Tekel Towers » So this takeover...your initial feelings?

Tek · 22/12/2018 4:40 am

Can't just be me who is feeling very anxious about this whole turn of events, surely?

So neither our new owner Owner/Chairman Mark Ogren (or his Son, Scott) saw fit to be present in Dundee for the announcement of the long-awaited takeover. Me personally? I find that a disappointment and disrespectful.

He expects to fly over in 'the New Year' to discuss transfers with Robbie Neilson. Eh, well, should we not already have a few targets in mind?

No full-time presence at Board room level? How can the support voice their pleasure/displeasure at an invisible presence?

Ogren says he wants to 'make money from Utd'.

How exactly? I have supported DUFC for 30+years and I think I could count on one hand how many times we have turned over a modest (in business terms) profit.

And those were all on occasions we sold players for 7 figures.

bowers · 22/12/2018 5:18 am

Tek wrote:
Can't just be me who is feeling very anxious about this whole turn of events, surely?

So neither our new owner Owner/Chairman Mark Ogren (or his Son, Scott) saw fit to be present in Dundee for the announcement of the long-awaited takeover. Me personally? I find that a disappointment and disrespectful.

He expects to fly over in 'the New Year' to discuss transfers with Robbie Neilson. Eh, well, should we not already have a few targets in mind?

No full-time presence at Board room level? How can the support voice their pleasure/displeasure at an invisible presence?

Ogren says he wants to 'make money from Utd'.

How exactly? I have supported DUFC for 30+years and I think I could count on one hand how many times we have turned over a modest (in business terms) profit.

And those were all on occasions we sold players for 7 figures.

I agree with what you say TEK and i said this the day they took over i thought they should have been at tannadice that day imo. Being here this week to would have been good for them from a fans point of view instead of a reading an interview online 2 days later.

As far as i am led to believe Neilson aleady has 3 players in sight for january already so assuming the deals just need agreed to bring them in once the window opens.

I also took from his interview that more local people will join our board and also others who will run the club on a day to day basis. I think we are going to see a few changes to the way the club is set up over the next 6 months or so with people coming and going.

He will not make much if any money in this imo. This club could have made money and been in a very good financial position if it wasnt for miss management over a number of years and it will take a while if ever to get us into that position once again.

japanarab · 22/12/2018 7:49 am

Ogren says he wants to 'make money from Utd'.
I don't think this is his main aim. If you had 5-6 million in your hipper and wanted to use it to make more what would you do? Buy a second tier football team in Scotland? You'd have better luck in a casino over a night.

22/12/2018 9:48 am

I'm feeling generally positive. Thompson has gone and it appears we have no immediate financial concerns. We'll have a better idea after January when we know who (if anyone) has signed.

I like that he'll be putting an MD in place. Someone I hope has a track record in running a successful football club in Britain.

I've no problem with him being based in the US. The world is a small place these days and given the structure he's described and his statement about not micro-managing,I think it will work just fine.

Beharder · 22/12/2018 10:19 am

I always embrace the future with a positive outlook.
As he said talk is cheap. I would not be concerned if he never sets foot in Tannadice again.
As for making money if he achieves his aim of getting Utd back to the top 6 and in Europe ad doubles the current turnover he may do just that
Buy low sell high

TheShed · 22/12/2018 10:55 am

My prediction is it will be a helluva lot better than it has been.

We’re not his biggest priority, that’s clear , would have been great to have someone whose sole focus was us, but that person doesn’t exist without a fan winning Euro millions

The MD and sporting director appointments are the key here, not who the owner is . If he gets the right people in there we’ll be fine.

Priority 1 -get promoted
Priority 2 - stay up
Priority 3 - back competing top 6 & cup finals
Priority 4 - stop losing money every week
All that has to happen before he can possibly think of making a penny

PatReilly · 22/12/2018 12:45 pm

Making money from the club would appear unlikely sticking to the normal model used in Scottish football.

