So January the big test

"There’s a ceiling to what you can get for players on the back of one promotion."
Well i would say that WE would .....but even without promotion... certain other teams consistently receive very good fees for their players and staff.
I appreciate there is only so much money swishing around but we seem poor, very poor receiving the amounts some teams seem much better at.
I accept this has become worse during covid but still this is another massive area our senior management appear to be out if their pay grade on (pardon the pun!).

 

You said, and I quote, "I don’t think you have any sought after players that anybody is willing to give you good money for without promotion."
We sold these three players mid-season League 1, no promotion. So clearly you do.

 

Yea probably ....but even so £2.5 million or whatever it was for Pinnock was awful.

 

So two head coaches have ploughed on with a system that's clearly not working freely and willingly you believe. If that's the case PA wants showing the door ASAP because he's clearly an idiot and so was MS. Everybody can see the players aren't capable of playing the system currently being imposed on them they haven't improved as the seasons progressed up to and now beyond the half way mark so why would anybody in their right mind who knows anything about football think they suddenly will. Like I said if PA isn't under orders he should be out the door before the New Year if he isn't prepared to try a change in the system. Not that I believe for one minute that he isn't just doing what he's told

 

Well that's going well.

 

@Jay i agree with a lot of the points you make but the idea that the profitability in league one is similar to the championship is not the case for BFC. The fall in revenue is disproportionate to the fall in the outgoings, predominantly wages.

if you look back the metrics bear this out;

1. 2018 - Championship, Turnover £14m, Wages £10.6m, trading loss £1.4m player sales profit £1.2m, net loss of £0.2m
2. 2019 - League one, Turnover £7.8m, Wages £8.1m, trading loss £4.8m, player sales profit £1.3m, net loss £3.5m
3. 2020 - Championship, Turnover £14.2m, Wages £11.1m, trading loss £3m (including £750k payment), player sales £2.8m net loss £0.3m.

In simple numbers turnover falls by 45% but wages only by around 25%. If the club were relegated, the board are looking at a real financial problem.

 

Im pretty sure it was said that when signing a player on a lomg contract that not only was his transfer fee covered but also his wages for the entirety of his contract by the incoming money from previous player sales. So reducing the financial risk to the club longer term.

 

The player sales in 2020 I'm assuming are for the likes of Pinnock, Lindsay and Moore, sold on the back of their performances in League 1? Had we not been promoted, had the wages not increased, had they actually reduced further as we'd sold some of the big earners, what would the finances have looked like if 2020 was another season in League 1? You can't get a good indication of the profitability of League 1 when the players you sell for their performances in that league are in the accounts for the following season in the Championship, despite those players never actually playing for us in that Championship season.

 

Not learning from previous mistakes is the reason. Experience, experience, experience. We knew we were losing Alex and did bugger all to replace him. We knew we were struggling under Schopp and went for a young, unknown like they did with Morais. It doesn't work.

 

Yes, that was said.

 

Give it up.

We are down. Players will be sold for a fraction of their value and replaced with inferior quality.

80%ers and CEO will be nowhere to be seen or heard.

Rinse and repeat.

 

@Jay, to hold on to the likes of Pinnock, Lindsay and Moore the club took a gamble aided by the fact there was cash on the balance sheet. The operating loss is pretty hard to argue with as a result of being in the league below. The issue is, can the £4.5m be offset by player sales?

This time that gamble can only be financed by third party cash, either debt or owners’ funds, as balance sheet cash has all but disappeared. Given that transfer values for players outside the very upper echelons has collapsed this would appear to be a very risky strategy.

Funding losses from player sales becomes more and more difficult as the funds to replace those players are absorbed by day to day running costs. This then puts pressure on wages until an equilibrium between revenue and expenses can be achieved.

 

We sold those three players at the end of the season in League 1 which more than offset the deficit, it's just that it was in the next financial year so can't be judged by looking at the financial year in isolation.

 

I agree that generally Forwards fetch the big money.
There’s a big but in that statement for us, if you look historically we seem to do better with defensive players, I’m struggling to think of attacking players we have got good money for after Ashley Ward, bound to be some but it is early!
But defenders there is a proven track record for developing defenders.

Wonder why that is, I genuinely don’t know.

edit: perhaps Moore.

 

I agree though in recent times we changed that a little Moore as you say, Jacob Brown, Winnall and Hourihane. I had expected us to carry on down that route