There are loads, but let's start with this one, as it's quite pertinent .... https://www.mikethornton.xyz/delayed-player-announcements/ Some thoughts on why Player Signings are delayed. These are just some thoughts that apply to player announcements in general and do not necessarily apply to anyone in particular at Leeds United. Contract Periods Any player on a standard contract with a football club has a contract that runs until 30th June each year. His new contract, either with a new club or his existing club, starts on 1st July or later but always runs until 30th June. This is an FA regulation. Even if a player signs a contract to move clubs in May his contract of employment doesn’t start with his new club until 1st July and his old club will still pay him during May and June, unless his new club agrees to take over these payments. Financial Accounts Financial accounts for many clubs run to the end of June each year. Leeds United are one example. A few clubs, such as Sheffield Wednesday have financial accounts that end at the end of May. All clubs, despite their actual financial year end, must produce accounts for FFP based upon an end date of 30th June. Players shown as Assets on accounts We hear a lot of talk nowadays about players’ transfer fees being amortised as an average, yearly cost on club accounts. It is easy to assume that it is the player’s employment contract that this refers to but this is wrong. No Club, and indeed no company, can treat a person as an asset. The asset being claimed is the player’s registration papers with the EFL so he can play for the club. These registration papers can be sold as an asset – a player himself cannot be sold as asset since this would be slavery, a person can no longer be owned by a person or company. Transfer Window The transfer window defines the dates that the EFL will allow registration papers to be transferred between clubs. It has nothing to do with when employment contracts can be signed. Note well that when a registration is transferred the first agreed transfer payment must be sent in cash with it. Why does this matter? Well, a few reasons. Firstly a player can sign a contract, or pre-contract, of employment with a club that says he will play for the club from 1st July, in line with the FA regulations, at any time (well after 1st January, I think) Just signing the employment contract doesn’t mean that he is allowed to switch clubs, since his old club still own his registration. His new club agree an employment contract with a player but then has to buy his registration papers from his old club. Cash Since the transfer fee must be sent with the change of registration papars, clubs often leave this as late as possible. With all the contracts signed neither the player nor his old club can back out and the later registration is safe. Financial Accounts When a new club signs an agreement to buy a players’ registration any transfer fee that must be paid becomes a debt on that club, or a liability to use the financial term. If the new club does this before 30th June then this liability will show on it’s old financial accounts and give an impression of higher debts than is a true picture. Similarly, if two clubs transfer the registration papers then the selling club will register this as a player sale in the old season’s accounts and claim profit from it. This can obviously help with FFP after the season has ended and is something some selling clubs might want to do. However, if the buying club allows the transfer, this transaction would go onto its own accounts as a cost and increase its losses for FFP. Also, by having to pay cash on the nail with the transfer of registration, the buying club’s accounts will show less cash in the bank. So, an early transfer of the registration papers can make a selling club’s accounts look better and a buying club’s accounts look worse. So it only matters because of cash and FFP? Not quite. Shirt sponsorship and other club partnerships come into it too. How does Sponsorship affect Player announcements? In general, sponsorship and advertising contracts are signed to coincide with the financial year. This means that new sponsors are normally revealed around 1st July and they expect a full 12 months of advertising of their name. A club cannot announce a new sponsor much earlier without effectively ending their old sponsorships. Granted, most sponsors would be hard pressed to go to court to argue a material loss occurred if a new sponsor was announced a few weeks after the season ended, given that their exposure from that time onwards is limited. However, a club announcing a change of sponsor early would likely get away with a slight breach of contract but a club that starts to actively promote a new sponsor early is on very shaky ground and could well be sued. So, clubs tend not to reveal their new shirts with new sponsors until the start of their new financial year, give or take a few days. For Leeds United that means we normally reveal these changes from 1st July onwards. This doesn’t stop announcing a new player though! Well, it does really, because obviously a new sponsor wants his logo and name seen as much as possible and new player announcements are eagerly awaited, so they get plenty of the exposure sponsors want. Therefore, it often gets written into contracts that new sponsors name and logo must appear when major signings are announced. A new sponsor doesn’t want a new, big-money signing being pictured wearing last season’s shirt with an old sponsor, so player announcements are often held back until new kit can be shown. Is that all? Just about, except, of course, sometimes player announcements are held up to allow a scheduled flow of signings to be announced or to coincide with other events, such as manager changes. Mike Thornton 23rd June 2018
