timeEd32

With what’s happening now I think we were leaking interest in Saudi loans and then honestly would have been fine with it being voted against. It would have been a good addition to the argument.

I suppose the argument against it is if it was a truly inflationary environment you’d offset it with higher revenues, which does happen to some degree (at least for those lucky enough to be hitched to increasing broadcast deals). If revenue isn’t increasing then inflation doesn’t suddenly make it ok to lose £200m instead of £105m. But the problem is football transfers and wages are not a normal market with pricing controlled by a handful of clubs.

If Miley is out I’d far prefer to see 5 at the back. Even if we don’t do that I think we might see Tino in the midfield ahead of Hall.

Everything (and more) you’ve ever wanted to know about turf toe: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32379942/why-turf-toe-such-dreaded-injury-nfl

I'm really surprised at the reaction to yesterday, though all the headlines certainly aren't helping. Frustrations from the events of this season are clouding the momentum that is building and I get it because it's incredibly annoying how many what-ifs there are. But, we announced record revenues yesterday that don't include Sela, Adidas, or European money. Our 2023/24 accounts will almost certainly show revenue north of £300m and, even without European football, our 2024/25 accounts should be at least in the same ballpark. That's still a long ways from Spurs, let alone the Manchester clubs that are in a different stratosphere, but we also have a lot of untapped opportunity. There is lots of room to run. We added 102 new employees in 2022/23, roughly evenly split between "business operations" and "playing squads, academy, team management, and support." Things are happening every day in all facets of this club that no one was even thinking about a little over two years ago. FFP is annoying in our present position, but an equal amount of anger should still be directed at our previous owner. The club was basically left with two groups of players -- ones that Howe and co. could make useful/good and ones that literally no club in the world wants to give us money for (whether because of talent, age, and/or wages). So yes, we're going to have to sell players. Every club in the world does this. The problem for us is our list of salable assets is shorter than most and our highest valued player is both beloved and our most important. It sucks. But if he is sold (and I think it's still a fairly strong if) it will likely be a top-10ish transfer of all-time with the express purpose of reinvesting in the first team. Lastly, comparisons to Man City or Chelsea are really quite pointless. Their timing was impeccable. Not only did they enter the wild west of financial regulation with more money than anyone, but there was also less competition. Chelsea got rich right when Leeds went bust, we started to fall away, and Champions League qualification expanded to four teams. It was Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and essentially an empty seat at the table. Man City joined a party of four and happened to catch the tail end of Ferguson and Wenger (with Arsenal in a period of austerity due to their new stadium). Spurs have created a group of six and we, along with Villa, are trying to expand that to 7 or 8. No one is assured their place in the Champions League or the revenue that comes with it. The Europa League isn't just a consolation prize anymore if this group grows to 8 - it will still be an achievement. Look at recent Premier League finishes since 2009/10 (which I think can be pointed to as the beginning of the Big 6): Spurs: 4th, 5th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 4th, 8th Chelsea: 1st, 2nd, 6th, 3rd, 3rd, 1st, 10th, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 12th Man Utd: 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st (Fergie leaves), 7th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 2nd, 6th, 3rd, 2nd, 6th, 3rd Arsenal: 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 5th, 8th, 8th, 5th, 2nd City is the only one that hasn't been outside the top 4 for multiple seasons in that timeframe. The last seven seasons or so have been defined by Guardiola and Klopp, but that will likely change at some point. This isn't the Premier League of 15 years ago, which makes the challenge even more difficult on top of FFP and the massive head start some have had. But if you zoom out from the current transfer window and the insanely long injury list then it's pretty clear we're going places.

We can’t get £50k for most of them.

It includes all staff (except for maybe the directors). Wages in 21/22 were £170.2m. They rose £16.5m to £186.7m. Social security and pension costs account for approximately £22m of that. The reasons cited for the increase are bonuses for finishing 4th / Champions League for players, coaches, and management, and the addition of 102 employees (410 in total).

Or we could pull a John Henry (we won’t).

And outside of the PL. There's honestly only a handful of clubs who could afford his release clause.

Looking at the future numbers they shared I think it is very likely that our 2023/24 accounts show revenue north of £300m. And then, in 2024/25, Adidas will offset a huge chunk of lost Champions League money (assuming we don't qualify this season) and other things should be picking up by then (plus we may sell a player(s)). I think £300m is going to become our new baseline, which is a nearly 70% increase on 2021/22.

He's got some kind of a release clause, so it won't matter at some point if it's the right club (in his mind).

