Tranmere In Takeover Talks

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:02:18:12:34:25 by Deadly Submarine.

Anyone heard of the possible takeover by an American sports group? I caught it on the news this morning but can't find anythig else anywhere.

COME ON YOU MIGHTY WHITES

[www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk]

I have reservations with regards this possible takeover im not sure its in the clubs best interests but will have to wait and see

Few points...

1. Why would you buy a club for 4-6 million to asset strip so to speak? I personally think their are other clubs in L1, even L2, that would be available for cheaper and probably have just as much facilities.

2. PJ is an absolute clown IMO but I genuinely do trust him with the sale of the club to someone with an interest in developing us as a football club.

3. If they buy us from PJ will they not make us debt free meaning we'd be in a good position to go forwards if they wanted to invest?

4. Say they invest and bring us success and in 15 years we find ourselves back in the position we are now with a similar amount of debt - I'd take that, success comes and goes in football for a club our size, obviously massive debt is a worry but if it is like it is now then is that really the end of the world if we had a good successful period?

5. I'm willing to listen to them - with no sale the alternative may be PJ or his daughters taking all the money out of Tranmere - after all they have no real interest in us in terms of investing, they just want their money.

By all means 'approach with caution' but I don't think it should just be written off as a bad deal.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:02:17:10:34:20 by Mikey.

thanks but no Yanks !!! already had Bruce Osterman years ago ,liverpool dunno whether they are comin or goin ,yanks havent got a scooby doo bout football,better the devil ya know i say !

Bruce Osterman is definitely a lesson to be learned from.

We should listen to what they want to but proceed with caution and scepticism in my opinion.

This has the potential to be a good thing (debt to Johnson off our backs?) but it also has the potential to go pear-shaped a la Osterman.

The problem is the debt they'd leave us in. PJ at the moment isn't recalling it or adding any interest on. If another company comes in, bankrolls us and then gets bored, they'll leave us with players we can't afford to pay and a huge debt to them which they'll recall WITH INTEREST. We'd go bust on the spot.

Give PJ and C9S a chance here guys.

PJ aint no mug, at the end of the day if he wanted to see Tranmere shut down then he would have done it years ago. I can only hope he will sell to the right person/group with the right intentions.

From what i can gather from C9S websites etc they seem to be more about building team up then running them? Maybe they think they can build rovers up, get us stable and flog us on again for a profit in a couple of years. It would make sense as to why they were looking at Sheff Weds in the summer (must have been a pleasing game for them to watch on Tuesday). If they want to pay themselves £400k a year for doing so, then let them. They would have to turn a profit first for the money to come in....

PJ will make the right decision on this one, so lets trust him, and back the new owners if/when we get them. we could be the next Blackpool..........

Problem with this Group is it is an investment company, not a wealthy individual. They will be after a return on their investment for their shareholders (plus a management fee similar to the £400k quoted).

The only way Rovers can make an operating profit is to reduce expenses (ie players wages), as it is unlikely that revenues (attendances/merchandise etc) will increase.

Another way to generate a return for their investors would be to sell off soome of our assets ie the land we own.

Very few English football companies can make a decent profit on an ongoing basis, this investment company will realise this (as they surely arent stupid - just take a look at our accounts). I fear that they are just investing in the property that the club owns!!!! This is exactly the conclusion Bruce Osterman came to after he realised there was no money in the day to day operating of the club. We must hold on to our assets or we are doomed.

Also the £5MM debt that we currently owe Mr Johnson will simply be transferred to them. Therefore when they decide to sell to someone else the will expect this £5MM investment back.

Quote:

mini_andy
Give PJ and C9S a chance here guys.
PJ aint no mug, at the end of the day if he wanted to see Tranmere shut down then he would have done it years ago. I can only hope he will sell to the right person/group with the right intentions.

From what i can gather from C9S websites etc they seem to be more about building team up then running them? Maybe they think they can build rovers up, get us stable and flog us on again for a profit in a couple of years. It would make sense as to why they were looking at Sheff Weds in the summer (must have been a pleasing game for them to watch on Tuesday). If they want to pay themselves £400k a year for doing so, then let them. They would have to turn a profit first for the money to come in....

