Unnamed Middle Eastern firm hold interest in buying Leicester City

[Pita]

1 minute ago, phoneticerror said:

It does baffle me why Top considers selling whilst we’re at our lowest financial worth in a long time. We have a serious chance of promotion this season back to the championship, the toxic players are all leaving, the overly inflated wages are dwindling… Surely wait a season when the club will hopefully be more valuable? 

He can’t afford to keep us 

[Lewis's Junior]

5 minutes ago, phoneticerror said:

It does baffle me why Top considers selling whilst we’re at our lowest financial worth in a long time. We have a serious chance of promotion this season back to the championship, the toxic players are all leaving, the overly inflated wages are dwindling… Surely wait a season when the club will hopefully be more valuable? 

Or, has been suggested, we've been for sale for a while but it has only been made public now. 

That would tally with those internal promotions; no point going out and recruiting externally if new owners will bring in their own execs. (I appreciate bringing in McCarron weakens this theory)

If we're all honest though, Top and having a plan don't tend to go well together. I expect a disjointed mess, which will only deter potential buyers further. 

[AKCJ]

11 minutes ago, phoneticerror said:

It does baffle me why Top considers selling whilst we’re at our lowest financial worth in a long time. We have a serious chance of promotion this season back to the championship, the toxic players are all leaving, the overly inflated wages are dwindling… Surely wait a season when the club will hopefully be more valuable? 

Leicester are in the spotlight at the minute. Absolutely incredible training ground, rich recent history, a large fan base and a seriously impressive academy all points to being a fallen giant and a big fish in a small pond (more like a blue whale in a goldfish bowl). We are ripe for buying at what some would consider a good price.

 

If Aiyawatt does get us up this season then without investment we'll be in the same bracket about 7/8 other clubs in a similar position.

 

[Finnegan]

10 hours ago, Wymsey said:

The boundary growth aspect shouldn't have happened, especially with the perceived very little improvement that Peter Soulsby has made to Leicester itself during his tenure plus the general public should've had a say on it via a key vote system.

 

I'm obviously biased but I think you get a much better level of service from the City Council than the County. The County is a classic conservative, small government idea of a local authority which means all it really does is have a handful of staff managing contracts for services that are dished out to private sector businesses. 

 

This generally isn't a good thing when you need good public services and proper access to them. It's less regulated, it's too competitive and it's generally a mess for everyone except the corrupt sleaze bags making money off it. 

 

And now you've got Reform running the County it's even worse. Complaints to Leicestershire County Council have risen - no hyperbole - 1000% since Reform took over haha. They don't have a clue, they let literally anyone stand as a councillor, they had a 20 year old that doesn't believe  depression is real in charge of social services. They have councillors that want to spend public money finding UFOs. They are not in any way serious. 

 

Soulsby isn't the City Council. He's a figurehead that gets to dictate some higher level policy and decide some of the City's big projects but the vast majority of the work and services are done by apolitical local government officers and a handful of lifelong councillors who, for the most part, do generally care about their constituents. 

 

I'd much, much rather live in a City Council area especially if I was a vulnerable person that actually needed council services. 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Finnegan

[Foxmeister]

Despite it being long overdue, I wonder if the actual purpose of the clear out is to prepare a blank page for a potential buyer?

[CosbehFox]

1 minute ago, Foxmeister said:

Despite it being long overdue, I wonder if the actual purpose of the clear out is to prepare a blank page for a potential buyer?

I’d say simply the going concern of wage bill and debt means the clear out is happening. The parachute payments can’t do the heavy lifting no more and the club will quickly run out of cash unless it reduces its liabilities. I think 95% of clubs would do the same 

[CosbehFox]

2 hours ago, Sly said:

To get this back on track a little bit…..
 

Going back to what @Ric Flair said reference Charlie Methven, he is fairly well connected within football finances, so I wouldn’t dismiss that we have had no interest or the reported price King Power have requested.

 

Citigroup have been hired to find a buyer. If the Financial Times is reporting we are for sale as well then clearly they are sounding out business privately to gauge interest. 
 

If the value is £140m, that is what King Power are looking for. Every time we sell a player, that weakens the book value, so that number will be reviewed by interested parties as well, to gauge what they perceive our book value to be. I’d inclined m to thing that buyers will start negotiations in the £100m - £120m range realistically. 
 

