Roman Abramovich Thread

[Pizy 18,952]

Just hope it’s sorted one way or another soon. The quicker we can start negotiating with prospective signings the better. Who knows how many players out there will choose their next destination before we’ve even talked to them if this drags on any longer.

[Fernando 6,585]

I wanted Ratcliffe before, but I started to fell in love with Boehly. 

Now I don't know what to choose 😥

Edited April 29, 2022 by Fernando

[Strike 7,493]

 

 

[Superblue 6,372]

20 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

I suppose there is no legal absolutes here, but hadn't deadline for bids passed a long time ago?

There's been talk for ages of mystery bidders, etc so I get the feeling that perhaps their interest has been noted for quite some time and maybe to be kept informed of the process. 

I suppose in this situation the club and Raine would be fools to not listen to such a serious offer being put on the table, despite it being after unofficial deadlines, etc.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Blues Forever

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,819]

 

[Pizy 18,952]

I’m confident that Boehly’s group will be great for us initially. He’ll be very keen to keep us at the top and impress the supporters.

The hope of course is that he does that for years to come.

[Nero 1,874]

Haaland, Kounde, Neves.

 

NOW!

[Vesper 30,224]

38 minutes ago, Nero said:

Haaland, Kounde, Neves.

 

NOW!

hell NO to Kounde

a poor £70m buy if we pull that trigger

[King Kante 1,643]

3 hours ago, Vesper said:

yes, BUT....................

Houston, we have a problem....

he has lost a staggering 2/3rds of his net worth in the last 11 months

from almost 30 billion usd to only 10.5 billion usd (£8.37bn)

I do a little investing and things like this aren't really an issue, especially for individuals like Ratcliffe whose investments are in established industries that aren't on the brink of extinction. Firstly, he isn't going to sell his shares, so all he has currently is a paper loss, secondly within five years' he will either be richer than he is now or back to his peak. 

People like Ratcliffe don't panic in such situations and they especially do not sell in such situations. 

It is a little like saying any investor when Covid hit was 50% less rich than they were the month before. Most people who where in that boat, are still richer than they were before the Covid crash. 

I mean, just look at that graph, even with the current volatility he is still almost 10x richer than he was at the start of 2016. That is an insane amount of growth. 

Edited April 29, 2022 by King Kante

[milka 3,393]

 

[Fernando 6,585]

But what happens to Ratcliffe? 

[King Kante 1,643]

27 minutes ago, Fernando said:

But what happens to Ratcliffe? 

He goes home with his £4.25bill in his back pocket still. 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

Fine with boehly or ratcliffe but if the latter submits his bid after the initial deadline he can only blame himself

Don’t think money will be a problem with either. We will not be as well funded as city or nucastle but richer than the rest. Liverpool are able to compete with city with fewer resources so should we if Todd is as smart in his investing as he says he is 

[milka 3,393]

1 hour ago, Fernando said:

But what happens to Ratcliffe? 

Within an hour,  as they attempted to clarify whether Ratcliffe could potentially bypass them, there would be another plot twist. The offer, it now appears, was effectively too little, with Chelsea already laying the groundwork for exclusive takeover talks with Boehly (Telegraph)

[Mário César 1,282]

52 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

Fine with boehly or ratcliffe but if the latter submits his bid after the initial deadline he can only blame himself

Don’t think money will be a problem with either. We will not be as well funded as city or nucastle but richer than the rest. Liverpool are able to compete with city with fewer resources so should we if Todd is as smart in his investing as he says he is 

why you say that?

[King Kante 1,643]

1 hour ago, Magic Lamps said:

Fine with boehly or ratcliffe but if the latter submits his bid after the initial deadline he can only blame himself

Don’t think money will be a problem with either. We will not be as well funded as city or nucastle but richer than the rest. Liverpool are able to compete with city with fewer resources so should we if Todd is as smart in his investing as he says he is 

Let's see, I am not really a fan of Yank ownership, but he was by far and away the best of the Yank options.

Personally, I am waiting to see what happens with this as whilst he has made the right noises, actually putting your hand in your pocket, especially in an intelligent way, is very different. 

Edited April 29, 2022 by King Kante

[Vesper 30,224]

9 hours ago, King Kante said:

I do a little investing and things like this aren't really an issue, especially for individuals like Ratcliffe whose investments are in established industries that aren't on the brink of extinction. Firstly, he isn't going to sell his shares, so all he has currently is a paper loss, secondly within five years' he will either be richer than he is now or back to his peak. 

People like Ratcliffe don't panic in such situations and they especially do not sell in such situations. 

