dubai_phil

Yep

OOh which reminds me - back on Topic.. We forgot a name from the list. Tiger Woods. Hell there was EVEN a photo in the very first TSW Forum Match Programme showing the great man signing the agreement.....

Ah, the perfect memory to head off to bed with....... Just a shame I never managed to record the "Tiger Woods Pitch & Putt in the Northam" gag at the time

And you're asking a bloke in Dubai?? Have a good one!

How do you know he didn't? Just saying like. In the interests of Friday night banter of course

True... But, don't forget he (as CEO) had been awarded large quantities of stock options so he owned some fair percent of the club. As that old share price went up, it becomes VERY difficult for a Turkey to vote for Xmas. Everyone WANTED to believe, as Verbal has indicated the story seemed "plausible" - we have experience "Trusted Advisor sees Opportunity to take to his Billionaire Investor. Asks some basic questions and says I think this might be something he is interested in" Shame Rupes & the gang picked the wrong one, it sure as sh1t worked for us a few years later!

Actually no it never came from there. It was a random local call from an old mate in the IT biz which led to a meet in a local Starbucks with some bloke who did all the traditional shifty ITK dance and was gob smacked when I laughed at him. To be fair though, I did of course enjoy the rofl call back to Toner land afterwards. I believe the operative expression is "Wind Up". Television Star, Outstanding Track record blah blah blah. But for a supposed Chess expert the boy what only ever played twice when he was drunk checkmated him in 6 moves

Disagree with this one CBF. A mega Successful Businessman can invest in a zillion things. BUT at his age he will invest in something that "looks interesting" or leaves a legacy. BUT and this is the thing. His WHOLE life has been about Business Empire Building, success in Business does not come from ONLY having a Business Plan, but FAILURE always comes from NOT having one. The Businessman will get a buzz from the EMOTION he gets from success, but he wil ALSO get a bizz from seeing the results of his planning NC himself would never have started the project without plans - budgets, targets, (hell we HEARD the term many times) Key Performance Indicators. NC own words - 5 year plan. So you call him a liar? (Don't think you are BTW)

Warren Buffet is in China and is buying SAINTS? WTF??

To be honest though, one hugely amusing thing I learnt during those days was actually how randomly Football Deals can get done. For all of the "Seymour Pierce" professionalism I still find the story of how Amanda Stavely "obtained" a contact book and used it to set the wheels in motion that led to Abu Dhabi buying Man City actually JUSTIFY the fact that some felt forums and other weird sources of information or contacts could be a factor. I still simply cannot understand how the hell some Investment Banker in Switzerland could have found out about us, put together a plan that Markus would believe in, then turn up (at the last minute) and having NEVER run a club before - hit the ground running. Believing that is as much of a leap of faith as believing Kanu is still going to play football this season. One source of many of the ideas could actually have been the forums, many of t he things he has done were debated (quite sensibly) on S4E and here. I don't think this could be the case but it is as believable as holding the believe that NC woke up one day and The Lord Said unto Him "Thou now knows how to run a Football Club. Go forth, buy Southampton and Reign for Eternity"

OK we are on the same page. My issue was to challenge the points as he made them. IF some can defend Nick calling the increase modest then I can call them outstanding. Obviously "they are to be expected" and of course the 60mil + 40 mil we would be guaranteed in TV revenue alone for only 1 year in the PL would in Nick's view be still modest? I do disagree with your last line though. I would OBVIOUSLY agree and say that finding the Liebherrs was the lottery win. (How DID they hear about us though? That one still bugs me) Then compare Lampitt/Storrie school of Club Management when given a pot of cash with that of NC. In his defence I think we have seen NC has a bit more in him. How can Staplewood NOT be planning? I also see a "PLAN" in the type of players we have signed - our TEAM spirit is the key and the Scouting staff seem to have been working to a plan to find players with the right mental attitude

Oh Goodie, I do hope so. I find I miss those Good Old Days. Haven't you all found it weird how the sun shines all the time (even in March) the birds are singing and you enjoy going to work? We haven't had a good old melt down for about a year now, gotta be better than Finances and what Nick said threads. C'mon you 'Pool. We need a good moan to clear the air!

