Duck

Is CNN's Chinese bureau staffed by work experience students? Interviewer aside, the technical quality was shocking. Barely heard a word

Would still rather do away with these release clauses together though. We always seem to come off worse by them and there's no real incentive for us to put them into contracts aside from player requests. Just sad to see another half decent prospect able to leave for a loss, while we get stuck with the dross year on year

Not having a go. Just putting these into a bit of context. *MK Dons destroyed league two the year before he joined. In league one they lost out on promotion by Leicester, who were relegated from the championship, and Peterborough, who finished below MK Dons in L2 the previous season. In the playoffs MKDons lost to Scunthorpe (also relegated from the championship) in the semi finals) *WBA - in the championship, finished behind a strong Newcastle side and promoted with 3 games to go. Newcastle finished only 2 points ahead in the previous PL season. Point of note, Leicester finished 5th in the championship, the same Leicester from the previous season in L1. Following PL season he wins manager of month in September, but sacked in February for 1 win in 10 games. WBA eventually finish 11th, one spot above Newcastle. *Chelsea - applied and failed to get Birmingham job, eventually became assistant then caretaker of Chelsea. Impressively won champions league (on pens) and FA Cup. Made manager for following season, lost charity shield and euro super cup, and sacked in November after poor CL campaign. Payoff settlement never agreed and continued to be paid £130k p/w til June. *Schalke - good CL campaign. Lost 2-0 to Madrid at home before a 4-3 win in Madrid (lost 5-4 on agg). Took them from 11th to 6th in the league, qualifying for Europa league. Run of two wins in 10 costs them CL spot. Resigns in May. Just thought it'd be handy to see the bad bits as well as the positives. Haven't decided between him and Pearson yet. But from his past experiences in the top flights he can be a bit hit and miss. The long runs without wins is particularly concerning.

It still makes terrible business sense though. That's £3m pissed away in less than a year just because. Would much rather they offered him £3m in bonus payments over the year than let him walk for so much of a loss

And David Villa, as well as some players from Sevilla and Villarreal?

Personally I don't think it's anything to do with Mr. Xiu...

So if this takeover falls through... Do we bring back the Randy Lerner thread and give him abuse for selling us to the wrong people?

How much did Derby spend? Obviously it won't be £50m but I'm sure we're in a similar position in terms of quality. Im not expecting us to go out and sign messi and ronaldo this summer but surely itd cost us a good chunk of £20-30m to buy as many as we need to get a half decent squad assembled?

I know the one the football league did for reading a few years back took a couple of months!

http://7500toholte.sbnation.com/2016/5/17/11689120/matteo-is-murder Might have been posted here before, but here's a good little article from 7500 to Holte looking at RDM as managerial candidate. Doesn't actually put too much between him and Pearson, have to say I'd go with Nigel based on the article.

Copied this across from the neighbouring Samuelson thread. Fit and proper persons bit stood out for me. I know it's from four years ago but it's still be a similar process wouldn't it? *Four month process!? *No unspent criminal convictions related to dishonesty *Buyer must not be bankrupt *Buyer must not have an insolvent in two previous club insolvencies *Proof must be shown of funds to buy club *Future business plans must be laid out to show the club can remain solvent and meet its upcoming fixtures The next bit is the concerning bit for me though. *Both leagues use corporate intelligence services to scope out buyers. Mainly through press coverage and public sources. *Inquiries also sent to home office and foreign office to ask foreign governments about buyer. I'd say most of these Tony would be fine on. He'd probably welcome them asking the Chinese government for a reference. The lack of public sources however might be a stumbling block, and were hardly getting positive press about the takeover. If they haven't started yet it could be s while before the doctor can actually start to operate...

For gods sake, the press really can't stop digging can they. It's negativity every day at the minute. Obviously we all want the takeover to be clean and legit, but it seems like the "journos" are (as usual) praying for us to screw up. Fed up of it all the time!

This. If he has the money to invest then I'd much rather we had it than any body else. The worrying bit is how flippant he is about adding extra £10m's on to the budget in the interview. Smacks a bit like a new kid in a playground trying to impress everybody else. OR it could just be a translation/adaptation thing. Maybe he doesn't know how much a decent transfer budget is in the championship. Anyway! Love the info in the thread Deisler! Definitely helps to understand things a bit better.

Chances the Villa kit will slowly change to red? China loves a bit of red

Rubbish CV! No championship playoff qualification

Get him on VT! I'm sure he'd fit right in! From the midlands today interview he seems quite quiet and a little bit out of his depth... Although could be due to the language barrier. Comes across much better in print. Time will tell I guess! Work starts in two weeks then

So we have three years to make a big impression then? Any idea who the other 8 clubs are? I'm guessing Everton and Brom are in there? 30-40 million spends too? Happy days!

Harsh words. Hope he enjoys his time at the labour camp...

Would be a win win. What better first step to show China as a world football power than to own a team who win the worlds highest ranked competitions. Teams in the Chinese league aren't going to play at the same level as top European clubs for a long long time. If the government want to push football forward the best way is immediate success. This might be a blessing or a curse. We will probably get huge backing for the next few years... But if we don't get results there's the risk that the government will lose interest, and we lose funding. We will no doubt get a handful of obscure Chinese signings, dodgy advertising deals, preseason tours of China and a lifetime supply of MSG. But as long as we get back to where we actually belong it could all be worthwhile.

Well we do need to shoot up a division...

Sun Jihai is still kicking about. Although he is 38 now, but has English league experience. You heard it here first!

Did you arrive from 2006? Thought you were talking about Randy for a sec.

Build it and they will come! You don't add seats when you need them. If he plans to take us to the top then it makes more sense to rebuild over the next season when attendances will be lower and have it ready for the following year when we need the space. From what I've heard the Chinese are great at building walls, so welcome the new owners ambition and forward thinking to start now rather than wait like our past overlord.

Bet he doesn't have a tattoo!