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Baggies win all day long. If we're good enough we'll go up, if we aren't we won't. No need to rely on other teams.

i expect it will come as no surprise to anyone that there was a big turnout tonight and that the Principals received an ovation upon entering the room. I was hoping for a burst of the Daniel Farke Rap but it didn't happen. We kicked off with a welcome from Ed Balls and the introduction of Ben Dack who presided over the resolutions that saw Mr. Balls and Tom Smith re-elcted to the Board. Then a brief run through of the financial statement, which I am sure everyone is familiar with by now. A couple of points I picked up on were the expected loss next year of over £5 million and the budgeted drop in players wages from £49.6 million to £33.1 million. There was also some talk about the loss due to impairment of contracts (presumably Jarvis etc) and the tax payment of £10 million. Mr. Dack said some of this would be clawed back due to losses in future seasons. Ben Kensall gave us a run down on the new set up and explained the rolls and responsibilities of himself, Zoe and Stuart Webber. There seemed to be some good news on the expansion of commercial partners from 8 to 36 and expectations that the stadium would be used for more concerts and events in the future. Then we watched a promotional video displaying the clubs work in the community and the values to which the club was committed. I have to comment here in all seriousness that we should all be proud that the club we love and support is involved in this valuable work. (Hats off to Delia and Michael). Question Time We had about twenty questions so I will just give a summary of the pick of them. The Sky Sports deal All clubs had agreed them although there was some disquiet over various points, some of which were shared by NCFC. (nothing much given away there) The Payment for tax advice? We were assured that this more than paid for itself in the tax that was saved Financial Fair Play? The club wanted to play by the rules and opposed any weakening of the those rules. Webbers and Farkes contracts? Ed Balls said its all in hand Money to spend in January? Webber not keen but depending upon injuries etc it could change, fairly satisfied with what we have. Jordan Rhodes on a permanent? Webber non committal Keeping Tim Klose? Webber again non committal, never say never but hope he stays. Another Bond or share issue/ Zoe, in our thoughts if needed. Safe Standing? Balls supported it but would cost the club money, no increase in gates. Did Southampton approach Webber? from the horses mouth, no. Ambitious and at some stage hopes to work in europe,. Nothing on the immediate horizon. Thats about it apart from ongoing work for Wes's testimonial and a recognition for Russel Martins ten years at the club. Oh, and it looks like Buendia or Leitner will be taking the next penalty.

If I can help out there - a quick summary of the meeting: Crisis! NCFC in financial ruin! Ben Dack says NCFC will be 5 million in the red by the end of the season! Ben Kensell essentially says they achieved nothing of importance in the last year! Kensell also said they know the Leo Vegas contract is immoral, but they paid the most money! Ed Balls said we can only hope to keep Farke and Webber, so perhaps the fans can ask them to stay! There is a new video with the usual marketing gumpf about values / working together etc of course! Zoe Ward says the club express concerns about new Sky deal! Farke says the next two candidates to take penalties both missed in practice! Farke says Buendia takes all the throw ins as he's too short to receive the ball himself! Webbers says they have NO plan for Promotion! Webber also says they have no funds to strengthen squad and he's off to Spain! Webber says if anyone wants to bid on Tim Klose in January, please do so! Ed Balls says fans can safely stand outside the ground so it not necessary to do it inside! Michael essentially admitted the club had been run secretly in the past as "the Club needs transparency"! Delia says everything is a dream come true! Best comment of the night - Webber says we will remove the away team changing room! OTBC

Far too early to want 1p5wich to be doing us favours. We just need to keep doing our own thing and they need to keep struggling. The way we’ve been playing we can beat anyone. If this was March/April time I may feel differently but for now I want them (and Lambert) to get stuffed.

Nutty, your spellchecker isn’t working properly 😉

Grumpy, I will mention that to the Media team when I next speak to them for you.

Very surprised. After being spectacularly ‘headhunted’ as the leader of the Anti-Delia brigade, one would have expected you to prioritise this.

