Varney said today that if the new owners had not come in we would have gone into administration. He also indicated that we are expecting to make a loss of £ 5 million next season.
Found a few transcripts.. Nothing new and also a few points I believe to be exaggerated, but generally good news: Bigger budgets than most clubs, but not loads of money to spend on transfers. Assume we will be using the free market. Charlton life mention something about offering a brentford player double wages- from what I read it doesn't mention it but I believe what they say to be true. They predict Weston(old school friend- not him), legge(I hope) and McDonald(hopefully not). Will lose 5m this season but we can cover it. Praise for youth academy and stress importance. Millwall don't have an academy. Jiminez and slater saved us from administration(I think this is slightly exaggerated) Budget under pardew in championship was more than 3x the average. Long term plans from slater/jiminez. State of football suggests a big club will eventually go under. PV spoke about it specifically. Think that's it- on an iPhone infant be bothered to keep going between 3 sites- but I think I got the most important parts.
Thanks for that Super. The fact they say we're a long term project for them encourages me. This means they've factored in the quoted losses. I'm not Interested in a s**t or bust approach where a reckless board keeps throwing money at a problem in the hope they can solve it, without any concern for what long term damage this approach can cause. We need to be progressive and build for the future in a way that's sustainable.
Thanks SuperC. I assume Peter V was too diplomatic to state the truth, which is that they are having to clear up Mr. Murray's mess and start running our club properly. Franco- the s*** or bust approach you refer to is surely the Dowie-Murray-pardew era?
Interesting take on things by Dr Kish http://www.doctorkish.com/cgi-bin/clinic/display.pl?month=201106&date=20110606&time=0859
Very interesting- as I mentioned earlier, I thought it was an exaggeration when said that TJ/MS saved us from administration, fire sale etc etc, and this explanation from Dr Kish seems more than plausible.
My work website blocks Dr Kish (boooooo) please log in to view this image Can someone sum up his thought please ? please log in to view this image
The duo had some interesting stuff to say but little in terms of naming specific players that the club want to sign. The only name mentioned was Norwich striker, Cody McDonald, who they admitted to looking at but the club has now ended its interest. There will be a considerable number of players arriving with the emphasis being on obtaining value for money. Evolution rather than revolution seems to be the message though the Premier League is still very much the target. Interestingly, Varney reiterated a point he had previously made at a supporters' meeting, that but for the takeover, the club would have entered administration in January. A ten point deduction, as well as a fire sale of the better players would have ensued, making relegation to League Two a distinct possibility. The question all this begs is how an experienced campaigner like Richard Murray got his sums so badly wrong.....or did he? Most costs in a football club are known and Charlton haemorrhage around £5m a season in this division, roughly speaking, the playing budget plus a bit more. Normally there is a preamble to administration, Inland Revenue apply to the courts for a winding-up order for unpaid tax bills, the players salaries are late or not paid etc. None of this was heard in December but of course the Charlton debt is a little different from the norm. Most of it is loans from the directors. When Murray effected his 'management buy out' last summer, these loans were removed from the books with the proviso that the interest on them would be repaid if and when Charlton returned to the Championship, with the loans themselves being repaid if the club attained Premier League status. Murray was still looking for a buyer but the new structure made it much less complicated to negotiate a sale. Michael Slater and Tony Jiminez took over on 31 December and in the immediate aftermath Murray again stated that his money was running out. Indeed, part of the funding for the 2010/11 season came about through Murray down sizeing his property. With this in mind, perhaps this is how the club were funded last season. Instead of pumping £5m in at the beginning of the season - knowing that in the event of a sale, it would not be repaid until the club reached the Premier League - maybe Murray made up the shortfall on a monthly basis. So, if the club was sold halfway through the season, Murray would only have loaned around £2.5m instead of £5m. The books would then indicate that the club would not have been able to pay its bills in Janauary, thus raising the spectre of administration, but may well have got a further infusion of funds from Richard Murray to keep it going. Administration would certainly not have been in Murray's best interests. The theory is pure conjecture on my part of course, but it is definitely a possibility don't you think?
Article on the BBC sport website about Varney talking about administration... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/charlton_athletic/9505955.stm
He seems realistic about our chances of promotion this season. I previously thought there was a bit more pressure on CP.
Forever, thanks for the BBC article. I tend to disagree with FHB - IMO Slater is clearly saying its promo or bust as far as CP is concerned. I expect therefore a new manager before the season is out.
have to agree with houndal on this, it's promotion or bust for CP from the sounds of it, they'll back him but expect to see some return especially with the scouting investment
Not telling me anything i didn't know already, and Slater would have to give CP some backing. The mention of Premier League worries me, i'd rather the focus be on getting into the Championship. I suppose that was just filler more than anything.
The mention of the Premier League excites me. We were a mid-table steady Premier League team until recently there's no harm in aiming to get back there and I for one welcome the owners aiming for this too.
fair enough I suppose we've been burnt too much in the recent years with the poor management and spending from the Murray/Dowie/Pardew eras but I just have a good feeling about this new ownership they seem to be making a lot of good moves so far