PJ will make the right decision on this one, so lets trust him, and back the new owners if/when we get them. we could be the next Blackpool..........

Could also end up as the next Plymouth or Chester in free fall only time would tell it would be a gamble but one would hope that PJ and his advisers put us on the right road if he sells the one onwards and upwards(Blackpool) or the Plymouth/Chester road we have had Yanks here in the past and only a yank could put Frank Worthington in as manager and look what happened that year nearly ended up going out of the league it was only PJ take over that saved us, so I hope he is very carefull in what happens next.

We have got to be so careful with this. I have been on their website today and read a few letters they sent out to Wednesday fans regarding their intentions etc

It seems with Wednesday their idea was to inject around £3mill straight away, and then hope to raise funds through shirt sales, merchandise etc. Of course this wouldn't happen with us, as obviously we don't have nearly the same pulling power as Wednesday.

As much as I tink PJ is a bit of an idiot, surely he and his advisors are clever enough not to sell us up the garden path? Mind you, look what the Moores did with Liverpool, and Hicks/Gillett.

If it is such a good deal why did Sheff Wed walk away,they were in real dire strights too very close to bankrupcy.Lots of gurantees would have to be given, but didn't Hicks and Gillett give loads of those-new ground big budget for players...
I know PJ wants his money back and he's entitled but is now a good time to sell??get a better price when (or if) the economy improves.....
I think a £400,000 management fee is way over the top for a club our size.Sheff Wed thought it too much and potential-wise they are a much bigger club than us.

Wednesday fan in peace.

During our 'dealings' with Cloud 9 a character by the name of Joe Kosich popped up claiming to be an adviser in the deal, Joe was associated with Dornoch Capital.

Ringing any bells?

Another Owl here.

As stated above, we were in the most precarious position ever. When the deal with C9S fell through, we ultimately ended up in the High Court facing several winding up petitions and we very nearly ceased to exist, not 'just' put into admin.

Tread carefully.

...same company that put us on ebay!

Also a Wednesdayite. Avoid like the plague.

Another Owl here. They promised us hard cash, but ultimately didn't have a pot.

They strung out the negotiations for MONTHS on end (seemingly to us that they were waiting to see what division we would be in) in the mean time transfer windows passed, we couldn't even afford decent loan signings and we were relegated. They then suddenly made their offer - thankfully we told them to do one.

Google BILLSAJA and look for the Owlstalk threads where he commented on Club 9. True, he was a bit of an @#$%&, but he saw through them straight away and came up with a mountain of evidence for why we should treat them like the plague.

He also told us of the numerous failed deals involving Club 9, Tobacco Rd and Dornoch. Well worth a read if you can find them.

Googled it and although theirs a lot of content relating to him I think the actual thread you mean cannot be viewed on owlstalk

i think pj has the interests of trfc ,to get a good deal,pj has been owed money for years,if he called it in or even charged us interest,we would go under.lets trust him ,after all he saved us once before

Quote:

mini_andy
Give PJ and C9S a chance here guys.
PJ aint no mug, at the end of the day if he wanted to see Tranmere shut down then he would have done it years ago. I can only hope he will sell to the right person/group with the right intentions.

From what i can gather from C9S websites etc they seem to be more about building team up then running them? Maybe they think they can build rovers up, get us stable and flog us on again for a profit in a couple of years. It would make sense as to why they were looking at Sheff Weds in the summer (must have been a pleasing game for them to watch on Tuesday). If they want to pay themselves £400k a year for doing so, then let them. They would have to turn a profit first for the money to come in....

PJ will make the right decision on this one, so lets trust him, and back the new owners if/when we get them. we could be the next Blackpool..........

Another Wedenesday fan here. Don't fall for it. They will pay themselves a management fee regardless of whether you make a profit, so you could end up in even more debt. Also, if they offer to put in say £5 million, you will find that that will be over a period of years and they will only put in a small proportion up front. They are in sports management purely to make a profit, they won't give a f*** if you eventually go bust.

cheers all you Owls ! thank you

American guys have a chequered history at Clubs. I was wowed for a few minutes by the prospect until I got some semblence of clarity back.

