Carlisle United billionaire fake-over

[BigDaveCUFC]

Probably wouldn't matter too much, but at least we'd have got some compensation had he left, if we were to tie him down to a contract. I'm sure the Peterborough chairman was looking to get someone in without having to pay compensation (I know that was just one example), so it may put some clubs off.

I agree that not many clubs would look at Curle as a potential target, though I think he's important to us.

all I am trying to point out that having a manager without a contract is not the end of the world.

If he had a contract and someone did take him then all we'd get is a small compensation and still have the same problems of finding a new guy and all the changes that could happen.

plus football fans are fickle and one bad run and suddenly a manager who fans think is doing great is all of a sudden, terrible, awful...never liked him, should be sacked etc, etc................it doesn't take much.

and since we've been hit hard the last 3 years paying up our last 3 managers well after they left I can see why the board are very cautious.

 

[cufc17]

Somebody anonymously sent these stickers to the News and Star today

 

[shoddycollins]

View attachment 1904
Somebody anonymously sent these stickers to the News and Star today

Apparently they got sent to Lapping as well as someone was handing them out at Anfield.

 

[hellogregory]

Just an update on the Curle situation. The month to month thing wasn't true. He's on the same contract as last season and its until the end of the season.

So that is that, for now.

 

[shoddycollins]

Just an update on the Curle situation. The month to month thing wasn't true. He's on the same contract as last season and its until the end of the season.

So that is that, for now.

It's one thing put to bed, though does raise the question of why on Earth the club allowed such confusion to reign.

 

[shoddycollins]

But what does this mean?

PROPOSALS FOR LOCAL INVESTMENT

The CUOSC Board gave further consideration to the Club's latest investment proposals at its meeting on 28 November 2015. The Board came to some unanimous conclusions which will be discussed at a further meeting with Andrew Jenkins and John Nixon as soon as one can be arranged.

We are sure that our members and the wider fanbase will understand that until we have responded face-to-face to the Club's proposals it would not be appropriate to release any of the details involved. What we can say to everyone is that we are very keen to play a significant role in seeking to improve the financial security and stability of the Club to match the big strides forward we are seeing in the team's performances, commitment and results.

We will issue a more detailed and informative statement as soon as our next meeting with the Club has taken place. In the meantime we would be happy to respond to anyone who wishes to discuss this or any other CUOSC or Club related issue with us.

Is there some local investment about to be announced?

This was just sent out as an e-mail this morning, nobody is discussing it on the forums yet, and the suggestion that there is local investment to be considered is news to me.

 

[Carver]

But what does this mean?



Is there some local investment about to be announced?

This was just sent out as an e-mail this morning, nobody is discussing it on the forums yet, and the suggestion that there is local investment to be considered is news to me.

I wouldn't believe anything about investment that comes out of the club anymore after that whole Billionaire crap, they're liars and have hidden agendas etc. Ha they still havn't come out and said it was all made up, well as much as it pisses me off as long as we're doing well on the pitch then I'm not bothered about it.

 

[shoddycollins]

I wouldn't believe anything about investment that comes out of the club anymore after that whole Billionaire crap, they're liars and have hidden agendas etc. Ha they still havn't come out and said it was all made up, well as much as it pisses me off as long as we're doing well on the pitch then I'm not bothered about it.

It's not really from the club though, it's from the trust.

 

[Carver]

It's not really from the club though, it's from the trust.

They can't do anything, if they try to get an investment or move us forward the club will stop it because AJ want us to be a nice little non league club run by old boys lol.

VERY AMBITIOUS HE IS

 

[shoddycollins]

They can't do anything, if they try to get an investment or move us forward the club will stop it because AJ want us to be a nice little non league club run by old boys lol.

VERY AMBITIOUS HE IS

But that isn't really what's the email suggests, they're implying that there are investment proposals, not just that they would like to see some.

 

[Trapdoor]

How does Keith Curle maintain his tan throughout the long cold northern winters??

I keep expecting him to turn into Jon Snow but no... he still looks like Dale Winton.

 

[Carver]

How does Keith Curle maintain his tan throughout the long cold northern winters??

I keep expecting him to turn into Jon Snow but no... he still looks like Dale Winton.

How does Keith Curle maintain his tan?

 

[Habbinalan]

How does Keith Curle maintain his tan throughout the long cold northern winters??

I keep expecting him to turn into Jon Snow but no... he still looks like Dale Winton.

You'd better ask his mum.

 

[rudebwoyben]

How does Keith Curle maintain his tan throughout the long cold northern winters??

I keep expecting him to turn into Jon Snow but no... he still looks like Dale Winton.

It's called melanin...

 

[cufc17]

Surely not...?

