thecraft Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Its just to appease the fans though is'nt it. After all, not that many of them think beyond the derbies. The opportunity of beating us is all they have. They would rather lose once we lose which is a sad mentality. Was in a bar here in Dublin when Villa played Newcastle and Blues were playing Coventry and we both lost but their was 10 bluenoses across the table watching our match instead of theres cheering on Newcastle. There's no novelty in watching Blues lose to be fair... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si. Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 rocket polishers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaGoMarching Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Really? It looked very late to me and I've watched the incident 5 times and I still can't see Agent Ridgewell making ANY contact with the ball - just taking out Walcott. your kidding right? ridgewell only made contact with Walcott after clearing the ball out. His momentum took him into walcott though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vojskovoda Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Small Heathens have cultured palates: http://www.smallheathalliance.com/read.php?1,35049,page=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan4Life Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Haha some goon reckons they can get Luke Young for 2million http://forums.birminghammail.net/viewtopic.php?t=19884 Any why are they all mentioning Edin Dzeko, he is class and turned down Milan last Summer so why would he go there! Seriously them, Barcodes and Spuds got to be most deluded fans ever!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted October 21, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted October 21, 2009 More on Carson Carson Yeung's astounding acquisition of Birmingham City has a contradiction at its heart. It has been played out with more fanfare and open information than arguably any of the Premier League takeovers so far, flooding the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with documents to wade through, yet still it can feel like a riddle wrapped in a mystery. At its heart Yeung himself, the club's new president and chairman of its holding company, Grandtop, is clearly a wealthy man, although one whose rise remains obscure. After some head-scratching last week about how Yeung, who listed his occupation as a hairstylist until 10 years ago, accumulated his money, his London representatives released a short biography. That, though, told us only that he is 49, a director of two other companies and was the chairman of the Hong Kong Rangers football club during 2005 and 2006. Other than that, they said, the man who has promised to find £80m for Blues to spend within a year did not wish to discuss his career. It is not yet clear where the money will come from but Yeung, who is said to have holdings in energy, property and water companies, told a press conference last week that the cash is already available. Peter Pannu, appointed joint vice-chairman of the club with specific responsibility for finance, has known Yeung for 22 years but at St Andrew's he has talked about the new owners' bold financial plans for City rather than in detail about the club's new president. Pannu himself has a more dramatic CV than most corporate figures inhabiting Premier League boardrooms; he was formerly a senior inspector of police in Hong Kong, investigating Triad activity, who in 1996 was acquitted of receiving HK$20,000 (about £2,000 then) from the Triad boss Andely Chan. Pannu's acquittal followed Chan's murder at the Macau grand prix and another witness deciding not to testify; the court ruled that, as those two men were due to testify in his favour, Pannu could not receive a fair trial. He has talked publicly about that episode, saying that such accusations were occupational hazards of dangerous undercover police work. He remained in the police force until he resigned in 2000, when he retrained and practised as a barrister. The deal's financier, Pollyanna Chu, chief executive of the Golden Resorts casino hotel company in Macau, owns Kingston Securities, which underwrote Yeung's £81.5m purchase of Birmingham City. In 2003 she gave up her commodities trading licence in Hong Kong for two years, without admitting any wrongdoing, following an investigation by the Securities and Futures Commission into "unauthorised and improper trading activities". Now, though, she holds a string of official positions besides Kingston and Golden Resorts, including the vice-chairmanship of the Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies and several public bodies. Doubts about whether Yeung, and Grandtop, had the clout to complete the purchase of Birmingham City were removed over the weekend when Kingston announced that it had placed all the Grandtop shares necessary, 73% of the company, with investors on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. That raised the £57m needed to repay a bridging loan which had already been taken out to pay David Sullivan, David Gold and all the other Birmingham City shareholders a price, £1 a share, which was more than three times their value six months ago. Yeung himself bought all the stock required to maintain his shareholding at 16%, the largest single stake. No other buyer, according to the announcement, took up 10% or more of the company which would, under the Premier League rules, have required them to be publicly identified. Yeung has already passed the "fit and proper persons" test which requires directors to declare they have no unspent criminal convictions. Grandtop itself is an enigma, a sportswear company registered in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands which has made significant losses for the past four years. The heaviest came in the last two, with the company losing HK$91.7m (£7.2m) in the year to March 31, 2009, and HK$152m the previous year. Yet to the question posed by Matt Scott in Digger, about why investors would show faith in Grandtop and invest in Birmingham after those losses, Warren Ko, a legal adviser on the deal, said it is down to the global appeal of the Premier League. "This has been very high profile in Hong Kong," he said. "There has been excitement that this is the first Premier League club to be owned here. It says a lot for Hong Kong and China. With a population