Hicks and Gillette turned Liverpool into some ditzy looking club, dreaming of past glories they couldn't give them, with fanciful claims they couldn't back up.

Chester faired unwell from having an American in their time.

John W Henry right now appears to be making the kind of noises Liverpool fans want to hear. Two big signings and a popular manager in charge, but again it might be time will tell.

Learner appears in my estimation for Aston Villa a decent alternative for "deadly" Doug Ellis, but I doubt his conflicts of interest with Martin O'neill, that have destabilised a consistently performing club, will have done his credibility or respect there any good.

This is the first time Tranmere have had any kind of real interest, I think since those Portuguese guys about 8 years ago, that didn't buy Swindon.

Generally history tells us, that Americans at clubs are best when they play, not when they handle the finances.

The venture Club 9 Sports has connections to a company called Prometheus Capital Partners.

John Prutch and Jon Pritchett look like the two main cohorts connected to Club 9 Sports, from what I can ascertain from digging about a bit.

Prometheus Capital

You'll need Acrobat Reader to view their profiles.

Pritchett also blogs, with some entries about football.

Jon Pritchett's Blog

Pritchett's personal info.

Jon Pritchett

Tobacco Road Capitalists

Also one of the companies these guys have connections to is an Astroturf brand.

I don'tlike the idea that Tranmere players could end up playing on Astroturf.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011:02:17:21:03:09 by Matt34.

please all get your blinkers off.
Football is about to go bust.
Sky are going to loose a load of revenue courtesy of the European courts and all these "rich" clubs are going to be stuffed.
Fifa have brought in new regs to stop wealthy people from bankrolling clubs again the "rich" clubs are in deep trouble.
The days of players earning x thousands of pounds a week are about to end.
It could be argued that clubs like TRFC and the likes are in a far stronger long term position than all premiership clubs.
Bear this in mind when you form your opinions.

They are an investment company, which means shareholders invest in their company and expect a return from the portfolio of companys they own. The only value in tranmere is the land (or perhaps the one off transfer for dale Jennings).

Just look at the comments from this group - it is all financially orientated. It's a fact that football companies are not the right vehicles for profit making from their operations. If you weren't a tranmere fan would anyone buy shares in us to get a return on their investment? clearly the answer is no. The shares have only once paid a dividend and if the shares were on the stock exchange dealing would be suspended as the performance would be so poor. The only value is in the land. An investment company is not what we need. Listen to these Wednesday supporters. They are talking sense.

Quote:

kendow
please all get your blinkers off.
Football is about to go bust.
Sky are going to loose a load of revenue courtesy of the European courts and all these "rich" clubs are going to be stuffed.
Fifa have brought in new regs to stop wealthy people from bankrolling clubs again the "rich" clubs are in deep trouble.
The days of players earning x thousands of pounds a week are about to end.
It could be argued that clubs like TRFC and the likes are in a far stronger long term position than all premiership clubs.
Bear this in mind when you form your opinions.

Agreed. Football is as bust as the country.

Problem is PJ is not a young man and what happens if he died before selling, his family wont give a stuff who buys the club. they will just want the money that is owed one way or another.

An investment company is the worst possible way forward. The will not loose with a manaagement fee and other assurances underwriting any notional investment but we could soon be in massive trouble.

I wish that I did trust P.J but essentially he is a businessman and not a benefactor (otherwise he would have followed the option taken by others of selling the club for a nominal sum) If the deal is right for him I suspect that other considerations will be ignored. I am not saying that he wishes the club well but his priority will not be that of the supporters.

In his dealings at the time of going to Everton he was assidious in looking at his own best interests.

It is abid that fills me with dread. I would rather be in Plymouths position with the strong likihood of admin than this.

Wednesday rejected this bid,even though as an investment they have greater potential to get where the only real money lies in football. Why would it be bid worth accepting for Rovers but not for Wednesday?

It lies outside our control but if PJ has any regard for fans we should be voicing opposition to such a sale rather than delluding ourselves that this represents a new dawn

cant help but feel a bit sceptical.. but you cant bring Bruce Osterman into it.. they are two different people/companys..just because thier nationality it doesnt mean much. i think Tranmere need something like this to happen. And anyway can it be any worse than PJ? also we have a good side, who when they play well are one of the best sides in the league, how can we expect them to stay for the wages they are on compared to other teams! the only person we owe money too is PJ, so hopefully if Club 9 sports do buy Tranmere, they will pay off this debt and give the players better wages and therefore more reason to stay and play harder!

