Matt

I hear it was a cracking performance. Had hoped to get up to see Blyth at Kettering, but looks like the trains are off.

There was a moment in the second half where we had a free-kick on the touchline halfway inside the Wolves half. All the players looking at each other with no idea where to go. Just shows the absolutely non-existent level of coaching and preparation being undertaken by this fraud.

Having crap owners with shallow pockets is perversely better than a crap owner with money in the bank. Every time Ashley's mismanagement sends us down, he can stick in £20-30m and keep the zombie walking. Those on a tighter budget can't- and at that point the dynamics of a further sale see the buyers with the leverage, not the vendors.

For all we know they may have also resigned as auditors to NUFC (and I'd be amazed if they haven't).

It's a very hard division to get out of. You can have an absolutely storming season which most years would see you up yet as there is only one automatic place- it can easily count for nothing if someone else has a great run as well. Plus the general standard of football and the away ground experience is well below the level of the National North and a lot of places are a bugger to get to on public transport. Blyth as a club should really be able to hold their own in that division, even with a lower budget. Unfortunately they've appointed a guy based on the fact he's well known rather than whether he's any good at managing.

No-one picked him up in the summer and I don't think he's signed on a contract at Blyth, so at least he'll be getting regular competitive games and a wage in the meanwhile.

I was wondering about this and had a look through the records and it seems he’s neither bought nor sold since the IPO when he floated 50pc of the company. The company itself has been actively buying shares back which has has the impact of increasing the relative ownership % of MA and any other remaining shareholder.

This needs to be a specific bit of work around key areas of concern not just a general ‘true and fair view’ otherwise it will not tell us anything that hasn’t already been reviewed by the current auditors. the audit comment has the hallmarks of the sort of throwaway comment Ashley seems to make when he’s under pressure, so good on someone for calling him out on it.

Errea have done a nice job with the Blyth home kit.

I don't think he's bought any since the IPO completed. SD themselves regularly buy shares back, which has the effect of increasing the % held by anyone not selling their shares back.

At the minute the NL don't accept reserve sides although they might have to once next season's restructure is complete.

So we've basically got no money. Makes total sense if you can get it agreed. Frees up cash for other players / black paint / leopard-print sofas for Mike's house.

Anal Oliver. 'Wide of the mark' was another one he liked to use every other paragraph

Partly because it's not an option- there are various accounting standards which require such action to be taken- although deeming obligations to be onerous involves some subjectivity- even more so in the case of footballers. As for why it's not recorded over time- that's really just accruals vs cash accounting- there'll be plenty of stuff on that online. It makes sense eventually, but you may lose the will to live in the process.

We'll just be waiting for other clubs to get their squads sorted so we can look around for the cast-offs.

All about allocating revenue and cost into the period they actually occurred, rather than when cash changes hands- known as the ‘accruals principle’ Trick is not really the right word. A few people have mentioned that it was used as an excuse not to spend, but that doesn’t really hold up. The club was already making a whacking loss that season without the charge. If the club wanted to manage earnings, then they would be better off looking to take a charge when we were back in the PL and profitable- we could have had two losses rather than a massive loss then a profit. So I don’t really think that would be the rationale for it. The auditors have to consider whether the charge is reasonable (they might have suggested it themselves). If the provision turns out to be not warranted- we manage to exit the contract (player sold) or the contract is no longer onerous (the player is getting games) then the remaining element of the provision would have to be written back- this would increase profit for the period. All of these will be tested as part of the club’s audit and the charge was big enough for it to be considered material (IMO). It’s pretty common in other industries, for example where someone has leased a warehouse they no longer need but have to keep paying for, or where they have agreed a contract at a price which is now well above market rates but I haven’t seen it used much in football. Quite often clubs have written down the value of player registrations (assets), which has a similar P&L but non-cash effect. All of this is why it’s so frustrating that NUFC do not publish cash flow statements. If we had that, it would be much easier to see the true state of affairs within the club.

What that charge did was effectively say 'we're committed to paying these guys, but they are of no use to us'. In those cases you have to record the future cost in the current year's income statement, but that doesn't impact the contracted cash flows, that is still paid out as per the contract. So in future years the cost will not be shown on the 'wage bill' per the P&L - that's why our wages / turnover ratio last year looked lower than it probably was in cash terms. The cost had already been recorded but the cash still has to be paid.

Not even splashing out on recorded delivery? Tight gets.

Operating profit for 17/18 was £17.6m (last season's numbers won't be out for a while) - let's say a ST is on average £600 taking into account concessions- and that's about 30,000

Aye, and Fat Sam with a 3 yr contract paid off, and a new Spanish Villa on the way. Mad thing is that in hindsight he was Ashley's ideal manager.

He's also being shown up by the continued resurgence of JD Sports, who took the opposite approach to Ashley's pile-it-high outlets. JD Sports is worth £6bn. SD is worth £1.4bn. Cheaper than the opposition in more ways than one.

Got a link for that? Been following the Woodford story.

He found the magic formula for selling low-quality sports clobber. Everything else he's touched has turned to absolute shit.

If that's true, there's a god awful lot of cash being filtered in and out of NUFC. A proper investigate reporter could have a field day. Just a pity there are few left, let alone any in the local media. Thing is- it doesn't need any investigating- it'll be the same move as last year. It will all be there in black and white- but it takes so long for the accounts to come in that there's always a more up-to-date clusterfuck keeping us all occupied. And we'll find out just how much truth was in the club's comment:

The guy still believes in Father Christmas FFS