AFCB's finances

james_AFCB

james_AFCB

Star Player
...what do we do with it? Let’s be honest, it’s completely unexpected and no doubt not planned for. 6 months ago we’d have taken £5m for Mings and there was talk of a season long loan somewhere for Mousset. So do we....

A) Use it to pay for the training ground?
B) Go get Butland?
C) Reinvest in other areas of the squad? If so, which positions?
D) First down payment on a new stadium?
E) Buy Dean Court back and build a much bigger and permanent Ted Mac...?
 
F) begin to pay back Max his 70 odd million

Remember Solanke probably came out of the summer budget as well. IMO we could blow the rest of a contract for Fraser and comfortably survive, but a central midfielder is all that's left (Or a replacement for anyone that leaves) imo.
 
Silent AFCB said:
F) begin to pay back Max his 70 odd million

Remember Solanke probably came out of the summer budget as well. IMO we could blow the rest of a contract for Fraser and comfortably survive, but a central midfielder is all that's left (Or a replacement for anyone that leaves) imo.
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Beat me to it. The clubs gross debt was nearly £70 million in the last set of accounts 2017/18.
 
I keep banging on about this, but for one last time, transfer fees are usually staged over the life of the contract so we won’t be getting the money upfront. If we use it to buy other players that balances out but that isn’t true for spending on things like infrastructure. So we won’t have £30 million to buy back the ground and redevelop parts of it, even assuming we could get planning permission to do so.
 
james_AFCB said:
...what do we do with it? Let’s be honest, it’s completely unexpected and no doubt not planned for. 6 months ago we’d have taken £5m for Mings and there was talk of a season long loan somewhere for Mousset. So do we....

A) Use it to pay for the training ground?
B) Go get Butland?
C) Reinvest in other areas of the squad? If so, which positions?
D) First down payment on a new stadium?
E) Buy Dean Court back and build a much bigger and permanent Ted Mac...?
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According to 'some in the know' on here, the training ground has already been paid for by investors from Dubai
 
D or E for me.

At some point the club needs to invest in a bigger stadium as otherwise there will be very little in the way of a legacy from this spell in the premier league (if our time here does at some point come to an end). If we don't grow the fanbase now then we will be back to 3000 crowds if we are ever back in Lague 1. I'm not saying that a larger fan base is the be all and end all but it would give the club much more financial security if we were to lose the premier league cash cow. It's also great to see local kids wearing our strip rather than top six plastics and scum tops. If we can get more fans through the gates then we have more chance of this continuing outside of the premier league. A new training ground is great but with the fanbase we have had in the past we wouldn't be able to afford to run it outside of the premier league. The last four years have been a real missed opportunity to grow the club and it will be very sad state of affairs if this is not addressed at all.
 
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Center Mid, maybe take a punt on a young winger aswell if Fraser is likely to go next year aswell. Keeper would be nice aswell but don't fancy paying 20 mil+ for Butland.
 
Looking at the previous set of accounts and seeing where the majority of Premier League money goes, I think we can swing for a new stadium unless Max decides he wants to put more of his own money in, or we have somebody else fund it
 
Still weeks to go before the window closes. Bids for Fraser, Ake, Brooks from clubs getting increasingly anxious as the deadline approaches?

So do we spend now or wait to see if we’re flush by next month? Still top requirement is central midfielder. We’re paper-thin in midfield.
 
pedro3187 said:
Looking at the previous set of accounts and seeing where the majority of Premier League money goes, I think we can swing for a new stadium unless Max decides he wants to put more of his own money in, or we have somebody else fund it
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This is a very sad state of affairs as if we ever relegated from the premier league the club will very quickly be back to it's old hand to mouth insecure existance is it hasn't grown it's income stream at all. The only reason we are secure at the moment is the Premier League money, take that away and we are screwed.
 
yanh_ said:
This is a very sad state of affairs as if we ever relegated from the premier league the club will very quickly be back to it's old hand to mouth insecure existance is it hasn't grown it's income stream at all. The only reason we are secure at the moment is the Premier League money, take that away and we are screwed.
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I would say that we are secure and currently self sufficient, but the only reason we are competing in the Premier League and staying there is because of the Premier League money. Most of that goes towards player acquisitions and player wages. I also think we'd be OK if we got relegated, as long as Max doesn't decide to up sticks and want his money back. That's not to say I don't want a new stadium, I do. Just without outside investment I don't see it happening. Unless we're saying we'd rather that money be pumped into a new stadium, get relegated as we can't afford the players or wages to compete and end up playing in front of ~15,000 empty seats?
 
pedro3187 said:
I would say that we are secure and currently self sufficient, but the only reason we are competing in the Premier League and staying there is because of the Premier League money. Most of that goes towards player acquisitions and player wages. I also think we'd be OK if we got relegated, as long as Max doesn't decide to up sticks and want his money back. That's not to say I don't want a new stadium, I do. Just without outside investment I don't see it happening. Unless we're saying we'd rather that money be pumped into a new stadium, get relegated as we can't afford the players or wages to compete and end up playing in front of ~15,000 empty seats?
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I certainly don't want all of the money pumped into a new stadium but would like some to be sent in this direction, even a larger TedMac would be great! After all Waford, Burnley, Wolves, etc have managed to both so don't see why we can't.
We would only be OK financially in the Championship or below as long as Max kept pumping the money in and thats not a great position to be in. The lower leagues are littered with skint clubs who almost folded when their benefactor moved on.
 
Sorry Roger said:
I keep banging on about this, but for one last time, transfer fees are usually staged over the life of the contract so we won’t be getting the money upfront. If we use it to buy other players that balances out but that isn’t true for spending on things like infrastructure. So we won’t have £30 million to buy back the ground and redevelop parts of it, even assuming we could get planning permission to do so.
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Buildings can also be “paid for” in instalments. In fact just about anything can these days. Earn £15k a year but want a brand new BMW? No probs, here’s your finance package. That’s obviously a very simply example, but I really don’t think that a company with income of over £130m a year would have much trouble organising bridging finance to buy a stadium for £10m, with repayments based upon a guaranteed credit they held with another institution that was due to be paid in the next 2-3 years. The same could be applied for a new stand.
 
Neil Dawson said:
I say let’s get a list of Liverpool’s reserve team subs bench, put a blindfold on, Stab at it with a compass and offer 28m for the player it lands on.

Then use the rest to do a years worth of Friday big shops at Waitrose.
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Would you ever shut up.... sometimes you come out with the most stupid stuff.

Everyone knows you do a big shop on monday

Honestly......:rolleyes:
 
james_AFCB said:
Buildings can also be “paid for” in instalments. In fact just about anything can these days. Earn £15k a year but want a brand new BMW? No probs, here’s your finance package. That’s obviously a very simply example, but I really don’t think that a company with income of over £130m a year would have much trouble organising bridging finance to buy a stadium for £10m, with repayments based upon a guaranteed credit they held with another institution that was due to be paid in the next 2-3 years. The same could be applied for a new stand.
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Structadene would want considerably more to sell than £10 million, probably closer to £20 million, which is why Max walked away from previous negotiations.

To use your BMW example, I have just checked and their finance costs 4.9% APR over four years. Apply that to, say, an £18 million bridging loan and you are looking at over £2 million in interest payments alone, just to buy the existing ground as is without adding a single seat.

Monies owed to us by a football club are not guaranteed, far from it. Villa nearly went bust 18 months ago and could concievably do so again in the next three years. In practice a bank would want a much higher level of return than 4.9% given the risks involved, including the risk that we could go bust as well.

For me the numbers don’t stack up.
 
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