Key points of note: No doubt the accountants amongst us will explain all the nitty gritty to usIncome down to £63.7m as a result of a lower second year parachute payment. Operating profit of £19m (Operating loss of £2.6m in 2016-17). Profit after tax of £14.6m (Loss after tax of £2.7m in 2016-17). Profit in the year driven by cost reductions and significant player trading in the January transfer window and early summer. Cash inflow in the year of +£16.4m explained as follows: - Cash generated from operating activities of +£9.5m - Player purchases – cash outflow of -£20.1m - Player sales – cash inflow of +£24.8m - Fixed asset spend of -£2.3m - Receipt of the Canary Bond and director loans +£5.1m - Other cash flow movements -£0.5m. As at June 30, 2018 there was no external debt with a cash balance of £16.1m at the end of the financial year. The Club anticipates a negative cash position by the end of this calendar year. Since the June 30, 2018 financial year end: - End of parachute payments (c£32m in 2017-18) further significantly reducing revenue in the current financial year; -  Corporation and VAT payments due in the first quarter of 2018-19 in excess of £10m; - Recruitment of six first team players in the summer 2018 transfer window

Who knows, it might be irrelevant for us next season Trouble is it is usually relevant the season after

I haven’t picked yet, but, it’s interesting that the league leaders of the top 5 divisions in England plus Celtic are all away this weekend. The Acca pays around 33/1. I’m going to place £5 on all six winning with any returns going into the prize pot for the CSF. Good luck everyone!!!

