How would you feel if Tony Bloom sold the club to the Chinese?

[Rugrat]

Intersting thought re shirt numbers and names

3 - Prawn Crackers
7 - Egg fried Rice
21 - Chicken Satay

13 - Chicken Stockdale

 

[Giraffe]

I copied the list of clubs from a poorly written article hence the Man City mistake, although to be fair the ownership is not dissimilar in nature to the Chinese.

 

[ManOfSussex]

The Chinese own 13% of Man City.

 

[knocky1]

Couldn't we have a Brexit style Poll and say we are democratically xenophobic and that Tony has to get over it?.

 

[Notters]

I'm increasingly being distanced from the club by all these Friday fixtures, and missing out on a lot of a cracking season. I guess this would potentially be the final straw.

 

[SUIYHP]

We learnt our lesson from Archer. The club should never again be owned by someone who solely has the interest of financial gain or would not protect the club's future, but are genuine, committed fans, Archer is proof it isn't just a nationality thing.

Look at Birmingham, or Crystal Palace, or Manchester United, or Charlton. That tells me if we ever considered a situation like that we should be instantly concerned and opposed to it. Hopefully TBs ownership will continue for many years to come. And when that transfer of ownership had to happen, the right person would be selected.

 

[Martlet]

I copied the list of clubs from a poorly written article hence the Man City mistake, although to be fair the ownership is not dissimilar in nature to the Chinese.

Not sure that's quite right! Sheikh Mansour's one of the world's richest men, and a highly accomplished businessman. He is also pretty sporting himself (mainly horse racing), and owns three football clubs, Manchester City F.C, Melbourne City F.C and New York City F.C.

All we know about the Chinese ownership is that it's being fronted by CITIC Securities - their largest investment bank.

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

I would feel gutted............If you get a Sheikh take over your laughing but the Chinese are just about money and greed.

 

[beorhthelm]

extremely surprised. i dont see why Bloom would sell, shirley he cant need to sell having come this far. if he did sell (say cant afford running cost anymore), i expect it would be to owners with best interests, where ever they are from.

 

[rippleman]

Devestated

 

[darkwolf666]

I thought there was a clause that Mr Knight put in place that put massive restrictions on anyone's ability to sell the club?

Clearly TB is by far the majority shareholder and could sell his shareholding but others may not or can't, maybe a buyer would want 100%?

My feelings would be well done TB, you delivered on your promise, we have a great stadium, are Prem Lge ready and you make a few bob (p.s. I don't think he'd sell all of his holding but maybe 33%?) but I'd worry about a future of an owner without the historic understanding of the club and, possibly, with a short term ambition?

Biggest worry for all English clubs will be when (not if) the TV bubble bursts and the Sky Money Fountain dries up. More so than ever I wouldn't invest in English football.

This, thinking of the idiot that bought Cardiff and then wanted to change all things historical, like colours and club name! Some people just don't get it, do they?

 

[Dirk Lehmann's Python]

I'm not sure there's any such thing as "the Chinese". We have to face facts that football clubs are saleable commodities these days - there are some foreign investors who have been good, stable owners for their clubs (Abramovich, Sheikh Mansoor, Kroenke and Liebherr at Saints) and others who have been complete nightmares (Venkys, Vincent Tan, Duchâtelet at Charlton). I'd suggest none can be defined by their race, nationality, creed, religion - just by their personality.

I would of course have concerns about a Chinese investment bank buying the club. IBs typically only invest in companies where they see a very obvious way to make lots of money, or if they have someone they are fronting up for that doesn't want to be identified. Without having an inside track on this, I'm not going to throw any accusations about - but I'm not sure I can see the 'easy money' angle in this case!

Dick Knight did us a huge favour in sitting tight until he was confident he could pass the reins to someone he trusted. I have a lot of faith that Tony would do the same.

You make that sound like Knight turned down loads of offers.

He held on until he ran out of money.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[Brovion]

Not going to lie, I wouldn't like it. I have no problem if Tony at some point wanted to cash in but given all this club has gone through for it to fall into the hands of someone with no feeling not only for the club but the sport in general would sadden me greatly.

There is a difference between supporting a team that you feel a connection too and one that you feel is a rich man's plaything.

My thoughts as well. I like the fact we're owned by a fan and we have fans on the board; we would definitely lose something if we were owned by an outsider. I'd settle for what we've got rather than the promise of Champions' League football, and as we've all seen with other clubs having a rich foreign owner is no guarantee of stability let alone success.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

If you can believe what his Uncle Ray said when Tony bought the Club, he did it to restore control of the Albion to the Bloom family. Selling the Club to the Chinese (or, indeed, anyone else) would simply negate that original intention. It won't happen.

 

[spring hall convert]

I'd rather be (comparatively) small time and in the hands of a fan of the club rather than big time and in the hands of people that aren't.

Surely, given our none too distant past, we as a fanbase should understand this better than most.

 

[Mr Bridger]

Man City?

The real question should be, why are all these supposedly loaded Chinese people buying up all the Midlands clubs and making them shit?

Do the Chinese have a problem with the accent or something?

Accent? Speech impediment surely ?

 

[Giraffe]

"The Chinese"

Yup.

 

[Icy Gull]

Not as bad as I'd feel if the North Koreans bought us

 

[Icy Gull]

If you can believe what his Uncle Ray said when Tony bought the Club, he did it to restore control of the Albion to the Bloom family. Selling the Club to the Chinese (or, indeed, anyone else) would simply negate that original intention. It won't happen.

It was lost on Uncle Ray's watch wasn't it?

 

[ewe2]

Wealthy people have mainly owned football clubs,the wealth needed now for top flight football has placed it too far out of reach for most. My guess is that TB will at some stage look for outside investment in some form ,my view is that it will come not from China but Australia.