Godders

1 hour ago, srsmithusa said:

So, don't I recall that we had a January transfer blocked by the F.A.

Pretty sure it was blocked by the UK Visas and Immigration department.

26 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

It's most likely the case that RDM is for all intents and purposes rapped up, but the entire deal is conditional on Dr X getting approval. No immanent approval, no RDM, it's as simple as that.

Honestly I think this is the least likely case. Look at it from RDM's POV: to hit the ground running at the start of the season, you'd want to be in post ASAP so you have as much time as possible before the championship kicks off. If you're worried about the ownership situation, you get a clause in your contract so the club pays you off if the takeover fails. The club should have no issues with this since the clause would void when Dr X passes both fit and proper persons tests.

In my opinion, the most likely case is that there's some kinks to iron out around some mundane, generic BS that will be sorted in a few days, at which point he'll sign. Completely unrelated to the fit and proper persons test IMO which could carry on for a few weeks more possibly since I don't believe we're officially a Football League club yet.

19 minutes ago, hippo said:

Almost to depressed to post. We seemed to have been blinded by his CL win, whilst that is fantastic achievement for a manager, and I would never belittle that. I questions how useful the skills he used to do that will be in the job he faces at Aston Villa.

He is starting from a pretty chaotic base - lots of players will leave - and he will have to find replacements and mould them into a team pretty quickly. True he got WBA promoted - another feather in his cap - but the bulk of that squad was there for him. and to a greater or lesser extent Dan Ashworth sourced the players.

I really doubt he has the personality to stand up to the senior players - and the jostling in the boardroom above him. Still he has taken the job will get funds - the owner wants promotion at the first attempt - if he does that ...great - If he doesn't there can be no excuses about toxic dressing rooms, changing an ethos, needing better coaching staff , walked into a mess etc (all the stuff we heard for Garde) 

Its a mess Roberto, you will have be warned, sort it, win matches - no problem. But please no excuses.

Personally I think we flatter to deceive - and spend most our time a few points outside the play off zone.

 

In order for your argument here to hold true for the reasons you've given, we need to assume his personality is really weak, which would imply he was carried as a player and takes the glory for others' hard work as a manager.

I don't think you enjoy the amount of success he has had as a player and a manager without having a steely, determined, winning, f*ing strong personality.

 He's achieved more success in his short career than our entire squad has combined. I think he'll be fine.

1 minute ago, AlwaysAVFC said:

 

Lad

Nip and tuck between us and the Geordies all year. They're at our place last game of the season and two points ahead in the league. We destroy them 7-0 to take the title. Noses are relegated as well 

43 minutes ago, backofthenet said:

Im really hoping that if Mr King is out there an he is concerned he may have some idea what to do about it, maybe lodging an objection to the FA

You mean the same Mr. King who likely knew that Dr Xia was the preferred bidder, and left the club saying the takeover would be great news for AVFC??

Just had a look at oddscheker. Number of bookies offering the market seems to have dropped off this afternoon. Are some bookies now not taking anymore bets on our next manager?!!

6 minutes ago, Rds1983 said:

Just had a slightly worrying thought.

Xia said the transfer budget would be between £20 and £50m depending on how many players the new manager wants.

Assuming that means the new manager will judge the squad before a budget is decided and we start buying players.

Does that mean we will not be buying anyone until pre-season training is well under way and potentially after we have started playing competitive games?

We can all see the obvious flaws in the squad, and none of us are on the training pitch with the players day in, day out. 

The new manager will have a pretty good idea of where the changes will need to be made already. Yes, some of the more borderline decisions will have to be sorted once he's seen the players in action, but he should have enough to start moving on things straight away I would have thought. 

Top half. She's not much of a looker.

53 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

He's either squeaky clean or he's the Chinese equivalent of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Catch Me if You Can. 

Perpetrating a fraud like that would require a significant amount of intelligence, planning and forethought. Still a massive improvement on our previous owner then.

18 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Ok Chris. 

If you don't think fans deserve that information then you really are living in a world of ignorant bliss. I've paid a lot of my own cash and time into this club over the years (including being a ST holder for 10 years) so excuse me for wanting to know the financial particulars. 

I didn't say fans don't deserve that information did I. I said they have no right to that information. They don't. Just like Dr X or AVFC has absolutely no right to see, or even ask to see, your personal bank statements.

It would be a completely different situation if you were a shareholder, but since the club is privately owned, I'm afraid you don't have any right to any information about how the deal is financed, or how the club is to be run. By all means though contact the club and ask the question - you may find that Dr X is fully willing to divulge all that info to you. I would doubt it though.  

