If only we knew what it was all about, but it has been trotted out a few times over the past few months. Our wage bill appears to be at the heart of it and it has been mooted that we are still paying ex-players and managers. So much for contracts.
We have a hire purchase outfit in the UK called 'Brighthouse' for skint people to buy nice things, high interest, weekly payments with the thing you have bought costing about 3 times it's initial value. It's an American thing apparently that caught on here like Wonga loans.. Ellis's contracts imo were Brighthouse contracts in payments, wages and bonuses over a specific period whether you kept the item or not.. That is why imo, we sail close to the FFP borderline, still paying staff that are long gone on weekly/monthly payment terms that were initially agreed by the directors of the club.. The big money for being in the Premier League, again in my opinion was being paid to pay off high interest loans originally set up by the directors to pay off the initial purchase debt. In other words, Short pays Short putting it bluntly.. A total shambles whatever, in everyone's opinion..
I don;t believe the club has been run in such a crude fashion. Whatever is at the root of it we must avoid becoming another Portsmouth, Leeds etc.
What part don't you believe? Relegation battles saved with loan players season after season, zero proper investment and the cycle to be repeated the same the next season and the next after that and so on.. It wouldn't surprise me if we are still paying Fletcher's and Danny Graham's transfer fees and **** knows where we stand with the 3 K's we signed last January. All opinions mate but I have dug a little deeper into it, been told some stuff from ex-personell and form my opinion on that..
It's not mate. Our revenue is the heart of problem as revenue dictates how much you can spend on wages. Wages have to be no more than 70% of turn over. Raise your revenue you have more to spend on wages. Our wage bill would be perfectly fine if we weren't hemorrhaging money and operating in the red. We're paying 6m a year interest on our debts. We've failed to grow our overseas profile despite having an owner who could raise our profile massively in the states. We have so many lump fees owed for transfer fees for so many players. every season we are paying off managers/DoF/chief ex/backroom coaches/scouting inferstructures. Fix these things and suddenly Our wage bill is tiny with plenty of room to add more. Cost cutting just doesn't cut it, it's not enough to create the revenue required, we know this because we have been cost cutting but the debt is still increasing.
Well we're well on course of becoming just that. I'll hate to say I told you so but that's the only way we're going under short, not matter how much you're in denial about the state of the club. It's too far gone to manage, short of Short clearing the debt out of his own pocket or finding someone who will, this club will heading towards the administrators. Imagine if we stop getting this massive tv money? Well, we're going to find out when the parachute payments reduce and the debt repayments and working in the red operations remain.
I finally did some Internet digging about FFP and such like. My attitude had been "**** FFP, why don't we just ignore it?" but I see the EPL have made it clear breaking FFP will lead to points deductions, so it's obvious why we have to stick to it. Then the debt. Chelsea have an enormous debt, as do Man Utd, but it's obvious why they can deal with being in such a position. Then it's US with the third-highest EPL debt. How the **** did we get into this position? Surely Short could have seen the debt increasing year by year and done something about it. I'm normally a glass-half-full type but the situation really is ****ing depressing. Even it we do stay up, there'll still be the £140m debt, not enough revenue to deal with wages, and it'll be the same next season. I can't see a way out
Yep because of much much much better lines of Revenue coming in. All these annual loan interest repayments and player instalments we have reduce our revenue on an month by month bases, which in lower our wage limit. For a man who help devise the FFP system Short really have ****ing his own club in accordance with it. He should just loan the club 250m, pay everything off to get us running in the black on a monthly bases without the 1000s of monthly outing for all sorts of ****, allow some money for squad investment. Then skim the profits annually to repay the loan to himself, Step down as Chairman, get somebody who knows what they are doing. Keep his trap shut and his nose out and away from the club await his annual money package. I can't see a way out with what we're doing either. He's lost control. Consolidating everything with a one of interest free loan is the only way I can see it being resolved. He's the only one who can do it.
Well that may be your opinion, mine differs and I think you are wrong. Players don't like the idea of signing for a club and being relegated. They then have to find a new club if they leave, something that's not easy. A loan means they can go back to their parent club and carry on picking up their pay cheque.
The thing is it takes time to sort a sale of this size out. There is a lot of due dilligence to do. I have heard a lot of negotiations are going on at the moment. That comes from a reliable source. I think people forget where we were, Short has his faults, but think about where we might be? Short has lost his enthusiasm for football he will sell, we just have to hope whoever buys us is an investor not an asset stripper.
I've heard Short is selling. That comes from quite a reliable source. But it might take some time as negotiations are on going. The guy I know never gives me a straight answer but that's what I can deduce from what he said. I am flying to Buenos Aries in 2 weeks for another event so I will ask for an update if the opportunity arises.
Given we're not only team in a relegation battle, how do you aply your theory to the clubs around us who are strengthening? Hull and Boro and Palace all making signings. Relegation clause make it easier to move player in an event of a relegation as they're designed to suit both parties. I'd also reckon there were a couple of ex Mag players who'll believe relegation was the best thing to happen to their careers given the level they're playing at now. Players look for any opportunity to prove their worth in the premier league, it's where everyone wants to play. They'll be players lining up for a 4 month pop at this league given that a successful 4 month spell could be the absolute making of them. Give them the opportunity and a contract they agree on and they'll be plenty of suitors imo.
We've never accumulated this level of debt in our history. Given we have more debt now than when he took over I remember when we 'were' better off.
Fantastic stadium, fantastic support, Fantastic training facilities but there must be something wrong when players come here, are they being treated right ?. How can we be back to where we were 13 years ago ?, Chelsea slipped up last season got Conti in spent on quality players and they are back to where they were. The new owners need to look at the youth team through to the first team, there should be an under 23 premier league, where academy players are playing in a good standard division week in week out, and 5 should be playing in the premier league at least 20 times a season to give them a chance.
Its all relative though, the income from TV rights, sponsorship etc... is much more now so the amount of serviceable debt is much higher. Anyway I was talking more about which league were playing in. Apart from the 2 good seasons under Reid and 1 good season under Bruce we're still not much worse off than we have been in the last 25 years.
Yeah but take that money away and where are we? The debt is increasing with it. I'm just scared for our future mate. Seriously scared.
Boro and Palace will likely stay up, they have more chance than us. Hull have not signed anyone any better than we have this window. You are entitled to your opinion, but I disagree with you.
I understand the concern. It was a worry for me 2 years ago when a large sporting company I do work for was in even bigger debt. They were bought for silly money which was a big relief as I was owed 3 months invoices. SAFC has value and it's more than our current debt. There will be plenty of buyers but Short will negotiate hard. My worry is we go down, Moyes leaves then we get bought by someone clueless who bring in 1 bad manager after another. We finally got it right with Sam and then England ****ed us.
All to play for at the bottom imo. Even Leicester are in trouble. Long way to go. January windows can save teams, the personal are obtainable and they can be the difference and last season's January recruitment proves it beyond doubt as far as I'm concerned. You're welcome to your opinion and to disagree with mine.
