by Ian Royal »
03 Aug 2014 18:32
Victor Meldrew Ian Royal Victor Meldrew Absolutely-two players with poor injury records that now might not be even up to Championship standard with QPR letting Ferdinand go on a free (and fit enough to play just 3 games in Turkey last season) and Doncaster or Scunthorpe are the only places where Sharp seems to shine.
Our aim should still be to get back to the Premier League having finished 7th last season and with further parachute payments to come so yes we should be looking at better and probably younger and fitter than these two.
You don't seem to understand finance.
Just having parachute payments doesn't mean you can afford to spend more than you're already spending. They're there so you don't have to cut as drastically when your annual income would otherwise drop from circa £50m to about £15m. Given we're blatantly already spending more than we've got including the parachute payments, exactly what do you expect us to spend to find younger, better, and fitter players right now?
Having spent nearly 50 years working in finance it is something that I do know a little bit about.
Parachute payments do not have to be designated for any specific purpose.
Now that the club has gone some of the way in getting rid of players that it foolishly and recklessly tied in to excessive contract earnings and can anticipate further parachute payments as well as (presumably) some additional funds from the Thais there really should be money to spend on new players and as intimated elsewhere we can expect 4 or 5 without breaking the bank.
If the position is as dire as you paint then it looks as though we have been one of the worst run clubs rather than the "well run" line that we were fed time and again in the past.
BTW I love the certainty with which so many people post on the question of the club's finances when in fact it is just one big guess.
We've certainly taken some steps to cut costs, though hardly major ones. And the Thais may make a difference, but it'll be their investment, not the parachute payments.
We were well run. Then Anton came in a screwed it up with marquee signings on unsustainable wages. It only takes 18 months of (not actually that much) madness to put you in trouble.
The basic information on our finances is out there. You have to extrapolate a bit for the current situation because the accounts are basically a year behind. But it's not that hard. I won't comment on you working in finance for 50 years.
