The frightening increase in losses in lower league football continues

The PFA actually helped ,bailing us out with a 2 million loan, Gordon Taylor turned up at a supporters forum alongside Richmond to spell out how bad it was.

 

Sorry yes I’m making the reference to football in general not our own circumstances . When playing squad wages are larger than most clubs income , then no equitable commercial or private company could sustain the losses. Yet football in general and the PFA in particular create such a scenario that leave owners and the clubs and their supporters at severe risk . The football world is full of examples.

 

Not that I subscribe to that theory, but it's more than unpalatable, it's totally unacceptable and if we miss out on the playoffs and it turns out that it was intentional I don't think I could support an owner/board who did that.

 

I'm sure we have had this discussion before Dennis but i can't find it . If we go up, why do we have to make massive losses? Surely we can cut our cloth accordingly and stick to our budget. That might mean we struggle and come back down, then so be it, but to deliberately try to avoid promotion? Nah!

 

I haven’t seen anyone suggest we don’t try , rather than explain the potential financial pitfalls IF we want to “ keep up with the Jones’s .

 

Unless I have misunderstood I think Dennis' post above is alluding to the very possibility that if Rupp hasn't been able to attract a partner / investor for next season. then talks could be taking place behind closed doors at VP suggesting it might be better for us to remain in L1.

 

All part of succession planning in business. If not, it should be .

Scenario A Promoted
Scenario B Remain in L1
How would they be funded

So taking its course Plan B would have a budget, so would Plan A .

 

Yes of course, but the point I am trying to make is why does budget A have to budget for a £15m loss? We don't HAVE to pay players £30k a week or spend millions on transfer fees. We cut our cloth according to our budget. Now granted that might mean a struggle against relegation but my point is we don't HAVE to make a massive loss.

 

Thanks Dennis. I'd seen the table. My point, however unpalatable it may seem to fans, is we don't have to make a massive loss chasing the dream. Rupp sets an acceptable budget (for him) and we stick to it. It might mean we're knocking around the relegation spots. But if our budget takes into account the whole contract costs for players, not just the annual cost, then I can't see that we would be worse off if we went back down. One thing is for sure, it all filters down. Average league 1 budgets will be higher next year anyway. I know I am being a little naive. By the way I absolutely wouldn't expect Rupp to tolerate on his own the sort of losses being talked about if we did decide to push the boat out. It would be madness on his part

 

I think Graham would be the kind of guy to walk if those were his commands from the VP towers. I think he’s simply got the setup completely wrong for away games, time will tell.

 

No we don’t , I thought that would be straightforward . We ain’t going to end up like Man U owing £1.3 BILLION that’s for sure .

 

Agree with this. There's no way we could be bringing in established Championship players unless it was for one-year contracts.

I'm guessing our sales pitch would broadly be, you can get £x a year in L1 or you can get £x a year and try your luck in the Championship. I'm sure there will be a few that we've played against this year that would fancy that chance.

 

I agree, he comes off as an honest and honourable man. He bet he’s not so much as thrown a training session as a player or manager let alone promotion. He’s just making mistakes, it happens in all professions.

 

As you know @Klaatu for many years that has been the myth trotted out by fans when we've not done as well as some fans thought, it would be a stupid manager/coach to say to his players don't win we could find themselves in situation we saw back in the early 60s, and some may have contracts that are league position based or goals scored ?.

If you remember back in 1998/99 season Richmond put to the players about getting bonus payments for their league position on a weekly basis believing it would be a good incentive, Stuart had a word with the squad and returned to Richmond saying they preferred any bonuses to be based on were we finished at the end of the season, as you know we finished runners up to Sunderland, I'm not sure of the details but I'd suspect the players were backing their ability and you'd think by doing so their reward would been greater that a league position based bonus.

I can't see any manager accepting being told by a CEO or owner not to have his team win promotion, with the befits that would be gained by both players and manager with regards their CV, bearing in mind Alexander made the point he wanted to sign players who'd been there seen it and done it, as they knew how to get across the line.

 

Simple as that and if that was spelt out to fans then most would get on board with it mostly us who saw the damage that happened from 2001 onwards

 

Just to put lower league losses into context, and a wake-up call for how bad it has got, Chelsea post an English record loss of £355m.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/crrxjyk54zpo

 

£6.8 million per week
Any other business would have been wound up
It’s just crazy and the reason I don’t want city to ever get involved in this top flight madness ever again