Here's another eye-opener for the new season ..... https://www.mikethornton.xyz/lufc-loan-players/ Make up of EFL Championship Squads. I’ve seen some discussion on Twitter today about the number of loans and foreign players that Leeds United can take on and was asked my view. Some of the answers given by others seemed to have got the EPL requirements mixed in and so I thought I’d have a go at explaining how I see it. I’m going to go through the recruitment of players by the Club to give contracts to first and then explain the match day requirements of the team sheet in the second half of the essay. Club Consideration – foreign players Unlike the EPL Championship clubs can register as many 1st team players as they like. They can also register as many U23 players as they like. The EPL makes each Club declare a squad of 25 players at the start of the season and again during the mid-season transfer window. The EFL does NOT do this. Football clubs are subject to the same EU laws as any other company and they struggle to put restrictions on the number of foreign players, just like any other employer. There is no limit within the EPL fixed-sized squad or the EFL squads for how many or how few foreign players a club can register on it’s books as employees. Some EPL clubs register a huge number of players on standard or loan contracts and then do not put them on their 25 man squad list. The EFL has no squad size restriction. Club Consideration – loan players There are no restrictions on the total number of loan players that a Championship club can register at any one time. In the same way, there are no restrictions on the number of International loans that a Championship club can register. Club Consideration – so it’s a free-for-all? Yes, at the club level it is. Employment laws and so forth must be followed by football clubs and to limit employment through race, gender, nationality etc. is forbidden within football just as it is within the wider employment scene. But I’ve heard of restrictions The crucial word within my previous paragraph is “employment”. Clubs cannot discriminate when employing people and the FA and EFL cannot enforce such rules, even if they thought it might help the national team. What the FA and EFL can do is lay down rules of a sport and let the clubs select the best suited players from their squads for match day teams. So let’s look at these Match Day requirements A Championship club can present up to 18 players on the match day team sheet. In days gone by there was complete freedom for a coach in selecting his match day team but that is being eroded and the rules have been getting tighter in past seasons. The rules have got tighter again for next season and a coach must now ensure that he meets certain conditions or he will not be allowed to put a full 18 names on the sheet. I’m going to go through these requirements as if selecting a team based on these requirements but, of course, a real coach would start with his best players. Club Developed Player Every Championship club must now include one Club Developed Player on the team sheet. A Club Developed Player is defined as a player who joined Leeds United before the start of the season where he turned 19 years old. He cannot count as a Club Developed Player unless he joined us by, or before, that date AND has got a year training by us under his belt. For clarity, this would include an 18 year old lad joining us on a professional contract and spending one year training with the U18 or U23 squad. The next season he would qualify as a Club Developed Player for inclusion in the match team sheet. So that’s one of the 18 team sheet players chosen. Home Grown Players This requirement has been around for a while but has got stiffer for the next season. Every Championship club must now put EIGHT Home Grown Players on the team sheet. A Home Grown Player is someone who has spent at least three complete seasons registered with a football club affiliated to the FA or the Welsh FA before the season that he turns 22 years old. This has nothing to do with nationality, race or anything remotely like that. It just covers players who have arrived in England or Wales from anywhere in the world and got themselves registered at a club. They must have been registered for three seasons but they can swap clubs and even have a season off providing they have three seasons registered before the season when they are 22 years old. Of course, once a player has done his English or Welsh training to become a Home Grown Player then he will always be qualified as one. In this way many older players will be Home Grown, not just those in the youth system. Combinations If the Club Developed Player on the team sheet also qualifies as a Home Grown Player then the number of Home Grown Players is reduced to SEVEN plus the Club Developed Player. That’s NINE players! Yes, that has put nine players on the team sheet just to comply with the new regulations. So what of the remaining nine players? Well the coach still cannot pick who he wants from the rest of the registered squad employed by the Club. Loan Player Restrictions The coach can only pick up to FIVE players on a loan contract in his match day team sheet. Of course, he can pick fewer. Again, the Club may have registered many more loan players that form the pot that he selects from but the maximum he can pick is only FIVE – this includes a goalkeeper registered on an Emergency Loan Contract outside the normal transfer window. Any Exceptions? Yes, of course. Nothing from EFL regulations is simple. Selling Club Developed Players Leeds United could sell TWO Club Developed Players to another Championship club or an EPL club in the January transfer window and that would remove the requirement to name any Club Developed Players for the rest of the season. Anything Else? Probably but my eyes have worn out my Specsavers’ specials reading EFL regulations! Conclusion It is a complex task that Victor Orta and any coach face in balancing our first team squad recruitment. Injuries and suspensions may mean a small squad cannot meet the regulations and we have to name fewer than seven substitutes. A large squad costs loads-a-money and tends to be lower quality. Loan players may be the flavour of the week in fans’ minds due to lack of transfer fee but a backbone of purchased players and established youth is a must. Interesting summer ahead. Mike Thornton 3rd June 2018
