Takeover talk - Rangers confirm Whyte talks

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,748]

At the end of the day if you dig deep enough it's possible to find dirt on just about anybody, especially in this day and age when things like the internet make information easily accessible.

Already we have seen rumoured interest from Ellis, King, Duffy & that Akhar fellow who used to own Leeds receive negative reaction because people ahve done a bit of digging into their pasts and not liked what they have read and now it seems this Whyte guy is slowly starting to join that list too.

If we dismiss everybody who shows an interest on the basis of shady/poor business deals they have done in the past then the chances are we will never find a new owner.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

Read what you wrote again.

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

At the end of the day if you dig deep enough it's possible to find dirt on just about anybody, especially in this day and age when things like the internet make information easily accessible.

Already we have seen rumoured interest from Ellis, King, Duffy & that Akhar fellow who used to own Leeds receive negative reaction because people ahve done a bit of digging into their pasts and not liked what they have read and now it seems this Whyte guy is slowly starting to join that list too.

If we dismiss everybody who shows an interest on the basis of shady/poor business deals they have done in the past then the chances are we will never find a new owner.

Do we want a new owner that much that we dismiss peoples past ?

As i said if he buys the club and does a great job who gives a shit about his past but there are a few warning bells ringing about the guy, and i certainly didn't need to dig deep to find any "dirt"......

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,748]

Do we want a new owner that much that we dismiss peoples past ?

As i said if he buys the club and does a great job who gives a shit about his past but there are a few warning bells ringing about the guy, and i certainly didn't need to dig deep to find any "dirt"......

No, not at all.

I just don't think we can completly write off what they could potentially do for Rangers on the basis of it, much like yourself.

[Muff 245]

It's all gone quiet...

[dummiesoot 15,990]

It's all gone quiet...

I think I heard darrel king said on RC that why're was on his way over to have talks with SdM over the next couple of days.

[Imodium 410]

I hope it does go through. I'd be over the moon to get the debt cleared and have the burden lifted from the club.

As for the transfer money - £5m a season is fine with me. The last thing we need is a £20m kitty, would be in the same situation as now within 3 years

[rangers_1873 1]

in todays sunday mail

sorry breaks cover

[markybear 136]

What's it saying?

Summary or link plz mate

[G.E.C. 18,711]

Clyde 1 were saying he flew in from Monaco to have discussions with Murray. The takeover will be done by January if Murray does sell.

[broxibear87 129]

?

[BRITNEY IS NOT FEELING IT 8,293]

Might be concluded on the evening of January 1st :chopometer:

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

Links or screenshots would be nice mucker

[RFC55 108,714]

The earlu is saying that hes here trying to speed up the process.

There is a pic of him also in the paper. Not really much we dont know. I have the early just now

[Clemdog 39,389]

A new article on the situation.

We now have a new kid on the block and again there is mystery and intrigue and unanswered questions. The word is that Craig Whyte has the money that he says he has and that he has proven it to the key men at Ibrox. Of all the other prospective buyers in the recent past, it is said that Whyte ticks more boxes than any of them. More than one source has drawn a comparision with Whyte and a younger Murray.

There's a way to run in all of this yet - forget the nonsense of a deal being done by Christmas for a start - but things are said to be on track. Whyte, to quote a contact, is "believable". Fair enough. The fact is that, one day, a buyer will be found for Rangers and maybe this is the guy, maybe, after all the false dawns, Whyte is the real deal.

Before you believe that Whyte really is the one, you have to ask about a lot of things.

First of all, how is it possible that a Rangers supporting "billionaire" has gone unnoticed until about ten weeks ago? We're told that Whyte has followed Rangers since he was a boy and that he has accumulated vast wealth and yet the likes of King and Murray, who have been moving in such circles for years, were unaware of his existence on earth all this time? It's a curious one.

One of the explanations put forward is that he made his money under the radar in France and Canada but that argument hardly stands up to scrutiny. Another explanation is that he's not a billionaire at all, merely a man who has a billion pounds worth of assets to his name, which is an entirely different thing to having a billion pounds.

He will have loans on these assets and the valuation that is put on them is a speculative one. Just because you value your house at half a million quid doesn't mean that it's worth that much. It's worth whatever you can get for it and not a penny more. The guesstimate, from people in Whyte's milieu, is that he's probably worth closer to £200m, still a huge sum but not one that makes the eyes water so much. He needs others with him in his proposed bid, hence Ellis's involvement. And there may be others in on it, too.

It is believed that Murray has made it a pre-condition of the sale that any would-be purchaser agrees in writing to invest strongly in the team, hence the talk of war-chests last week. The commmitment Murray is looking for is £5m net on transfers per season for five seasons. Murray has often stated that he will not sell the club to anybody who he doesn't believe capable of driving it forward. The £25m transfer promise is his way of testing Whyte's credentials - and Whyte is apparently prepared to sign up to it.