Oh aye, never could work out if they were people who had once met JP McManus or it was supposed to be him & his buddy that tried to buy the Mancs. Probably too much whacky baccy in that rumour though

And always had a piece of the inside track but never all of it. He blanked when some challenged him as being Salz (or his "bestest best friend" Leon) but was probably someone who worked for him in the City

Point is though CBF the EQUITY was used to fund the promotion push. ML put aside an amount of money for us to spend on getting promotion - it has now been taken away from being owed by the club. It was NOT however sh1t or bust, IF it had failed, the equity invested would have been returned as many of our best players would have left. The Wages were NOT independent, the INVESTMENT covered the wages. THEY NEVER INTENDED OR EXPECTED TURNOVER TO COVER WAGES IN THAT YEAR. Entrepreneurship is about managing Risk, they took a measured risk with an upside AND a recovery plan IF it had failed. Hence we saw investment to improve the squad in January. We had a plan and COULD have been successful this year AND had the investment to cover it. Increasing the revenue by 18-25% is outstanding, it is not MODEST. It is not over egging it is challenging what Nick said. Obviously it came about BECAUSE of promotion, BUT the ENTIRE point of INVESTMENT is to build incremental opportunities and revenue streams. IT WORKED. Again, one thing that MANY have failed to ask is this Why did they call the debt to equity swap at THIS time? There are only two reasons Clearly NC believes he does not NEED any more cash from outside Or this makes it easier for the Liebherr family to step away without harming the legacy of Markus

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Ray Ransome and his Hedge Fund (now at Coventry) Also in the early days of Admin we had Ramon Vega (caused great mirth due the fact that fake Viagra in Syria is called...Vega) There was also the Accountant from Southampton. And also if a mole was to be believed Anthony Salz. Rumours (on PTS) that CSI made a brief stop over on their way from Bompey to Pompey An often ROFL'd at attempt by Sultan Bin Trump (Al Fahim) (mentioned in dispatches early in the PTS thread) And also it has been mentioned a few times that one of the WHU owners had a sniff in our direction And for those with short memories it was Helpmerhonda who had the legendary bust up with more than one S4E stalwart

Oh well, decision made for me then Not the Pub. Yet again a televised UK game not shown over here, I'll be polishing up some Nuns while watching JudderVision then. Oh, and before you ask, NO, I will NOT be having Chicken tomorrow. Which has no doubt doomed us to defeat. Sorry, but I took one for the team last week, somebody else can have a go this weekend

