Avram's back

[Alex Sapphire]

Mr Grant has joined Pompey as Director of football and I see the Sheikh is no longer the leagues richest owner.
They'll have to spend a shitload in january to stay in the league, but maybe they mean business.
Is this off topic really?

[wesmancity]

Mr Grant has joined Pompey as Director of football and I see the Sheikh is no longer the leagues richest owner.
They'll have to spend a shitload in january to stay in the league, but maybe they mean business.
Is this off topic really?

I got told the new owner of Pompey are nowhere near as weathly as our owner...it was on 909 the other day. So why have you heard different?

[ant london]

nah it's not off topic

Interesting to see how highly David James speaks of AV Grant

Pompey keeper David James has backed the appointment of Grant.

"I love Avram, he's a great guy," said James at a press conference ahead of England's World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on Saturday.

"When I first joined the club he was there and he was very active in preparation for matches. He's a very wise man; his football knowledge is immense.

"It's a very good move."

[Alex Sapphire]

Mr Grant has joined Pompey as Director of football and I see the Sheikh is no longer the leagues richest owner.
They'll have to spend a shitload in january to stay in the league, but maybe they mean business.
Is this off topic really?

I got told the new owner of Pompey are nowhere near as weathly as our owner...it was on 909 the other day. So why have you heard different?

saw a headline that Mansour was no longer the richest, but turns out they were referencing QPR's Lakshmi Mittal so I guess there's no immediate impact!

[MaineRoadMemories]

Rich lists are funny old things and take into account assets and convert them into a figure. As we all know something is only worth what someone else will pay for it and asking prices or evaluations are just that - they do not equate to money in the bank. I haven't researched it in much detail but I'd still bet that our owner has more ready available cold hard cash than others whose money is tied up in shares and property.

[Fish111]

Paul Harts days are numbered then. Once Grant gets his feet under the table he will become manager. Think i'll nip to the bookies and see what they're offering.

[wesmancity]

Good artical about the new owner on the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mattslater/2009/10/a_decade_or_so_ago.html

[sharkey]

i might be being a complete idiot here but i didnt realise that Sulaiman Al Fahim ever had anything to do with city like the BBC article claims

[Beefymcfc]

Don't read

This is the strangest takeover in history, even by our standards. Storrie stated on TV that he had Faraj lined up to take over at Pompey and that Gaydamak was all over it and gave him no inkling that he was selling to another party. Storrie was then called into the boardroom the day after the Faraj deal was to be confirmed and Gaydamak told him he had sold out to Fahim, which he was absolutely distraught with. Storrie also stated that the Fahim had actually got the club for peanuts and none of the creditors had any promise of being paid. Fahim goes on to do absolutely jack shit and then hands over the club to Faraj for what Fahim describes as 'Nothing'.

So, who has lost out here?

For me, it was a set up to get the club for peanuts or alternatively, for political reasons. Fahim either played hard ball to get it for peanuts for Faraj, possibly had something on Gaydamak and forced him out or for alternate reasons which I'll mention below. Either way he's obviously getting a massive back hander from the new owners with the 10% share, which if I'm correct, will be worth a lot of money soon with the investment they are likely to plough in. Let's also remember that Gaydamak kept the Land Rights around the ground and it's rumoured that he has now willing to sell, for as little as a quid (?) to allow the sale to move on.

Also, a certain Arcadi Gaydamak has just been indicted in Israel for a multi million dollar fraud issue (and that's in the 600 million region) who strangely enough, is the former Pompey owners father!?!

Alternatively, the Gaydamak family, who are Russian-Israeli's, may not have want to publicly sell to a Saudi family, especially with the past differences between the 2 states, and also the link with Osama Bin Laden (Saudi Royal Family) and the events of 9/11, which is my true belief.

This is intriguing and I can't wait for the full story to come out, but for now, my conspiracy theories are in overdrive!

PS. Please stop me if I'm sounding like a loon ;-)

[BlueinBosnia]

Rich lists are funny old things and take into account assets and convert them into a figure. As we all know something is only worth what someone else will pay for it and asking prices or evaluations are just that - they do not equate to money in the bank. I haven't researched it in much detail but I'd still bet that our owner has more ready available cold hard cash than others whose money is tied up in shares and property.

Think Mittal is richer in terms of disposable wealth, whereas the sheikh is in assets. Mittal is a steel magnate, with factories throughout Europe and Asia. There's no way a load of factories are worth more than a fat portion of the world's oil. The thing is, the sheikh could sell of his assets readily, and therefore has pretty much unlimited spending power. A barrel of oil can be sold in nanoseconds, but a dreary factory in Donetsk would take a while to fob off.

[Steve]

Glad Avram's back. I think he did really well to win Chelsea the Champions League - JT slipping over.

[Ted Hughes]

Glad Avram's back. I think he did really well to win Chelsea the Champions League - JT slipping over.

He was no less successful than Mourinho had recently been with the same players that's for sure. Strange how everyone seemed to be desperate to replace him with a bloke who had no experience of the PL whatsoever or even of the European leagues. I could understand it if they'd had ol Gus lined up because he does well wherever he goes but Scolari!!?? May as well have brought in Maradona.

[Steve]

Glad Avram's back. I think he did really well to win Chelsea the Champions League - JT slipping over.

