Israeli investor tried to buy Hibs

[connerg]

He's rubbish at Geography too. He thinks Belgium and Scotland are the same size!

Belgium has twice the population of Scotland. I call that double, not the same or even similar.

[Colr]

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interesting, never heard of this until now but he doesn't say anything more about it. Maybe the club were approached but what was being offered etc might not have been beneficial to the club

Dundee Utd would have a problem with that!!!

[Colr]

Liked the quote about Hibs being like Fiorentina.

Maybe Fiorentina want to be like Hibs judging from their new away kits

http://www.fiorentinastore.com/en/fi...y-2017-18.html

(They have FIVE strips this season!)

[Colr]

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He's rubbish at Geography too. He thinks Belgium and Scotland are the same size!

Belgium has twice the population of Scotland. I call that double, not the same or even similar.

Both very fond of chips, though!!

[Crazyhorse]

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If this was ever a serious bid for Hibs I would be amazed that the media didn't pick up on it at the time .. this sounds like one phone call that began and ended with RP / STF falling about laughing at a ridiculous valuation of the club.

Mitchell's diatribe is quite hard to follow because of his university dissertation style of writing, I ended up skimming over a lot of it because I was getting bored, but a couple of things did hold my interest long enough to comment.

He did have a point about our failure to improve Hampden and by association the other grounds in Scotland .. fans will be more willing to come if the facilities are better, he didn't say where the money was supposed to come from though, which is perhaps why he didn't last long in football administration.

Where I absolutely and fundamentally disagreed with him was on the mentality of Scottish football fans in reaction to the dominance of the old firm and latterly just Celtic, allied to our dismal International and European club football results. His assertion that fans are accepting of failure on these fronts is wrong .... yes we have come to expect poor results in these areas, but I would not say we tolerate them, the discussion around what we can do about it is never ending, we know its unacceptable and has to change ..... the failure of guys like Mitchell to come up with workable solutions is the problem, not the fans.

But worse is his dismissive attitude to how fans of clubs outside of the Old Firm have changed their culture and outlook on what can be considered a successful season, or even what it actually means to be a fan, in light of Celtic's financial dominance. The culture has become, or at least is becoming, that there is quite a bit of merit in simply supporting your club for the sake of it, that the road to happiness as a fan is seeing your club well supported and thriving to the best of its ability.

From my point of view its as important to me that other fans praise Hibs for the style of our play, the dedication of our supporters and the atmosphere we bring to games as it is how successful we are on the pitch and I think in the face of supporting a nut rather than the Glasgow sledgehammer that cracks it every season there is a lot of merit in that ....... Mitchell scoffs at that and suggests that it is an acceptance of failure ..... but what then is the alternative?

If we simply act like fans of the club he supports Scottish football will die on its arse within a few years. Its clear that his culture if failure to win leagues and trophies should be punished by non attendance ( which is what he is saying so far as I can see ) should be the attitude of fans of all clubs ...... If we go down that route 90% of Scotland's clubs would go bust ...... How can he possible understand the mentality required to be a faithful supporter of a non OF club when as a Celtic supporter he has never woken up on the first day of a season knowing his club has absolutely no chance of winning the league ... for him and folk like him winning just the League Cup in a season is cause for sacking the manager ... for us and clubs like us that manager becomes a hero.

As I said ...... He and his fellow Old Firm supporting pals would scoff at that because they have no concept of what its like to support a club that cant just go out and spend £500,000 to solve its goalkeeping problem or £2,000,000 to resolve a striking problem. We don't support a club that can sign the brightest and the best from other clubs in our league and stick them in the reserves or on the bench till they rot.
In that environment we either change the culture of what it means to be a fan and what makes you proud of your club or we just give up ..... that does not mean we accept our clubs failing to punch their weight and when it comes to a club like Hibs that we don't expect it to win a trophy every few seasons given its size in the Scottish game.

But if Mitchell thinks that all being a football fan is about is supporting clubs that consistently win things and anything else is just a comfort blanket then thank **** he isn't involved in running the game any more ..... I hope the folk running our game now don't have such a lack of understanding of what it really means, and in my opinion should mean, to be a football fan, unfortunately I'm inclined to doubt it.

Rant over.

I have to take issue with you. I've never read a dissertation as bad as that drivel.

I like the idea of Celtic waiting for Godot though - although Mitchell clearly isn't familiar with the play, someone should let him know Godot never arrives...

