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Article in Guardian on PL club finances and borrowing inc Saints


Fitzhugh Fella
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https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-guardian/20200212/282406991355552

 

In this morning's Guardian - not sure if it is new information or something everyone is aware of, but it seems most PL clubs, including us, borrow heavily against future revenues? I was under the impression the aim of SFC, as things currently are, is to be self sustainable. Perhaps since Gao's takeover we don't borrow any more? I don't know but it's an interesting read and it is frightening how clubs are desperate to stay in the top-flight.

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https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-guardian/20200212/282406991355552

 

In this morning's Guardian - not sure if it is new information or something everyone is aware of, but it seems most PL clubs, including us, borrow heavily against future revenues? I was under the impression the aim of SFC, as things currently are, is to be self sustainable. Perhaps since Gao's takeover we don't borrow any more? I don't know but it's an interesting read and it is frightening how clubs are desperate to stay in the top-flight.

 

With every day that passes our self sustainable model appears to be less and less sustainable

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In this morning's Guardian - not sure if it is new information or something everyone is aware of, but it seems most PL clubs, including us, borrow heavily against future revenues? I was under the impression the aim of SFC, as things currently are, is to be self sustainable. Perhaps since Gao's takeover we don't borrow any more? I don't know but it's an interesting read and it is frightening how clubs are desperate to stay in the top-flight.

Yeah, seems to be the vast majority of "non-elite" clubs are using this as a form of bridging for cash-flow between payments from the Premier League. The PL could help the clubs out by making the payments more frequent, which would then reduce the reliance on the likes of Macquarie (who we've used for a while now) and reduce interest payments, allowing more of it to stay "in the game" - whether they've any interest in doing that, who knows.

 

I'm not overly concerned by it as long as the sums advanced are in line with payments that are due within the same season (as has seemingly always been the case to date), if we - or another club - started borrowing early against earnings from a future season then I'd be much more worried, although I suspect that may cross a boundary in terms of what level of risk the bank would realistically accept.

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“I had the money to buy players,” Cortese says. “But not the money to keep players.”

 

I thought his fans said that no one would ever have left if Cortese had stayed?

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“I had the money to buy players,” Cortese says. “But not the money to keep players.”

 

I thought his fans said that no one would ever have left if Cortese had stayed?

 

Chamberlain left

As for no one leaving, you will never know.

It's a fact (that you do not like) that the players bought into his vision and it is also a fact that pretty much every player rated Poch more than anyone else in respect of coaching and managing, even more than dear old Nigel.

So, Poch and Cortese, staying together would almost certainly have kept certain players at the club a little longer perhaps. It is probably a fact that some would still have left at the first sniff of a better contract elsewhere.

It is also a fact that once Reed and Wreck It Ralph took over, we basically sold anything that moved.

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Biggest winner from all the additional TV money are the players and agents. Fans pay more than 5-6 years ago and clubs don't make anymore profit than before.

 

All that's changed is the ridiculous player wages.

 

Scary to think that on average first team players at SFC now get c£80k PW or c£4 million a year in wages.

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does this mean we wont be signing anyone in the summer?

 

Unless Gao digs deep (builds club debt) we would probably need to sell a few first. I think we have roughly broken even on transfers past 4 years.

 

Lemina, Carrillo, Hoedt, Moi, Boufal, FF, Vesty.... should raise a few millions to spend.

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Unless Gao digs deep (builds club debt) we would probably need to sell a few first. I think we have roughly broken even on transfers past 4 years.

 

Lemina, Carrillo, Hoedt, Moi, Boufal, FF, Vesty.... should raise a few millions to spend.

 

Who could we sell, before we buy on top of that?

I am thinking Ings and/or JwP could allow us to being in a couple of loans....

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Something will have to give to cover ‘Longy’ on his £3m a year salary

 

Don’t forget that unlike every other club we will need to pay Longys agent a fee for extending the deal, probably a bonus to Longy and then there are NI contributions to factor in. Big chunk of the summer budget gone there already

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With every day that passes our self sustainable model appears to be less and less sustainable

 

I don't see how it means the club isn't sustainable. PL TV money is paid for in instalments, this helps with cash flow. Doesn't make the club unsustainable as the money is still coming to them and the loan is repaid.

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I don't see how it means the club isn't sustainable. PL TV money is paid for in instalments, this helps with cash flow. Doesn't make the club unsustainable as the money is still coming to them and the loan is repaid.

 

In isolation it doesn’t but factor in the wage bill, half a dozen players we can’t sell, inability to improve the squad without sales, it doesn’t quite paint the picture of the wonderful utopia of a brilliantly well run club you and the other cheerleaders like to make out it is

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In isolation it doesn’t but factor in the wage bill, half a dozen players we can’t sell, inability to improve the squad without sales, it doesn’t quite paint the picture of the wonderful utopia of a brilliantly well run club you and the other cheerleaders like to make out it is

 

I've not said that. I hope Gao sells up asap.

