Milan Mandaric

[Chrysalis]

Seriously.

The man makes dreadful decision after dreadful decision - how the **** has he earned any money at all?

I make those kind of decisions on a daily basis which is why I am a dishevelled tramp scratching my crotch in the gutter...and yet he gets to run a ****ing club into the ground.

When is it my turn?

For your information his minimum investment is 9million gbp. The rest may be in the form of loans or whatever but you dont get anywhere in football without speculating as we found out with the old board. I also agree with the previous poster at the time of his appointment I thought holloway was a good choice.

[James.]

Luck has played a part yes, take our recent game against the table toppers their manager admitted they got the point on sheer luck and luck goes your way when its least needed.

Luck has f**k all to do with it. To suggest so gives the manager, the chairman, the players and the fans an excuse for the situation we find ourselves in.

There are no excuses. We have not been good enough and if we get relegated we get what we deserve. It's about time that everyone faces up to that fact instead of stumbling from one tired excuse to another.

[davieG]

Luck has f**k all to do with it. To suggest so gives the manager, the chairman, the players and the fans an excuse for the situation we find ourselves in.

There are no excuses. We have not been good enough and if we get relegated we get what we deserve. It's about time that everyone faces up to that fact instead of stumbling from one tired excuse to another.

Absolutely missing sitters is as bad/worse than our defenders passing to the opposition - luck doesn't come into it, well only as being good luck for the opposition.

[Sniffer-Clarke]

OK, I am a bit thick - it comes from living so close to Spaghetti Junction, but will someone please point out to me exactly what Mandaric has done since coming to this club that has in any way benefited us because I am fucked if I can think of anything apart from being able to pay for season tickets over 6 months, interest free?

Anyone?

For starters hes bought 3 piss poor managers to the club, when MEGSON went he was quoted has saying THE NEXT APPOINTMENT I WILL HAVE TO THINK LONG AND HARD ABOUT I MUST GET THE RIGHT MAN NEXT TIME.Looked what happened we finish up with this PILLOCK Holloway.

[gosfox]

For starters hes bought 3 piss poor managers to the club, when MEGSON went he was quoted has saying THE NEXT APPOINTMENT I WILL HAVE TO THINK LONG AND HARD ABOUT I MUST GET THE RIGHT MAN NEXT TIME.Looked what happened we finish up with this PILLOCK Holloway.

Who were you expecting then??? i hear that Ferguson and Mourino were a little tied up at the time, as I'm sure all the leagues top managers were waiting, hoping, and praying that they got the Mandaric call to come and manage a stuggling second division club

[Guest]

I believe the foxes trust confirmed without MM relegation was certian admin and even not relegated it was possible and we would have had to sell the likes of kisnorbo and stearman, to say we would have been better of is unreal. There is a lot of luck in football and we have had next to none recently.

You've surpassed yourself this time.....

[accessory]

I think he invested a lot of trust in Martin Allen and his signings, and I think that was massively unwise. But since then I just don't see what's been so catastrophic about his ownership of the club.

He told Holloway he could have money for a play off push if Holloway could show signs of improvement, he didn't. Mandaric was good to his word and restricted his spending (likely expecting another mid-table finish and writing off the season.) I think Holloway's a good appointment, I still do, I think Plymouth's current league position is testament to what Ian Holloway can create at a football club and I think you'd have to be retarded to see otherwise.

True enough.

But our league position is testament to what he can destroy at a football club. And your comment could apply equally to that.

He's been allowed to bring his chief scout, who was likely instrumental to his success, with him as well as his assistants.

As did Peter Taylor, when he came to Leicester...

Even though the pressure seems to have gotten to Ollie, you can't predict something like that. You'd look at Holloway's track record and - if I were chairman - I'd have had the same expectations I suspect Mandaric would have, at the time. And that was "this man can build a team." It hasn't happened, admittedly, but I don't think - again - you can blame Mandaric necessarily for the fact that we've plunged even further towards danger.

