Stephen Hunt to Hull - fee agreed

[rabidbee]

If rodgers has decided that several prominent members of Coppell's team do not fit into his future plans - whether because he doesn't want them or because they want to leave - then you might as well realise the maximum sum you can for them as soon as possible. They're only likely to depreciate as they sit on the bench. It's fair to say that most of the players that have left for big fees have gone because they wanted to leave.

[ZacNaloen]

...Oh yeah FineRain, missed out Academy, which accounted for 5 of our starting 11 last weekend - you could see that as 5 signings.

Nevermind though, don't let common sense and knowledge of finance get in the way of your great conspiracy theory.

If you think your magical list comes anywhere close to adding up to the 20 million we have received on transfer fees, parachute payments, prem tv money, uprising in season tickets ( amongst the highest in the championship) while maintaining a squad for of youth academy prospects not evening pushing 5k a week each, you are delusional.

Rather than using divine opinion does anyone have any facts, otherwise this discusion (as always) is oxf*rd pointless.

[Royalee]

...Oh yeah FineRain, missed out Academy, which accounted for 5 of our starting 11 last weekend - you could see that as 5 signings.

Nevermind though, don't let common sense and knowledge of finance get in the way of your great conspiracy theory.

If you think your magical list comes anywhere close to adding up to the 20 million we have received on transfer fees, parachute payments, prem tv money, uprising in season tickets ( amongst the highest in the championship) while maintaining a squad for of youth academy prospects not evening pushing 5k a week each, you are delusional.

Someone find this joker the accounts.

[Thaumagurist*]

Asset stripping continues- when bikey goes, that will be 11 mill outgoing sales or so this summer- 2 million spent. Madejski having the time of his life for a second season in a row. He should write coppell a thank you card.

We're not asset stripping - we're selling players at the best price possible to better, richer clubs. Remember that? It happened all the time pre-2006. It's the circle of footballing life and we'll be doing again once the new crop have peaked.

Um, all the time pre-2006? I'd say that as far back as 1998, we haven't needed to sell (that still applies now, apart from the fact that some players are on too much money that we cannot afford to keep), that we'd kept our best players - nobody wanted to pay the top dollar for our players, until now.

I can only remember selling the following players for a price (not free) between 1998 and 2006:

Carl Asaba for £650K
Scott Murray for £350K?
Darius Henderson for £???K
Nathan Tyson for £???K
Andy Hughes for £500K

[brendywendy]

If you think your magical list comes anywhere close to adding up to the 20 million we have received on transfer fees, parachute payments, prem tv money, uprising in season tickets ( amongst the highest in the championship) while maintaining a squad for of youth academy prospects not evening pushing 5k a week each, you are delusional.

FFS


well it doesnt even come close to covering the 29 million of losses made in last ten+ years up to 2007 IIRC

and says nothing of saving for the future loss making seasons, including the last one, this one, the next one

etc etc


and our wage bill will still be ~15M a year once weve finished selling

[Seal]

I'm not too concerned about any of the sales we have made (frankly ecstatic re: Hunt), and we seem to have got decent value. Would be sad to see Bikey go but he has never realised his true potential.

Having said all that, whilst by no means would I expect us to reinvest all this cash in new players, I would hope to see a little bit more money spent before the transfer window closes.

[ZacNaloen]

I'm not too concerned about any of the sales we have made (frankly ecstatic re: Hunt), and we seem to have got decent value. Would be sad to see Bikey go but he has never realised his true potential.

Having said all that, whilst by no means would I expect us to reinvest all this cash in new players, I would hope to see a little bit more money spent before the transfer window closes.

Rodgers has pretty much said he wants to make two signings. Whether they come off is another matter.

[Royal Rother]

This is boring now but it is my (and I think everyone else's understanding who has seen the accounts before and up to June 2008) that Madejski has never taken a penny out of the football club either by way of Loan repayments, salary, interest on loans or anything else.

In the wake of the player sales in the last year the "cut the cloth" line might be a little tiresome to some but you can be pretty confident that just those 3 words uttered in public time and again over the last few years will have saved a few hundred grand (minimum) on transfer fees paid out when compared to clubs whose Chairmen have said "all of the money received on the sale of Joe Bloggs will be made available to the manager for strengthening the team".

Fine Rain, would you not agree with that?

Thought my question at the end might have escaped your attention Fine Rain. (Fast moving thread and all that.) Genuinely interested in your take on it.

As for WHATMGone - that question can't actually be answered until the 2009 accounts are published, then we'll see whether JM has actually started to take repayment of his loans or whether any surpluses have been kept on the Balance Sheet for future investment should it be required. It's not really required now so it's a moot point for the moment.

[FiNeRaIn]

Its a good point RR, obviously playing down the amount we have doesn't do any harm in saving money for transfers. But to be honest- I doubt any clubs with a brain would believe it. I think they'd look at our status over the last few years- see who we have sold and put 2 and 2 together. Look at what watford did to our smith bid- laughed it off.

[Mr Irascible]

Nice letter from Stephen on the official site...or whoever wrote it for him! Most of the words were spelt right for you youngsters. I like the chap who wrote that he was worried that Hull might get "regulated"! I suppose that is better than being relegated but the legal and financial rules can be a bit complex!

[Royal Lady]

Let me get this straight - Madejski wants to sell the club for as high a price as he can soon ish, so he decides to strip it of all its best assets to make it worth as little as possible? You sir, are a genius.

