Man U accept Barca bid

manchester united have accepted barcelona's bid for david beckham, according to www.rte.ie. so, if he can agree personal terms with them he'll be off. i'm sure posh and himself will have a ball, barcelona is a beautiful city.

i'm not surprised that united are cashing in, (i don't think personally that he's in the zidane, ronaldo league) a smaller club would have had to consider the amount of money that his image rights have brought in, especially as he is now starting to be recognised in the US (due to 'Bend it like Beckham''s 20million dollars in cinemas and presenting an MTV movie award:rolleyes: )

i am a little surprised that he'll end up in a club not in the champions league next season (from his point of view), a club who must have seen how he has repeatedly failed to impress against real madrid (from the clubs point of view).

any thoughts???

He's worth a $hit load of money to Man Utd with shirt sales, I wonder will the transfer fee make up for that.

they're talking about non stop on Talk Sport for the last hour or so. if anyone wants to hear it click here

from www.rte.ie (maybe he won't go after all, rumours were he would only leave to go to madrid)

David Beckham believes he has been used as a ‘political pawn’ in the Barcelona presidential elections. Manchester United today revealed they would accept an offer for the England captain from Barcelona presidential candidate Joan Laporta if the Catalan lawyer wins the club's elections on Sunday.

But a spokesman for SFX, Beckham's management company, told PA Sport this afternoon: “David is very disappointed and surprised to learn of this statement and feels that he has been used as a political pawn in the Barcelona presidential elections. David's advisors have no plans to meet Mr Laporta or his representatives.”

Today a statement from Manchester United confirmed that club officials met Laporta. Those meetings resulted in an offer being made for the transfer of Beckham to Barcelona. The statement continued: “This offer is subject to a number of conditions and critically to both Mr Laporta being elected president on Sunday 15 June and Barcelona subsequently reaching agreement with David Beckham on his personal contract.

Manchester United confirms that in the event that all of the conditions are fulfilled then the offer would be acceptable.”

Front page of the Indo - main sports story and big news story on the radio.

Pity there is no other football to talk about - Games at Whitehall or Buckley Park don't get a mention and I thought we had an important game tonight for our national team but obviously not.

Apparently on Today FM the sports guy and Ian Dempsey were talking about it and Dempsey said if Man U don't want him, he might be able to get a game in the eircom League. A Paats fan texted in that Pats don't need him as we Keith Fahey is better. Fiar play to Dempsey for reading it out...

I got the impression that they've accepted the /bid/, which isn't the same as accepting the /offer/. In other words, they've agreed to let Barca make an offer, but not to accept it just yet.

adam

All this talk with Beckham is doing ma nut in - He's a great player and is good at what he does but is no Zidane like you said.

The English always talk up their players.

I watched a programme about Wayne Rooney last night and the cr@p that was spoken was unbelievable!!

I wonder if he's connected to me as he's got a Scottish gran with Rooney as the surname and so have I, although maybe you lot have a gran Rooney also being an Irish name.

Listen to this for a quote " To be born English is to have won the lottery of life!"

That was actually said by an Englishman.

I right - To be born English is to inherit a plaque that spreads!!

As Billy Connolly would say - "Getty fu ya baza!"

Cheers

Beckham is vastly overrated and these days does it far more consistently for England than United. Infact during the run in last season United played far better with Ole wide right than Beckham. Take the money and run (and ask do they want to buy Giggs for the same amount).... I'm far more concerned about Seba leaving OT....

Incidently, and whisper it quietly, the money made on merchandising in general is hyped up beyond belief - Matches and TV revenue are far more important. Profit from turnover is actually quiet low from merchandising (less than a third of the turnover if memory serves me correctly)...

If Ryan Giggs was English he would be more rated by the English than he is now.

The English always talk up their players and also their league.

The Spanish league for me is the best league and English players are no way near as good as some of the superstars available from other countries - Let's see:

Owen V Ronaldo - England 0 Brazil 1

Beckham V Figo - England 0 Portugal 1

Gerrard v Zidane - England 0 France 1

Scholes V Me - England 0 Scotland 1.

Ok well maybe not the last one, but there's a pattern.

England does have some talent but not the way they claim and that's what annoys me about the English - They are so far up their own @rse.

