Rumours Rumours - Summer 2021 edition (Deadline Day from p814)

TheAddicks4Ever said:

What about Aston Villa’s number 37 Mungo Bridge ? He’d be a great CB cover on loan for the season 

In the summertime is the right time to sign Mungo (Jerry) Bridge. 

Cafc43v3r said:

JamesSeed said:

Cafc43v3r said:

There are 4 possible explanations for the current state of affairs.

1) We have been picky and only signed players we really want, not anything that moves, and held our nerve.  This may or may not stay the same as the deadline looms closer.

2) We can't/won't pay what we need to to get the players we need in and can't/won't budge.

3) It's deliberate and the "plan" is to add 2 or 3 quality players each window and build over a number of seasons.

4) No one can be arsed and they just haven't bothered or they were too busy in the recording studio, on holiday, or enjoying the hospitality at QPR.

I think in all honesty we can rule out 4.  I suspect its 1 with maybe a tint of 2.  If its 3 someone is going to get a short sharp shock when the bills start piling up. 

There’s a fifth:
5) Things aren’t *quite* as bad as some think they are, after just two games this season;
Possibly some decent players in the pipeline, loan or otherwise. Gilbey to return. Kirk about to join the party. Clare and Dobson still bedding in. Morgan may be about to find that killer pass, or maybe even launch one into the top corner, which would be a boost to his fragile self confidence. Hope so anyway. 

5 is 1 isn't it?  Unless you believe we won't bring anyone else in at all, then it becomes 3 or 4? 

It’s sort of 1+ I guess. 

TheAddicks4Ever said:

What about Aston Villa’s number 37 Mungo Bridge ? He’d be a great CB cover on loan for the season 

He'll probably end up being one too far.

I'd definitely pick Bridge over troubled Gunter

*shoots self*

Croydon said:

shine166 said:

Can everyone thats saying we are obviously refusing to pay wages, at least acknowledge that TS is spending his own money, while the Ipswich owner is spending the money of others ? 

Still cannot get my head around how a pension fund is spending so much on a league one side.

You do know that it's not just your average SIPP. The Pension fund probably has billions under management & so a few million to buy Ipswich & then a few more on player purchases & wages is probably a very small % of the overall assets. Local Government schemes move millions every day around the money markets just to get an extra 0.1% of interest. No difference here I would expect. 

AndyG said:

Rothko said:

shine166 said:

Can everyone thats saying we are obviously refusing to pay wages, at least acknowledge that TS is spending his own money, while the Ipswich owner is spending the money of others ? 

Exactly, very easy to spend Karen from Ohio 401k then your own money 

I do find this whole pension investment thing at Ipswich very interesting. I like alot of people have a SIPP and through that own some commercial property. When one of them need some maintenance the pension administrator insists I get 3 quotes for anything I spend from my SIPP. This is slightly annoying as I own a building maintenance company lol, but that is the job of a pension administrator and why I pay them their fees. How on earth has the administrator of that American fund approved investment into a football club in the uk ?

The pension fund has not made a direct investment in the club, it is has passed over it would seem about 0.03%, an insignificant part, of its £13bn of assets to a modest US portfolio manager ORG Portfolio Management as a small play on the market to diversify returns with a bit of risk and a higher potential return.  

It seems most of the investment will have been to acquire debt and property from Marcus Evans, so mostly fixed rate returns, and probably at tasty rates. That is the attraction for the pension fund.

The 90% equity gives ORG overall control to appoint management and give a windfall if Ipswich get promoted and justify the level of risk being taken.  It does not mean there is a gravy train of cash pouring out of the pension fund.  It is an arms length investment via ORG and if it goes bad it will just be one of the many small higher risk investments that statistically will go bad for the pension fund.

The pension fund will not be involved in the day to day running of the club, or writing cheques for Paul Cook, that is down to the management team.  ORG is 90% shareholder but only has one representative sitting on the board.  That is not the set up if you gave the club your magic porridge pot.

The management team calling the shots and spunking money on players are the 3 yanks who own "Three Lions Fund" which has a 5% investment and the CEO who is ex West Brom CEO.  If it goes bad these will be the fall guys who ORG will blame for losing money for their client pension fund.  ORG is not playing with its own money and it will not throw good money after bad on behalf of its client.

The idea that the pension fund is writing cheques for Paul Cook, or that he has access to an unlimited source of money is fanciful.  

Paul Cook has been given the keys to the sweet shop, but when he runs out of sweets and the club is still in League 1 he will be stuffed even if the ultimate owner does have £13bn of assets.

golfaddick said:

Croydon said:

shine166 said:

Can everyone thats saying we are obviously refusing to pay wages, at least acknowledge that TS is spending his own money, while the Ipswich owner is spending the money of others ? 

Still cannot get my head around how a pension fund is spending so much on a league one side.

