Donald on our January budget

[keybuk]

It would seem the unbridled optimism of this board is waning massively.

Who'd have thunk it!

 

[RedFlag1308]

Like it or not you can't build a successful football club on 15m turnover a season and a dedication to live within your means. I'm not saying this will be the case forever, things may change, but for as long as this is our modus operandi then we are going to be lower league shite.

 

[Botchie]

In spite of financial constraints I think if we need to spend some money in January to get us over the line, they’ll find the money somewhere. That said, outwith of a huge injury crisis I think we have enough to get us out of this division.



You’ve been minged. Happens to me all the time. I’ve given up being puzzled by it. It’s like shit weather, it just is.

I bet he's had one stotting hangover today.

 

[Dilligaf60]

I bet he's had one stotting hangover today.

I doubt it.

 

[Botchie]

I doubt it.

True. That would mean he would need to sober up first.

 

[Dilligaf60]

True. That would mean he would need to sober up first.

Indeed marra.

 

[Gaz]

Like it or not you can't build a successful football club on 15m turnover a season and a dedication to live within your means. I'm not saying this will be the case forever, things may change, but for as long as this is our modus operandi then we are going to be lower league shite.

And throwing ridiculous money at it for years and not living within our means worked well didn’t it?

Turnover will go up as they develop / run it in the right way, its already gone up since they came in. Costs will drop further at the same time. Once the remaining high earners & legacy payments are done it’ll look a lot better.

If running it properly and sensibly means a few more seasons in league 1 or championship then so be it

 

[The Rat]

And throwing ridiculous money at it for years and not living within our means worked well didn’t it?

Turnover will go up as they develop / run it in the right way, its already gone up since they came in. Costs will drop further at the same time. Once the remaining high earners & legacy payments are done it’ll look a lot better.

If running it properly and sensibly means a few more seasons in league 1 or championship then so be it

They need to put more initial investment in to get things moving

I don't get what they have added? it seems everything is being paid for by the parachute payments. So whats changed?

 

[Deleted member 26022]

Like it or not you can't build a successful football club on 15m turnover a season and a dedication to live within your means. I'm not saying this will be the case forever, things may change, but for as long as this is our modus operandi then we are going to be lower league shite.

buckets full of sense here, depends on what the future plan is.

 

[PTR]

Surely though there's the here and now to consider too though. I'm not saying spend beyond means (we should have two years of Parachute payments to help us through this, but these are seemingly tied to Short) but if we show a disregard for the first team squad (which we haven't done anyway) then we're in the same territory of Bain and Short.

If the new owners blow their reserves now, in a half-hearted way, then we are fucked long term.

 

[Gaz]

They need to put more initial investment in to get things moving

I don't get what they have added? it seems everything is being paid for by the parachute payments. So whats changed?

Why spend to get out of a league where successful clubs don’t spend much? Things have already moved, it looks a hell of a lot better than it did when they came

They’ve added some business sense, a business plan and budget and most importantly experienced staff that actually seem to know what they're doing.

It won’t change overnight, could take 18-24 months to resolve a lot of the previous shit. Patience is needed

 

[Mackemansj1]

We were in a much worse state when Draumaville left us.

In the premier league with less debt?. People will say he’s cleared the debt but the more things come out he’s still left a lot of money left to pay and money that’s been paid out since the new owners came in.

 

[Man About Town]

Controlling expectations

 

[SirSidneyRuffDiamond]

It would seem the unbridled optimism of this board is waning massively.

Who'd have thunk it!

Who'd have thought there would be an over-reaction to draws against Oxford and Fleetwood? People were predicting 4-0, 5-0 before the Oxford game. Last time we were at this level we lost to Aldershot, Chester and York among others, two of them are now in the 6th tier!

 

[Rizla]

Where do you think the parachute payment would have gone if Ellis had still been here - it would have to gone to SBC to pay down the debt not for playing budget.

Yes, but they would be using the club's money to buy themselves the club which they will then sell on for a big profit. Doesn't sit right with me at all.

It's far more sensible to retain that cash within the club until it's really needed. You don't need £35m to get out of this division - why not keep it until we're in the Championship and it will be infinitely more useful. One of the main failings of the Quinn era was that any financial benefit to be gained from promotion had been spent on getting there. That left insufficient resources to fund development once we were in the PL, and the beginnings of the debt spiral that got us where we are now.