But it's good when they fall flat on their face.

Oops sorry being a wee bit bitter - Love it!!

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Macy
Profit from turnover is actually quiet low from merchandising (less than a third of the turnover if memory serves me correctly)...

---

a third of uniteds turnover is worth about 80million stg:eek: .

I'll check it at the weekend in the annual report...... btw I meant a third of merchandising turnover, not total turnover....

;)

actually just yesterday i saw a piece on the telly where man united had the second biggest income (not really profit) in soccer, real madrid had the highest (but their outgoings are huge).

real were 300million
utd were 250million
city were 250euro:)

merchandising for man utd is big money though, they have official club shops all over the world, you can buy their shirts everywhere, apparently they're a big seller in asia, even though we've never had an asian player. and beckhams image does contribute quite a bit to that income, as cantona's did before him. i mean, they can't put luke chadwick on a tshirt, can they:D

I see Beckham is to get an OBE from the Queen on her birthday for his services to football.

What has he done?? - Different if he had led his Country to victory in a World Cup final or something.

Services to football - How to make a footballer look camp with his hairband more like!!

Typical tripe from the English.

Give them people who deserve - Not footballers!!

have u not heard scotsman? an OBE stands for Over Bearing Englishman ;) :p

So Laporta wins the presidentship of the club by a land slide and immediately he is quoted as saying he never 'promised' that he'd deliver David Beckham (sounded like he did to me). So the backtracking has already begun. Barcelona coach Antic has also come out saying the 30million might be better spent on a few players rather than just one.

maybe beckham was right when he said he was just
'a prawn in their game of draughts'....then the speechwriters got their hands on it;) .

so now it sounds like Beckham doesn't want to go, his team mates don't want him to go, united hardly need the money the transfer would generate and if anything selling him would not reflect favourably on the stock value. So why does the speculation continue, is it

a) because it sells tabloids
b) because ferguson doesn't want him at the club.

if it's the latter, Jaap stam has offered the advice that he might as well leave," 'tis a far far better thing i do to take performance enhancing drugs in the Rome sunshine than to freeze my ass off on a bench in manchester"

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
So Laporta wins the presidentship of the club by a land slide and immediately he is quoted as saying he never 'promised' that he'd deliver David Beckham

---

Maybe he should join Fianna Fáil.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Schumi
Maybe he should join Fianna Fáil.

---

Beckham would never get his game for them...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
Barcelona coach Antic has also come out saying the 30million might be better spent on a few players rather than just one.

---

Well that would be a major factor that United fans think it would be an excellent deal...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
so now it sounds like Beckham doesn't want to go

---

Wouldn't be so sure about that - he has to give the impression he doesn't

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
his team mates don't want him to go

---

Not convinced on that either - they can hardly say they want him gone when there's chance he might not go at all

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
united hardly need the money the transfer would generate and if anything selling him would not reflect favourably on the stock value.

---

It would free up money for United to stregthen the team without dipping into their reserves.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
selling him would not reflect favourably on the stock value.

---

I think the stock market would react favourably, as it would be excellent business in the current transfer market. I still haven't managed to dig out the annual report, but merchandising profit is vastly overated by most media commentators.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
So why does the speculation continue, is it

a) because it sells tabloids

---

Most Definitely - it sells "papers"

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
b) because ferguson doesn't want him at the club.

---

Yes and I'd say the majority of United fans have had enough of the Posh and Becks show, the saving of best performances for England, the playing up to the England fans...
Post 98 the England fans and media were trying to hound him out of the country - the only ones that supported him, and by extension, kept in English Football was the United supporters. Since being made England Captain he hasn't given the impression of giving a sh!t about United. Besides United looked better last season with Ole playing wide right, and Beckham on the bench

Quote:

---

Originally posted by tiktok
[B]so now it sounds like Beckham doesn't want to go[B]

---

should have corrected that, doesn't want to go unless it's to Real (which is where i think he'll end up).

fair points all macy, especially the transfer business, 30million pound transfers are few and far between these days. as i said in my first post, i'm not surprised man united are cashing in (or the interest it's generating) and i reckon it's down almost entirely to ferguson wanting him out. i'll eventually take your word on the finances and merchandising, your head seems better suited to that than mine (given the ease at which you took apart my post:D ).