With the AGM fast approaching, now seemed to be a good time to post this. Explanation of some of the key features in the 2018 accounts and also look ahead at the impact of loss of parachute payments. Impairment and Onerous Contracts The two key features in the year ending 30th June 2018 were player cost write-offs and player trading. There are two aspects to the write-offs, ‘impairment’ and ‘onerous contracts’. Both impairment and onerous contract write-offs relate to players that will not feature for the club in future for various reasons such as career ending injury or falling out of favour with management. I would hazard a guess that the players concerned are Steven Naismith, Russell Martin, Nelson Oliveira and Matt Jarvis. Another candidate could be Yanic Wildschut. Impairment means writing off the remaining book value of the player’s original transfer fee. For example if we sign a player for £3m on a 3 year contract an ‘intangible asset’ of £3m is created in the balance sheet and ‘amortised’ over the length of the contract, so amortisation would be £1m per year and the player’s book value would be £2m after 1 year and so on. If the player’s career with the club ends after the second year for example, an impairment entry of the £1m remaining on his book value would be appropriate. The 2018 accounts include an impairment entry of £9,373,000 which represents the remaining book value of the players concerned. Onerous contract write-offs relate to the remaining financial liabilities contained within the contracts of those players deemed to have no future with the club. In simple terms this is the wages remaining on the player’s contract. The 2018 accounts include a £11,228,000 provision for onerous contracts. The combined effect of impairment and onerous contracts on the 2018 profit and loss account is £20,601,000. This is a one-off ‘hit’ and it makes sense to get rid of this bad news in a year in which there are sufficient profits to do so. Getting this out of the way now will help wages to appear more manageable in future as there will be no more costs relating to those players. Player Trading The player trading figure in the accounts is often misunderstood to be the cost of buying players less the income from selling players. This is not the case. The figure reported in the accounts represents book ‘profit’ on player sales less amortisation. The up-front cost of buying players is not included in the accounts ‘player trading’ figure. The 2018 accounts tell us that player trading added £24,027,000 to profit. If we strip out impairment and amortisation (as described above) it leaves us with the book ‘profit’ on player sales of £48,023,000. By ‘book profit’ I mean proceeds from player sales less the residual book value of those players at the time of sale. The accounts tell us that the residual value of players sold was £6,746,000, so we therefore know that the proceeds from player sales in the year was £54,769,000. It is not possible to assign sale proceeds to individual players from the information available but we can break it down a bit more. The post balance sheet events section of the 2017 accounts tells us that the club had sold Andreu, Dorrans, Howson and Jacob Murphy for a combined £16,900,000. That leaves £37,869,000 for the other player sales, which I reckon is Pritchard, Jerome, Watkins, Josh Murphy and Maddison. Further breakdown of these figures is pure speculation but we can compare to sales figures reported in the press. Players sold during year ending 30th June 2018 Estimated sale value £K Proceeds per accounts Notes Andreu 0 Agreed to terminate contract upon agreeing a deal with Coventry Dorrans 900 Reported in EDP 4/7/17 as less than £1.5m Howson 6,000 Reported in EDP 4/7/17 as “£5m chase for the player” Jacob Murphy 10,000 Reported in EDP 19/7/17 as £10m plus £2.5m contingent add-ons Sub-total of players sold per 2017 post balance sheet events 16,900 16,900 Pritchard 9,000 Reported in EDP 12/1/18 as in the region of £11m. Spurs have a sell-on clause. Jerome 1,500 Reported in EDP 16/1/18 as around £2m. Watkins 850 Reported in EDP 15/2/18 as around £1m. Josh Murphy 8,000 Reported in EDP 12/6/18 as worth in excess of £10m. Maddison 18,519 Reported in EDP 20/6/18 as worth up to £24m. Coventry have £2.2m+ sell-on clause. Sub-total of all other players sold in 2017-18 37,869 37,869 Player purchases in 2017-18 The cost of players signed for a fee is reported in the accounts as player registration additions in the intangible assets section of the balance sheet. This cost does not affect the club’s profit and loss other than amortisation as previously described. The 2018 accounts tell us that the cost of player registration additions was £15,450,000. From the post balance sheet note in the 2017 accounts we know that the club had agreed to purchase the registrations of Franke, Hanley, Husband, Raggett, Stiepermann, Trybull, Watkins and Zimmerman for a combined total of £8,800,000. That leaves a balance of £6,650,000 for McLean, Hernandez, Srbeny and Marshall. In summary I would say that the transfer fees received seem to be generally lower than reported and transfer fees paid are higher than reported. There may be reasons for these discrepancies (player signing-on fees, agent fees, etc.) but the oft-quoted payments by instalments is not one of those reasons. Profit & Loss summary 2018 and forecast 2019, 2020 NCFC P&L Actual Forecast Forecast Champ Champ Champ Year ending Jun-18 Jun-19 Jun-20 Championship TV revenue 2100 2600 3536 Premier league solidarity payments 0 4464 4464 Premier league TV revenue 36399 0 0 Gate receipts 9803 9800 9800 Media 223 200 200 Catering 4085 4250 4250 Commercial 7228 7500 7500 UEFA solidarity & prizes 1085 800 800 Other 744 750 750 Total operating turnover 61667 30364 30564 Other operating income 2050 2000 1000 Player wages % of t/o 50% 55% 55% Player wages 30834 16700 17215 Other wages 12191 10500 10500 Onerous contracts (wages w/off) 11228 0 0 Impairment (player cost w/off) 9373 0 0 Net player trading -33430 0 0 Operating expenses 14487 11500 11000 Total costs 44682 38700 38715 JV profit and asset disposals -52 Profit before interest and tax 18983 -6336 -6415 Net Interest (payable)/receivable -502 The 2018 results make good reading. The club’s finances have been well managed in a climate of drastically reducing revenues. The sale of James Maddison in particular transformed the results for the year but if we exclude the ‘exceptional’ items of player-related write-offs and player trading the underlying financial performance is still good. Underlying profit before interest and tax was £6,154,000 without these items. Football staff wages (excluding cost of onerous contracts) reduced from £37.6m to £30.8m and were maintained at 50% of turnover. Non-football wages reduced from £13.1m to £12.2m and operating expenses fell from £18.8m to £14.5m. 2018/19 season and beyond The forecasts for 2019 and 2020 in the above table make the assumption that we will be playing in the Championship (obviously promotion would be a game-changer) and that player wages are maintained at 55% of turnover. The table illustrates just how difficult it will be to balance the books in 2019 and beyond against a background of a further £31m+ reduction in turnover (from £61m to £30m). The player wage budget would need to fall from £31m to less than £17m. Non-player wages and operating expenses would also need to be cut and perhaps £5m of savings could be found as a result. Even with these dramatic cost reductions a loss of £6m would result based on the assumptions made. In other words £6m would need to be generated from player sales in order to be self-funding. Summary The club has done well to manage the first phase of downsizing, which was clearly facilitated by the sale of Maddison, but there is an equally big challenge in the current year and ahead. The player wage budget must have already been reduced to something like £17m for the current season which makes the team’s achievements even more remarkable. Long may the on-field success continue. OTBC

I think there is a genuine issue here. My understanding is that some of the Championship clubs feel that red button for midweek games is a bit of a "game-changer" and undervalued in the deal. The red button has certainly made the Sky package better value for those that are not obsessed by the EPL and is probably a big part of Sky's competition against the fact that BT has the Champion's league rights - I have both Sky and BT Sport but would rather watch a championship game involving us or our rivals than a Champions league game. Given that some clubs feel (probably correctly) that this might also affect attendances, the Championship probably should get more. However, ultimately all it would mean is that they would then be a position to pay their under-paid stars a little more and there would be greater wage and transfer value competition!

No as double booked.