Both informative and interesting articles. Every fans should try and get a grasp of how squads have to be put together and when
Another essay with some interesting info ..... https://www.mikethornton.xyz/chat-leeds-united/ A Quick Chat with Leeds United Lots of fans have mentioned on Social Media and to me directly via Tweets and DMs that they find the Club too quiet at the moment. I had chance this evening to have a chat with someone at the Club whose word I respect and, if anyone is interested, this essay contains some of what we discussed. I won’t name who I have spoken to as this was an informal chat and not an official Club communication. I will say that I contacted the person concerned out of the blue and I asked the questions. If anyone reading this feels they do not want to read from an unknown source please stop reading now, I fully understand that point of view. Last Season I asked about the accounts for last season which will not be published at Companies House until next March. I don’t think it benefits this essay for me to try and detail the specific data but I did suggest that the Club had not invested last season. With the information in the accounts it is clear that the Club has invested and invested many 10s of millions of pounds. Compared to Cellino’s last season, Radrizzani’s first season has seen a marked increase in commercial and gate revenue of around £8m, Radrizzani himself has loaned and then moved to equity another £8m and cash funds from the sale of Wood, Taylor and Bridcutt flowed into the Club last season. All these funds have been reinvested back into the Club and spent on players and running the Club. Where did this money go? Lots of little places is how I could best put it. Under Cellino the Club were losing money and Cellino used player sales’ money to cover those losses. Radirzzani has had to cover those losses again last season from the money I mentioned above. Radrizzani has also reversed some of Cellino’s cost savings, the number of staff at the Club has risen allowing the commercial revenue to increase and wages for players, staff, coaches and scouts has risen, even the smaller cost savings from Cellino, such as having no contract cleaners at Thorp Arch (which notably led to illness amongst the players), have been reversed and they all add up to a considerable sum. And that’s before we get to talking about the costs of having scouts watching players around Europe and beyond!!! Suffice it to say, I can see how extra cash has flowed into the Club under Radrizzani and I can also see how it has stayed within the Club and been spent. Nothing untoward. No bonus for Radrizzani or Eleven Sports or anything like that, in fact the opposite – Radrizzani has had to put his own money into the Club. Money well spent? This is a difficult question to ask someone at the Club but, just as other people have said to me before, there was no hiding and a frank admission that money was wasted on the wrong players, players who were too young to have the financial impact the Club wanted or didn’t bring the ability as expected and needed for the Championship. Those mistakes are being rectified by moving on players the Club feels will not bring immediate benefit so as to reduce the wage bill and perhaps bring in some fees. It was admitted that this is proving difficult with a transfer market that is not as active at the levels that will take these players (it wasn’t said but I suspect trying to move on players we deem failures will always be hard). So that’s last season I’ve had similar conversations with other members of the Club and this evening has confirmed a lot of what I’d been told: admission that last season’s plan failed but confirmation that the Club invested and invested a lot of money in that failure. Frankly, from my point of view, now that I’ve had this confirmed again I’m happy to put this angle to bed. But last season isn’t important Yes, I did get round to asking about this summer and next season. 49ers The 49ers money has gone into the club recently along with money still to be received from player sales – there has been no delay or hiccup with the 49ers money as some fans have suggested to me. Revenue is expected to increase again next season (if Season Tickets and matchday ticket sales do not collapse!) and all this money will go to pay for the items I mentioned earlier (the underlying losses each season, the large wage bill, the increased costs of running the Club and Thorp Arch) and the new costs, such as Bielsa and new players. I asked if any money was left over from last season to go towards this season and the answer was no! All money available before the 49ers investment was spent and this summer and next season will be funded by the 49ers plus normal revenues including the expected revenue increases due to better commercial activity and also player sales money received in stage payments – Radrizzani will need to make up any shortfall in cash during the summer and season from his own pocket. Vydra Ok, so if there’s money available but it is not loads of money then the rumours about Vydra must have been false? It seems that is not the case – the Vydra rumour was correct and the Club are willing to make an exception in his case. This was apparently