It is a little like saying any investor when Covid hit was 50% less rich than they were the month before. Most people who where in that boat, are still richer than they were before the Covid crash. 

I mean, just look at that graph, even with the current volatility he is still almost 10x richer than he was at the start of 2016. That is an insane amount of growth. 

Ratcliffe's 20 billion loss (from around 30 billion usd around 10bn usd) in 11 months is NOT normal

Covid crash? Not for the billionaires of the planet.

They gained 5 TRILLION usd in net worth just since the start of the COVID pandemic up until mid January 2022

 

Ten richest men double their fortunes in pandemic while incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall

https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/ten-richest-men-double-their-fortunes-pandemic-while-incomes-99-percent-humanity

New billionaire minted every 26 hours, as inequality contributes to the death of one person every four seconds 

The world’s ten richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion —at a rate of $15,000 per second or $1.3 billion a day— during the first two years of a pandemic that has seen the incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall and over 160 million more people forced into poverty. 

“If these ten men were to lose 99.999 percent of their wealth tomorrow, they would still be richer than 99 percent of all the people on this planet,” said Oxfam International’s Executive Director Gabriela Bucher. “They now have six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people.”

In a new briefing “Inequality Kills,” published today ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda, Oxfam says that inequality is contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds. This is a conservative finding based on deaths globally from lack of access to healthcare, gender-based violence, hunger, and climate breakdown.

“It has never been so important to start righting the violent wrongs of this obscene inequality by clawing back elites’ power and extreme wealth including through taxation —getting that money back into the real economy and to save lives," she said.

Billionaires’ wealth has risen more since COVID-19 began than it has in the last 14 years. At $5 trillion dollars, this is the biggest surge in billionaire wealth since records began.
“Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic. Central banks pumped trillions of dollars into financial markets to save the economy, yet much of that has ended up lining the pockets of billionaires riding a stock market boom. Vaccines were meant to end this pandemic, yet rich governments allowed pharma billionaires and monopolies to cut off the supply to billions of people. The result is that every kind of inequality imaginable risks rising. The predictability of it is sickening. The consequences of it kill,” said Bucher.

 

[bigbluewillie 1,930]

Taken from BBC Sport

 

A consortium led by LA Dodgers owner Todd Boehly is set to be named the preferred bidder for Chelsea, BBC Sport understands.

The club was put up for sale before owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned for his alleged links to Russian president Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier on Friday, British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe made a £4.25bn offer.

The late offer is understood to have prompted confusion among rival bidders.

Ratcliffe - majority shareholder of chemical group Ineos - pledged to invest £1.75bn into the club over 10 years as part of his submission.

But the offer arrived on Friday morning, weeks beyond the initial deadline for bids of 18 March.

Chelsea and Boehly have not officially commented on his group's position as preferred bidders.

The American investor and businessman - who has offered around £2.5bn for the club - has a reported net worth of $4.5bn (£3.6bn) according to Forbes.

He is a part owner of the Dodgers - a US baseball franchise - and US women's basketball outfit the Los Angeles Sparks, while he also owns a stake in the renowned LA Lakers NBA franchise.

His consortium includes Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, American PR executive Barbara Charone, British businessman Jonathan Goldstein and British journalist Daniel Finkelstein.

Other consortiums who have been in the running to buy Chelsea have been headed by Sir Martin Broughton and the co-owner of the Boston Celtics, Stephen Pagliuca - but both have now been told their bids were unsuccessful.

Chelsea are operating under a special licence from the UK government which ends on 31 May, but on Thursday Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said the club were on "borrowed time" to complete the sale.

'A British bid for a British club'

Nadine Dorries: Chelsea must be sold within "weeks"

Ratcliffe is the majority shareholder of Ineos, having founded the organisation in 1998.

Speaking to BBC Sport in May 2019, he described himself as a 'tortured Manchester United fan'. When asked if he was interested in buying Chelsea, he answered "never say no."

In recent years. the company has purchased Swiss side FC Lausanne and French Ligue 1 side Nice.

He also purchased the Team Sky cycling franchise in 2019 but in 2020 told BBC Sport he had no plans to expand the group's sporting interests by investing in a Premier League club.

"This is a British bid, for a British club," read an Ineos statement.

"We will invest in Stamford Bridge to make it a world-class stadium, befitting of Chelsea FC. This will be organic and ongoing so that we will not move away from the home of Chelsea and risk losing the support of loyal fans.

"We will continue to invest in the team to ensure we have a first-class squad of the world's greatest players, coaches and support staff, in the men's and women's games.

"And we hope to continue to invest in the academy to provide opportunity for talented youngsters to develop into first-class players."