You do know that it's not just your average SIPP. The Pension fund probably has billions under management & so a few million to buy Ipswich & then a few more on player purchases & wages is probably a very small % of the overall assets. Local Government schemes move millions every day around the money markets just to get an extra 0.1% of interest. No difference here I would expect. 

Golfie genuine question here. Am I right in thinking you are in the financial services industry ? May be wrong but I think I have seen you write that previously ?
Anyway if you were my financial advisor and even if I had billions would you recommend me investing in a league one football club in the uk if I was looking for a ROI ?

Thanks @Dippenhall

TheAddicks4Ever said:

What about Aston Villa’s number 37 Mungo Bridge ? He’d be a great CB cover on loan for the season 

Mungo just a pawn in game of life.

cabbles said:

Dippenhall said:

AndyG said:

Rothko said:

shine166 said:

Can everyone thats saying we are obviously refusing to pay wages, at least acknowledge that TS is spending his own money, while the Ipswich owner is spending the money of others ? 

Exactly, very easy to spend Karen from Ohio 401k then your own money 

I do find this whole pension investment thing at Ipswich very interesting. I like alot of people have a SIPP and through that own some commercial property. When one of them need some maintenance the pension administrator insists I get 3 quotes for anything I spend from my SIPP. This is slightly annoying as I own a building maintenance company lol, but that is the job of a pension administrator and why I pay them their fees. How on earth has the administrator of that American fund approved investment into a football club in the uk ?

The pension fund has not made a direct investment in the club, it is has passed over it would seem about 0.03%, an insignificant part, of its £13bn of assets to a modest US portfolio manager ORG Portfolio Management as a small play on the market to diversify returns with a bit of risk and a higher potential return.  

It seems most of the investment will have been to acquire debt and property from Marcus Evans, so mostly fixed rate returns, and probably at tasty rates. That is the attraction for the pension fund.

The 90% equity gives ORG overall control to appoint management and give a windfall if Ipswich get promoted and justify the level of risk being taken.  It does not mean there is a gravy train of cash pouring out of the pension fund.  It is an arms length investment via ORG and if it goes bad it will just be one of the many small higher risk investments that statistically will go bad for the pension fund.

The pension fund will not be involved in the day to day running of the club, or writing cheques for Paul Cook, that is down to the management team.  ORG is 90% shareholder but only has one representative sitting on the board.  That is not the set up if you gave the club your magic porridge pot.

The management team calling the shots and spunking money on players are the 3 yanks who own "Three Lions Fund" which has a 5% investment and the CEO who is ex West Brom CEO.  If it goes bad these will be the fall guys who ORG will blame for losing money for their client pension fund.  ORG is not playing with its own money and it will not throw good money after bad on behalf of its client.

The idea that the pension fund is writing cheques for Paul Cook, or that he has access to an unlimited source of money is fanciful.  

Paul Cook has been given the keys to the sweet shop, but when he runs out of sweets and the club is still in League 1 he will be stuffed even if the ultimate owner does have £13bn of assets.

How does ORG/the pension fund make a return on its investment?  I know the club could make money if they reach the Premier League, but how does that equate to an ROI for the fund?  Is it going to be similar to the Glazers at Man Utd? 

It’s a roll of the dice by the look of it. Thought that you would have got better odds at the casino

cabbles said:

Dippenhall said:

AndyG said:

Rothko said:

shine166 said:

Can everyone thats saying we are obviously refusing to pay wages, at least acknowledge that TS is spending his own money, while the Ipswich owner is spending the money of others ? 

Exactly, very easy to spend Karen from Ohio 401k then your own money 

I do find this whole pension investment thing at Ipswich very interesting. I like alot of people have a SIPP and through that own some commercial property. When one of them need some maintenance the pension administrator insists I get 3 quotes for anything I spend from my SIPP. This is slightly annoying as I own a building maintenance company lol, but that is the job of a pension administrator and why I pay them their fees. How on earth has the administrator of that American fund approved investment into a football club in the uk ?

The pension fund has not made a direct investment in the club, it is has passed over it would seem about 0.03%, an insignificant part, of its £13bn of assets to a modest US portfolio manager ORG Portfolio Management as a small play on the market to diversify returns with a bit of risk and a higher potential return.  

It seems most of the investment will have been to acquire debt and property from Marcus Evans, so mostly fixed rate returns, and probably at tasty rates. That is the attraction for the pension fund.

The 90% equity gives ORG overall control to appoint management and give a windfall if Ipswich get promoted and justify the level of risk being taken.  It does not mean there is a gravy train of cash pouring out of the pension fund.  It is an arms length investment via ORG and if it goes bad it will just be one of the many small higher risk investments that statistically will go bad for the pension fund.