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In isolation it doesn’t but factor in the wage bill, half a dozen players we can’t sell, inability to improve the squad without sales, it doesn’t quite paint the picture of the wonderful utopia of a brilliantly well run club you and the other cheerleaders like to make out it is

 

The people responsible are no longer there are they? The club wasn't well run, now we don't know if it is or not. And what do you mean by "Don’t forget that unlike every other club we will need to pay Longys agent a fee for extending the deal", agents always get paid when their client signs a new contract, at this club and at all the others.

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The people responsible are no longer there are they? The club wasn't well run, now we don't know if it is or not. And what do you mean by "Don’t forget that unlike every other club we will need to pay Longys agent a fee for extending the deal", agents always get paid when their client signs a new contract, at this club and at all the others.

 

 

Some of them are, it’s only Kruger, Wilson and Reed who have gone

 

As for my other points bonuses, agents fees and NI contributions have long been used by some as an excuse as to why we need to make a profit from transfers

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In isolation it doesn’t but factor in the wage bill, half a dozen players we can’t sell, inability to improve the squad without sales, it doesn’t quite paint the picture of the wonderful utopia of a brilliantly well run club you and the other cheerleaders like to make out it is

Assuming Gao stays, and given the reality of our finances (lots of crap players who's values are less then we paid on expensive contracts, an operating loss in our last published accounts etc) how should the club be run?

 

The options seem to be :

A) carry on wheeling and dealing whilst trying to shed the donkeys, or

B) borrow to build, or

C) something else - if so what?

 

What's the solution?

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Assuming Gao stays, and given the reality of our finances (lots of crap players who's values are less then we paid on expensive contracts, an operating loss in our last published accounts etc) how should the club be run?

 

The options seem to be :

A) carry on wheeling and dealing whilst trying to shed the donkeys, or

B) borrow to build, or

C) something else - if so what?

 

What's the solution?

 

C) Have an owner who puts money into the club in the form of loans converted to equity, just like most of our close rivals do.

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Assuming Gao stays, and given the reality of our finances (lots of crap players who's values are less then we paid on expensive contracts, an operating loss in our last published accounts etc) how should the club be run?

 

The options seem to be :

A) carry on wheeling and dealing whilst trying to shed the donkeys, or

B) borrow to build, or

C) something else - if so what?

 

What's the solution?

 

A bit of a and b short term. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of short term, manageable debt. We’ve already shifted c£400k off the weekly wage bill since the start of last year, adding a generous £120k to it. I’m not counting loans as we don’t know what percentage we are paying or what other clubs are paying but given we’ve got 2 in and 5 out worst case we’d be neutral unless we’ve done a ridiculously bad deal. So see what we can shift, then a bit of short term debt if need be to give Ralph the 4-5 quality players in the model he needs (assuming no other first team player go) and there you go, two years time provided we don’t royally balls up Reed style you’re back to having a decent squad full of players we can sell and we’re back to our proper sustainable model with a much lower wage bill which anyone who isn’t completely deluded and mental would agree is the perfect model for a club like saints.

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There aren't hoards of cheerleaders claiming we are a well run club, rather the opposite. People believe that we have been run badly for many years and understand that it is difficult to turn it around with out racking up a lot of debt. We first have to shift some **** to give us the headroom to manoeuvre. Being realistic isn't being an apologist.

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Well, at least it sounds like we're all in agreement that our owner is substantially poorer than the league average, and we got sold up the river.

 

It was all sales fluff nonsense from Kat, only believed by the naive. Taking us to the next level had more chance of being ******** as it had of being true.

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It was all sales fluff nonsense from Kat, only believed by the naive. Taking us to the next level had more chance of being ******** as it had of being true.

 

Of course - anyone looking at Lander's value as a company could see that Gao had only ever been small time and was getting smaller, long before the sale went through.

 

The implication being, though, that you can't actually trust anything the club tells you about our strategy or long-term direction.

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Yep depressing and pretty much shows how pointless the whole thing is.

 

Really? It just looks like a bit of financial parasitism. The clubs are just electing to pay a fee in order to get their money up front from transfers and broadcasting. Some dodgy bank makes a good margin, but that's what dodgy banks do. It's all so specifically secured against guaranteed future incomes that it barely qualifies as debt.

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In isolation it doesn’t but factor in the wage bill, half a dozen players we can’t sell, inability to improve the squad without sales, it doesn’t quite paint the picture of the wonderful utopia of a brilliantly well run club you and the other cheerleaders like to make out it is

 

Les Reed and co basically sold us down a river. Have to hope Ralph sticks around, because without him I would really fear for the club.

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Apparently Gao is the 9th richest owner in the Prem.

 

No chance. According to Forbes, there are 393 Chinese nationals with wealth of a billion dollars or more. Gao isn't on the list, which makes sense as the whole of Lander (which he doesn't even own any more) was only worth about £500m the last time I checked.

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Really? It just looks like a bit of financial parasitism. The clubs are just electing to pay a fee in order to get their money up front from transfers and broadcasting. Some dodgy bank makes a good margin, but that's what dodgy banks do. It's all so specifically secured against guaranteed future incomes that it barely qualifies as debt.

 

The other article, not the first one.

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