Bruce Osterman wasn't brought into it because he's the of the same nationality as far as I'm aware but the point is that what happened with him COULD happen again so we need to be cautious.

Can it be any worse than Johnson? I'm not saying it definitely will but yes it can. What's to say that these people won't sell off the assets of the Club and take the money and run?

Even PJ hasn't resorted to that step.

I'm not saying all of these bad options will ever come to pass but while it remains a possible outcome (see Wrexham and Chester) then we have to be sceptical and cautious I feel.

I say we knock it back before we know what the deal is and wait another ten years till another one comes along.....................

Every ball is a white ball............TRFC

Quote:

tranmerepete
I say we knock it back before we know what the deal is and wait another ten years till another one comes along.....................

Has anyone said that should be what happens?....

"We should listen to what they want to do but proceed with caution and scepticism in my opinion." is what I said above.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:02:18:17:35:21 by Deadly Submarine.

TRFC Lad, you say suggest it can't be worse than PJ, but at least PJ isn't calling our debt to him in at the moment, are charging interest on it. A company like this would do just that when they got bored, and they could get bored a lot quicker than Johnson

I think if you read most of the post's they think it's bad news before we know what the deal is. We cant keep relying on PJ he wants out,and now more than ever. That's why we have a joke of a budget. That budget will break us in the end. The gate now are down to 5000 most games including away fans. We will end up going down at some point in the next five years if we dont do something soon. What would happen to us if we go down again cause of the budget. We can't carry on running this way. Yes it might have not be the best the deal for Wednesday but we are not as big as Wednesday. We are a small club that the owner wants out. If we don't find a new owner soon we will be a lot of trouble

Every ball is a white ball............TRFC

I'd rather be in L2 with a small budget than in the Zamaretto Premier supporting AFC Tranmere.

I didn't want to instantly dismiss the American bid like some but the more I read the more and more dodgy they seem.

PErsonally I think they have no interest in us as a football club, PP is worth about 10 mil with planning permission for housing, they're buying us for what, 4 mil? Plus Ingleborough, theirs another 4 mil or so.

Scared for our future, don't get me wrong, PJ isn't great - far from it, his decision making is scarily bad/weird, however at least their will be a Tranmere with him in charge, even if we are as about as professional as Vauxhall.

Yes the club could be in danger of relegation, but if something did happen to Johnson health wise, there would still 30% for Lorraine Rogers and 10% for a.n.others, so there would still be homegrown ownership of part of the club.

Selling the whole thing could be a train crash.

Look at it this way, yes the club could possibly get relegated, but relegation is better than termination.

The Wednesday fans have a massive point. This is not about the size of the club, this is about what was on the table. If those people at Club 9 were offering a deal that was unnacceptable, why change tack for Tranmere?

They could easily decide to progress in a very similar manner, with one or two tweaks to the grand plan, based on current club finances, because there's no reason to offer a bum deal to Wednesday then clean it up and repackage it for Tranmere, as if they're some rookies taught a business lesson in the football world.

I would hazard a guess that the clubs they run in North America, might be run to the same sort of plan. I mean would you really need a totally different business strategy for a baseball team, compared to a basketball team? I'd say there might be a fairly consistent business model in most situations, because ultimately it's another team they're trying to buy here, not something like a cheap B&B they can try and change, to rival the Village Hotel in Bromborough.

Maybe the kind of dealoffered to Wednesday, might be more tenable for Tranmere, based on the clubs smaller size and less debt, so it could be they thought the deal was unsuitable for a club their size, but if the deal was just scaled down to be as unsuitable for Tranmere, then Tranmere will potentially get as stiffed as they could have been.

To be honest, I don't like the thought of Johnson owning the club and doing things that threaten to reverse years of improvement, but it would be better I feel than a soulless comporate, that buys sports clubs for the heck of it.