[beensaidbefore]

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He's rubbish at Geography too. He thinks Belgium and Scotland are the same size!

Belgium has twice the population of Scotland. I call that double, not the same or even similar.

Scotland is approx 30000 square miles. Belgium is 11000 sq miles. So I agree his geography is not great. No comment t on yours...😁

[Bostonhibby]

Mitchell an erse. Couldn't even hold onto the Queen Vic. His brother Grant is the far more intelligent of the two.

Sent from my SM-J320FN using Tapatalk

[21.05.2016]

Would be very skeptical of a foreign rich guy, who has no affiliation with the club whatsoever coming in. I don't want us to just be some rich mans play thing that he can just chuck away once he gets bored. Look at the mess it got hearts in and look at the likes of Cardiff City, rich owner who just wants to mess about the club the way he sees fit, changing their colours etc.

If a rich person was to come in and buy hibs I'd want it to be a hibs fan, someone with the club already in their heart. Having said that though, although winning trophies more often would be great, it would feel a little less special if it was bought.

The setup we have now is working, we are managing the club in a sensible way, living within our means and growing fan ownership. A lot of money coming into the club would be highly welcomed of course but I would be very worried indeed having a forgein rich person coming on board, we've seen many times how that can end up going badly wrong.

[NAE NOOKIE]

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Yeah, people with a conscience and principles demonstrating outside the stand - now wouldn't that be just awful.
But at least the sight of our club moving up the league would help take the sting out of the fact that the extra dosh came from someone in the business of supporting the occupation, exploitation and murder of innocents a few thousand miles away.

That's a bit of a stretch mate, the proposed Israeli buyer wasn't even named, there are plenty of people in Israel who don't agree with their mostly right wing governments attitude towards the west bank or the Palestinians in general, I think I would wait and see what the guys background was in that area before I started demonstrating outside the west stand. Just like not all white South Africans were racist during apartheid not all Israelis are ultra orthodox Zionists either.

Unfortunately British and European football is currently awash with cash supplied by middle east countries and families whose attitude towards human rights could at best be described as devil may care .... not least of those being the source of £200,000,000 to buy Neymar and the venue for the world cup after next. I'm willing to bet even a guy like Roman Obramovich hasn't survived this long without being close to Putin, who lets face it isn't exactly the sort of guy to baulk at a few well placed murders in order to stay at the top.

I'm not suggesting for a second I would accept Hibs being funded from an obviously odious source .... but I would be prepared to learn the background of it before I jumped in half cocked.

[Scouse Hibee]

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Yeah, people with a conscience and principles demonstrating outside the stand - now wouldn't that be just awful.
But at least the sight of our club moving up the league would help take the sting out of the fact that the extra dosh came from someone in the business of supporting the occupation, exploitation and murder of innocents a few thousand miles away.

LOL is that you Mick, what a load of ****** about person unknown who may or may not have been interested in Hibs.

[connerg]

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Scotland is approx 30000 square miles. Belgium is 11000 sq miles. So I agree his geography is not great. No comment t on yours...😁

Maybe i should have said Demography.

When i was at school in the eighties, population of cities and country's was part of Geography.

[IngolstadtHarry]

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That's a bit of a stretch mate, the proposed Israeli buyer wasn't even named, there are plenty of people in Israel who don't agree with their mostly right wing governments attitude towards the west bank or the Palestinians in general, I think I would wait and see what the guys background was in that area before I started demonstrating outside the west stand. Just like not all white South Africans were racist during apartheid not all Israelis are ultra orthodox Zionists either.

Unfortunately British and European football is currently awash with cash supplied by middle east countries and families whose attitude towards human rights could at best be described as devil may care .... not least of those being the source of £200,000,000 to buy Neymar and the venue for the world cup after next. I'm willing to bet even a guy like Roman Obramovich hasn't survived this long without being close to Putin, who lets face it isn't exactly the sort of guy to baulk at a few well placed murders in order to stay at the top.

I'm not suggesting for a second I would accept Hibs being funded from an obviously odious source .... but I would be prepared to learn the background of it before I jumped in half cocked.

My comment was aimed principally at the writer's obvious hostility to Mick Napier and anyone supporting Palestinian rights but let's leave that to one side.
Your suggestion that an Israeli real-estate developer could have purely altruistic motives in wanting to take over a football team in Scotland has my mind boggling. There is a small minority of Israelis who are very uncomfortable with the apartheid regime but they are generally not the ones involved in the contruction, foreign investment and real estate businesses.