 

[shoddycollins]

This is back - two years of talks with a foreign investor have brought us this far.

A shroud of secrecy still hangs over the investor's identity, but the directors of the supporters' trust have finally met this person. Actually they met them last month but have only now decided to tell the press/members that they did, and are making the same kind of vague comments that Nixon, Jenkins and Pattinson have been making for years.

CEO Nigel Clibbens has made a statement in the wake of Birmingham's new foreign investors immediately sacking Gary Rowett, explaining how talks are centred around what the investor wants for the club, to make sure we don't get something similar happening here.

If it didn't come up before in this thread, the whole billionaire thing, which made the idea seem like a flight of fancy came from one of our VPs tweeting that he'd heard the guy was a billionaire. This isn't true, just a regular foreign investor, and given that the circle of people saying they've met him is now larger (originally Snap, Crackle and Pop were the only ones who knew his identity but had had no direct communication with him) I guess we have to conclude that he exists.

So still plenty of questions:

• Why after two years are we still worried they will come in and start appointing their own staff? If they are worried about someone coming in who will upset the balance of the club, some rich playboy who will want to plaster their ego over everything from naming the manager to the flavour of pies sold in the stands, and after two years they're still not sure if they can trust this guy then I don't think we ever will. Just politely explain to him that we appreciate his interest but to not be on the same page after two years of talks suggests the club and the potential investor aren't the right match.
• Is a certain person who I am wary about naming but who Steve Pattinson appears to have been texting involved in any way (we know the investor has an agent)? If so then drop all talks and run far, run fast. No good can come of this.
• Is a person who did nothing last year when we were flooded really someone who will have the interests of the club at heart? I know football is a business and why should someone with no financial interest in the club want to step in when the club was in trouble but it's a sign that this person views football as nothing more than another business, and that never ends well. Few football clubs exist purely to make profit for their owners and those that do are usually a ticking time-bomb of instability, and most football clubs have benefited from some generosity of owners or local businesses in the past. When Fred Story wrote off a 1.1m loan to the club that wasn't a business decision.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Who do you not want to name? Is it some Carlisle based bloke or an ex owner or an ex FL club.

 

[shoddycollins]

Who do you not want to name? Is it some Carlisle based bloke or an ex owner or an ex FL club.

He's an 'experienced football administrator' (his words not mine) who many feel has been instrumental in making several clubs what they are today... shining examples being Scarborough and Stockport (I'm sure there fans would have some choice words for him). He has some tangential connection to Carlisle through his close association with a former local businessman who once tried to buy the club, and has been sniffing around us ever since.

Everyone on our own forum knows who he is but he is notoriously litigious if his name is ever mentioned in connection with his history, and is the reason why I was banned from our forum (he threatened the guy who runs the forum with legal action after I posted some links to news articles up and down the country which mentioned him).

Anyway, his modus operandi seems to be acting as some sort of middle-man between someone who wishes to buy your club, and your club's board; or gaining a position of importance on your club's trust and then championing fan ownership. I found news articles and fan forum posts naming him as a character trying this in places as diverse as Bournemouth, Kidderminster and Port Vale. I believe Port Vale's managing director at the time saw straight through him right away and called him a fantasist as he had no connection at all with the person he claimed to represent.

One of our directors last year was caught sending a private text message to someone who just happened to have the same first name as this guy.

 

[Trapdoor]

He's an 'experienced football administrator'

Sounds like The Dark Lord Peter Ridsdale...!

 

[Alan Partridge]

Keith Agar..

Is he still knocking about then? I gave up reading updates on this billionaire shite months ago. No one with any sense will invest any money until Jenkins writes his loans off and that ain't happening.

 

[shoddycollins]

Keith Agar..

Is he still knocking about then? I gave up reading updates on this billionaire shite months ago. No one with any sense will invest any money until Jenkins writes his loans off and that ain't happening.

you have to say his name three times for him to appear

there haven't been any updates until a recent flurry of them

 

[Carver]

This whole thing is a piss take and unless something actually happens and isn't a load of secretive bollocks then who gives a shit?

I mean look how long it's been since they first brought it up.

10 years from now they'll still be dicking around with it with our chairman running the club from an old people's home.

 

[shoddycollins]

This whole thing is a piss take and unless something actually happens and isn't a load of secretive bollocks then who gives a shit?

I mean look how long it's been since they first brought it up.

10 years from now they'll still be dicking around with it with our chairman running the club from an old people's home.

I give a shit because it concerns me that they've been entertaining this secretive bloke for two years now and what does all that say about the possible character of the person who might one day be our owner. It's good that the club are at least concerned that anyone coming in has the right agenda but the fact that after two years they don't know this guy well enough to know his agenda is concerning. It may seem like it's all just bollocks, and you might be right, but it also feels like at any moment it could turn out not to be bollocks and we have a Becchetti running the club.

