Off the field operations

We have spent more than them...

 

Still doesnt make sense mate, how and why are we so skint to be outdone by Ipswich of all teams ffs. Our shirt sales and revenue must be 5 times what they get. You can't tell me a big stadium and fanbase works against you

 

We aren't skint. We have spent a lot more than them. Look at the financials released today.

 

we are paying the same as most championship clubs are accounts were announced today we are in the top ten with 26m boro is 29 million so it looks like we actually are paying the going rate for a championship team ....

 

So why the lack of ambition then? Surely promotion, 100m in the bank followed my parachute payments is worth the gamble instead of watching smaller clubs like Norwich and WBA be in the top.6 most seasons because of their promotion windfalls theyve had in the past?

 

and that’s from last season. A few players have signed new improved deals since then

 

so we've been one of the biggest spenders in the league on transfer and paying the going rate for a championship club but have no ambition? no lack of ambition with moore he just wanted to go to ipswich

 

Got nothing to do with lack of ambition, we have spent more money than them

They have just had a quality season and have an unreal manager

We havent spent wisely (for short term success anyway) but its got nothing to do with lack of ambition

 

The issue is not, and never has been, the amount we spend on transfer fees and wages. We've always been in line or above with where we should be in reference to other clubs in similar positions. The issue is how that money is spent. Chucking buzzwords out like lack of ambition just objectively makes no sense. Complain all you want about how we spend that money though.

 

Nothing concrete at all to confirm if we have or haven't. They've taken a calculated gamble and it's about to pay off.

 

Im not convinced. Mayenda bought for 1m cant even get a game for Hibs now. Hemir similar amount, Rusyn close to 2m, Burstow .
Its down to shyte recruitment and trying to gain success looking round the bargain basement instead of showing real intent and going for it, showing ambition

 

Look at our financials from today. We've spent an absolute tonne considering we haven't been in the championship for 2 years yet.

 

Im not buying the unreal manager, sorry mate. They signed Broadhead and Moore over us for a reason and its paid off for both players that they never chose us. Tells its own story

 

Eh???? Pisstake or serious? Mckenna is unbelievable at what he does.

Broadhead turned us down because of Alex Neil btw, think it was his mam that confirmed that.

 

That doesnt tell any story, broadhead signed for them in L1 - in fact most of their team were L1 players (a few of championship quality) when mckenna went in and hes totally transformed them. They are only on the verge of the PL because of Mckenna so yes hes been unreal for them!! You just need to watch ipswich to see how well hes done

 

Yes recruitment hasnt been great but thats got nothing to do with lacking ambition

We have spent money, thats not shopping around the bargin basement at all - weve just made poir decisions

We have tried a different approach to other teams and have committed to it - thats showing ambition imo (especially when you back it up by spending money, which we have)

We just havent recrutied well enough

 

How can you reference them fees and say bargain basement in the same sentence?

Name another club who within 2 years of being promoted to the championship have spent more than us.

The actual recruitment needs to be, and has been, questioned. The amount we have spent and the 'ambition' cannot be questioned.

 

I think we're pretty much as self sustaining as we can be at this level now. The only thing that will swing the balance season on season is player trading.

It's a shame that the last third of this season has been such a shambles. I honestly think that if we had 9 more points (9th place) and maybe had played a different team in the FA Cup, fans would be looking at the things happening at the minute and be excited for our future.

We've brought in 40 new staff members. Yes, a lot of them will be admin, but we've staffed up the club again, rather than it operating on the bare minimum. We've got the new commercial fella Bruce in. We've got Hummel on board making us bespoke kits. There's money being invested into the stadium, implementing safe standing and relaying the pitch . We've invested in a young squad and increased the number of valuable assets. We've had an academy prospect in the matchday squad for 109 consecutive matches. There's been 3 starting most weeks for the last couple of months. We've invested in the academy and the women's team.

The foundations of this club have been put back in place and now we're looking at a couple of exciting possible coaches to take us forward. There's far too much to be optimistic about to worry in my opinion.

 

Cant compare to GOM's knowledge on RTG, but I am an accountant and these are some things I took away from the accounts (imagine some have already highlighted these).

Important thing to remember is that this covers 01/08/2022-31/07/2023. So any transfer activity that happened from August 23 onwards will not be shown here. That's the frustrating thing with accounts deadlines, accounts are always out of date. The 'headline figure' is the £9m loss, which obviously while you dont want to making losses, it isnt uncommon at this level, and in fact we were one of the better performing 'businesses' of championship clubs in this period (and remember, no key sales up to this date, i.e Stewart). Gate receipts were again our top source of income, and along with other 'fan sourced income' (retail, conferences etc) the fans really do make up a significant part of our income. TV income more than trebled with this being our first year back in the championship.

Our signings over this period cost £7.7m. This does not necessarily mean we spent all of it in the same period but a pretty decent outlay for a team coming out of several years in league 1 (IMO). Again, this wont include any August 23 / Jan 24 signings. We owed around £6.7m (£3m by July 24) on transfers to other clubs/agents and were owed £830k from player sales by July 24.

As of July 23 KLD/Sartori have introduced a minimum £18m into the club (unknown the split between the two) and have noted that it is their intention to convert this to equity which basically means, they will write off the £18m debt the club owes them. Further significant capital expenditure (5G in the stadium etc) has also been committed too.

One interesting thing I noted was that we have contingent liabilities relating to future player sales of £24.6m. This isnt reflected in the figures until it is probable that we will have to pay this money. Id guess these will be clauses in some of our transfers, for example say we said to spurs well give you £2m if we get promoted to the PL with Clarke, or to Birmingham we'll give you £5m if Jobe plays for England etc (these are made up).

Wages obviously increased following promotion to £22.8m but I havent seen how this compares to others in the league (I have read its pretty competitive).

To summarise, I would say the comments we've seen in the past that KLD isnt putting money in, or we are being tight with transfers/wages just doesnt appear to be true, especially at this stage in his tenure. Again these figures are nearly a year old, so we will have to wait a while to see the impact of this seasons business, but I am comfortable with the figures I have seen and the commitments KLD has made going forwards. Hopefully this wasnt too boring for yous!

 

Thanks for this summary, really appreciated