Why bother playing by the rules!!

The biggest travesty in the EFL for me is QPRs let off. Still paying off the fine imposed 6yrs ago. And under a threat of a points deduction. A club that should imo be relegated.

 

The law of averages suggest he'll get something correct eventually....

 

Birmingham’s wasn’t the same as ours either but IMO much worse.
They started to run a club before the 4 directors had passed the Owners test,all 4!directors were subsequently banned from owning a club, ours had passed that we just failed to accurately keep them upto date on the structure.
For me theirs was deliberate ours was just an admin(another) error.

 

If Boltons wage bill is lower than ours and their income is a lot.higher ( Averaging 7,000 a game more than us or 160,000 over a season. A conservative £1,5 million estimate better off plus naming rights for the stadium and I daresay a much bigger pot from commercial enterprise) then why would they face a points deduction. They were basket cases in the past paying wages above their means but is that really the case now?

 

I believe since their last points deduction they've got new owners on board - similar to our situation now, without having that fat yank interlude, and are on a 3-4 year plan for stability, looks like they've steadied the ship, I can't see them getting into the mess they were in again. didn't we recently publish £4 million losses? That would be unsustainable for many clubs in this league, wonder what their fans say about us?

 

Comparing Bolton upto 2018 versus Bolton since that time isn't even comparable. Completely different owners and set up and I'm not aware they've broken any rules, if their wage bill is higher then good luck to them, it will be due to a higher turnover than us and hardly grounds to categorise as cheating.

Will count for nothing come the final table as it didn't last season when I thought they were an actually stronger squad.

 

Based on what? We win our game in hand and we are above them, simple as. I'd also argue that they have the toughest set of games left to play. We have Pompey and Stevenage from current top 6 to play. Bolton have Pompey, Derby, Stevenage & P'Boro.

Keep our heads and focus on each game, IMO we are in with a great shout of top 2.

 

Boltons losses were £5.7m in 21/22. Up from £0.5m the year b4.
22/23 figures not released yet.

 

I missed the word more out of a sentence before which changes the context of my post entirely. I don't think they're the same club as they were previously, and think it unlikely that they'll get to that stage again, certainly whilst in this division. I reckon their wage bill is substantially higher than ours though, but as you say, their income probably is too (though I've not taken a deep dive into it).

 

They haven't yet published their 2022/23 accounts so direct comparison is difficult but if you take their last accounts (2021/22) compared to ours for 2022/23 out last week then their operating loss of £5.75m is slightly better than ours of £5.86m. They generated more income than us due mainly to their on-site hotel and spent less than us on footballing activities, £11.2m v £12.6m.

Both clubs benefited from non-trading profits, Barnsley £1.8m from transfers and Bolton £2.0m from reduced interest payable as a result of their current ownership converting loans into equity. This left Bolton with a bottom line £3.7m loss, compared to our £4m.

 

Pretty much on par with our loses over recent years £7m for 21/22 and £4m on last set of accounts

 

But is that not down to our recruitment strategy at the time? Hopefully the January signings are going to be more the norm now than what we have seen previously

 

Sadly, cheats have always prospered in football. Thiery Henry for France against Ireland springs to mind.... Oh and Michael Owen against Barnsley at Oakwell in the Premier League.

 

We are no different. We've made losses and been propped up by owners for a couple of decades