I'm old enough to remember the stroke of absolute luck Hibs had with Tom Hart but I certainly wouldn't want to risk a foreign money man (of any nationality) coming to buy himself a new toy at Easter Rd.

[Crazyhorse]

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He's rubbish at Geography too. He thinks Belgium and Scotland are the same size!

Belgium has twice the population of Scotland. I call that double, not the same or even similar.

The one thing that Belgium did was get to grips with a decline in their football at both the league and international level. It required revolutionizing their league set-up with a view to long-term success. Something that will never happen in Scotland.
Mitchell hasn't a clue about Belgian football, Anderlecht and Club Brugge are the two most successful teams and while Brugge is the best supported team Standard and Gent are big successful clubs and Genk and Mechelen have had great teams in recent years. Success in terms of league titles has been shared around much more than in Scotland in recent years.

[NAE NOOKIE]

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My comment was aimed principally at the writer's obvious hostility to Mick Napier and anyone supporting Palestinian rights but let's leave that to one side.
Your suggestion that an Israeli real-estate developer could have purely altruistic motives in wanting to take over a football team in Scotland has my mind boggling. There is a small minority of Israelis who are very uncomfortable with the apartheid regime but they are generally not the ones involved in the contruction, foreign investment and real estate businesses.

I'm old enough to remember the stroke of absolute luck Hibs had with Tom Hart but I certainly wouldn't want to risk a foreign money man (of any nationality) coming to buy himself a new toy at Easter Rd.

I never suggested any such thing .... when I wrote I couldn't recall from the article what the guy did for a living, or even if it had said what he did, but even if he was in real estate I wouldn't dismiss him out of hand, as you say Tom Hart was in the business and as I recall so is the guy who owns Aberdeen FC. It would be up to Hibs to make a judgment call on the guys motives, for all we know that's what we did and he was told to naff off.

As for foreign money men ....... take a look around mate, half the successful clubs in Europe are owned by foreign money men. To shut the door on the only possible chance we realistically could ever have to challenge Celtic financially or make a decent dent in Europe based on a few dodgy owners at other clubs would be incredible short sighted. What I would never tolerate is an owner, any owner, who came in promising millions and then gave money in the form of loans that appeared as debt on the clubs books, leaving him to walk away debt free and leaving the club bust if he got fed up. On that score its hand over the cash no strings attached or don't bother.

[The Falcon]

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That's very true ... I was more thinking that if we could save the interest we currently pay on existing loans then that could pay the wages of a couple of good players. It was just just wishful thinking to make the point that you don't have to be a purist to be against the wholesale take over of your club. We're not against investment but not at any cost. The Cardiff city scenario for example where they had to change their home strip from blue to red to get the dosh!

I agree it's much better if we can sustain 15,000 ST year after year - and we can realistically do that if we win cups and compete in the league and then in Europe. We have to have these ambitions because the prospect of fighting just to make the top six isn't too appealing!

Dont think we pay any interest at this time. Not sure but someone more informed about such things can confirm.

[Nakedmanoncrack]

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LOL is that you Mick, what a load of ****** about person unknown who may or may not have been interested in Hibs.

Mick Napier is actually a friend of mine as it happens, so I found this quite amusing, I don't know how well you know him to be making statements about him, or his intentions, but if you take some time to understand the BDS movement you'll realise that it isn't about targeting individual Israeli citizens, but those who are complicit. Our goalkeeper for example hasn't faced any protests has he? Many performers also appear at the festival, and only those sponsored by the state are ever targeted for protests.

[Scouse Hibee]

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Mick Napier is actually a friend of mine as it happens, so I found this quite amusing, I don't know how well you know him to be making statements about him, or his intentions, but if you take some time to understand the BDS movement you'll realise that it isn't about targeting individual Israeli citizens, but those who are complicit. Our goalkeeper for example hasn't faced any protests has he? Many performers also appear at the festival, and only those sponsored by the state are ever targeted for protests.

I know and that was exactly the point that I was making to the previous poster who had drawn so many conclusions about this unknown person of Israeli descent. However as for targeting those who are complicit I have experience of him and his megaphone doing exactly the opposite but that's for another forum.

