by Sir Bobby » Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:45 am
This is more like consumption smoothing than risky borrowing. We know our future cash level for summer so we’re borrowing some of that now to try and secure a higher future cash level (through survival) whilst also not putting ourselves at risk by relying on finishing in a certain position to be able to pay back the loan - if we get relegated we’re still in a position to pay back the loan. It’s a non-issue in terms of risk, but it does make you wonder where our money from the last year or so is... paying off some of our loan to Ashley, maybe?
If it isn’t doing that and is simply only meant to be covering operating costs then there’s something going on. We can’t have the 19th highest revenue in the world, one of the lowest wage bills in the Prem and still only be just covering our costs. We have a revenue stream higher than every other English team except the big 6 and Everton and a wage bill lower than all of the Prem except Cardiff, Huddersfield and Burnley. Our net transfer expenditure for the season is only about £10m (even after this transfer) which is the third lowest in the league. The two teams we’re sandwiched between in revenue (Everton and West Ham) have wage bills double ours and are still able to have a net spend of £66m and £80m respectively.
This is more like consumption smoothing than risky borrowing. We know our future cash level for summer so we’re borrowing some of that now to try and secure a higher future cash level (through survival) whilst also not putting ourselves at risk by relying on finishing in a certain position to be able to pay back the loan - if we get relegated we’re still in a position to pay back the loan. It’s a non-issue in terms of risk, but it does make you wonder where our money from the last year or so is... paying off some of our loan to Ashley, maybe?
If it isn’t doing that and is simply only meant to be covering operating costs then there’s something going on. We can’t have the 19th highest revenue in the world, one of the lowest wage bills in the Prem and still only be just covering our costs. We have a revenue stream higher than every other English team except the big 6 and Everton and a wage bill lower than all of the Prem except Cardiff, Huddersfield and Burnley. Our net transfer expenditure for the season is only about £10m (even after this transfer) which is the third lowest in the league. The two teams we’re sandwiched between in revenue (Everton and West Ham) have wage bills double ours and are still able to have a net spend of £66m and £80m respectively.