3 minutes ago, KHV said:

It's a company in the British virgin islands. Reading had a loan from them. When Reading had their parachute payment Vibrac took it all. When reading failed to pay the loan ineteres Vibrac forced player sales to cover the debts. Vibrac also loaned money to Everton. Wyness who is pals of Samuelson at time I believe franchised out catering at Goodison to cut costs so they didnt generate any match day revenue for their books and also sold the training complex. Everton then had a lease agreement on the training complex. Vibrac have loaned money to Fulham, West Ham and Southampton. 

They are arseholes, Samuelson is involved with them

But they're not loan sharks though are they. Their business model from what little looking into I've done is to give cash advances against future TV money, or in Reading's case, a future balloon payment. Samuelson, as a director, would not have had sole sign off on the loan from Vibrac, so that Reading couldn't afford to repay it is not Samuelson's fault or engineering.

Vibrac were investigated by the football league because Medjeski handed control of the club over to them as Reading couldn't afford to repay the loan with interest (again, the terms of which would not have been signed off on by Samuelson in isolation), so they effectively took control without going through the fit and proper persons test. 

Yes Samuelson then made an attempt to buy the club from Vibrac fronting Phoenix, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Surely if there was any wrongdoing here, Vibrac  would have sold the club to Phoenix for significantly less than the market value of the club?

Also, what link does Samuelson have with them, other than presumably putting Reading (a club in need of cash) in touch with Vibrac (a niche company specialising in loans to high profile football clubs), and then at a later time, trying to buy Reading from them??

Outsourcing and sale and leaseback are both fully above board business activities that may be undertaken for any number of reasons, so nothing there to suggest any issues with any loan at Everton IMO. 

4 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

 As time goes by I want full details on Samuelson's involvement and where the money is coming from before I can even get close to being on board.

Why, because you support Aston Villa? Dream on. You have no right to that information, and you're not getting that information.

Just now, Dr_Pangloss said:

Yes, and you wonder why people are so nervous about Samuelson after stating that fact!

Who this loan shark he introduced to Reading??

1 minute ago, GENTLEMAN said:

Samuelson at Reading. 

 

I've got better things to be doing than sitting through 26 minutes worth of a Reading press conference from 2 years ago. 

What are you trying to show us here?

I don't really get this issue with the whole "misinformation" thing.

What would Xia/Recon be looking to achieve by lying about owning 5 listed companies when actually they're only in the process of buying 5 listed companies??

18 minutes ago, Avfc96 said:

That's exactly what im trying to work out.

His main business seems to be working for a Swiss based finance company.

However, he has had two ventures into football.

First was with Everton in 2004, when he had planned to purchase a 29.9% stake from Bill Kenwright and was even introduced to fans an ATM only to pull out of the deal at the last available moment.

Second was with Reading in 2012, when he introduced Anton Zigeravech to Reading who then brought 51% off the club from John Madejski.

In 2014, Reading borrowed against future parachute payments from a company called Vibrac Corporations. Vibrac Corporation reportedly then attempted to force chairman John Madejski to sell to a consortium called Phoenix, which included Samuelson.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibrac_Corporation

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/financier-behind-ill-fated-everton-fc-3356079

http://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/chris-samuelson-former-reading-fc-11355076

 

 

 

So I've googled this, and I see nothing wrong, so please tell me what I'm missing...

Samuelson and the Russian chap join the Reading board bringing money with them (much needed to fund the Jan 2014 window from what I can see). They leave, shortly before (?) Vibrac gives a cash advance against a future parachute payment. Reading can't afford to repay the Vibrac loan. Madjeski effectively hands control of the club to Vibrac. Samuelson approaches Vibrac with Pheonix to buy the club but doesn't. Football league investigates Vibrac due to becoming de facto owner of Reading without going through fit and proper persons test.

Nothing there sets my alarm bells ringing. To me, it looks like Reading were in trouble before Samuelson came along, took a loan and couldn't repay. Samuelson chanced his arm at owning the club on the cheap. Doesn't make him a criminal. 

Anyway, probably wrong topic to discuss on the Dr Xia thread, so apologies mods.

So @Avfc96 and @Dr_Pangloss, what is Samuelson trying to do here exactly?

Thanks for taking the time here Deisler

Didn't Bernstein and King and Bevington all say that the future looks good for AVFC in departing the club? And didn't Lerner, in his closing monologue, say he's spent a lot of time with Dr. Tony recently? 

It seems then, that Bernstein, King and Bevington all knew it was Recon and Dr Xia, and all approve of him.

I'm still optimistic.