We're going to be in the same position if Madrid or Barcelona (or probably PSG) come calling. If someone else comes in for him then I'm honestly not sure what happens. Although I also have no idea who could afford him.

I thought the greatest development of the last 6 months or so was moving past the Chris Wood debates. We paid £25m. We got a loan fee of a couple million. We sold him for £15m. He played in 17 games in 2021/22, starting 15 of them. Each PL place was worth £2.2m that season. We were 19th on the day he signed and finished 11th, so he contributed to +£17m in merit payments (not to mention avoiding relegation). We obviously paid a crazy amount, but I think we can also say it worked out just fine.

We're going to be raising that ceiling though. We already know Castore > Adidas is a huge increase. There are a lot of other untapped commercial opportunities and that will be key. We also started with a squad of almost zero sellable assets. That has and will be changing. Matchday revenue was also so low relative to capacity that it will be increasingly steadily for the next few years. The general feeling should be one of hope and excitement, unless of course your hopes are winning the title or the Champions League in the near term.

My only conclusion is we're bigger than both of them

Like £40m I think. Slightly more than they paid

New winger!

God I hate Craig Hope. Asked if one of Bruno Guimaraes, Sven Botman or Alexander Isak would be sold in the summer, Eales said: ‘It’s difficult to hypothesise but, if we’re offered £1billion for one of those players, then no-one could argue against that making sense. ‘If we’re going to get to where we want to get to, at times it is necessary to trade your players. It is counter-intuitive and part of the inherent system of PSR that there is an incentive to trade your players, if you want to re-invest.’ So, every player has a price? "Correct"

I feel confident that people would love Miggy as a squad player. He's an excellent rotation option / sub in various situations. His limitations just become incredibly frustrating when he's playing every minute of every game (which is also impacting his performances).

Some other details: Summer 2023 transfer spend was £124m. (Our spend was generally reported as ~£130m, so slightly less but may be missing add-ons) Employees in the group "Playing squads, academy, team management and support" increased from 165 to 210 Employees in the group "Business operations" increased from 143 to 200 £6.7m commercial income from PIF: The Group recognised commercial revenue in the year of £6,710,000 (2022: £nil) from fellow subsidiary and associated undertakings of the Public Investment Fund ("PIF), the company's ultimate parent undertaking, of which £4,277,000 was not invoiced in the year and thus is included in accrued income at 30 June 2023. A capital contribution of £676,000 was received from the Public Investment Fund to meet the cost of the first team squad's warm weather training camp in Saudi Arabia in the prior year. £1.2m+ in interest free loans to Staveley for legal fees: On 7 November 2022 a loan of £600,000 was made to A L Staveley in respect of certain legal fees. The loan is interest free and remained outstanding at 30 June 2023 (2022: £nil). Subsequent to the year end, a further loan of £659,056 was made on 31 August 2023. The thing I'm most interested to hear from Kieron Maguire on is the loans we took out and future amounts owed, interest, etc. It's probably all normal, but I know nothing about it.

I'm no Swiss Ramble, but some important points: The team's 4th place Premier League finish, progression to the EFL Cup final, and growth across key sponsorship and commercial income streams contributed towards a profit of £20.1m before player amortisation costs (2022: loss of £26.4m). Player amortisation costs rose to £89.3m (2022: £51.1m) in line with the increased value of the playing squad. Staff costs to turnover ratio down to 74.1% from 94.6% (this is huge!) Match income increased £10.4m (38%) from £27.5m to £37.9m, with 7 cup fixtures played in the year (2021-22: 2) as the team progressed to the EFL Cup Final, an enhanced pre-season and mid-season programme and increased revenues from both seasonal and matchday hospitality Commercial income increased £17.4m (66%) from £26.5m to £43.9m with growth in commercial partnerships income together with a number of events in the year most notably the Diriyah Cup in Saudia Arabia in December 2022 and the two Sam Fender concerts in June 23. Staff costs increased £16.5m (10%) from £170.2m to £186.7m, the main factors being higher merit-based bonuses for the playing squad, team management and club staff as a result of 4th place finish, along with the increase of c100 employees across the club (see note 7) as the build out continues across football operations, commercial teams, executive and central support functions. UCL Group stage participation is expected to yield at least £37m in revenue for the Club.

This is crazy:

Charnley was actually a genius and introduced the world’s first sell-on clause in perpetuity.

The League Cup is only a Conference League spot, right? I'm torn on whether that's worth watching Liverpool win something. Let's just win the FA Cup and qualify for the Europa League. Two problems solved at once.