FFP

[VillaTim]

Of course there is a certain £17m player plying his trade in Saudi that could be sold….

He's in Qatar and we will have to give him away

[Ads]

If he's got a year left come the summer, would we be better served loaning him again until it expires if we cannot achieve a £5.6m fee as a minimum to break even on the balance sheet?

[Dogtanian]

If he's got a year left come the summer, would we be better served loaning him again until it expires if we cannot achieve a £5.6m fee as a minimum to break even on the balance sheet?

I believe his deal is up in 2026.

[PaulWinch again]

I still can’t work out how we would have made a £138m loss.

[Villan82]

Thankfully the new redevelopment will help us compete in terms of the income we can generate and we can avoid these sort of problems in the future as we continue to grow as a club on and off the pitch.

Oh.

[sid1964]

With regards to the stopping of the re-development, maybe the club could not afford to have 10,000 less fans in the ground for each home game for the next 2-3 seasons?

[Risso]

That figures doesn't quite add up to me, but we'll see at the end of the month I guess.

For comparison, in the accounts for the year before (31 May 2022), we made an operating loss (ie before anything to do with player costs) of £14m. We then had amortisation of £83m, making the loss worse, but profit on disposal of players (Grealish mainly) of £97m which offsets it. With a few quid of interest in and out, there was a small profit for the year.

So conceivably, if the operating loss stays broadly similar this year, and we sold no players, then with the amortisation we could be looking at a loss of c. £100m. Add increased amortisation for players bought and an increase in wages, and I guess you could be getting that up over £100m. But if we look at the post balance sheet events note that mentions everything that happens between 31 May 2022 and 28 Feb 2023, then it states that we sold players worth £48m, which I reckon is Targett (£15m) Trez (£4m) Chukwuemeka (£18m), Ings (£12m), El Ghazi (£2m). Most of that would have been profit as all except Ings had been here a while, and Chukwuemeka was a youth player.

The same note says we bought players worth £63m, ie Carlos (£26m), Duran (£15m), Moreno (£12m) Dendocker (£13m). For the sake of argument, if they're all on an average 3 year contract, that's an extra £20m a year amortisation. So a very rough back of a fag packet calculation:

2022 operating loss: (£14m). Add maybe another £10m for 2023, that's (£24m). Take 2022 amortisation of (£83m) deduct say £10m and add amortiastion of new players = (£93m) Add that to the operating loss to give total loss of (£117m). Take off say, £36m for profit on players sold, gives a loss of (£81m). Not great but nowhere near what's being reported. Obviously I have no idea if that guess at an operating loss is correct. If it's way more, then the loss figure being reported could be right, and if it's less then it'll be smaller.

Apologies for quoting myself, but I've been thinking more about how the loss could be what's reported. I guess there will be compensation for Gerrard and all his team in there, which will be a few million, and possibly something for Purslow as well. Then there was a reported £6m fee paid to Villarreal for acquiring Unai. All of that could be getting up to £15m+, possibly.

[Risso]

With regards to the stopping of the re-development, maybe the club could not afford to have 10,000 less fans in the ground for each home game for the next 2-3 seasons?

I don't think that's relevant. It doesn't matter from an FFP point of view, as a reduction in capacity for building is an allowable exceptional event. Obviously it would reduce our income but it would be small beer for Nas in terms of day to day cash flow.

[VillaTim]

I still can’t work out how we would have made a £138m loss.

wasn't the last published accounts a £37m loss and before that a £99m loss (covid impact in there though).

[Monty]

Basically, you don't get as good value on keepers and they're harder to replace.

[chrisw1]

With regards to the stopping of the re-development, maybe the club could not afford to have 10,000 less fans in the ground for each home game for the next 2-3 seasons?

What does the North Stand currently hold?  It's about 6,000 isn't it?  The cheapest tickets in the stadium too.  And it was a 2 year build not a 2-3. 

[Rigadon]

It's only 6 points anyway.  It just means we'll have to actually beat Man Utd next season.  So fuck it. 

[LeeB]

It's only 6 points anyway.  It just means we'll have to actually beat Man Utd next season.  So fuck it. 

Yeah, take the capitalist approach. Is the fine smaller than the benefits? Yes, of course, so just crack on.

[eamonn]

If he's got a year left come the summer, would we be better served loaning him again until it expires if we cannot achieve a £5.6m fee as a minimum to break even on the balance sheet?

I believe his deal is up in 2026.

It is, remarkably. Given the subsequent changes in direction of success with regards to Villa and Coutinho, that night at the end of season awards when Purslow dropped the "good news" of securing Coutinho's future looks bizarre and a bit cringe. We outgrew him when we were previously grateful for him to wow our other players in training.

[VillaTim]

If he's got a year left come the summer, would we be better served loaning him again until it expires if we cannot achieve a £5.6m fee as a minimum to break even on the balance sheet?

I believe his deal is up in 2026.

It is, remarkably. Given the subsequent changes in direction of success with regards to Villa and Coutinho, that night at the end of season awards when Purslow dropped the "good news" of securing Coutinho's future looks bizarre and a bit cringe. We outgrew him when we were previously grateful for him to wow our other players in training.

absolutely awful signing £17m and probably close to £10m a year salary, no wonder the accounts are a mess