Any chairman who appoints THREE dud managers in six months deserves serious scrutiny and yes, maybe even stick. Mandaric may not have known that his appointees would have been insatiably greedy, grossly deceitful and monumentally incompetent respectively, but anyone who bothered to study his record at Pompey (apart from Redknapp) might have had cause to question his judgement.

I don't think we'll go down. And I hope Holloway will stay, and I hope he'll prove me right (I guess in the back of our hearts, we all do) but even if he doesn't I just think branding Mandaric an incompetent idiot is huge sensationalism and the product of high emotions at the club and understandable disappointment. Yes, it's rather obvious he isn't going to be the Messiah we wanted - yes, it does look like the three-year plan was a more realistic goal than the support's own "Yay, we have Allen, we're going up now!" bollocks and yes Mandaric has made a couple of goofs. But American Idiot? I thought you were a sharper tool than that, Daggers, tbh. This is the sort of simplified ranting I'd expect from Ultra.

Who's Ultra?

That's just obtuse. He has money. We didn't. Again, whether he has as much as we want him to have or whether he's used it wisely / at all is another matter, but we're much more financially secure while he has the deeds than we were before.

Except we're not. Where do we stand if anything happens to Mandaric? Could we face a Gretna-style meltdown, or worse?

[Finnegan]

True enough.

But our league position is testament to what he can destroy at a football club. And your comment could apply equally to that.

What football clubs has he destroyed? The Taylor comparison is massively over-the-top, Taylor spent gross amounts of money on awful players and managed to take us from the top to the bottom of the league table in a matter of months. Holloway's done nothing like that, he's spent barely anything and we've dropped - what? Four, five league positions?

Any chairman who appoints THREE dud managers in six months deserves serious scrutiny and yes, maybe even stick. Mandaric may not have known that his appointees would have been insatiably greedy, grossly deceitful and monumentally incompetent respectively, but anyone who bothered to study his record at Pompey (apart from Redknapp) might have had cause to question his judgement.

I should point out, straight away, that I'm no fan of Gary Megson - but I don't think he was a bad signing. When you look at what was available I don't consider it a hugely awful appointment, again I think a lot of people really do still believe that the very best managers would happily just walk into Leicester and it just isn't true. Megson tightened us up, started getting the players fitter again and gave us a bit of solidarity before he was poached by a Premier League club (admittedly rather bizarrely.) As for "monumentally incompetent", if that's in reference to Holloway then this is exactly the sort of sensationalist, OTT tripe that I have beef with here. The man hasn't completely reformed a fairly useless side in the space of six odd months and one mid-season transfer window so he's the worst thing to ever grace management? Grow up. The jury is admittedly still out on Holloway and I concede it isn't looking good, but some people need a serious sense of perspective.

Who's Ultra?

You're not very good at this forum alt stuff are you?

Except we're not. Where do we stand if anything happens to Mandaric? Could we face a Gretna-style meltdown, or worse?

Don't be ludicrous. Mandaric made a multi-million pound investment, buying a fairly sizeable football club. He's not simply just going to drop it and walk off is he? If he "gets rid of us" at all it'll be selling it off to someone else, surely. He's not going to walk and accept massive losses after just one season because he got his managers wrong.

[davieG]

Don't be ludicrous. Mandaric made a multi-million pound investment, buying a fairly sizeable football club. He's not simply just going to drop it and walk off is he? If he "gets rid of us" at all it'll be selling it off to someone else, surely. He's not going to walk and accept massive losses after just one season because he got his managers wrong.

Isn't Sam Hammam doing something similar to that though

Bought a club on the cheap, professed love for it, sold it for a profit and is now putting that club under threat of administration in order to get his loan investments back - or have I misunderstood the situation/

[Finnegan]

Again, I think it's prefer unfair to compare Mandaric and Hammam. Okay so Mandaric is a tiny bit eccentric, he's no way near the Hammam level of insanity and corruption*.

