Transfer Rumours Summer 2025 Transfer Thread…

This reminds me of another conversation I had with someone accusing me of 'guessing' that the debt was 50m+ because it wasn't in black and white, despite the accounts suggesting to the contrary. You've just admitted you aren't an accountant but now you're trying to claim that the debt is due next year and we will go into administration as a result. You claim I try to start arguments with an empty room and yet here you are arguing with me with no shred of proof?

I may well be in for a shock, but if I am it's because there's nothing in black and white to suggest we're in danger.

 

there's a reason some people here despise you... read back and say where I have said the 'debt is due next year and we will go into administration as a result'.

 

Despise. Bloody hell, I was talking to ST where the discussion was specifically about the 80m debt and my point was that it wasn't due. You then cited the interest payments as if we'd go into administration based on that. You then made some opaque comment about creditors calling in their debts which suggested you WERE saying the 80m could be due. And within all that "I'm not an accountant BUT". You aren't an accountant. Leave it at that.

If you 'despise' me so much then that's lovely for you but you don't need to interject into my conversations then.

 

he's right

if we are in total **** creek, then it's not whats readily available to see
as he said, he would be in shock, as would we all

 

People really think we've just happily triggered a 3m buy clause for Puerta if there's even a shadow of risk over our financial position next year? We would have shunned him from the side and done everything to get out of paying it. OR we've triggered it because we know someone is keen on him for 4-5m which again.. helps our financial position. There's self-sabotaging but I don't think even Acun is idiotic enough to pay 3m if we're going to be in administration next season as a result. I know everyone likes to think the sky is falling when relegation looms but some deep breaths wouldn't go astray.

 

Theres a saying prick... Assumption is the mother of all **** ups. I clearly stated any debt is interest bearing. I said nothing about going into administration as result. I also correctly stated that any time a creditor 'could' call in his debt. And to clear this up for you, check who you are responding to.

 

Not all debt is interest bearing, owners give interest free loans all the time. Ours doesn't, and we service that loan accordingly. I'm well aware who I'm responding to. Perhaps check the context of a conversation before jumping in to try to correct someone..! You were directly quoting me asking if the 80m was due next season in the context of us potentially going into administration!

For what it's worth our interest was a whopping 1.9m. I don't think we're going to be in trouble over that.

And to clarify, are you calling me a prick? #GFAWism

 

I think most of the debt is owed to Acun Medya due to shareholder loans with 5% interest. Acun isn’t that wealthy. Someone alluded to him taking out a loan from Santander to purchase the club and write down the outstanding debt to Allamhouse. He then took out another loan from another creditor, probably Macquarie (as you referenced before) or something else like that, to finance the day-to-day expenses of the club. He did this because he thought promotion to the Premier League was an easy win and the money gained from promotion would service the debt owed to Acun Medya, or he could then sell us to someone else for a profit as the club’s worth increased as a Premier League club. He took a gamble and lost. The club’s losing £500,000 a week, is £80 million in debt (which means Acun Medya is £80 million in debt to some other creditor) and we have no real assets. We don’t own the stadium so that can’t be put up as collateral.

I think we’re really ****ed. Even if we stay up by some miracle, next season is looking bad. His gambles have put the club at serious risk.

 

We're losing that money in the Championship. Wages would slash in League One and we would sell half a dozen (or more) players to trim the wage bill further. I think the fixation on the 80m of debt is an unhealthy one as the wage bill is easily our biggest issue in terms of cash flow. What could well happen is we see the debt refinanced to an independent third party (Maq Bank is a regular with football clubs as an example) with the club put up for sale for 10-15m with the new owner having to assume that debt. Whether we find a new owner is another story, but I'd be staggered if we're on the edge of the abyss having just agreed to sign a 3m pound midfielder.

I don't disagree it's a valid conversation to have and our finances are much worse than under the Allams so I totally accept your perspective, I just think I'd need to see a bit more from the club or other parties before the alarm bells really start ringing for me. Maguire for instance was pretty relaxed about our financial position. I think a lot of clubs go down thinking that the money will run out and find that they end up a big fish in League One. Even if Acun just sees next season as the season to get us back up and then get out as a Championship club I could see him giving it one final crack. Sort of a 'double or nothing' for the chancer. I think he'd also hate the idea of leaving us in a worse league than when he took over.

 

I imagine more will come out and there will be more discussion after Portsmouth.

 

Yep let's see. Can keep our powder dry until then. If we are up **** creek I can only imagine there's an interested buyer in Puerta at least.

 

Wasnt wages at 140% in the latest accounts ?

 

Something like that, yeah. £130-something for every £100 the club makes.

 

Yes as it is with a lot of Championship clubs unfortunately.

 

It’s due whenever it needs to be paid.

On the Puerta purchase, there’s nothing stopping us buying players. People buy stuff they can’t afford all the time. The season before Reading went down, they spent nothing in transfer fees, but they did spend a heck of a lot on expensive loans and frees like Andy Carroll, Tom Ince, Baba Rahman and Danny Drinkwater. Pretty sure Drinkwater was on £120,000 a week at Chelsea and Reading paid a big chunk of that.

My point is that much like a gambler who is trying to win back their losses after a bad streak, clubs will take risks to ensure they don’t drop into a financially weaker league.

 

I understand that, but that doesn't mean we're automatically going into admin next season. The interest on the loan is minimal (relatively speaking) too, so really the debt has no bearing on anything. What has a bearing is the wage bill.

I'm not suggesting we bought him when we couldn't afford him, I'm saying if we're really on the brink and the club knows how close to the edge they are and how late in the season we've supposedly triggered his buy out, either we're selling him straight on, or people are overreacting. And if we are selling him straight on then we should make a tidy profit.

Also as a side note I'm pretty sure Reading haven't gone into Admin even in their current state.

I understand that Acun is gambling, as almost all football club owners are. They're all gambling each season that they can finally launch into the PL. Or possibly in our case, gambling on getting back to the Championship. I just don't buy into the entirely bleak outlook at this stage..

 

Another way to look at it. If we do go down, financial fair play doesn’t matter. Get Mcvities man on board and go spend a fortune.

In reality I think Acun is bored of the project now. Anything could happen.

 

So lets try and be positive

We could potentially have a good l1 team next season?
Theres no brum or wrexham next season

So it could be potentially 'easier' to get top 2 next season

 

Next season League One will be very weak given who's coming down and who is still there. There's no 'massive' clubs like a Sunderland, Derby, etc. we'd almost be the biggest club down there. While that doesn't count for a whole heap, in terms of attracting players who are good at that level we would be ok. We also have a strong (albeit injured) squad already for that level. Joseph could be this season's Magennis for instance. Kamara this season's Honeyman. They look poor in the Championship and then light up League One for us. Sure we'd probably lose a few of our gems to balance the books but unless Acun is entirely sick of us and goes from being all lovey dovey with supporters to the next Dai Yongge, I just can't see a world that is as bleak as some are painting it.