Maybe he has new ideas as to how to profit: he'll be aware of fees received in the past, and perhaps plans informal tie-ins with agencies to bring young players, not on loan but under contract. It's only a guess, but presently we have journeymen and some players on loan: we aren't going to profit from these guys.

Can't see money being made in any other way, than selling on players. Unless we have a run in Europe which is highly unlikely as it stands in Scotland.

redford_must_score · 22/12/2018 7:57 pm

FWIW here's my 10 cents worth

First of all I'm a bit surprised that the news hasn't been met with more delight. Maybe delight is too strong a word (couldn't think of a better one). OK I wasn't expecting everyone to be leaping cartwheels down the Hilltown draped in the Stars and Stripes but I did think folk would be posting more happiness at the news than maybe what they have posted. We've seen the back of one of our worst ever chairmen, probably the worst, and the man who allegedly was complicit in his every bad decision and we have a new owner with very significant financial resources.

Lets look at the positives first. He's wealthy, he has direct personal experience of running businesses, he has direct personal experience of running sports clubs. Those two alone are worthy of ticking the top two boxes you would have wanted ticked before a change of ownership surely? More positives, he likes our heritage because it matches his own, so there is a strong synergy there from the word go, and he says he doesn't see the club as a hobby, which, if you take it at face value, is a good thing.
Another positive is that he's going to appoint an MD and a Sporting Director. We'll have to wait and see who these choices are and tbh the people he chooses will tell us a lot about how his mind is working as far as the future of the club is concerned.

Negatives wise, yes, maybe an error not to travel to Dundee for the announcement, but I wouldn't hang him for that. Americans are usually good at PR so hopefully he's gonna make up for that as time goes by.
Some are saying that delaying coming to Scotland until January is too late when it comes to the transfer market but with Skype etc nowadays, it's quite possible there are ongoing computer face to face conversations going on between the parties that run things in Dundee and Mark and Scott in the US. It's possible that RN has been asked for his transfer targets and costs and for all we know it might be signed off on already.

On balance, I can understand the caution given what could be the worst case scenario under his ownership, but he's been honest enough to stand up to that question and give an honest answer. No.

So for me I feel very positive about this, it wasn't so long ago that people said they weren't going back while Csaba was in charge, weren't going back while ST was in charge, weren't going back while MM was in charge.
Well we now have the change we have all been wanting. Of course there are risks, there are risks with any new ownership.

I feel we should be giving Mark and Scott a true Scottish welcome when they do come over, something they might not be expecting, make them feel really welcome. Something that maybe even surprises them - in a good way.

22/12/2018 8:34 pm

Good post Redford

redford_must_score · 22/12/2018 10:16 pm

shedboy wrote:
Great post Redford. I too am surprised. At the game today lots of talk about the money making bit. But folk then genuinely agreed that may not be the case. One of you on here was involved in a wee discussion with me and a few others about it in GF Upper as I heard you mention this site and Teks post (unless just a viewer).

Im sure majority are just interested in what happens.

Cheers GoodieConway and Shedboy.
I forgot to mention the money making thing. I wonder if too much emphasis is being placed on what he said because I don't know of any American who ever bought a company and said publicly I expect to lose money on this for the forseeable future. As far as I know it's not in their DNA, so maybe he's giving the standard American line there. Unless he has a cunning plan Baldrick style that he's not telling us about

redford_must_score · 22/12/2018 10:48 pm

shedboy wrote:
redford_must_score wrote:
shedboy wrote:
Great post Redford. I too am surprised. At the game today lots of talk about the money making bit. But folk then genuinely agreed that may not be the case. One of you on here was involved in a wee discussion with me and a few others about it in GF Upper as I heard you mention this site and Teks post (unless just a viewer).

Im sure majority are just interested in what happens.

