Aston Villa Group End of Year Accounts - year end May 31st 2022

[dave.woodhall]

Exactly Drummond. Whatever the experience, the club needs to be much better at all of it.

Yes, I've menetioned it before but just actually getting to and from the turnstiles in the North Stand from the Trinity Rd side is an absolute ballache in itself, which just shouldn't be the case.

I've not thought about that but you're right. With the fences, parked cars, barriers and oncoming people, it's an assault course of narrowness.

[LeeB]

Exactly Drummond. Whatever the experience, the club needs to be much better at all of it.

Yes, I've menetioned it before but just actually getting to and from the turnstiles in the North Stand from the Trinity Rd side is an absolute ballache in itself, which just shouldn't be the case.

I've not thought about that but you're right. With the fences, parked cars, barriers and oncoming people, it's an assault course of narrowness.

Yes, and adding the 'entertainment' and street food vans by the Trinity gates doesn't help. I've started leaving before the end for the first time in my life because of it. Thankfully it looks like something that will be sorted once the redevelopment is done, but until then it's a joke. Would it really hurt to remove a couple of rows of cars from the car park to allow a clear access?

[Brazilian Villain]

Yes, indeed. I remember when my biggest concern was getting back to my standing position when I got pushed down about 10 steps every-time there was an attack by the Villa or a near miss.

No way are you that senior, Aftab.

He is but in a 'Dos Equis Man' sort of way (sans beard).

[pauliewalnuts]

I wonder how much we idealise the past.

When we talk about what it used to be like in, say, the 80s, it's all 48,000 for Man United and swaying around in a packed Holte when the realty was, that was the case once or twice a season, most of the team back then it'd be more like 15,000 and enough room on the Holte to sit down and have a picnic if you wanted

[lovejoy]

Whilst on the face of it making a profit and having no debt is a good thing, and it is certainly better than most other clubs, having to do a Grealish transaction (once in a generation) to achieve this is worrying and our underlying results are unsustainable. £82m player amortisation write offs (vs £56m last year). Hopefully this was from accelerating some costs to match with the Grealish income.
As ever though the main points are - if the owners pull the plub we are stuffed and the numbers are already around 10 months out of date.

[brontebilly]

Looking at the accounts  one figure jumps out:

Turnover: £178.4m, compare it to:

Man City £571m
Liverpool £487m
Man Utd £494m
Chelsea £481m
Spurs £442m
Arsenal £367m

Bearing in mind that you can't spend what you don't earn, on a very simplistic basis, this means the "Big 6" had between two and three times to lay out on wages and transfers than we did.

Sonething to point out to the naysayers and moaners?

That Man City figure seems a little odd in comparison to the others, might warrant further investigation.

[pauliewalnuts]

Whilst on the face of it making a profit and having no debt is a good thing, and it is certainly better than most other clubs, having to do a Grealish transaction (once in a generation) to achieve this is worrying and our underlying results are unsustainable. £82m player amortisation write offs (vs £56m last year). Hopefully this was from accelerating some costs to match with the Grealish income.
As ever though the main points are - if the owners pull the plub we are stuffed and the numbers are already around 10 months out of date.

But if the owners pulled the plug, they'd be damaging the very asset they've already invested a lot of money in.

There's no reason to write off an exceptional player sale, either. It all contributes and whilst we might not sell a Grealish every year, we're also selling your Chukwemeka end of the market for 20m.

Man City and Chelsea also both make a lot of money selling players who pretty much never play for them. That's what we need to be aiming to do, too.

[Risso]

Every club in the country would be stuffed if the owners pulled the plug, assuming nobody else wanted to buy it. Luckily with Premier League clubs, there pretty well always is a buyer in the wings.

[eamonn]

The brainy Villans seem to hang around The Athletic, not H&V 
Under an article about our accounts, a Jack Y says...

The reduction in turnover is a red herring. In reality we increased our turnover by £25m.

The £183.6m we achieved the season before was because of the additional 10 extra games we had from the restart after Covid which fell in the same financial year and that's when we got our third SKY payment which was circa £36m.

This therefore inflated last year's accounts.

How did we spend £203m on player acquisitions? asks Matt C (as opposed to Matt G who used to post on here).

Jack Y again:

This is the gross total of the Ings, Buendia, Bailey, Coutinho, Carlos, Olson, Kamara, Digne signings*

Although Carlos/Kamara/Olsonand & Coutinho came the season after, they were all signed so early in the window, they actually fell into the season before's accounting period.

So you take all the above into account plus no more payments due to Randy Lerner, and basically we're in clover 

*Wouldn't all the above still have their fees stretched out over the length of their contracts, though?

[pauliewalnuts]

How much did NSWE pay for us?

I was just reading something about Bristol City and Sheffield United both being worth about £100m. I know we were a distressed asset at the time, but pretty sure we cost peanuts by comparison.

Get it right here and there's scope for them to make a lot of money. Which is, of course, why they're doing it in the first place.

[Drummond]

Every club in the country would be stuffed if the owners pulled the plug, assuming nobody else wanted to buy it. Luckily with Premier League clubs, there pretty well always is a buyer in the wings.

Even if they do have shit shoes. (and I know it was in the Championship but that's a technicality)

[kippaxvilla2]

That £203.5m on players is a bit misleading - it must include wages.

[LeeB]

That £203.5m on players is a bit misleading - it must include wages.

Yes, it Dougenomics

[Risso]

That £203.5m on players is a bit misleading - it must include wages.

No it can't include wages as the actual figure for additions to intangible assets in the accounts is £203m. It's hard to get anywhere near the total though, as even if you take the higher end of reported fees as below, AND include Carlos and Olsen (even though they were reported as signing in June after the year end) it's still nowhere near. Kamara was free so when he signed makes no difference, and signing on fees paid to the player go to wages, so it's not that. It might be that we've had to pay compensation to the smaller clubs like West Brom and Fleetwood for the likes of Iroegbunam and Feeney, but even if that adds up to say £10m, it's still a bit off.

Buendia -  £35m
Bailey - £30m
Ings - £27m
Digne - £30m
Coutinho - £17m
Carlos - £26m
Olsen £3m

[Dante Lavelli]

Exactly Drummond. Whatever the experience, the club needs to be much better at all of it.

When I go, ignoring the ticket cost, the four of us probably spend a minimum of £200 on beers and food across the day.  It’s rare that any of that is spent at Villa park.  The club should be looking to take at least half that by proving an experience either before or after the game.  The Villa Live thing is a huge opportunity as I’d visit if it meant missing the crowds on the trains etc.  But it has to be a good product, not only ‘stack em high, sell em’ cheap.