The other concern is if we have no interest at all currently, a potential buyer might be waiting to find out our current financial status develops in regards. I think is we were closer to administration then we would have heard more concrete rumours on the likes of Seagrave being up for sale and potential a major backroom headcount reduction. I don’t think we have seen that, have we? 
 

The major question that none of us know, are King Power willing to fund our continued losses in League One? I’d think administration is still likely if the answer is no and no likely buyer comes forward. 

In terms Methven’s view, we have to consider that the story from the FT has probably broke from King Power as opposed to LCFC. So wouldn’t be a aurprise it’s quiet on the ‘Western Front’  

[Gazza M]

Top has been told to pack his toys away and play time over by the real powers in King Power. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Maybe admin is closer than we think if there's no interested parties right now. Why pay £140m for something that someone could pick up much cheaper in the not too distant future.

[Groby_Blue]

4 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Maybe admin is closer than we think if there's no interested parties right now. Why pay £140m for something that someone could pick up much cheaper in the not too distant future.

Mike Ashley says Hi 

[Finnegan]

31 minutes ago, Foxmeister said:

Despite it being long overdue, I wonder if the actual purpose of the clear out is to prepare a blank page for a potential buyer?

 

Narh. It's just business as normal. We needed to do this. 

 

I imagine the timing has something to do with the fact that the rules in League One and the Championship are slightly different. There's a bit more emphasis on our wage bill at this level and the player by player book values and in-year profit/loss on sales isn't as significant this year. 

 

If you're gonna cut your losses, mutually terminate a contract or just shove them out the door for cheap to get rid then now is the time. 

 

[JimmyC74]

48 minutes ago, Foxmeister said:

Despite it being long overdue, I wonder if the actual purpose of the clear out is to prepare a blank page for a potential buyer?

Maybe. Reducing debt / increasing cash is often a step owners take before a sale to increase interest.
 

Could just be a case of trying to better align costs to reduced broadcast and commercial revenues, so we avoid further penalties.
 

 

[jimsmallman]

41 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Maybe admin is closer than we think if there's no interested parties right now. Why pay £140m for something that someone could pick up much cheaper in the not too distant future.

I think the lack of interested parties may be more to do with the current shaky state of global finances (especially with the war in Iran).  If we're looking for investment from the Middle East anyone sensible there is waiting a bit to see how things play out in the coming months from their own economy persepective.  Probably even people from outside of the region too as oil prices have such a massive effect on everything.

 

Also, I know it's only Connor Chaplin and Alex McCarthy in so far, but I don't think we would have even signed them if we were close to administration. We had to find their signing on fees from somewhere!

 

I think this post makes me a glass half full person. For once.

[whoareyaaa]

The Newcastle take over took about 18 months, was for 300m so 140m doesn't seem unreasonable tbh.

 

The formal public announcement that a deal had been agreed upon and submitted to the Premier League happened in April 2020, and the final completion took place on October 7, 2021—taking roughly 18 months (541 days)

[teblin]

Just now, jimsmallman said:

I think the lack of interested parties may be more to do with the current shaky state of global finances (especially with the war in Iran).  If we're looking for investment from the Middle East anyone sensible there is waiting a bit to see how things play out in the coming months from their own economy persepective.  Probably even people from outside of the region too as oil prices have such a massive effect on everything.

 

Also, I know it's only Connor Chaplin and Alex McCarthy in so far, but I don't think we would have even signed them if we were close to administration. We had to find their signing on fees from somewhere!

 

I think this post makes me a glass half full person. For once.

I've said already else where I think the sale is closer than has been announced but might be wrong.

 

Agree that is we were close to administration we wouldn't make signings. That said we were close to br breaking psr and then spent money. So who knows.

[PhillippaT]

2 hours ago, VLC86 said:

I’ve got a general rule that might be helpful for a few here this morning, no drugs before 9am.

Hah. I don't need drugs...

 

Oh, wait...

[lcfcbluearmy]

1 hour ago, CosbehFox said:

In terms Methven’s view, we have to consider that the story from the FT has probably broke from King Power as opposed to LCFC. So wouldn’t be a aurprise it’s quiet on the ‘Western Front’  

I think it almost certainly came from Citigroup as the article says KP and LCFC refused our request for comment they didn't mention Citigroup refusing comment

[davieG]

12 hours ago, Wymsey said:

The boundary growth aspect shouldn't have happened, especially with the perceived very little improvement that Peter Soulsby has made to Leicester itself during his tenure plus the general public should've had a say on it via a key vote system.