Cheers GoodieConway and Shedboy.
I forgot to mention the money making thing. I wonder if too much emphasis is being placed on what he said because I don't know of any American who ever bought a company and said publicly I expect to lose money on this for the forseeable future. As far as I know it's not in their DNA, so maybe he's giving the standard American line there. Unless he has a cunning plan Baldrick style that he's not telling us about

Agree - i think it was a statement of being serious make some money is being serious. He didnt say i want to get millions out this club and fuck off. making money/revenue/profit all different types of success.

Of course i could be totally wrong.

But for first time in 4 years (and many at game today) ive got some hope. Lets see. But one thing. i bet we get new signings in January - in fact i bet they are all ready tied up.

It'll be interesting to see the quality and cost of the signings because that will tell us a bit about how ambitious he is to see us get back to the Premiership this season, and from what he's saying he is very ambitious. But more revealing will be who he chooses for the two new positions he's creating, MD and Sporting Director. These are the people who will run the two elements of the business day to day, week to week, and it's on them that the weight of expectation will load onto. To be honest I'm not sure how he could do that recruitment from the US, unless he's flying into London (for example) to interview and select. So that bit remains a real mystery to me at the moment because I think he said he is expecting to announce these appointments very soon and I think he also said they would be people with local ie knowledge of the Scottish game. Interesting times. Makes a nice change from please fuck off ST though eh

23/12/2018 9:38 am

Yeah, excellent post Redford
I don't really want to throw in a wee negative here but I think his response to the question was understandable given the speculation there's been about the unthinkable....
'Do you know the Americans over the road?'
'No. I don't even know who they are'.
Well that's funny because the pair were spotted together at Tannadice on Tuesday.
Allegedly.

Last edited by smedDUm (23/12/2018 9:49 am)

PatReilly · 23/12/2018 11:51 am

smedDUm wrote:

'Do you know the Americans over the road?'
'No. I don't even know who they are'.
Well that's funny because the pair were spotted together at Tannadice on Tuesday.
Allegedly.

I'd be concerned if this turned out to be true.

redford_must_score wrote:

Another positive is that he's going to appoint an MD and a Sporting Director. We'll have to wait and see who these choices are and tbh the people he chooses will tell us a lot about how his mind is working as far as the future of the club is concerned.

I'd have been happier, given the time the deal appears to have taken, if these appointments had been announced when the takeover was made public in the middle of last week. Still guessing Wyness may be involved.

Finally, and I can't be the only United fan who has noticed this, Mark Ogren was president of Croix Oil, but appears to have sold up just under 3 months ago. It seems more difficult to track down company ownership for those based in the USA. However, the newspapers here report that he is rather than was the president of that company.

You'd think that it would be easy to access that information via the Croix Oil website, but it isn't, as the site has been down since the deal for United was announced, and possibly before that too.

http://croixoil.com/

It all may be innocent, but I think it is fair to be wary of the new owner.

Tangy · 23/12/2018 1:26 pm

So, the rumour is that ogren and helms were spotted in dundee, together on Tuesday. Ogren then either left the country or lied about being at tannadice on the Wednesday on the day of the takeover?
It's a wee bit far fetched, isn't it?
We can't treat everybody in the club like we did Steven Thompson.

We pushed Thompson out, we pushed Martin out and now rumours are circulating that the new owner is also underhand.....

SlatefordArab · 23/12/2018 1:46 pm

PatReilly wrote:
smedDUm wrote:

'Do you know the Americans over the road?'
'No. I don't even know who they are'.
Well that's funny because the pair were spotted together at Tannadice on Tuesday.
Allegedly.
I'd be concerned if this turned out to be true.

redford_must_score wrote:

Another positive is that he's going to appoint an MD and a Sporting Director. We'll have to wait and see who these choices are and tbh the people he chooses will tell us a lot about how his mind is working as far as the future of the club is concerned.

I'd have been happier, given the time the deal appears to have taken, if these appointments had been announced when the takeover was made public in the middle of last week. Still guessing Wyness may be involved.