an exception for Vydra alone and not a general switch for the Club to bring in half a dozen players on large wages. Was a deal ever agreed as Phil Hay reported? Yes, apparently a deal was done with Vydra and his agent with everything agreed before Derby finally accepted Leeds’ offer for him. Just as Phil reported, as soon as Derby agreed the fee Leeds expected to just complete a formality and announce him at the start of this week just gone. Unfortunately his agent then asked for more money, a lot more money. I’m told Radrizzani “doesn’t do business that way” and the deal fell apart. I’ve got to say, if Radz doesn’t do business that way I’d support him to the hilt, no self-respecting businessman does! Ok, so that’s the Vydra story talked about, what about others? Yes, there are other targets, players Bielsa would like to have. Unfortunately, not all of those players are being released by their current clubs – this was something I’d not thought about before – and for some targets the price wanted by their current club is too high. I couldn’t get a reveal on who those targets are unfortunately. So nothing is happening now? It appears that the Club are focussed on, and have high hopes for, three players that Bielsa has targeted. I asked for clarification and that is three players in three positions and it is all agreed with Bielsa. I was reminded that it doesn’t mean the Club will definitely manage to swing those deals but a major effort is going into them right now. Filler players or better? Those three players being focussed on are all high quality, was the reply. I know such a description is subjective but without knowing their names I could ask no further. Is Bielsa happy? A lot of fans are worried Bielsa will walk so that was a natural question. I was assured that Bielsa has shown no sign of unhappiness or disquiet and is totally aligned with the Club. The players being pursued are Bielsa’s chosen players (ie not players Orta has decided we should have). How does the Club view the team this season? I don’t think I expected an answer saying the Club thought that the team was promotion ready and I think I would have laughed if it had been said. The best answer I got was that the Club felt the team would be “competitive this season”. As it stands now? “We have a young team and we know we need to include two or three new players” to be as competitive as we want to be. Summary All in all, I felt I’d had a good conversation. No excuses about other teams having parachute payments, no hiding that last season was poor, no hiding that a lot of money was spent last year for little gain. We talked in business terms, the correct way to handle negotiations, having business principles, working hard behind the scenes, keeping cards close to the chest, ensuring that the Club doesn’t lose too much money, ensuring that any money lost could be replaced by owner investment, being cautious in predictions and not over-promising. My contact cannot guarantee that the Club will succeed in all the plans but was able to give me comfort that the Club had a plan and was not drifting aimlessly. Addendum After last night’s awful stream that I paid to watch on LUTV I made sure to mention this too. I believe the message will reach the right people. Whether anything can be done about it yet is another matter but at least I got that off my chest! Mike Thornton 20th July 2018
Can you help those of out that have short attention spans. Please highlight the interesting bits.You only like his output cos it makes yours look concise. He used an awful lot of words to say nothing of substance and what what he did say had a positive PR spin on it even though his confidante if he exists was clearly lowering expectations still further. Ask Thornton if he is being paid for these puff pieces he keeps producing. The only other thought. He uses loads of words to say fook all. Are you related?
Do you think his conversation was with kinnear? I like Mike Thorntons explanations but feel he could be being played like a fiddle here. Basically we're not spending, money coming into club services debts, thanks for you're season ticket money.
I was editing my previous as you posted but as you can see had exactly the same thought about him being played or even paid...
Seems strange that his positive posts come out when the club (3amigos) come under fire from the fan base don't you think
Convenient rather than strange. I just don’t get why the happyclappy suspects lap it up. If a dog bites you once most sensible people would kick it in the bollocks if it approached them again.
I think more people get it than what you think Glory. The bottom line for the last few seasons appears to be no decent quality players coming in even if it's just to replace the good ones we lost. So obviously no-one can realistically expect us to improve/challenge for play-offs or autos. Furthermore, you don't need to be a genius to work out Radz is just a bare faced liar. According to him, we were top 6 material last season. According to him, we were going to do a 'wolves' this season. Actions speak louder than words and there is absolutely nothing (as yet) to suggest we are going for it this season. I have never said it before but I get fed up hearing people say that we can't do a Ridsdale. So what? we went bust! Sh*t happens and we paid for it. Are we going to keep saying for the next 20 years that we can't spend any money. It must be music to our chairman's ears when he hears us talk about Ridsdale. We don't need to go out and buy 20 players for positions we already have.....so in fact, we did do a Ridsdale last season because Orta went out and spunked a load of money on crap which didn't improve us one bit. We need 3-4 quality players to form a quality spine and make us competitive! That's it, yet it isn't happening! meltdown over!
