A concern for football in the long term is that such a large proportion of the money comes from TV rights....that could be a bubble that bursts. Things change so rapidly in the modern world....after all, who would have predicted that so many shop chains would fold so quickly (incidentally producing a large reduction in local available jobs) or that so many people would have to take jobs with zero hours. Too many eggs in one basket.
"“Summer ‘17 was the first time we have spent more than we have sold. That follows on from the illustration we provided last year that we continue to invest, and that has carried on." hmmmm.
A good financial result that I would expect to be mirrored in the next set of financial results for this year. If our new owners are looking at a major injection of money to get back on track and get back to where we want to be (being optimistic about staying up) then a substantial profit like this would no doubt give the Gao's confidence that they are not throwing money down the drain but have a distinct chance of a suitable return. Look at the positives of having a financially very sound business, it's better than looking down the barrel of unsustainable debt like so many other clubs have
The debt is only unsustainable if you can't afford the repayments, which the other clubs can because they are on PL money. The only way to stay in the PL long term is to spend money in line with your competitors, it is a vicious cycle.
But that wouldn't result in us playing any European games in the 2017/18 season, and consequently won't show up on our books for this year.
Quote from a post on the Echo site: "What this press release fails to mention is that if you look at the companies house register for Southampton football club charges you will see that ALL future monies from the Premier League go directly to McQuarrie Bank to service the loan of 210m taken out by Mr Gao to buy the club off Kat. So if you think that shows the club is financially sound you must be wearing beer goggles! How about doing some basic fact checking Adam Leith - journalists are supposed to be investigative? You won't learn anything current from accounts which are nine months old and pre Chinese takeover". Is this true, we should be told.
It's good we're in a decent financial position providing we stay up of course. Now how about giving something back to the fans? *cough* ticket prices *cough*
I don't mind forking out for the ticket prices as long as I am reasonably entertained at the matches.
Regrettably, we're now likely one of the most heavily indebted teams in the PL, as Gao took out loans for the vast majority of the purchase price.
That’s how Life works. Money always comes from the punters pockets. *apologies if someone had discovered a real money tree.
Our average cheapest season tickets are something like 5th/6th highest in the league. Great that it's affordable for you but it's not for many others.
I don't know, it has never happened before where all the also rans spent the same (I know you are joking). There is a strong correlation between money spent and league finish. It is why it was only a matter of time before we found ourselves at the wrong end of the table.
But it does point irrefutably to the fact that our position is almost entirely down to mismanagement, rather than having a weak squad. The team have been allowed to underperform by a manager who was given far too much time to get things right.
If you do things right, you should succeed. However, nothing is guaranteed....a promising player can turn out to be sensational or average; a manager who seems to fit the bill fails. It can happen. Let's just hope that we don't get punished severely for mistakes this season, because I suspect we will have a much better season in 2018/19 if we stay up.
Fair enough, I was just suggesting that i'd like to see them try to produce more value for money on the pitch than we have had this season in particular.