He was no less successful than Mourinho had recently been with the same players that's for sure. Strange how everyone seemed to be desperate to replace him with a bloke who had no experience of the PL whatsoever or even of the European leagues. I could understand it if they'd had ol Gus lined up because he does well wherever he goes but Scolari!!?? May as well have brought in Maradona.

I think Av did really well to be honest. Mourinho didnt get them to any champs league final. Grant did it all with somebody elses players. He wasn't able to bring any of his own players in, imagine what he could've achieved had he been given that privelige.

[ant london]

PS. Please stop me if I'm sounding like a loon ;-)

Sounds like you are firmly a believer in the International Jewish Conspiracy Beefy lad.....did Abramovich play some role too? ;-)

[Alex Sapphire]

PS. Please stop me if I'm sounding like a loon ;-)

Sounds like you are firmly a believer in the International Jewish Conspiracy Beefy lad.....did Abramovich play some role too? ;-)

the first half of beefy's post is more interesting to me.
I'm pretty sure I've heard representatives of the new owner saying he has been "ready to buy" for a while and was "surprised" when the al Fahim sale went through. Since we know he is a deal maker, it could be he was trying to get in on an act he couldn't otherwise be involved in (having missed out on any equity involvement at City).
Trouble is he is now in the position that Thaksin was in until last week, namely holding 10% of the company.
A 90% shareholder can oblige the 10% guy to sell, which is what happened to the doc. A "squeeze out".
There are time limits and "fairness" terms around this which probably means that the doc got a price at least equivalent to the original offer price (so probly netted 20 mill).
al Fahim however is currently holding 10% of shares who's value is (very publicly) £0. So if Al-Faraj plays hardball he could take it back very cheaply. You'd imagine that the seller would have wanted to stick around until his 10% was worth plenty, but listening to the obvious irritation in Al-Faraj's advisors, I wonder if we'll see him dispensed with by the Saudi as quickly as he was by our Sheikh.

[DoomMerchant]

Glad Avram's back. I think he did really well to win Chelsea the Champions League - JT slipping over.

He was no less successful than Mourinho had recently been with the same players that's for sure. Strange how everyone seemed to be desperate to replace him with a bloke who had no experience of the PL whatsoever or even of the European leagues. I could understand it if they'd had ol Gus lined up because he does well wherever he goes but Scolari!!?? May as well have brought in Maradona.

how can you say that Grant was "no less successful"? he most certainly was. the "recently been" part was for what? 1 season? Doesn't sell me. Sorry.

You cant compare the two of them i'm sorry to say. Grant rode his luck with Mourinho's players and system and had the wisdom to not fuck it up. I think he'll do great at Pompey and think he's a good manager, but he's not in Mourinho's league just like Sven isn't.

cheers

[Dameerto]

Don't read

This is the strangest takeover in history, even by our standards. Storrie stated on TV that he had Faraj lined up to take over at Pompey and that Gaydamak was all over it and gave him no inkling that he was selling to another party. Storrie was then called into the boardroom the day after the Faraj deal was to be confirmed and Gaydamak told him he had sold out to Fahim, which he was absolutely distraught with. Storrie also stated that the Fahim had actually got the club for peanuts and none of the creditors had any promise of being paid. Fahim goes on to do absolutely jack shit and then hands over the club to Faraj for what Fahim describes as 'Nothing'.

So, who has lost out here?

For me, it was a set up to get the club for peanuts or alternatively, for political reasons. Fahim either played hard ball to get it for peanuts for Faraj, possibly had something on Gaydamak and forced him out or for alternate reasons which I'll mention below. Either way he's obviously getting a massive back hander from the new owners with the 10% share, which if I'm correct, will be worth a lot of money soon with the investment they are likely to plough in. Let's also remember that Gaydamak kept the Land Rights around the ground and it's rumoured that he has now willing to sell, for as little as a quid (?) to allow the sale to move on.

Also, a certain Arcadi Gaydamak has just been indicted in Israel for a multi million dollar fraud issue (and that's in the 600 million region) who strangely enough, is the former Pompey owners father!?!

Alternatively, the Gaydamak family, who are Russian-Israeli's, may not have want to publicly sell to a Saudi family, especially with the past differences between the 2 states, and also the link with Osama Bin Laden (Saudi Royal Family) and the events of 9/11, which is my true belief.

This is intriguing and I can't wait for the full story to come out, but for now, my conspiracy theories are in overdrive!

PS. Please stop me if I'm sounding like a loon ;-)

Im inclined to think Fahim got exactly what he wanted out of it - 10 percent of a club for nothing, which someone else will do the hard work (and investment) of turning into an actual valuable asset. He is a grubby little speculator.

[razor400]

Rich lists are funny old things and take into account assets and convert them into a figure. As we all know something is only worth what someone else will pay for it and asking prices or evaluations are just that - they do not equate to money in the bank. I haven't researched it in much detail but I'd still bet that our owner has more ready available cold hard cash than others whose money is tied up in shares and property.

Think Mittal is richer in terms of disposable wealth, whereas the sheikh is in assets. Mittal is a steel magnate, with factories throughout Europe and Asia. There's no way a load of factories are worth more than a fat portion of the world's oil. The thing is, the sheikh could sell of his assets readily, and therefore has pretty much unlimited spending power. A barrel of oil can be sold in nanoseconds, but a dreary factory in Donetsk would take a while to fob off.

To be honest lads, does it really matter?
What matters is that the good Sheik has well and truly put his money where his mouth is.