The pension fund will not be involved in the day to day running of the club, or writing cheques for Paul Cook, that is down to the management team.  ORG is 90% shareholder but only has one representative sitting on the board.  That is not the set up if you gave the club your magic porridge pot.

The management team calling the shots and spunking money on players are the 3 yanks who own "Three Lions Fund" which has a 5% investment and the CEO who is ex West Brom CEO.  If it goes bad these will be the fall guys who ORG will blame for losing money for their client pension fund.  ORG is not playing with its own money and it will not throw good money after bad on behalf of its client.

The idea that the pension fund is writing cheques for Paul Cook, or that he has access to an unlimited source of money is fanciful.  

Paul Cook has been given the keys to the sweet shop, but when he runs out of sweets and the club is still in League 1 he will be stuffed even if the ultimate owner does have £13bn of assets.

How does ORG/the pension fund make a return on its investment?  I know the club could make money if they reach the Premier League, but how does that equate to an ROI for the fund?  Is it going to be similar to the Glazers at Man Utd? 

I assume a short term business plan. Go hard quick, chuck say £50-100M at promotion to the PL, if it works sell for £200M, if it doesn't write it off as a bad experience and go after the realization of the fixed assets (land/players) hard to get out with the smallest loss possible I assume?

EricBanterna said:

Jack Tucker was approached but Gills asked for too much. We went in early doors but haven't been back since. Tucker is keen to join us. 

Maybe this is one we aim to revisit near the end of the window hoping that they become realistic and we get the player for a lower fee.

Not a clue if we went in for Tucker, but most certainly the type of player we should be looking at.

As another option, he’d allow us to play 3 at the back if we signed an attacking left back too. That would mean we could be creative with who the midfield pairing is and have DJ and Kirk either side of Stockley. 

Sage said:

EricBanterna said:

Jack Tucker was approached but Gills asked for too much. We went in early doors but haven't been back since. Tucker is keen to join us. 

Maybe this is one we aim to revisit near the end of the window hoping that they become realistic and we get the player for a lower fee.

Not a clue if we went in for Tucker, but most certainly the type of player we should be looking at.

As another option, he’d allow us to play 3 at the back if we signed an attacking left back too. That would mean we could be creative with who the midfield pairing is and have DJ and Kirk either side of Stockley. 

I think 3-5-2 (or a hybrid of it) is where we should head and Gunter will be more than capable as the right sided CH in this system. Key is getting a decent LWB.

Gillingham are under a transfer embargo & will need to pay back the loan they took from the EFL shortly to change that.

They need to generate money from somewhere to do the above & in my opinion £500k for Tucker is not unreasonable...especially as any deal is also likely to include a sell on clause (given his age).

He's managed to accumulate a good amount of L1 appearances but is by no means a stand out player. I've never thought he looks that special when I've seen him. He only gets so much attention on here because he lives locally, plays in a position we require more depth in & is within the age range we are targetting this summer.

Maccn05 said:

MrBurns said:

ElliotCAFC said:

This is the kind of thing the recruitment team and TS are up against. 

Expectations have been set so high, no matter what good business we do, it will be seen as “being done on the cheap” by a vocal section of the fan base. 

Not digging out this specific poster but it does show how some fans are living in a completely different reality. 

Tucker for £0.5m LOL

So to be open this was my post on Twitter.

My intention was simply to create some debate over who you’d like us to sign if we did spend bit mainly about the balance between do you spend the money and push for promotion and the extra £6m it delivers or do you do it on a budget and continue to lose £5-10m each season of you don’t go up?

Effectively what’s more cost effective / the best way. Not a serious demand of TS - and anyone who thinks it was needs to remove the stick from up their arse!

If you read the full thread you can clearly see I say I don’t expect this to happen at all. It’s just some fun, musings, ideas.

But it also Shows one of the biggest problems - our fanbase is divided right now between ‘The realists’ or the ‘Cult of Sandgaard’ or whatever you want to call it. I try sit in the middle-ish But it’s pretty nasty on the socials.

If anyone posts anything on socials it just becomes a mud slinging match, point scoring with people trying to mug people off and a battle between the two sides. Our fan base isn’t a nice place right now, largely instigated by TS’s ridiculous claims. As evidenced on here by the comments to my post and it’s why I rarely post anymore after trying to get involved with this ‘community’

The names selected were simply players I rate I have no ideas on the fees, I’m just a fan. But for your information I was told by some people who have a direct line in that yeah we did hold discussions with Tucker (no fee agreed) and we did discuss a deal when Charles (he was interested but wants a Champ move, if not would consider us) so is it really so ridiculous or living in another reality?

… and yeah I really do love FM have played it successfully for 30 years particularly on my business travels 👍🏼

So chill the F out people it was just a bit of fun. It’s only football!

Divided fan base which you’ve added fuel to the fire with needless comments on TS