of 1.3bn in China, the prospects are unlimited for what the club can be used for." This is the heart of Yeung's strategy for the club, to invest the £40m on players in January, with the promise of another £40m to come, and take City into China to harvest mass interest and a commercial return. To sceptics who have argued that Blues have struggled at times to market themselves successfully in the West Midlands, let alone the Far East, Yeung has said they have the contacts to build the club into the affections and industries of China. At the press conference last Thursday to launch the club in this new ownership Vico Hui, the new chairman, pointed to the Chinese basketball sensation Yao Ming's success in the NBA, raising the possibility that the club will try to sign a Chinese player before too long. Yeung promised, a little optimistically, that Birmingham City will be "more popular than Manchester United and Chelsea", but even those top clubs struggle to convert global popularity into cash. Of United's then record turnover of £256m recorded in 2007-08, their most recent accounts, £3.4m – 1.3% – came from outside the UK. The single largest part of it, £101m, came from match days at Old Trafford, a homespun reality, even in the age of global brands, which Birmingham City would become, somewhat improbably, the first club to crack. Gold, considering his next move and eager to remain in football having achieved a great deal at St Andrew's, said he believes that having gone so public about the money which will be made available, Yeung should be trusted to deliver. "I think anybody who questions whether the money will come should give Carson Yeung the benefit of the doubt," he said. "Anybody who can raise the sort of funds he has already has to be substantial. We believe he has a greater chance of taking Birmingham City further than we managed to do." Gold and his brother Ralph split £20m from selling Grandtop their shares in Birmingham; they bought the whole club for £1 back in 1993. Sullivan, whose Sport Newspapers underwrote a £7.4m share issue in 1997, received £20m, too. Gold said they were "not willing sellers" and is proud of how thoroughly, over 16 years, they improved a club which was skint, struggling and heading into the third flight when they took over. The Golds and Sullivan do, though, join departed British owners of several other Premier League clubs in laying to rest the myth that nobody makes money in football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 raising the possibility that the club will try to sign a Chinese player before too long. I can't wait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maradona10 Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Birmingham have a bunch of muppets in charge, they announce 'money' in football i.e. figures of 40 to 80Million, not knowing the prices will be forced higher for them now, Craig Gardner is now worth 20Million! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HJ Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 It seriously sounds like a triad money laundering scheme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiganvillain Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I'm only 35, but being a blues fan is like aging in dog years. every year as blues fan is like 7 as a fan of a normal club. Sometimes they just can't help themselves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
granville Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 It seriously sounds like a triad money laundering scheme. That was my first thought as well. Hairdresser turned uber rich man with no explanation takes over and installs former under cover triad investigator (with a bodged trial for accepting bribes to his name) after using a financier with a chequered history due to investigations into "unauthorised and improper trading activities". I wonder if the Crips or the Bloods are considering a purchase of an english club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 At the press conference last Thursday to launch the club in this new ownership Vico Hui, the new chairman, pointed to the Chinese basketball sensation Yao Ming's success in the NBA, raising the possibility that the club will try to sign a Chinese player before too long. i thought their owners were not going to interfere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b6bloke Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 David Sullivan said on talk sport about a month ago after being asked what Yeung will bring to the club "He will bring the chinese element to the club and i know that he is already looking at some of the top chinese players" Well that says it all to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reality Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Top chinese players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 At the press conference last Thursday to launch the club in this new ownership Vico Hui, the new chairman, pointed to the Chinese basketball sensation Yao Ming's success in the NBA, raising the possibility that the club will try to sign a Chinese player before too long. i thought their owners were not going to interfere? They aren't in anything but the purchase of players, the team, the training and the tactics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedge Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Top chinese players. Like who? Zheng Zhi, the Chinese David Beckham... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Something very, very dodgy about all this. However its SHA so instead of trying to uncover the secrets, i shall sit back and watch it fall apart with a pint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbaldie1 Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Even some of the noses I work with admit theres something not quite right about this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuck Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Even some of the noses I work with admit theres something not quite right about this The whole thing has a distinct smell of 'amateur' doesn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 22, 2009 Share Posted October 22, 2009 McLeish rules out Wolfsburg Raid. http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_5644468,00.html They think they have a chance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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