Tranmere won't get the equivalent of Bill Kenwright. When these guys roll up once in a while to watch. They probably won't show much emotion if a shot goes a bit wide, or fist pump when it goes in, or put their hands over their face if the team loses.

These guys buy companies like they're baby cattle, that can be potentially fattened up and sold if needs be.

I'd rather Tranmere go down to league 2 in the next few years, than Tranmere go up, end up spending 10x the money on wages, then have the corporates pull out, causing the club to not be able to buy the standard of players they need, go down and end up like Plymouth, going close to the wall with instantaneously expensive players.

Les is doing a darn good job right now and when Jennings gets sold, if he went for £1,500,000, Tranmere could spend around another £500,000 for the next 3 seasons and that would be around £650,000 if he was sold for £2,000,000.

That could be enough cash to double the wage allowance, sign Robbo and Warner for longer, plus a few similar quality players and push for promotion.

Not to mention the possibility of more serious cup revenues. This season was a little flat cup wise, but the team should get a better chance in the next 3 years, to get a similar kind of cup form to last season and make better revenues from the cups. As I doubt the cups would throw up the some of the hardest away games possible every season making any cup progress seriously difficult to achieve.

3 years could be long enough to wait for someone else, or another party to come in and do a more advantageous deal.

Plus if the yanks walked away, the publicity might get one or two other suitbable parties crawling out of the woodwork, because now Tranmere have a showcase for the club, they have a low budget, well performing team, with a decent, honest manager that gets shrewd signings.

This could possibly make a new owner feel confident, they could keep Les on and get good signings for their money, because I doubt he'd just throw money around like Alan Irvine did at Christmas.

I am willing to entertain what they have to offer the club, but I am more erring towards the side of avoiding them, than accepting them.

Let us face some realities here.
I am neither a fan nor an enemy of Peter Johnson but those of us who are old enough to remember must accept the fact that if it wasnt for him Tranmere Rovers would not be in existence now. The "glory years" were under his reign.He brought Aldridge et al to the club.He has allowed the club to survive.
Ok he wants out and his money back what is wrong with that?
The club have been for sale for a long time but he has not sold out to the first bidder.
Any businessman in his position could have made a handsome profit by assett stripping the club during the "glory years" but he didn't. Give the guy a break.
Ps who has said the club will be sold to these people?

It was never a case of instantly dismissing them but some fans saw pound signs flashing in front of their eyes and didn't see the bigger picture at the time.

Proceed with caution was the opinion I formed early on and I stick by that.

As for the story at the top... "They have SHARES in several franchises in America".

WTF???

Many people own shares - doesn't mean they own the company or have anything other than a token vote.

As for the example cited - the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets are owned almost outright (well he owns 93.5%) by Stan Kroenke. The same Sam Kroenke who owns the Colorado Avalanche (NHL), Colorado Rapids (MLS), St Louis Rams (NFL) and.... the majority stake in Arsenal.

Are Club 9 SERIOUSLY trying to jump on his coat-tails and pretend that they have any input with the Nuggets? Incredible.

These shamsters were exposed big-time with their bozo the clown approach to taking over Wednesday. Can't believe they are still making such idiots of themselves.

Fingers crossed for you Tranmere - you don't deserve these charlatans.

Although I agree with a lot of comments on here, let's get a few things straight;

I'm English and not the biggest fan of our North American cousins, but let's not generalise a nation based on Hicks/Gillete and ghosts from our past. Randy Learner and the Glaziers (despite what Utd supporters say) have constructed well structured, well marketed business models. Now, I'm not comparing us to Man Utd or Aston Villa, but the US is not the worlds No.1 economy for nothing and if anyone has seen a US sports team you will see that the UK hasn't even begun to scratch the surface with regards to marketing, which leads to revenue.

Secondly, yes it is an investment firm and yes it will cash in it's assets if and when needed. End of story. That is the issue here, not the deal with Sheff Wed, not the fact that they are American, our concern should be the fact that they are nothing more than a contextualised loan shark with a website and a tweeter.

Regards, PJ - if anyone thinks he wouldn't sell us down the river to bank roll his retirement and his family's future, then please go and get yourself checked out - remember when we could have pushed for the top flight and he decided to take his last stump of investment capital across the Mersey to Goodison? One of the biggest turning points in our recent history as far as I am concerned. Oh, and he did sack a decent manager and appoint John Barnes...