 

[Carver]

I give a shit because it concerns me that they've been entertaining this secretive bloke for two years now and what does all that say about the possible character of the person who might one day be our owner. It's good that the club are at least concerned that anyone coming in has the right agenda but the fact that after two years they don't know this guy well enough to know his agenda is concerning. It may seem like it's all just bollocks, and you might be right, but it also feels like at any moment it could turn out not to be bollocks and we have a Becchetti running the club.

We fans should have kept the pressure on Jenkins and his co owners when Lapping was rejected instead of going quiet and giving them time to sap our energy.

 

[shoddycollins]

We fans should have kept the pressure on Jenkins and his co owners when Lapping was rejected instead of going quiet and giving them time to sap our energy.

I think the fans did what they could, there were a few chants, a banner, people in 'billionaire' fancy dress, fans forums, those stickers, and the local media did a good job of publicising this stuff. You're kind of limited as a fan in what you can do, especially when the owners are an old boys club who are as deaf to what is going on in the terraces as they are mute about what is going on in the boardroom. Get behind the club you c***.

 

[Carver]

I think the fans did what they could, there were a few chants, a banner, people in 'billionaire' fancy dress, fans forums, those stickers, and the local media did a good job of publicising this stuff. You're kind of limited as a fan in what you can do, especially when the owners are an old boys club who are as deaf to what is going on in the terraces as they are mute about what is going on in the boardroom. Get behind the club you c***.

You calling me a c***? Howays then!

 

[shoddycollins]

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/carlis...rpool-a34c4500-6bcf-420e-acc1-2f04fbbcf6dd-ds

There we go then, the whole sorry saga is at an end. It was Yahya Kurdi, as many suspected. He's trying to build a stable of clubs across Europe, wanted to get us into the Premier League by 'signing foreign players on cheap wages' and wasn't offering to invest any more than Lapping had previously offered.

Although Nixon may come across well to neutrals in giving reasons for knocking Kurdi back, it really begs the question why did it take two years. Did they know at the time they fobbed Lapping off that the guy they were fobbing him off for wasn't offering anything particularly spectatular, and if not why did they let it go so long before finding out what he wanted to invest? Shambolic handling of the whole thing.

 

[The Terminator]

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/carlis...rpool-a34c4500-6bcf-420e-acc1-2f04fbbcf6dd-ds

There we go then, the whole sorry saga is at an end. It was Yahya Kurdi, as many suspected. He's trying to build a stable of clubs across Europe, wanted to get us into the Premier League by 'signing foreign players on cheap wages' and wasn't offering to invest any more than Lapping had previously offered.

Although Nixon may come across well to neutrals in giving reasons for knocking Kurdi back, it really begs the question why did it take two years. Did they know at the time they fobbed Lapping off that the guy they were fobbing him off for wasn't offering anything particularly spectatular, and if not why did they let it go so long before finding out what he wanted to invest? Shambolic handling of the whole thing.

Dodged a bullet there it seems guys.

Take it from me. You're better off without these unknown foreign investors and better off being Carlisle United run by the local businessman who is good at steadying the ship and the odd bit of success every 5 years.

Clubs like ours need to be run from the heart, not from a dirty wallet.

 

[shoddycollins]

Dodged a bullet there it seems guys.

Take it from me. You're better off without these unknown foreign investors and better off being Carlisle United run by the local businessman who is good at steadying the ship and the odd bit of success every 5 years.

Clubs like ours need to be run from the heart, not from a dirty wallet.

I considered using the 'dodged a bullet' analogy myself, but then that implies some sort of fast reaction. Feels more as though we've dodged a tortoise driving a steamroller, stepping aside at the last moment before we were cruelly mown down.

A quick glance at Orient's situation is all the proof we need that these things never end well, and we have our own experience of what happens when you're bought by someone as a fallback option when they failed to buy a Premier League club, and who wants to get you into the Premier League.

However we could have, should have been in our second year of ownership by a consortium of local entrepreneurs led by someone with a proven track record of football club ownership and a belief in openness, instead we're almost no further along than we were when we came down to this division.

 

[Alan Partridge]

Looks like the Syrian Fat Controller.

All is now pointing to the Edinburgh Woolen Mill group taking a controlling stake from next season. I personally think Jenkins will stay on as the face of the club and will waiver his current personal debt as a sign of goodwill. I feel kind of sorry for him - he's dedicated years of his life to the club and dipped into his own pockets on the regular - but he's never overseen any sort of significant success.