* Money laundering aside.

[davieG]

Again, I think it's prefer unfair to compare Mandaric and Hammam. Okay so Mandaric is a tiny bit eccentric, he's no way near the Hammam level of insanity and corruption*.

* Money laundering aside.

You're right I may be being disingenuous to Mandaric but I just don't trust the guy and haven't from the moment he let it believe that he was buying us for £25mill. I'm sure he'd view that as 'normal business' practice but it shows a degree of dishonesty that doesn't sit with me.

We know nothing about how he is financing LCFC and the Hammam loan scenario doesn't seem too outrageous when thinking of MM

[Zingari]

we have to trust MM he wants to make money and the only way to do that is to make the club successful

[davieG]

we have to trust MM he wants to make money and the only way to do that is to make the club successful

Well my trust has to be earned and he's done nothing to win me over.

£25mill

£11 mill where's that coming from, no one knows until we do I'll stick with my mistrust of the guy.

[Daggers]

we have to trust MM he wants to make money and the only way to do that is to make the club successful

Michael Knighton?

The desire to make money does not equal an ability to do so.

[Finnegan]

You're certainly right to be cautious, davieG. I'm by no means claiming Mandaric to be saintly - I'm just trying to be a wet towel on the chip pan of hate*.

Take that, Thracian. Your days of awful analogy monopoly are over.

[davieG]

You're certainly right to be cautious, davieG. I'm by no means claiming Mandaric to be saintly - I'm just trying to be a wet towel on the chip pan of hate*.

Take that, Thracian. Your days of awful analogy monopoly are over.

Yes I understand that, I don't hate the guy either but I'll reserve judgement on his philanthropic intentions until I know for sure how real they are, unfortunately the way he operates that's likely to be after he's moved on.

[The Reverend]

Trust is a two way thing - if we trust Mandaric, he will trust us and vice versa. I love it how people just laugh off the rumour that he bought us for 25 million. Have you any proof he didnt? This is what i mean when i talk about trust, we have to trust him, and if he says he bought us for 25 million, thats what he bought us for.

I also like it how people talk about him using loans and not 'real' money, as if they have a clue what he does.

[Zingari]

Well my trust has to be earned and he's done nothing to win me over.

£25mill

£11 mill where's that coming from, no one knows until we do I'll stick with my mistrust of the guy.

i repeat ,

"he wants to make money" , he does not care about the club per se, but anyone that thinks he does not want success for the club ( and a fat profit for himself ) is not really in touch .

The two things are inextricably linked

It matters not a fig whether we "trust" him , success for the club = big fat wad for him

where is the big conspiracy

what does he have to do to prove that his interests in the succes of the club , and ours are the same ( even if the reasons for wanting it are different from the fans )

[Finnegan]

Trust is a two way thing - if we trust Mandaric, he will trust us and vice versa. I love it how people just laugh off the rumour that he bought us for 25 million. Have you any proof he didnt? This is what i mean when i talk about trust, we have to trust him, and if he says he bought us for 25 million, thats what he bought us for.

I also like it how people talk about him using loans and not 'real' money, as if they have a clue what he does.

I find that, coupled with your signature, fairly ironic.

[The Reverend]

I find that, coupled with your signature, fairly ironic.

lol

The signature is not my actual view on Ollie, it is just something i found on google, obviously that some random Plymuff fan had created, thought it was funny so put it in my sig.

[davieG]

Trust is a two way thing - if we trust Mandaric, he will trust us and vice versa. I love it how people just laugh off the rumour that he bought us for 25 million. Have you any proof he didnt? This is what i mean when i talk about trust, we have to trust him, and if he says he bought us for 25 million, thats what he bought us for.

I also like it how people talk about him using loans and not 'real' money, as if they have a clue what he does.

