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When you have a genuine fan as owner

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like we do.

Middlesbrough owner Steve Gibson has rejected a takeover attempt by a

Chinese-American billionaire consortium which made a formal offer after

talks in the North East.
........................
Sportsmail understands the

59-year-old has no intention of selling the club he helped save from

liquidation in 1986 and has owned since 1993 and will resist any

approach from foreign investors.

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Stephen Gibson OBE (born 9 January 1958) is a British entrepreneur, politician and the chairman/owner of Middlesbrough Football Club. In 2012, he was 451st on the Sunday Times Rich List, with an estimated worth of £165 million.[1]

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Not when it has a direct effect on their ability to do their job as owner of a football club.

Gibson is in someways a perfect owner- fan, involved heavily in the local community and rich enough to make a difference (at least at this level).

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Indeed, Gibson has been magnificent for Boro. With its stadium, and his financial assets, Boro has a serious chance of establishing itself in the PL. Conversely, with no owners'' equity flowing into our club, relegation to league one is all but inevitable over the coming years.

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Maybe you should chip in then Highland?Y''know, put your money where your mouth is, as the phrase goes?

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"After talks in the North East"

For the consortium to get finances together and arrange meetings suggests that they had been led to believe a deal could be done?

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[quote user="Number 9"]"After talks in the North East"

For the consortium to get finances together and arrange meetings suggests that they had been led to believe a deal could be done?[/quote]I see where you''re going with this.But had the bid not been worthy of listening to, it wouldn''t have got anywhere near the meeting stage.

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I have no strong feelings either way, some good owners and some bad irrespective of cash, but the statement seems quite strong rebuffing all foreign investment etc, much like our owners, but the consortium obviously didn''t get that impression before making their offer.

At some point, the consortium must have had some encouragement to meet up and make their offer.

I''m not selling any of the property I own, so I don''t arrange meetings with estate agents or potential purchasers.

Maybe it''s just the way I read it.

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It''s not so much whether the owner is a fan or how deep their pockets are. It''s how well the club is run.With Wynn-Jones and Delia we''ve had one disaster after another bar a couple of good spells. League One looms large on the horizon.

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[quote user="Number 9"]I have no strong feelings either way, some good owners and some bad irrespective of cash, but the statement seems quite strong rebuffing all foreign investment etc, much like our owners, but the consortium obviously didn''t get that impression before making their offer.

At some point, the consortium must have had some encouragement to meet up and make their offer.

I''m not selling any of the property I own, so I don''t arrange meetings with estate agents or potential purchasers.

Maybe it''s just the way I read it.[/quote]You can apply context to it though.If someone rang up and offered you ten bob and a big orange for your property, you wouldn''t consider the offer serious, and would rebuff it.But the analogy doesn''t really hold up anyway, as you''re not emotionally invested in your property, and probably care little for what happens to it, after you sell.

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Will at least listen to offers and if not, has enough money to run at football club at the top level.

Nothing like the situation here.

As depressing as it is Gibson''s deep pockets will keep ''Boro''s glass ceiling at a level that still gives their fans hope and something to aspire to. They can compete financially in the Pl even if it''s near the bottom. That gives them a chance to compete for domestic cups and if they get the right combination of players and manager push for Europe.

If we run out of parachute payments our limit becomes mid table Championship at best barring another Lambert-esque miracle. That is an ''if'' but a very real and likely possibility imo.

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So is anyone else willing to throw their money away, to keep all of us fans happy?Anyone got a figure on just how much Gibson has put into Boro?

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No intention of selling, rebuff any approach,

Not,

See if the offer is serious first.

And yes, to you and me as fans it''s different to property, some investors are not fans, just investors.

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[quote user="Number 9"]No intention of selling, rebuff any approach,

Not,

See if the offer is serious first.

And yes, to you and me as fans it''s different to property, some investors are not fans, just investors.[/quote]We could go round in circles with this, as has been done in several threads before.My take on their stance is "Never say never, however, no one has approached with an offer that resembles serious, and we''re not interested in selling to investors who have no interest in the long term well being of Norwich City".And I am absolutely fine with that.

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[quote user="Hoola Han Solo"]Michael Wyn Jones will consider anyone as an owner, as long as it''s not one of those b loody foreigners.[/quote]Whilst its easy to cringe a bit at the xenephobia, the underlying message is that it has to be someone who cares about Norwich City, not just investment and return.If suddenly a Chinese billionaire who has been a lifelong Norwich City fan appeared, I''m sure they would listen to him.

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I''m not sure about that. None of us know him personally but if someone is inherently racist/xenophobic then they will always have prejudice against anyone from overseas.

This isn''t a definite accusation about MWJ''s views and no doubt Archant will probably delete it.

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[quote user="Hoola Han Solo"]I''m not sure about that. None of us know him personally but if someone is inherently racist/xenophobic then they will always have prejudice against anyone from overseas.

This isn''t a definite accusation about MWJ''s views and no doubt Archant will probably delete it.[/quote]Exactly, lets just assume he''s not a racist xenophobe then.

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[quote user="Number 9"]If you were owner of our club, and a fan obviously, what criteria would you need to sell?[/quote]That the offer was serious in terms of how much the prospective owner was willing to pay for majority control, and that they had a genuine interest in the long term future of Norwich City, and not just investing for return.A lot of boxes to tick, I know.But an example I can throw up is (and I apologise if this isn''t entirely accurate, but the general gist is) Peter Cullum. I believe he wanted majority control, in return for 10 million. But added teh caveat that if we didn''t get promoted, he wanted his ten million back.He was told to go whistle.

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[quote user="morty"]Bit crass judging someone on how much money they have, or don''t have, though?[/quote]

Millionaires have feelings too do they?

Two years time, let''s see if stubborn Delia refuses to sell up when we becoming a selling club due to the fact she cannot invest

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Interesting reading from Swiss Ramble on 1p5wich today. Our owners don''t have the 5+million Evans donates each year to keep 1p5wich in championship mediocrity. Without our owners having the resource to fund this level of loss, and the continual flow of money into the chumps at the moment from new, rich owners, it will be a considerable challenge to regain our chump status when our current status is inevitably squandered.

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Key phrase being "after talks in the North East."

As opposed to "we don''t even listen to any enquiries."

As others have commented not only is Gibson able to provide more financial security to Middlesbrough he does at least appear prepared to listen to suitors.

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