Am I the only one who thinks the club have probably already borrowed on the strength of BOS and Eze transfer fees?
With Covid closing down the stadium and therefore most of our income stream, I would imagine some nice Bank Manager has been digging deep to keep the club running and the players paid. I doubt very much that we had a few million in our back pocket to keep us going the last 4 months.
I can't see any of the £4.7m being reinvested in new players. I would say it is to keep the club afloat. Just my opinion.
I fear that you're right
I think a lot of people (and I'm thinking more generally here - not specifically us as a QPR community) just don't appreciate the massive impact of such a long period of relative economic inactivity. So many businesses have seen their income dry up completely or substantially and this has been the catalyst for change, frequently resulting in a significant contraction of the business going forwards. Not all businesses have assets to sell and those - like football clubs - with high and largely fixed (at least in the short term) running costs are most impacted. Many business owners simply can't pump money into a failing business because they haven't got the cash to do so. How many of us have thousands of pounds on deposit just for a rainy day? For most people their biggest asset is their house or their pension fund - both assets of last resort in a crisis
As several posters have noted there is an illusion of the wealth that our majority owners have, and virtually all that wealth is tied up in their other businesses and isn't represented by ready cash. Our club does have some assets - players - which sadly tend to be the first port of call for cash
The majority of football clubs live a hand to mouth existence - the wealth of the Premier League is highly concentrated and the gap to the Championship and beyond (and indeed within the Championship) grows ever wider. Our fan base is relatively small and our commercial income opportunities the same; the club simply isn't sustainable in the short or medium term without the owners constantly having to pump in cash to fund it. A loss of £1m a month might not sound a lot compared to even the reduced wealth of our majority owners (I'm excluding the Mittals given their small stake) but when an owner is faced with stumping up £1m a month every month for their entire period of ownership many will question their commitment and willingness to continue doing so
The harsh reality is that with limited income potential, the need to stay clear of FFP danger, and the on going cash requirement, like many other businesses assets need to be sold to keep the business afloat
We should count ourselves lucky that the club does have some assets to sell or we'd be back to rattling buckets to collect loose change outside LR
I've supported the club for some 45 years now and the business of football has been utterly transformed over that time. The overall product is so much better, but there has been a price to pay - partly by us as fans through significantly higher ticket prices - but also through the financial support that many owners have to provide
I'm not an apologist for our owners - they've made plenty of mistakes - but our club is still here and still in the Championship so let's be grateful for that. If we wanted to support a club that expected to win week in week out we wouldn't support QPR would we?
The summer transfer window may not bring us what we want, but let's pause for thought - without owners willing to keep the club afloat we might not have a club at all and who would prefer to spend their Saturdays washing the car or trekking round Westfield with the other half?