At the end of the day, the only way we are going with PJ is down. Inflation in the transfer market, a global recession and the fact that we are in one of the poorer regions of the UK means that PJ's reductionist policy season after season will leave us just financially secure, but unable to compete and ultimately, we will become AFC Tranmere, sharing a stadium with Cammell Laird anyway. Simple economics really.

I personally think we give the bidders a chance. So what if they are the firm that put us on ebay? It got us some attention didn't it? Just because Sheff Wed couldn't agree a deal, doesn't mean we won't be able to. Remember, Sheff Wed have this inflated opinion of themselves, as do most 'big' clubs that fall. We sign countless players that 'failed' elsewhere - if we based our judgements on the aspersions of their former clubs, we'd never sign anyone. And the American 'don't know what they are doing' talk is rubbish. The MLS is the fastest growing emerging sports league in the world and sports clubs in other US sports turn yearly profits and pay their players far more than, for example, the Premier League, without overseas investment.

As Deadly Sub says "proceed with caution" but let's not write them off based on assumptions, past judgements and a slight pinch of stereotype.

SWA!

Whilst I can't agree with certain points made in it (I do agree with a lot of it) you make one of the best arguments on here to be fair Davey.

There are talks on another Website already of protests and the like but even though I haven't liked the idea of this thing since the start as Mikey will testify, I still think it's too early for that kind of action if I'm totally honest.

Great post daveyc - alot of which share my views on the situation.

Maybe they see it that they can buy is off PJ, invest some money in the club and then after after a few years and hopefully promotion - in all fairness, a bit of extra wages and we all know we can have a team competing at the top of this league again - they would sell the club as a championship team for a lot more than they buy us for.

I share your view Deadly Sub about proceeding with caution - I think many people - myself included - are scared of change.. ive been trying to buy a new car for the last 2 years now but cant part with the one I have! lol

but, I gotta appreciate that, however reliable its been for me, eventually its gunna go bang and i'll have to invest! Granted, I cant compare the running of a football club to a Vauxhall Vectra but without funding, are we going to remain where we are?

OK, point taken the Dale Jennings 'fund' may help us on our feet for a few years but then what? 2015 season starts and we're here again! (unless we have more youth coming through!)

Surely to become a better team, we need to keep hold of Jennings, hopefully aquire Lateef and start building a decent team of players and not become a feeder club for the teams above us!

I also see the negative points made on several of the posts above.... its always a possibility - I appreciate and understand that!

In PJ, I trust! but in the meantime, im still on the fence!

One last thing.... with the greatest and upmost respect for the Owls fans who have posted on here slagging the company off - how much of it is true... or is it fans talk? We cant compare what happened with Owls 'cus they never took them over! Take Hicks and Gilette for example (no link to being American) - The Liverpool fans loved them when they came in, they @#$%& up and then the Liverpool fans hate then and claim they have put the club in the poor state they are in today.
Take the Glazers (again, altho American - no relevance to my point) - there was bad rumours when they took over, the fans even started their own club so not to support what they were doing..... a lot of fans are now starting to realise.. and has been mentioned above.. that theyre not doing as bad a job there as many thought, most believing they'd be bankrupt by now! Ok, yes, they are in a certain amount of debt as aparently they have moved money about etc but with recent newspaper offers of 1billion pounds from sum arab to buy them - thats not bankruptcy to me!!!!

Teams like Utd, Barca, Real etc will never go bankrupt. When you get 60,000 fans paying 30quid and more for a ticket and combined with shirt sales etc - youre always going to have a flow of money coming in. Very unlikely we will be a team like Barca in the near future but on a smaller scale, all teams should run that way!

Like I said, I'll remain on the fence for now - I cant really comment myself unless PJ invites me into the meeting room with them so I can hear for myself!

sorry for long post - I think i need a lye down now!

I was possibly more optimistic than most upon first hearing the news but now I'm completely out - yanks out.

