This copy was obviously written by Kenwright/Prentice and faithfully reproduced by the lapdog Joyce
They rewrite scrimping and saving, sell to buy under moyes as 'transfer acumen.'
Well done Prenno.
Would Shiekh Mansour have bought Man City had they not been gifted the Etihad ground or the Saudi's buying Newcastle if they were in a run down 35k ground and not SJP ?
Yes, to both. They would have.
A new stadium is petty cash, sofa change.
The UAE pumps out what is essentially flammable sludge at 230 million dollars a day at current prices. Obviously it's not all profit, but it's a sizeable sum.
Saudi Arabia dwarfs that, even after recent production cuts it's approx 750 million USD a day.
Using the stadium as an excuse for Abu Dhabi not going ahead is playing right into the hands of Kenwright.
Imagine his best acting sad face:
“if only we had a new stadium we'd have been winning trebles by now!"
Don't for a second think that was the stumbling block.
Everton were the first choice. It didn't happen. Why? No idea. But I have it from people I was dealing with on behalf Mansour around that time Everton was the first club approached.
"We looked at Everton first but received no encouragement to proceed"
I will swear on my families life until the day I die that's what I was told by one of the ruling families most trusted advisors.
Another person I trust implicitly (city based) tells me the Everton deal got to due diligence stage before the deal was shut down from Evertons side. Dunno. That's what he said and I have no reason to doubt.
Shinawatra, exiled in Dubai at the time (still is) made contact and the deal was done in days. Abu Dhabi had their team.
Whichever scenario (no encouragement or due diligence) the stadium wasn't a factor. Please, stop using it as an excuse.
Same goes for Newcastle. I'd expect they were attractive because they were relatively cheap and had a big marketing value. (famous name - rightly or wrongly)