[Pete70]

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Dont think we pay any interest at this time. Not sure but someone more informed about such things can confirm.

£5m interest free paid to Sir Tom @ £0.5m per year for 10 years IIRC

[connerg]

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Both very fond of chips, though!!

Never been to Belgium. Do they eat real chips or Flemish fries?

[Hibbyradge]

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Never been to Belgium. Do they eat real chips or Flemish fries?

Chips with mayonnaise

[IngolstadtHarry]

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I know and that was exactly the point that I was making to the previous poster who had drawn so many conclusions about this unknown person of Israeli descent. However as for targeting those who are complicit I have experience of him and his megaphone doing exactly the opposite but that's for another forum.

Yeah, right, "....we'd have had to suffer Mick Napier and his cronies......'.
That line alone tells me that you know nothing about Napier or the many people from all walks of life who support the struggle for Palestinian freedom.
Perhaps you are a Scouse Hibee but I'd guess that you aren't averse to the odd gander at the Sun's political pages. ;-)

[Scouse Hibee]

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Yeah, right, "....we'd have had to suffer Mick Napier and his cronies......'.
That line alone tells me that you know nothing about Napier or the many people from all walks of life who support the struggle for Palestinian freedom.
Perhaps you are a Scouse Hibee but I'd guess that you aren't averse to the odd gander at the Sun's political pages. ;-)

I know enough from first hand experience, as for a gander at the Sun not even your smiley makes that funny or plausible for me. Just to be clear when he stands outside my workplace at the time with a megaphone and his band of merry followers spouting ******, I feel my opinion is quite justified!

[jdships]

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Noble Grossart?

WARM !!

[Crazyhorse]

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Yeah, right, "....we'd have had to suffer Mick Napier and his cronies......'.
That line alone tells me that you know nothing about Napier or the many people from all walks of life who support the struggle for Palestinian freedom.
Perhaps you are a Scouse Hibee but I'd guess that you aren't averse to the odd gander at the Sun's political pages. ;-)

What a house of cards has been built upon this fictional story from that dreadful toad Mitchell.
Perhaps the fictional property dealer who was going to engage in this fictional investment was a fictional Arab Muslim or Christian property developer and not even of fictional Jewish ethnicity.

IngolstadtHarry I think you are leaping to conclusions and making unwarranted judgements about a number of people whose motives you instantly 'understand' because they won't go along with your simplistic black and white viewpoint.

[beensaidbefore]

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Maybe i should have said Demography.

When i was at school in the eighties, population of cities and country's was part of Geography.

Only at the wind up mate.

[1875STEVE]

Spoke to him on twitter and he says it was less than a year ago,and the guy has "serious, serious money"

He doesn't think he is interested anymore.

[connerg]

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Only at the wind up mate.

No problem. I was just playing the game too.

[NAE NOOKIE]

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Spoke to him on twitter and he says it was less than a year ago,and the guy has "serious, serious money"

He doesn't think he is interested anymore.

Which sounds a bit strange in itself then ...... in the past year Hibs have gone from strength to strength are back in the Premier league giving us three or 4 chances of making Europe instead of just one and we have shown last season what sort of crowds are possible here with a bit of success and optimism.

Why in that case why would a guy with 'serious, serious money' who was serious about getting into football go soft on an idea so quickly, especially when his target is an even better prospect than it was a year ago? ...... unless he wasn't serious to begin with of course. STF and RP if nothing else can smell a rat a mile off and I have absolute faith that they would vet to the n'th degree any prospective buyer. My guess is he has lost interest because STF wouldn't sell the club to him for any amount of money.

[vincipernoi]

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Which sounds a bit strange in itself then ...... in the past year Hibs have gone from strength to strength are back in the Premier league giving us three or 4 chances of making Europe instead of just one and we have shown last season what sort of crowds are possible here with a bit of success and optimism.

Why in that case why would a guy with 'serious, serious money' who was serious about getting into football go soft on an idea so quickly, especially when his target is an even better prospect than it was a year ago? ...... unless he wasn't serious to begin with of course. STF and RP if nothing else can smell a rat a mile off and I have absolute faith that they would vet to the n'th degree any prospective buyer. My guess is he has lost interest because STF wouldn't sell the club to him for any amount of money.

I wonder how much 'serious serious' is compared to 'off the radar' , maybe one of hibsnet accountant could compile a scale of shysters fictional levels of wealth ?