Suggestions that the parachute payments are going to Short are convenient speculation. It could happen, but it's just as likely not to. It's also likely that some of the parachute will be needed to deal with the legacy issues; nothing Donald has said would contradict that. He simply said that having to resolve all this was a headache and restricted what could be done; if some of the parachute, potentially next season's transfer pot, has to used foe them, that restricts what can be done in taking the club forward.

We won't know for sure until we've seen the accounts for both 2017/18 and 2018/19 - another 18 months.

Thanks for the response, we should know the truth before too long then.

 

[Steeeeed86]

Loans in January then ...

 

[Perryqhill]

If the new owners blow their reserves now, in a half-hearted way, then we are fucked long term.

Flip side of that is if the new owners don't capitalise on the wave of optimism they'll be up against it as crowds will dwindle and in two years we don't have the parachute payments, which incidently are for the exact situation we're in now and also are being tied against their buying of the club.

Like I said - no one is asking them to blow anything, it's a balance, but it needs to be a balance not a total refusal to sanction anything until high earners are off the books.

 

[gipetto]

Why spend to get out of a league where successful clubs don’t spend much? Things have already moved, it looks a hell of a lot better than it did when they came

They’ve added some business sense, a business plan and budget and most importantly experienced staff that actually seem to know what they're doing.

It won’t change overnight, could take 18-24 months to resolve a lot of the previous shit. Patience is needed

Because the income in league one is next to nowt and the longer we stay in league one, our fans will soon get bored and stop going.

We need to make use of the momentum we have and gain promotion this season. There’s no reason given the size of our club why we shouldn’t be promoted. Fleetwood get crowds of something like 3k.

If we’re up there in January, which I believe we will be, we should start unsettling rival teams by making enquiries for their better players.

Who'd have thought there would be an over-reaction to draws against Oxford and Fleetwood? People were predicting 4-0, 5-0 before the Oxford game. Last time we were at this level we lost to Aldershot, Chester and York among others, two of them are now in the 6th tier!

It’s not an over-reaction. We should be winning our home games if we expect to gain promotion.

 

[Botchie]

Why spend to get out of a league where successful clubs don’t spend much? Things have already moved, it looks a hell of a lot better than it did when they came

They’ve added some business sense, a business plan and budget and most importantly experienced staff that actually seem to know what they're doing.

It won’t change overnight, could take 18-24 months to resolve a lot of the previous shit. Patience is needed

Spot on marra. This "just a front" thing is nonsense. There's a hell of a lot of work gone on since May. Also key positions have been filled. Just because Satori has the money it doesn't mean he has the football acumen. Only time will tell, but hopefully Donald and Co are the ones putting solid foundations in.

 

[Perryqhill]

Grumpy Old Man is just back in Bristol and knackered but ....

There is literally no point in setting up a wage structure which relies on the parachute payment this season to keep us viable.

Our income will fall by £20m next season, irrespective of whichever division we're in, and between a further £7m (Championship) or £15m (L1) the season after that, unless we're promoted back to the PL. Not cutting back to the sustainable wage level now is just postponing the inevitable, and, to be honest, now is the best time to do it.

I have no problems whatsoever with what they're trying to do. Frankly, it's the first piece of rational financial management we've seen from this club in a decade.

I don't think people are questioning the setting up of a wage structure relying on the parachute payments though. I think it's more a question of why they aren't being used whilst we shed off these higher contracts, which essentially is what the parachute payments were invented for and why the club has been given them. Looking at high earners most contracts will have expired by the time parachute payments expire barring Cattermole who will have a year left and if Ndong sticks it out. It's more likely though that Ndong will be gone sooner and even the likes of McGeady's deal expires by then too.

I don't want to make to much fuss about this argument as I think they're more or less heading in the right direction, it's the acceptance on here of the quoted figures from Donald with Ndong and Djilobodji seemingly included and the thought by some that we should not look at sanctioning any money at all till all these guys have gone, which would be a massive mistake and is more inline with the negligent way Short was running the club. Thankfully the current owners have already shown us that won't be the case even if there's not much movement in January due to these guys still being here.