My English people, what you think about this?

[Noname]

A lot of clubs are being bought by rich foreign people. Do you think this is a good thing or not?


Me personally i dont think its a good thing. because you got someone who is from a whole other country who didnt grew up with the club, buying the club. A football club belongs to the supporters, not just 1 guy with money. Take chelsea for example, they got a very rich abramovitsj who is owner of the club. And he must have spend almost 1 bilion euro so far. But what do you think will happen if abramovitsj suddenly get tired of his new toy, and decides to stop giving money. That will be a disaster for chelsea, because they need his money to survive.

But its not always bad, in holland for example you got a very rich guy who is owner of AZ. And he also has brought in a lot of money, he even payed for their new stadium. But the difference is he grew up with AZ, he was a supporter since he was a little kid.

[Intriago33]

Me personally i dont think its a good thing. because you got someone who is from a whole other country who didnt grew up with the club, buying the club. A football club belongs to the supporters, not just 1 guy with money.

Valid point, take West Ham for example, a club very much for the fans, and right now I havent heard a single person who agreed with the dismissal of Alan Pardew. I personally think it's a disgrace. Let's roll back the clock a mere six months, and some heads beleive this was a future England manager, and hailing him for a great season, taking his side into Europe in it's first season back in the big-time, and playing part in that excellent FA Cup Final with Liverpool.

Yes, West Ham are struggling, and he does need to shoulder a chunk of the blame, but let's remember he has been without one of the best forwards in England as of last season, (Dean Ashton), the take-over BS, and the unsettled Argentinian "superstars", .. it's not been an easy season for Alan. I firmly believe with the take-over now settled and the January window just weeks away, Alan could of genuinly turned the club around and secured a mid-season finish come May.. but now we'll never know.

Let's not forget, Alan Pardew has layed the foundations for two very good squads who are both competing in the EPL right now; Reading & West Ham, and how he turned around the Hammers fortunes before when they was struggling. It makes little sense to me to dump him on the heap, and probably, replace him with what I consider a very similar manager in Alan Curbishley.

So on new ownership for this club, I'm quite angry on their first major decision, and I am sure 90% of West Ham supporters are too.

Just my 2 cents from a neutral EPL viewer living in England.

[Noname]

Thats what im saying, now you got some rich foreign guy with complete ownership over west ham, and the first thing he does is fire a succesful manager.
Thats what you get, they wanna see result fast. And thats not good. West ham just came back from the championship division and they had e very succesful year. And now this guy wanna make west ham a major club in no time. That cant be good. Because such a thing takes time, you cant just become a major club in a couple of seasons that takes time. And youll see theyre gonna depend to much of 1 person.

What people keep forgetting is, a football club is nothing without supporters. Same sort of thing happened with my team Feyenoord. Feyenoord was almost bankrupt earlt 90's and this guy ''saved'' Feyenoord from banktrupcy. So this guy has been president of Feyenoord for about 15 years, but the result werent very good. So finally this season the supporters didnt accept it anymore, and they started protesting. And all these people from tv were saying how it is a shame these Feyenoord supporters, protesting against the president of Feyenoord. And they were saying that supporters have nothing to say about such things, who is president of the club etc. And now the president has finally resigned because of the supporters. And thats a very good thing cuz it shows that a football club belongs to the people.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I think it can be good as long as they are investing in the english game, not like Abramovich who seems to be trying to turn Chelsea into the Harlem Globetrotters of football.

Most of the people who have bought teams, whilst rich, don't have the ridiculous personal fortune of Abramovich and therefore I don't think teams such as Villa and West Ham who have been taken over recently are going to be spending 30-40mil each summer. Its actually encouraging for me to see that Randy Lerner @ Villa has spent money on things that are in some respects more important, such as paying the travel costs for Villa fans to go to Stamford Bridge for their Carling Cup game against Chelsea. That sort of thing, to me, shows a deeper understanding of what is important in order to build a succesful club, rather than just throwing tens of millions of pounds at it and hoping for some success.

I actually do kind of agree with Magnusson sacking Pardew. West Ham have been incredibly poor so far this season, without much of an excuse for it. The players who did so well last season have been lackluster at best so far (see Nigel Reo Coker for probably the best example) and they did look to be on a bit of a slippery slide which he obviously felt needed to be halted. It is slightly tough on Pardew, but I think in appointing someone like Curbishly (as it looks like they are going to), it would seem to me that Magnusson is looking at the long term picture and maybe didn't feel that Pardew was the man to lead the club for the next 4-5 years.

[7even]

VERY VERY BAD THING ... to answer your question. VERY BAD THING.

[Boo-Yaa †]

VERY VERY BAD THING ... to answer your question. VERY BAD THING.

Agree 100%, all you have to look at is what Romanov has done to Hearts up here...

Its a discrace the way he has treated their capitan Pressey.

[Mac 10 †]

VERY VERY BAD THING ... to answer your question. VERY BAD THING.

[Noname]

I dont understand how the supporters accept that shit. For example, my team Feyenoord bought a player (charisteas) from their archenemy Ajax. And all hell broke loose, it was the thing that started the downfall of the president of the club, who has left by now. Such a thing will never happen with Feyenoord cuz the supporters would never allow it.

[KURUPTION-81]

I dont understand how the supporters accept that shit. For example, my team Feyenoord bought a player (charisteas) from their archenemy Ajax. And all hell broke loose, it was the thing that started the downfall of the president of the club, who has left by now. Such a thing will never happen with Feyenoord cuz the supporters would never allow it.

aA lot of the times no matter how much supporters protest it wont make a difference. the guys in the suits dont listen to the fans its all about £££. If someone wants to sell there majority of shares theres nothinga  fan can do about it. When manchester united were getting taken over, there were violent protests outside the ground for days, the Glazers car was attakced and they needed a police convoy to escort them. Certain fans left united and set up there own club in protest. At the end of the day , most chairman know that even though people arent happy, if the club then becomes successful with the foreign investors then the fans will accept it.

I dont agree with it, it seems like its too easy to take over a english club, there doesent appear to be the same regulations in place to stop it like in europe.