The Telegraph's take on our transfer dealings and the infamous £35m

I've just read this article on the Telegraph which basically takes a look at how much we're spending. It's quite an interesting read as it includes quotes from Llambias and Pardew regarding the £35m.

It also features some figures on the cost of us signing Demba Ba, apparently the fees involved amounted to a total of £2m.

Anyway, here's the article for you to feast upon. It may be good for future reference:

Article Here

 

do you know what is worse than lying

twisting the truth so it looks like you have done nothing wrong

 

Mike Ashley misleads us all the time, but atleast a few of us were smart enough to know his trick.

He said 35 mil would be invested in the club, but not necessarily on transfers. He'll use that money on wages, fees ect. I don't really mind if we don't get ALL of the 35 mil, but another 15-20 mil would be nice.

 

There's a difference between team and club... perhaps we've been mislead by Pardew?

 

This gets banded around a lot, but he didn't. He told Pardew that. Pardew then worded it that way. He could have clearly come out and said 'we won't spend it all'. Ashley initiated the move, but Pardew was the one that worded it in a way that makes us feel conned - although he did always say it would be on fees and wages.

Another con that Ashley did pull, is the fact we saved £9 million in wages from Carroll and £4-5 million from Nolan. Are they going into the kitty? That would give us a total of £52m for fees, agents and wages, yet I somehow doubt we'll spend that much in total.

 

so if we hadn't of sold A.C.
does that not mean he would of invested jack **** into the club

what gets hidden with all this talk about the £35million is where is the season ticket money, sponsorship money, corporate money, shirt/shop sales money going to

 

Debts. Where do ya think?

 

I have no doubt the squad will be stronger but the top brass are greedy and deceitful... unfortunately these fools won't be able to be voted away from the club like the greedy sods would if they where milking Barca.

 

Mike Ashley is a very intelligent man. An absolute ****, but an intelligent man.

 

Intelligence can be used for Evil as well as good.

 

agreed, Adolf Hitler was pretty clever... hardly a saint though.

 

Do you actually think he's taking money and putting it into his accounts? Well he is, but that's cos we're in debt to him. If you think we're making any sort of profit, or don't have debts to pay off with any profit we do make then that's ridiculous. We spent hundreds of millions under SJH & FS, and didn't take in much through sales. Added to that we didn't have enough revenue to cover our wages etc in the first place and continue it for 15 years and you see why we were ****ed - and why we're repaying it all know. I dislike Ashley for many things, but for sorting our finances out I don't

 

Knowledge is power, that's why they tell us nothing

 

Towards the operating costs of running a professional football club? You know, player wages, staff wages, electricity bills, equipment, water bills, travel, scouting, etc. Please see my post today about professional sports ownership not being a money-making venture...

 

I second this. It got me thinking how anybody could even contemplate thinking that owners make money from clubs year on year. They don't. The odd extremely dodgy Shinawatra-type might, but most don't. They pay off debts. We have to publish our profit/loss at the end of every year. That's when you see they clearly don't make money. Maybe in a few years when football has evened itself out with Financial Fair Play but until then there is almost no such thing as an owner (note: owner, not club - clubs can make profit but it invariably goes to paying off debts) making a profit.

 

Exactly this

 

Spot on.

 

Right all the Ashley 'admirers' (I know that is too strong a word but hey, I could have said lovers), I agree with you TO A POINT. I think its entirely laudable that hes trying to make the club financially secure, but you must admit its solely from a self interest point of view. And its the fat mans lust for money that must not be forgotten here.

Im still struggling to see how this even approaches spending £35m. Even if we say £10m for signing on fees et al for the free signings (which is rather high but we'll let that slide for now), where is the rest of it going? A net spend of £0.5m? Maybe say a few million on the training ground, Ill be generous and whack it up to £5m. So wheres the other £20m plus?

Before I hear 'its gone into wages', so are we adding back in the wages we get when Smith leaves (£50k per week), Barton (£60k), presumably Colo will need to resign at a lower wage than his current £80k? Yes these are in one-two years time, but they are entirely relevant as Ashley cant claim on the one hand that wages count (when players are signed) but happily ignore them when players leave or resign at lower wages.

I wouldnt mind so much if Ashley went, 'hey Ive put £xm into the club before/after we were relegated, I think its reasonable that I get that back over 5 years'. That I could stomach. But that would be far too honest and straight-dealing for ole Mike, who would rather trouser money any chance he gets and try to cloud the matter with spin and silence when it suits him. And as long as he continues to adopt this attitude he will not gain my backing.

 

I've been asking this question a lot the past couple weeks, but I will again, who do you realistically want 10-20 million spent on?
I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm open-minded for answers, but assuming what we've heard is true, the club has unsuccessfully bid for a few 10-15m players, and lost out (not for financial reasons). It's a difficult market right now, with vastly inflated prices, and every player available feeling a naff entitlement to playing Champions League football after half a season of production. There's no point in impatiently spending money just for the sake of it, so I don't understand everyone playing amateur accountant so early into the window?

 

Although I hate MA, the way he has stabled the club and the new plan he's made for us is one thing I don't hate him for. When the new rules come in we'll be in far better shape than the majority of clubs around us and probably above us because of him. Because we're in debt to him you can bet he'll be here until it's paid off and then he'll try sell us, but until then I am not too bothered about him staying with the way he's going i.e stabilising the club, wage cap, don't spend big if we don't have to etc.