Re the £25 mill - The evidence is here if you care to take the time to read it. As a past member of the Foxes trust I also have a full copy of the agreement in hard copy.

Abbreviated version

Complicated legal speak.

Basically MM has stuffed in £9million for new shares. £4.5 mill now and £4.5 mill by 31 May 2008. That goes into the Club.

That gives him 75% control. Because the new shares have flooded the existing shares.

Then he has agreed to buy the existing shares from existing shareholders at 10p in the £ by 15 August 2010 at the latest. BUT if we go up into the Prem in the next 3 years he will pay an additional 40p in the £ at the start of the season we go up. AND if we stay up that season he will pay an additional 50p in the £ at the start of that 2nd season in the Prem.

This is all done by Call Options to buy those shares and the existing shareholders have Put Options requiring MM to buy at those prices in MM doesn't do so if the conditions are met.

MM is providing a personal shareholder's guarantee for that money - but not backed up by a bank guarantee.

No plans to do anything about buying the stadium.

EGM on 9 March to deal with the formalities.

So the deal is for £9 Million PLUS another minimum of £600,000 for shareholders by 2010 BUT if we go up they get half their money baack (£3 mill) and if we stay up they get all their money back(£6 mill).

So clever MM gets the club for under £10 mill. If he pays more it's because we have hit the big time and he can easily afford it.

Also he takes over the Club's liabilities obviously.

Obviously any comments about the £11 mill is all conjecture but coming from a guy who was quite blantently prepared to let the fans believe he paid £25 mill for the club makes any financial statement from him suspect.

[davieG]

i repeat ,

"he wants to make money" , he does not care about the club per se, but anyone that thinks he does not want success for the club ( and a fat profit for himself ) is not really in touch .

The two things are inextricably linked

It matters not a fig whether we "trust" him , success for the club = big fat wad for him

where is the big conspiracy

what does he have to do to prove that his interests in the succes of the club , and ours are the same ( even if the reasons for wanting it are different from the fans )

My concern is the methods he's using to get this success, it may be fine if he's eventually successful but if he's not and there's no guarantee, he can't guarantee we'll even be in this league next year then who knows where it could lead. I'm sure Sam Hammam wanted nothing but success for Cardiff when he originally bought them but he's quite happy to see them plunged into administration in order to retrieve his loans.

[The Reverend]

Re the £25 mill - The evidence is here if you care to take the time to read it. As a past member of the Foxes trust I also have a full copy of the agreement in hard copy.

Abbreviated version

Obviously any comments about the £11 mill is all conjecture but coming from a guy who was quite blantently prepared to let the fans believe he paid £25 mill for the club makes any financial statement from him suspect.

In which case i apologise, and find it hard to believe people actually bandy it about. Though i believed it, i never said 'oh well he did pay 25 million', just that if he said he did, i belive him.

To be honest though i think a lot of it has to do with The Mercury sensationalising it all. Did Mandaric ever actually say it was 25 million or was it just a rumour used by the Mercury? I dont know.

[davieG]

In which case i apologise, and find it hard to believe people actually bandy it about. Though i believed it, i never said 'oh well he did pay 25 million', just that if he said he did, i belive him.

To be honest though i think a lot of it has to do with The Mercury sensationalising it all. Did Mandaric ever actually say it was 25 million or was it just a rumour used by the Mercury? I dont know.

Well despite the opportunities he never denied it and still hasn't openly stated how much he paid for the club, which is where my distrust comes in.

That's not to say I think he should be gone just that I'm not up to brown nosing him.

[The Reverend]

Well despite the opportunities he never denied it and still hasn't openly stated how much he paid for the club, which is where my distrust comes in.

That's not to say I think he should be gone just that I'm not up to brown nosing him.

Thats fair, but i think there has to be an element of trust involved, and i think this lack of trust contributes (along with a whole lot of other things), to this problem we have that no-one can identify, it fooks the atmosphere.