"The nation's more relaxed approach to immigration"
Quote from: eamonn on January 25, 2014, 05:15:13 PMHow have our profits plummeted by 25 odd million in four years if crowds are only slightly below what they were (they've held up remarkably well given the team have served-up one of the worst home records in Europe to supporters since 2011), money on transfers has been curtailed and tv money is up? I'm guessing the real difference is the sale of a Milner, Young or Downing?The numbers being quoted here are revenues, ie. cash in the door. Profit can have very little to do with cash, as it is often based as much on value of either physical assets and intangible assets and the way these are treated in the accounts in terms of writing down their value.For a manufacturing company, physical assets will be machinery and buildings for example, whilst intangibles will be things like patents and copyrights.For football, the physical assets will mainly the stadium, training facilities and any land owned.The intangibles are primarily the player's registrations. (although for a club like Man Utd the intrinsic value of the brand will also contribute.)Depreciation is applied to physical assets and amortisation to intangibles.The reason this can scew profit and loss in relation to cashflow, is that if you sign player X for £10M on a 4 year contract, the value of that contract will be written off (amortised) over 4 years at £2.5M per year. If at some point player X signs a new contract the value of the player on the balance sheet increases, without there being any (or not significant, depending on signing on bonus) cash transaction.This is what Ansell was on about all those years ago, when he said he wanted is to make a profit on transfers. It had got nothing to do with selling for more than we'd paid, but managing the squad and contracts effectively, something we've been rather shite at under Randy, and the biggest reason why there's nothing to show for the thick end of £300M
How have our profits plummeted by 25 odd million in four years if crowds are only slightly below what they were (they've held up remarkably well given the team have served-up one of the worst home records in Europe to supporters since 2011), money on transfers has been curtailed and tv money is up? I'm guessing the real difference is the sale of a Milner, Young or Downing?