Mini Abramovich Bids For Rovers

Hearld Sport; 23th Monday

Multi-Millionaire insurance tycoon Brooks Milson has emerged as the favourate to win the race to own Shamrock Rovers after making the highest bid to examiner Neil Hughes.

The man who pumped money into Scottish minnows Gretna FcC and helped the tiny club move from non-league football to promotion to Division 2 this season wants to do the same for the hoops.

Dutch side Den Haag made a late and extremely unsual bid, but Melson's offer trumped that attempt and at least two other well funded groups.

However there is still no guarentee that Melson will ultimatly be the owner of Rovers. Hughes must appear before the highcourt at the end of the week to make the case for allowing Rovers to continue as a going concern and that leaves four days for someone else to make a move.

Speculation suggests that there may be one other suprise offer before the end of the week is out, but it is thought that Milson's package is acceptable to all parties, including the influential 400 club.

Milson's involvement in Gretna has turned the club into one of the most upwardly mobile and vibrent football clubs in Brittain. Thanks to Milson, Gretna spent more money in the transfer market then most Scottish Premier League outfits.

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Originally Posted by Buller

Milson's involvement in Gretna has turned the club into one of the most upwardly mobile and vibrent football clubs in Brittain. Thanks to Milson, Gretna spent more money in the transfer market then most Scottish Premier League outfits.

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It could be the fact that i have no interest in the SPL or anything below it but i never heard of Gretna before ..... am i on my own ??

I will not be holding my breath on this one, ..... my opinion is that if it is in the Hearld then it is to be taken with a grain of salt !!

Gretna finished the season with a 100% home record in Scottish Div 3 - P18 W18 F70 A10

They were promoted in early March, finished 20 points clear of 2nd place Peterhead and Cowdenbeath were third a further 27 points behind!

There were only 4 of 36 league games they didn't win - 2 draws and 2 losses!

Apart from stats I know nothing about them - here's a story which is up on BBC though... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...na/4246661.stm

Yeah, just seen them occasionally on the tables on sky sports news. One of their strikers Deuchar (?) has 38 league goals- only 36 games in the season :eek:

Over the last few weeks in seperate stories the Herald had Collins having lined up a mystery buyer and Aldridge and Fowler about to buy the club. This could easily be BS too. Can anyone from the 400 club confirm they've talked to him seeming as the article claims his package is acceptable?

Yeah I generally just ignore these stories now. If everyone who was rumoured to be buying Rovers did put money into them they'd be competing with Chelsea financially at this stage.

Good news if true but I'll wait for confirmation from within Rovers.

If this is true, that's great news for Rovers. Don't know much about Gretna but what I do know is all good.

As posted on another forum:

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If you are still feeling sorry for Rovers:

Watch as they walk away from debts of 2.5 million and reduce them to a pittance through the simple and handy expedient of examinership. Hoot with laughter as they walk scott-free into a tax payer bought modern custom built stadium in Tallaght. Slap your thighs at the thought of their new sugar daddy. Cough up your ribcage laughing at the sight of them buying whoever they want only months after begging for chips in Donegal.

It seems to me the only one with a ****ing clue in this league is Ollie Byrne. Our imbeciles just sit on their hands and offer up "but for the grace of god{s}. Rovers getting away with a mere 8 points deduction is a disgrace and Ollie Byrne knows it and has the bottle to say it and the street smarts to do something about it. Why is one of the architects of our mess not kicking up **** about it too? We should all be demanding to know the answer to that one.

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Is that from a Bohs forum?

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Originally Posted by Slash/ED

Is that from a Bohs forum?

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Yes it is

Anyone looking to save Rovers is good news, but I really don't like the sound of this Melsom guy.

He has pumped an obscene amount of money into Gretna FC. Gretna is a borders town famous for nothing but runaway marriages for English people. It's tiny - I'm guessing a population of only about 10,000. Along comes some multi-millionaire and pumps loads of money into a club that is never ever going to be a significant player in Scottish football. Great if he's a local lad and has a big affinity with the club - but the fact that he's now looking to do the same to an Irish club suggests it's more a case of looking for playthings. If you and me came into a bit of money, we might treat ourselves with a nice new car, Millionaires go out and buy football clubs.

I don't think Rovers long term future - or the future of any Irish team - lies in becoming a plaything for middle-aged millionaires. The shadow of Louis Kilcoyne still hangs large over Shamrock Rovers. He was a man who pumped lots of his personal wealth into Rovers, made them invincible in Ireland and went public with serious intentions towards European success. And then when he got bored and/ore needed his money out, he sold Glenmalure Park, made Rovers homeless, and walked away to become FAI President.

If Rovers becomes the property of another millionaire who does not have the genuine interests of the club at heart, then there is absolutely nothing to stop all this from happening again. The only way to prevent it that I can see is if the new ground in Tallaght is owned independently of the club (i.e. it's greatest asset isn't available to be stripped). But given that new money is needed to complete that project, this will never happen.