So far, so good. But there are so many roadblocks in the way of a deal of this magnitude that no final agreement is certain. There is talk already, for instance, that Whyte is only now realising the level of pressure he is going to be under should he assume control of the club, the level of scrutiny that is involved in the ownership of such an institution. There have been pockets of negativity in the press towards him already, stuff written about some of the less admirable episodes in his business life and some of the personal incidents in his private life. People are prying and it's all new to him. He's not yet spooked by it but he wouldn't be human if he wasn't having a think about what he might be letting himself in for right now. For instance, he's had the tabloids sniffing around the break-up of his marriage already.

Not all the article but a decent summary of it, it's one of those articles over 3 pages, and then it finishes with a part about Lennin and Dougie Macdonald which I can't be arsed reading about.

The part in bold....

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

Hands up here I've criticized Murray but if this is true about him insisting on the investment in the team rather than just taking the money and fucking off without a care in the world....He's moving up again in my estimations,providing this is true,

[markybear 136]

One problem, Andrew Ellis is a fucking London estate agent with nae dough is he not (well he's not a millionaire anyway)

If this is going to happen then I believe it'll be Whyte on his own ( IMO )

[skinnymate1690 620]

One problem, Andrew Ellis is a fucking London estate agent with nae dough is he not (well he's not a millionaire anyway)

If this is going to happen then I believe it'll be Whyte on his own ( IMO )

ellis is a millionare , how much he has though , im not sure

[markybear 136]

I don't think he is, mih done due diligence on him when he was doing DD on RFC and I think this is where the 'deal' fell through at the time. As he couldn't show finances to support his claims

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

I don't think he is, mih done due diligence on him when he was doing DD on RFC and I think this is where the 'deal' fell through at the time. As he couldn't show finances to support his claims

I'm sure the Bluenose forum published a statement that they were happy he had the funds mate,I'll try find a link

[rfcShaun 10]

Ellis is a millioniare and Whyte a billionaire. I'd be happy with a millionaire and billionaire and providing hes a Rangers fan I pretty calm about this. Whyte will be the one calling the shots anyway.

[Clemdog 39,389]

I don't think he is, mih done due diligence on him when he was doing DD on rfc and I think this is where the 'deal' fell through at the time. As he couldn't show finances to support his claims

Yeah, I think your right mate. He may of had money, but nothing compared to what he needed or said he had. Hence why that Scotsman article make out he was a waste of time.

[markybear 136]

Ok if he is or is not a millionaire I dont care, there's summit fishy about him.

I'll wait to see mr Whytes plans for RFC etc b4 I decide my opinion of him

[markybear 136]

Yeah, I think your right mate. He may of had money, but nothing compared to what he needed or said he had. Hence why that Scotsman article make out he was a waste of time.

I don't think he had these sums of money, was it not claimed that he had a sleeping partner in his propsed deal that did have the cash though?

[bombaybadboy08 15,660]

TYCOON Craig Whyte broke cover yesterday after jetting into Scotland to escalate his bid to buy Rangers.

He was spotted for the first time since the news of his interest in the Ibrox giants was revealed last week.

It is rumoured he hopes to take control of the Scottish champions by Christmas.

We tracked down multi-millionaire Whyte, 39, in Aviemore, a few miles from his luxury castle.

He flew to the Highlands at the weekend to consider his next move in his £32million bid to buy Rangers.

Whyte, who has split from wife Kim, spent time with his children yesterday as he relaxed near his Castle Grant retreat, near Grantown-on-Spey.

Motherwell-born Whyte bought the castle for £720,000 in 2006 after returning from the millionaire's playground of Monaco where he had lived for almost 10 years.

He was spotted in Aviemore shortly after Rangers' 3-2 victory over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

He is expected to use his time in Scotland to hold further talks with Ibrox supremo David Murray about his bid for control.

A friend said: "He's very serious about this bid and it's all his money - he doesn't have a bank involved in funding his move.

"Obviously he has a huge amount of details to go over and being in Scotland will give him some time to examine his next move."

One issue Whyte is studying is the current investigation by HM Revenue and Customs over alleged offshore trust payments to players.

Moves to recoup millions of pounds in unpaid tax could have devastating consequences for a club already saddled with £27million of debt.

Whyte has yet to make a formal offer but hopes a deal with Murray can be thrashed out soon.

His bid involves him funding 75 per cent of the deal with the remaining 25 per cent coming from property developer pal Andrew Ellis and his associates, who were involved in an earlier bid for the Ibrox club.

Former QPR chairman Ellis failed in a bid to buy Rangers earlier this year but is back in the running to support Whyte.

One of the youngest self-made millionaires in Scottish history, London-based Whyte made his fortune as a venture capitalist and has been involved in a series of companies, including a security firm in Glasgow in the 1990s.

http://www.<No links to this website>/news/scottish-news/2010/11/21/32m-bid-for-control-of-rangers-heats-up-as-tycoon-flies-into-scotland-86908-22729345/