy until they get bored of it and fling it over their shoulder like a bratty child when they're done.
The idea that there's a billionaire (or a bunch of them) out there who's a true dyed-in-the-wool blood red true football fan and member of his community type that will buy your club and whose motives will only be for pure love of the game and the club,......is....frankly speaking, delusional.
They don't exist.
You're more likely to find the Tooth fairy or Santa Claus.
So why we would hold modern owners that that as a standard of expectation, is beyond me.
I know the devil that FSG are.
I also know the angels that Roman and the Sheikhs are not.
At least FSG didn't come to their billions by virtue of their proximity to centers of power in their country that are responsible for violating all manner of human rights, so in that sense there's a little bit more cleanliness in conscience than from being owned by "Oil Baron money"....coming from places where they literally still have human slavery, or places where opponents of your buddy Putin are poisoned or thrown into prison to be killed slowly for good measure.
But that's just me.
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