Ominous words from Hula-Hoop as he leaves six years into his five-year plan. Can anyone else spot why he was asked to leave?

Anyway, today's special offer from Round And White is yet another rumour that Roman is reaching for his chequebook, although with this one originating from Jorge Valdano himself, Wayne Bridge should be very worried indeed as Roberto Carlos is likely to be challenging for his position.

Elsewhere, Alan Smith is badge-kissing his way to Old Trafford in what is beginning to be yet another tediously drawn out transfer.

Let's get the good news out of the way. Liverpool have found someone foolish enough to pay good money for Emile Heskey.

Now for the not-so-good news. Rather than jumping the gun before the deal was done, it was probably better to see what the outcome was of Thaksin Shinawatra's £60m bid for a stake in Liverpool FC. Now it's true that Liverpool are in need of some cash in order to catch up with the Arsenals and Chelseas of this world. They also need a new manager, but that's a different story (right Max?), but it now appears as though the bid has been accepted and that raises a few points.

As a non-Liverpool fan it's easy to take the moral highground and say that it's a disgrace that they are selling part of the club to the Prime Minister who's personal human rights record is more than simply dubious. After all it's not my club up for grabs.

Steve Morgan's bid was laughable, as it completely undervalued the club as is it stands today. Let's have a look at the two bids by using Tactical Genius's excellent comparison off pesfan.com.

Morgan’s Bid
Morgan’s proposal is a one-for-one rights issue, meaning that every current shareholder would be offered one new share for each one they own, at £1,750 each. There are around 35,000 shares at the moment. If everyone bought their full entitlement, the club would raise new funds of £61m. The club, post-issue, would be worth £122m.

Morgan's company would underwrite the issue, meaning that if any current shareholders did not buy their one-for-one entitlement, he would guarantee to buy it instead. Therefore his pledge of £61m was the maximum he would invest if no other shareholders bought their entitlement. (extremely unlikely) But if he did invest that much, it would give him more than half the shares in the expanded holding.

The only way that the other current shareholders would be able to hold on to their percentage stakes in the club would be to buy their entitlement of the issue. For David Moores, for example, this would mean injecting new funds of some £32m to remain the 51 per cent majority shareholder. (money it’s rumoured he doesn’t have) In addition to the one-for-one rights issue, Morgan also proposes to underwrite the issue of £12m of new shares, marketed at fans.

As this stands Morgan could gain a seat on the board, and a large controlling influence in the club for very little real capital outlay on his part, whilst giving the impression that he has invested a lot more in the club than he actually has.

Thaskin’s Bid
Thaksin's proposal, to buy 30 per cent of the club for around £60m, puts a current value on the club of £200m, which is evidently more attractive for the board. Accepting his offer would provide funding without any current shareholders having to delve into their own pockets.

The main sticking point seems to be that the board value the club at around 200million, and the Morgan bid will devalue the club. Morgan could get over this be offering to underwrite a much larger issue, but this would cost him more money for his stake in the club, and leaves a much larger chance that the whole issue will not be taken up.

If this happened, his company, Bridgemere Investments, would have to buy the shares (effectively he would buy them) and if he gets it wrong it could cost him a packet.

I would obviously prefer Morgan to buy into the club, all I’m saying is that if your house was worth £200, 000 and someone came along and said, "You give me another 32 grand, I’ll take a third of your house, and then it’ll be worth £122,000." What would you say?


A clear explantion there (thanks again to TG). So from a financial aspect, Liverpool would be better off if they accepted the bid from Thailand, but read the next paragraph and decide whether you'd want this man owning a substantial stake in your club.

"In January 2003, Shinawatra declared a popular 'war on drugs'. In the following two months, more than 2,000 people, including elderly people and small children, were killed. The authorities maintained, once again, that the majority of killings were carried out by drug dealers, but Amnesty International believes security forces were heavily implicated, and bemoans the lack of any proper investigation of what went on."

More flattering information on Thaksin can be found here; the Guardian's Introduction to Thaksin Shinawatra.

So Liverpool fans. The money or the morality?

