Kieran Maguire on City's finances

The actual facts are, they took a lot of salary and dividend from Allamhouse whilst they were custodians of the club, which in turn charged city large amounts of interest and management fees.

Technically they ‘never took a penny out of the club’. True but bullshit.

 

How much is acun paying himself? What’s acceptable? I’ve no idea what owners take out, any owners. What’s Tan on?

 

Nor I, I expect for most it’s not a vehicle for making money, but a costly play toy. The Allams definitely made good money out of us though.

 

No. They get any further add-ons from Bowen though.

And 20m wasn't the guaranteed fee for KLP. That's more like the total amount if all the add ons are triggered

 

Points deductions elsewhere made it comfortable. We were 20th based on results but that little extra buffer meant we avoided the pressure of a relegation scrap in the last few games.

 

Wrong. They got a cut of the KLP money and that and the price KLP eventually went for was reflected in the price Acun paid for the club. I read the Allams may have got a slice of the add on City got IF Bowen made a full England debut, probably because it was they who wrote it into the original deal.
It's about time some people let this go. We have the new owners everyone wanted and the club was run before them by the previous owners in a way and priced occordingly that made it buyable and worth taking a gamble on. The next set of accounts will be equally as interesting.

 

Hey, I'm no fan of the Allams but I'm pretty certain we get the guaranteed element of the KLP deal (about 12m) and the remaining Bowen add ons go to the Allams. If you're saying the KLP add ons also go to Allam house then I'm not disputing that if it was the deal Acun made with the Allams, and that's absolutely going to be inherently reflected in the upfront price paid.

 

It doesn't take away from the accomplishment which was remarkable when you throw in the transfer embargo which basically meant we could only sign players nobody else wanted at this level

 

Interesting, so a 5.5m loss last year after player sales, so quite a bit under the FFP limits.

The next year of accounts will be more interesting though.

 

Whilst we're not debt free, our debt has fallen quite substantially from ~40m to ~28m.

For anyone interested, the full accounts are here: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04032392/filing-history

 

I’m sure they can console themselves with all the interest payments they took from their ‘gift’ anarl!

 

They certainly didn't lose anything financially when the accumulated benefits of their ownership are taken into account.

But it does look like they walked away for not a lot on the sale transaction not to accrue further financial liability going forward.

 

That always got up my nose, when Assem bought the club it was his gift to the City, or words to that effect, which at the time I read as the money he put in was just that. It was later spun to be that the gift was saving the club and lending the money for the purpose.

Anyhow thankful we now have an owner who does what he says, and long may that continue. Frankly, Acun is making the Allam's look like amateurs.

 

All owners say what the fans want to hear at the beginning, when they're regarded as saviours, it wasn't unique to the Allams and Acun is no different. When the club ceases to benefit the current owner and he financially and emotionally withdraws, similar disparaging remarks will be made about him. It's just the cycle of ownership, so just have to enjoy the good times as the bad ones are always around the corner.

I can't comment on Ehab, but Assam's 'loss' was his time spent running the club, in which he'd have been a lot more profitable and less stress focusing on his core businesses.

 

In terms of P.R there is no comparison between Illicali and Allam.

The new owner understands what the fans want,he has invested in bringing back fans who had fallen out of love with the Club due to the Allams(it's worth noting that some didn't walk away or stop going).He's took some fans on a free holiday,he's paying for fans to travel to away games,he's increased the fan base,he's looked at and been successful in ways of increasing revenue...All Good,he's doing what he said he'd do.

In terms of onfield activities,that's a different matter.

One of our most successful periods in our long History was achieved by Allam and his rather divisive son,some choose to ignore that due to their personal feelings against both Allams but some will never forget.

Our new owner now needs to push on in terms of recruiting quality players who can deliver the success he yearns for.He needs to invest serious money to build the sustained challenge it will require to depart the Championship,that's his goal,that's what he's all about.

Last year's recruitment hasn't shown much in the way of marked improvement on the pitch,there's a long way to go before he matches the on field achievements of the previous incumbents...

 

I did not say the Allams got the add on's from the KLP deal. They got a cut, probably for a or every England Under 21 appearance, I don't honestly know. But the money received for the sale of KLP, who was sold under the present owners, was reflected in the price Acun paid for the club. Before the anti Allam brigade jump on their keyboards, remember they could quite easily have sold KLP before the sale of the club went through and pocketed the lot, but they didn't. As for the Bowen deal I believe a cut was due to the Allams if he made the England squad. The sale of both players kept City trading during hard times and made the club affordable to attract the likes of Acun.

 

I think this has been flogged to death enough. But as far as I saw it Assem in the beginning allowed S.Bruce to effectively run the club that is when we got the success. After that and when the name change came about after that it started to slowly go downhill, and the speed of decline increased when Ehab took over.

 

All I will say is that from the beginning of the Allam's tenure, and my son reminded me a few months ago of what I said and that I was right, things were likely to end in tears with the Allam's in change. Why I said that was I have been to Egypt in my working life over 300 times, and know the mentality very well, and was sure it would be all sweet words in the beginning but would end up in tears. The point of my original post was this twisting of meaning about it being a gift, which is typical of their mentality, saying one thing to make it sound wonderful but then twisting it to say they never meant it that way.

As I said in my other post to Ric, for me in the beginning after Pearson and Nick Barmby went, Assem allowed S Bruce to run things on and off the field, which for the most part worked, SB was the glue that kept the whole thing together.

Yes, you are right owners come and go, and as yet we don't know what Acun legacy will be, but when it comes to the commercial side, he has proved already he knows how to generate money from football, which the Allams never really understood.