Finally, and I can't be the only United fan who has noticed this, Mark Ogren was president of Croix Oil, but appears to have sold up just under 3 months ago. It seems more difficult to track down company ownership for those based in the USA. However, the newspapers here report that he is rather than was the president of that company.

You'd think that it would be easy to access that information via the Croix Oil website, but it isn't, as the site has been down since the deal for United was announced, and possibly before that too.

http://croixoil.com/

It all may be innocent, but I think it is fair to be wary of the new owner.

Last cache of that site at the Internet Archive was in August
http://croixoil.com/">https://web.archive.org/web/20180806035150/http://croixoil.com/

There are 13/14 petrol stations listed on there. It is reported that there were all sold earlier this year so perhaps they have simply taken the site offline now since they no longer own anything really but the company still exists?

Anyway I am not sure what to make of any rumours about him meeting Nelms. Nobody even seemed to know who Martin and Fyffe were selling up to until the day of the announcement and now all of a sudden he was spotted with Nelms the day before? And he did not stick around in Dundee on the day of the announcement? I smell pish.

Billy_Hainey · 23/12/2018 2:06 pm

Clever lad anyweh. MBA in Business Management, and a BA in Financial Management.

blackandtangerine · 23/12/2018 3:35 pm

Seems this revolution lot are going to be doing the recruiting and selling of players tho Robbie will have final say .

bowers · 23/12/2018 4:36 pm

Think its total shite about him being seen with nelms on Tuesday.

Why wouldnt be stick around another few days if that was the case.

Pish

Tek · 23/12/2018 5:32 pm

bowers wrote:
Think its total shite about him being seen with nelms on Tuesday.

Why wouldnt be stick around another few days if that was the case.

Pish

This.

blackandtangerine · 23/12/2018 5:39 pm

bowers wrote:
Think its total shite about him being seen with nelms on Tuesday.

Why wouldnt be stick around another few days if that was the case.

Pish

Agree. Smeddum has been sniffing too much linseed oil methinks

MockChop · 24/12/2018 1:32 am

‘cautiously optimistic’ might sum it up for us all.

Arabnophobia · 24/12/2018 1:45 am

blackandtangerine wrote:
bowers wrote:
Think its total shite about him being seen with nelms on Tuesday.

Why wouldnt be stick around another few days if that was the case.

Pish
Agree. Smeddum has been sniffing too much linseed oil methinks

What a thing to throw into the mix. Smedum, can you back up that shit any further or can you tell me you've been led a line?

What the fkn fk Smeds!?

24/12/2018 2:56 pm

blackandtangerine wrote:
bowers wrote:
Think its total shite about him being seen with nelms on Tuesday.

Why wouldnt be stick around another few days if that was the case.

Pish
Agree. Smeddum has been sniffing too much linseed oil methinks

My source is impeccable.
From a taxi driver (known to me) from a recent ex-player.
So what were Mr Ogren's movements last week?

blackandtangerine · 24/12/2018 3:54 pm

smedDUm wrote:
blackandtangerine wrote:
bowers wrote:
Think its total shite about him being seen with nelms on Tuesday.

Why wouldnt be stick around another few days if that was the case.

Pish
Agree. Smeddum has been sniffing too much linseed oil methinks

My source is impeccable.
From a taxi driver (known to me) from a recent ex-player.
So what were Mr Ogren's movements last week?

Stop sniffing the linseed.

Shedtastic · 25/12/2018 2:42 pm

smedDUm wrote:
blackandtangerine wrote:
bowers wrote:
Think its total shite about him being seen with nelms on Tuesday.

Why wouldnt be stick around another few days if that was the case.

Pish
Agree. Smeddum has been sniffing too much linseed oil methinks

My source is impeccable.
From a taxi driver (known to me) from a recent ex-player.
So what were Mr Ogren's movements last week?

Soooo what you're saying is that in his first interview with the club he told a bare faced lie when he stated he didn't know who the lot across the road were?