The plot is beginning to thicken at Fratton Park. It seems certain that Jim Smith will be leaving Portsmouth at the end of the seaosn, but it's unclear as to whose idea this is. 'Arry is protesting his innocence and blaming Milan Mandaric, although the latter is blaming Redknapp and saying that he called his own assistant manager "useless". There's no doubt that Mandaric is unhappy with the amount of money being spent by Redknapp, but it would seem foolish to get rid of a manager who is popular with the fans and is capable of at least keeping the team in the Premiership.

More on the Liverpool share bid soon.

*By the way, I'm testing Blogger's new comments system, so if you want to comment then use that. Ta*

This was Darren Anderton's first reaction on hearing that Kevin Keegan is interested in signing him. But seriously. Some surprising news as Spurs begin to clear out the deadwood from White Hart Lane.

Besides the reserves Danny Foster, Lars Hirschfeld and Shwan Jalal, the cull has been extended to Darren Anderton, Christian Ziege and Gus Poyet have also packed their bags. Perhaps a sign of serious intent in North London? A positive sign even? Nevertheless, many Spurs fans will be wondering why Ziege is going and not Taricco, as well as why Gary Doherty isn't going with them?

In football some things are always certain. Slate a team one week and they'll beat you convincingly the next. So with hindsight, the comments made by Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the Bayern directors, about Hamburg having thrown their game against Werder last weekend so that the title would end up at Bremen, were not only arrogantly foolish, but also tempting fate.

Bremen wisely didn't react to these comments and instead let their football do the talking. And so on Saturday they took Bayern to the cleaners in their own stadium. To the delight of many neutrals, Oli Kahn started things off with a howler; a fumbled save which allowed Klasnic to knock the ball into the net, Micoud lobbed the German keeper 20 minutes later and Ailton curled the third into the top-left hand corner from outside the box just before half-time. 3-0 at the break and bar a brief period of pressure when Makaay got one back, Werder had shown exactly why they deserved to be champions.

Leeds' new shirt will apparently feature some new technology to show which of the players have been pulling their weight.

"Leeds are preparing for life in the first division by launching a new hi-tech kit designed to see how hard players are working.
The home shirt, designed by Diadora, includes a logo on the shoulder which changes colour to show the increase of physical effort and body temperature."

Unfortunately, Round and White can't confirm the rumours that the logo on Mark Viduka's new shirt (should he stay) will spell out "PIE".

it is now...at least for Wolves, Leeds and Leicester, as for the first time in ages (I think) all of the bottom three are theoretically relegated two games before the end of the season. Unless Leeds and Wolves score 30-odd goals each in their next fixtures and Man City somehow contrive to lose by the same amount. The biggest impact will be felt at Leeds where a number of players will leave, notably Smith, Viduka and Robinson. Robinson is likely to end up at Spurs, while Smith has generated interest from at a number of clubs. But Round and White is unsure as to who can afford Big Mark's pie bill...I mean...salary demands.

Things are very much unchanged at the very top. Arsenal are obviously still unbeaten, Chelsea are almost certainly going to finish second and the same applies for Man U and third place. Much like last season the only thing worthy of interest at this late stage is the battle for fourth place and that highly lucrative Champions League spot. Liverpool, Villa and Newcastle are squabbling over it and it will hopefully go down to the last game of the season (as it did last season). Otherwise, all we will have left will be the FA Cup Final between ManU and Millwall. Great.

Elsewhere, Real Madrid have really buggered things up. Their third red card in as many games has put a realistic end to their title hopes and they now trail Valencia by 4 points. According to some member of staff there, Beckham will be staying now, but Ronaldo is up for grabs ("Hi Roman"). Zidane may move as well, along with Carlos, but frankly we have to ask ourselves if there's any point in believing in these Silly Season rumours.

Milan have won there 17th Scudetto, but does anyone really care?

Germany is still looking interesting. Although Bremen lead Bayern by six points, they play each other next weekend, which will undoubtably be an exciting game. Even more so now, as Bayern's Director Uli Hoeness has stupidly alleged that Bremen's northern neighbours Hamburg did them a favour by losing 6-0 at the weekend and thereby enhancing the Bremen goal difference.

Roll on Euro 2004, we say...