No, actually royalee you are the biggest moron on here. Let me put it in simple terms. We've sold our best players. Doyle, kitson, shorey, sonko, hunt, are trying to offload harper and bikey and we've spent a whopping 3 million in two seasons. Where is the money going? Its sure as hell not going into the bank for the next regime to come in and spend on players is it? With 2 years of parachute payments, that much outgoing on players in two years, tv money and two seasons in the prem-- now the fact our wage bill must be minimal as we have a squad full of kids and people are suggesting we have made losses and are on a tight budget, LOL please. Honestly, please.

-Training ground
-Media suite
-Hotel expansion
-Player (Premiership rate) wages
-New signings
-New manager
-Stadium maintenance
-General staffing costs as the commercial side has expanded
-New pitch

Hope this helps, lots of love.

did we need to spend money on a media suite? How does the hotel expansion benefit the football club? In what way has the commercial side significantly expanded? Cutting back on that sort of thing may possibly have allowed us a little more room to budget for players. It's the football club I care about, not the hotel ftr.

[rabidbee]

I'd say being a Premiership team pretty much requires a media suite. Most national papers will have journos and photographers present, who will require adequate facilites. Then there's the TV boys (1 set of cameras, or 2?), plus more frequent press conferences, &c.

[Royalee]

-Training ground
-Media suite
-Hotel expansion
-Player (Premiership rate) wages
-New signings
-New manager
-Stadium maintenance
-General staffing costs as the commercial side has expanded
-New pitch

Hope this helps, lots of love.

did we need to spend money on a media suite? How does the hotel expansion benefit the football club? In what way has the commercial side significantly expanded? Cutting back on that sort of thing may possibly have allowed us a little more room to budget for players. It's the football club I care about, not the hotel ftr.

The club are planning for the long term - not the short term. The money they've pumped into the Academy over the years finally appears to be worth it and the other spending will benefit the club financially from a commercial point of view in the long term also.

[Royal Lady]

I thought I heard/read somewhere that our media suite is pretty large compared to most others - what I'm saying is, did we need to spend as much as money as we did on a media suite? Particularly when, as was proven all too easily, there was no guarantee we'd be in the Prem for very long.

[Royal Lady]

RoyalLee, what's happened to you?

[Royalee]

RoyalLee, what's happened to you?

?

[Royal Rother]

Its a good point RR, obviously playing down the amount we have doesn't do any harm in saving money for transfers. But to be honest- I doubt any clubs with a brain would believe it. I think they'd look at our status over the last few years- see who we have sold and put 2 and 2 together. Look at what watford did to our smith bid- laughed it off.

In any business environment the first bid invariably gets kicked out, but the scene / expectation has been set.

Whether it is entirely truthful or indeed believed by the other party, the phrase "cutting the cloth" has to be a better way to help set a favourable negotiation framework than saying "the fee received for X will be made available to the manager" as many Chairmen have done in the past.

[brendywendy]

did we need to spend money on a media suite? How does the hotel expansion benefit the football club? In what way has the commercial side significantly expanded? Cutting back on that sort of thing may possibly have allowed us a little more room to budget for players. It's the football club I care about, not the hotel ftr.

whether you agree or not isnt really relevant

the media suite, and training ground stuff has made us look to the rest of the footballing world like a well run, forward thining, ambitious club rather than the backwater no marks we were 5 years ago, as a result more players, managers and fans are likely to come to our club, and we are more likely to grow
the hotel isnt part of the club, but could be lumped in when we are sold, so it may be a valuable extra revenue stream as we move forward.

i feel that doing all this, whilst getting prem football, staying there for 2 seasons, getting to the playoffs, and rebuilding th eteam for the next push is nothing short of miraculous running of a football club

not that it will stop all the wringing of hands or the mental"wheres all the money gone" stuff

[floyd__streete]

No, actually royalee you are the biggest moron on here. Let me put it in simple terms. We've sold our best players. Doyle, kitson, shorey, sonko, hunt, are trying to offload harper and bikey and we've spent a whopping 3 million in two seasons. Where is the money going? Its sure as hell not going into the bank for the next regime to come in and spend on players is it? With 2 years of parachute payments, that much outgoing on players in two years, tv money and two seasons in the prem-- now the fact our wage bill must be minimal as we have a squad full of kids and people are suggesting we have made losses and are on a tight budget, LOL please. Honestly, please.

-Training ground
-Media suite
-Hotel expansion
-Player (Premiership rate) wages
-New signings
-New manager
-Stadium maintenance
-General staffing costs as the commercial side has expanded
-New pitch

I think you're clutching at straws a bit this time, Royalee tbh. I certainly share Finerain's concerns, but if these young lads click and we do enough to retain our Championship status for 2010/11 (or better!) then the policy of prudence will speak for itself.

Had to chuckle when you reminded me of the media centre though; god knows how many thousands of pounds wasted on buying a monitor for John Motson to incorrectly identify our players and a reclining chair to fit the obese frame of Alan Green.....then right on cue we go and get relegated . Oh well, I am sure that Andy Steggall is enjoying the wide open spaces of our media centre.....

[Thaumagurist*]

Oh well, I am sure that Andy Steggall is enjoying the wide open spaces of our media centre.....

He works for Sky Sports News now, doesn't he?