Burnham's Devolution in practice

10 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

Perceived in the county.

Meanwhile Leicester gets better and he keeps winning the votes of actual Leicester residents 

I doubt he'll be Mayor for long after the expansion. We could well end up in the East Midlands group.

[davieG]

6 hours ago, sylofox said:

Ok your a billionaire. Are you really going to buy us right now? No you wait till we are in administration. Anyone that buys us now either has hundreds of millions to put in or just as STUPID as what we have. Then God help us

 

No I'm not religious 

Administration would probably put us in L2 hardly the best place to buy.

[hackneyfox]

6 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

There’s always going to be specific cases. What is undeniable is the sheer volume of players, and therefore the overall amount we purchased them for that walked for free, that we have seen at this club in the past 5 years.

 

I don’t buy for a second that players like Tielemans, Soyuncu and even Perez for example, wanted to sit around and run their contracts down. Given the volume of them, whilst we cannot know what goes on in each individual players head, it would be an extremely educational assumption to say that the clubs ability to know when to sell, and creating saleable conditions was the problem. By saleable conditions, I mean wages too high, excessive amortisation to clear based on stupid transfer fees we shelled out and even just too high a demands for players in some cases, like Iverson where we basically last £4 million we were offered and let him walk for free the next summer after not even playing for us.

 

We are led to believe by many defenders of the club, who try to gaslight others into believing there was no interest in these players. Let me ask, how have Aston Villa managed to sell Youri Tielemans for £35 million to Man Utd this summer, when he had one year left on his contract there? And you’d expect me to believe that in 2022, when he had a year left with us, at 4 years younger and heading into his prime, that there was nobody who’d have been interested and given us an amount that would have covered the last year of what we owed on him plus a tidy profit?

So why did nobody make a move for Tielemans when he was on a free at the end of his contract?

Allegedly Arsenl tried to buy him but he thought he was good enough for RM.

No way would he have signed for Villa had a bigger club been interested.

[MPH]

What’s happening right now could go to prove where his real priorities lie, and that’s with King Power. And that’s fair enough.Thats the company his Father started, not Leicester City. But strapped for cash themselves, so I’d imagine whatever money is made from the sale of Leicester City will  go into keeping King Power running efficiently,and maybe 150m is that magic number.

[sylofox]

3 minutes ago, davieG said:

Administration would probably put us in L2 hardly the best place to buy.

That's about what I expected this season with the two muppets in charge. Yes I hope we go up but really don't see it atm. But I do expect a pts deduction.

 

Realistic I guess the selling of players and spending nothing is clearing the debts for the sale.

 

I also guess the fact Bottom has put us up for sale is because KP are deeper in the shite than we know.

 

Had Rudkin been any good he would have warned Bottom, you need to be a big boy to piss in the big boys pool.

 

I still love my club but I can't support them at this time. Circus clowns would run us better.

 

[hackneyfox]

7 hours ago, sylofox said:

Ok your a billionaire. Are you really going to buy us right now? No you wait till we are in administration. Anyone that buys us now either has hundreds of millions to put in or just as STUPID as what we have. Then God help us

 

No I'm not religious 

Buy us now and you could have a club in The Championship next season.

Wait till we are in admin and you're likely to have a club that won't be in The Championship for a few years.

 

Sooner you're in the championship the sooner you may be in the PL which is where the profit is to be made.

 

[hackneyfox]

3 hours ago, Saxondale said:

Absolutely not!

 

About 60% of Foxestalk wanted to sack off Schmeichel for Danny Ward. The Foxestalk football hivemind is an absolute car crash.

 

We‘d probably have nice kits though.

Where on earth do you get that idea about Schmeichel and Ward?

Stay off the grass!

[hackneyfox]

5 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

That’s beside the point I was making really though. Regardless of whether it was a negotiated fee or release clause, there was an interested party, Man Utd, a huge club, willing to pay that for him.

 

And yet, we are supposed to believe that in 2022, when he was four years younger, nobody was interested?

 

He signed for about £32 million with us on a 4 year contract. 2022, a year left meant we owed £8 million on him (roughly). 
 

Yet there was nobody interested in him where we could have got say £15 million up to even nearer £20 mill, covering what we owned on him and some profit on top? 
 

Yeah, I’m absolutely buying that……

So why did he sign for Villawhen on a free?

Perhaps he didn't want to sign for any of the clubs that tried to sign him in 2022.

Edited 5 hours ago by hackneyfox