The new Tallaght stadium is in an absolutely prime location in an area of Dublin with a huge population. Some bored millionaire may well look to buy Rovers with good intentions now, but there will always come a time when they walk away. It's inevitable. The best you can hope for is that they head off into the sunset and leave the club in a healthy condition in the hands of its fans. The worst is that they need to get their hands on money quickly (e.g their other business interests fail) and they need to quickly cash-in on the clubs assets (i.e. land).

The longer-term future of football clubs does not lie in millionaires with unrealistic ambitions, objectives or intentions. That has been proven time and again in England.

Steve I'd take the article with more than a heavy pinch of salt. However I completely agree with that you said. Clubs in Ireland like indeed all football clubs I believe need to be self sustaining even if they level of income you raise is low. If some outside influence artificially boots outlay and funds this personally to supplement the shortfall between income and expenditure the club would be up the creek if the person got bored or ran short of cash. Abramovich has brought in Kenyon to Chelsea to boost their brand and make them self sustaining. Only if the outside cash injection is a catalyst in a well planned aim to boost the revenue taking powers of the club it's better off not coming in at all.

Gretna used to play in the Unibond League Premier Division (2 levels below the Football League at the time) in England before they "moved" registrations to the Scottish FA to allow them to play in the Scottish League system

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Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

If Rovers becomes the property of another millionaire who does not have the genuine interests of the club at heart, then there is absolutely nothing to stop all this from happening again.

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There is. The council have taken back the lease off Rovers for the ground and I think are working towards getting the other bit of the lease off the property people that somehow got a piece of the land. If Rovers move in on a long-term lease and the council own the stadium then it can't be sold by anyone. Apart from the land there little or nothing at all this millionaire could sell if he wanted out. Doesn't seem to bad, but its a newspaper story, so we'll wait and see.

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However there is still no guarentee that Melson will ultimatly be the owner of Rovers. Hughes must appear before the highcourt at the end of the week to make the case for allowing Rovers to continue as a going concern and that leaves four days for someone else to make a move

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If that parts true then it'll be public knowledge on Friday as to whats happening

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Originally Posted by Réiteoir

Yes it is

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That makes the second paragraph very suprising, you know that a Bohs fan must REALLY hate someone if he praises Olly Byrne to get at them :D

Well I actually agree with Ollie on this occasion, there are absolutely no grounds for retaining Rovers in this league and he is right to put the boot in.

He sees what is around the corner, Rovers will, if allowed, run away from their debts, get into a brand new ground for free and find another sugar daddy in the nick of time, allowing them to walk **** of the hoop {sorry for the pun} over other clubs who pay their way.

Ollie would be an idiot to allow this to happen and is acting in the best interest of Shelbourne FC. I just wonder why our FAI representatives seem so reluctant to act in our best interests too?

Rovers should be relegated, simple as that. As it stands they still have a base to go from paupers to kings. That's not right, they should be relegated for mismanagement and made rebuild completely.

Yes, of course, Limerick are the model example of how to manage a football club, aren't they? :rolleyes:

Limerick almost went out of football less than 2 years ago. Limerick, like Rovers, initially failed to get a club licence when the licensing scheme was introduced. Limerick were homeless for ages. They began last season, with only half a squad of registered players. None of which was down to bad management, of course!! So, Limerick are a club ideally placed to advise the FAI about what they should do with Rovers, aren't they? :rolleyes:

Of all the other clubs in the NL, Limerick and their fans should at least have some understanding of the problems that Rovers have had to put up with for so long. :mad:

I think last season Rovers had a scottish player from some lower league team (maybe Gretna) on loan with the scottish club actually paying his wages. Don't know what happened to him but maybe theres some link here with that Milson guy?

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Originally Posted by mypost

Yes, of course, Limerick are the model example of how to manage a football club, aren't they? :rolleyes:

Limerick almost went out of football less than 2 years ago. Limerick, like Rovers, initially failed to get a club licence when the licensing scheme was introduced. Limerick were homeless for ages. They began last season, with only half a squad of registered players. None of which was down to bad management, of course!! So, Limerick are a club ideally placed to advise the FAI about what they should do with Rovers, aren't they? :rolleyes:

Of all the other clubs in the NL, Limerick and their fans should at least have some understanding of the problems that Rovers have had to put up with for so long. :mad:

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of course it was bad management - but they weren't bailed out by an examiner with their debts written off and handed a stadium on a plate.

Personally I think 8 points is getting off lightly, IMO Rovers should drop to the first division, get into Tallaght as soon as possible and rebuild from there - with the good fanbase they have - 400 club a great example - they wouldn't lose that much support and could be back in the premier in a much better position within a season or two. A healthy Shamrock Rovers club is good for the league but the current situation benefits nobody.