Do not get involved with these guys.

the one thing no sees here is yes there an investment company and they would like a profit at some point what do u need in football for a profit.

cup runs
higher league
more fans

so what are they going to do have to but money into the club were from who cares none of us no what there intentions are wheather its to just own a football club for fun or to make something of it to sell in a few years for a tidy profit who knows but either way they cant run the club into the ground

The ideal Chairman for a club in our position is a rich fan. Not some conglomerate of investors who are in it for the money. C9S (in my opinion) are only in it for the postential value of the land and the value of income from selling Jenno.
As for what an earlier poster said, Football is about to bankrupt, and clubs like us are in a much better position than the likes of Chelsea and Machester City etc.
I'd rather have us here or League 2 than propping down to St George's lane to watch AFC Tranmere v Worcester City.
PJ will do good by the club, I have faith. Despite past misdemeanours he'll do god by us in the long term.
Sorry for repeating what other posters have said, in part, but I agree with many sentiments on here.

Thet will not put money into the club.They may lend at a high rate but the debt will be Rovers and not theirs,that is how investment companies work.

As to why would thery be interested,well they pick up a fat fee each season and can make money off the loans.If we cannot pay they forclose on us.

My opposistion has nothing to do with them being American but to do with them being an investment company, It would cover PJ need but would be suicide for Rovers

The reason i brought Bruce Osterman up was not because he is American. It is not an issue of where the investor comes from.

I brought it up as it is the only time in Tranmeres history that they had an owner that did not fully recognise what he was investing in, that a company like tranmere does not make money. Historically reason for investing is merely for local pride / self estime. It would generally raise the profile of the investors other companies (Park Hampers / Corfe), therefore giving them an indirect benefit. The football company is just a "nice to have" company for the owner.

The problem is when the investors dont realise that this is all a football company is and when they get bored, they end up asset stripping. I really think this is the case with these potentialinvestors.

Let me stress that it is not a case of nationality, it is a case of not fully understanding what they are investing in. I would be happy for an American Investor (or from any country) as long as they know what they are buying (ie a company that doesnt make operating profits!!) - so basically they know they will never get a return financially, but it may raise their media profile a bit.

I may bea talking compelt etwaddle here ,but I don't suppose Johnson could actually sell his 60% stake to them, as he's tried to do for ages, then if they bought it, the other 30% Lorraine Rogers has and the 10% that "others" own, would still be in local hands, which might be some kind of back up scenario, if in a few years the investors bailed, as there might be a way for those still involved like Lorraine, Mick Horton etc, to buy the 60% back off them.

Alternatively they'd only have to palm the 60% off on someone else, not a whole club, so it might be more affordable for someone to come in and commit to that, than a whole purchase.

At least other parties still having a collective 40%, would mean the Americans couldn't call all the shots, they would have to concede a bit of ground here and there, but the great thing is other people would still be in the setup, to get insight into their business methods, so if they bailed, such understanding could be adapted to a fall back plan, in the future.

no football club makes money that is a fact we nearly did but me fell 20,000 short but to do that we did have to sell andy taylor. therefore if your going to buy a football club for profit it wont be us.

everyone keeps saying it for the land property market is not the greatest therfore the land isnt worth what it would be in a few years time. banks arent stupid there not going to loan to a club if they dont think they will get there money back i.e they wouldnt lend millions and millions to use as we already make a loss.

this company has got in with sports in usa and on top of that one of them last year made 133million dollars profit so there not short of cash.

we dont even no if there will be a bid for the club and we dont dont know what there proposed ideas are last time johnson wanted 4million a season put into the club for atleast 5 years thats 20million we all know a bank would not give use a loan for that as they no they wouldnt be getting it back.

also dont forget if we did get new owners who would be putting money in we most certainly have attendance inrease which leads to shirts sale increase and to programe increase which all addsup to more money

jade, johnson has never said he wants someone to put in £4million a year it was £3 million over 4 years

reports read when the portugese link was made he wanted 4 million a season to put into the club because thats what he was puting y would he want someone to put 3mill in over 4 years

that 750,000 a year our wage budget last year was 1.1mil there for your saying 4/5 years ago when that intrest was made we would have been putting less money into the club than we are now ??

are outgoings last year were about £2.4 million and are imcomings were similar so why would somebody put in £4 million a year?

at the time there portugease people were buying the club it wasnt that