OK addressing his opinions Define Modest Nick? All estimates were that our income dropped by around 30% when we went into L1. Similar figures have been quoted on the PTS thread. So let us give the benefit of the doubt. Let us say that our income has risen this season by between 18 and 25%. That is an OUTSTANDING performance by a Business in this recession. How many Retail chains have gone bust in the past 12 months? Does he not ever listen to the Business News on TV? Jeez, the economy has been in RECESSION - ie NEGATIVE growth for most of the past year. We have had pages of moans about how many on here cannot afford to go yet they STILL do. Sorry IMHO this is his first fault Revenue HAS increased and by ANY standards it is NOT modest It is a "Key Point" but "I don't think it is anything to worry about" Well Nick, WHICH is it. If it is nothing to worry about then in your opinion it CANNOT be key. Then let us look deeper. When ML bought the club he INVESTED CAPITAL. What did he GET? A team built around Paul Wotton, Olly Lancashire, an injured Lee Holmes & Lloyd James. What are THE MOST IMPORTANT ASSETS of a football club? - It's Playing staff. So he INVESTED CAPITAL to IMPROVE THE VALUE OF THE ASSETS OF THE BUSINESS. The ENTIRE point that distinguishes us from the skates is that they INCLUDED the COST OF SALARIES into the value of the Investment. They did NOT spunk 36 grand a week onto a 52 year old, or a has been PL player, they made sure they 1) retained players who could improve in performance AND value 2) Bought players who HAD A RESALE VALUE. So we were in L1 with 93% - how many pages on ALLL the forums were dedicated to WORRY that IF we did NOT catch Huddersfield "We would lose our best players" All of us KNEW that Lambert, Lallana, Morgan, AOC, Fonte would be off at the drop of a TRANSFER BID - the high earners would be GONE and MOSt would have retunred A PROFIT. (Jeez, the SAME applies THIS season FFS) And anyway, AOC DID leave and did we buy a TBH? no, we built a state of the art facility for the future - IT IS CALLED INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL How the hell does he think his Laptop was created, IPads & Phones, HTC Desires, they ALL came about by INVESTING for the future by PROPER businesses. Does Nick work in a Bank? Where there is never a thought about anything other than make a buck today? What are you talking about Nick? Do you so seriously fail to understand the definition of SHARE CAPITAL and EQUITY They invested MONEY. They have retained their MONEY. It is now a piece of paper. That paper can be kept. it can be passed to the family members or it CAN BE SOLD. Whatever happens the ONLY concern that it gives to Southampton Football Club is that we (inc NC) can no longer have ANY say in who BUYS those piece of paper. The Shareholders gave money to the club once before. They gave 32million. They lost every penny of it when we went into Admin. IF Rupert turned up and gave teh Liebherrs 100 mil for their piece of paper we can do sod all about it (apart from make sure he loses the lot) The CLUB no longer has to pay that back - JEEZ NO INTEREST PAYMENTS (ask Man Ure what THAT means) we only give them back a SHARE of any PROFIT Poor, very poor. the fundamental difference is that as NC said in previous Interviews the Money was invested in the club BEFORE he went out to spend it - That is called Compliance. Compare the Mali group with Decades of PUBLISHED FINANCIAL REPORTS, a track record of Sports Sponsorship and a a firmly establised Corporate Social Responsibility programme to two guys who turned up out of the blue with nothing but a PROMISE of a Bank Guarantee and no accounts and no Internet history except Rumour Mafia. A VERY lame linkage Total failure to understand Business. What the hell does he think the City of London does? he lives in a Capitalist Society yet utterly fails to understand the notion of how Equity and Investment works. He may not be this stupid, but he has chosen his words poorly. Lampitt sat down with two people who offered him NO cash, who had NOT paid any cash to buy the ownership of PCFC, they were never INVESTORS. NC sat down with ML and allocated an Investment into a Business. NC spent what he had in the bank, he KNEW he never had to pay it back. He also knew that IF he made mistakes and lost his FRIENDS' money he would lose more than a job. We have NEVER been in the same boat. Even IF we are not self sufficient, even IF we do not get promoted, the transfer fees for Morgan and Adam would MORE than cover our financial needs for next season. We have ASSETS. The skates had thin air, there is NO comparison whatsoever. Hence, IMHO I believe he is a cock And hence I don't care if others on here think my opionion above is a crock of sh1t. That is freedom

So, when do the idiots with their feet in their mouths demand that all games tomorrow are postponed due to a lack of fuel in the Country?

Nick is totally free to express any opinion on any subject in any media that he wishes. I'll support that until the day I die. I am also perfectly entitled to state that I believe him to be a total cock.

Somebody mention golf? Tiger won at the weekend I notice

Park & Shop are really good, nice & sticky on top. Spinneys are a bit drier. Still even after 19 years find it "amusing" that we buy Hot Cross Buns from the Bakers over here

Amazing. Not one of them been on here to explain to us how having Share Capital issued means that we are doomed Not one of them come on here to tell us how wrong we were when we explained how the Liebherr financing had been planned out Shame, I was looking forward to another lesson in economics to go with the "well rich people don't need budgets they just spend what they like" lesson of last autumn