Memory of a Goldfish

[KeelansGlove 0]

Sorry to ask this question again but I have just spent the last hour reading the mamoth "Feeling Sad" thread and find myself asking the same questions I did way back when in my "Lies Damn Lies and Statistics" thread. What is the financial reality ???

Ok so when my copy of the club accounts came through the door I didn''t go through them line by line, but hey im not an accountant !

can someone give me a roughly idiot proof view of where we are in terms of debt ?

Including revenue from building flats behind the river end and the cost of the corner infill and pitch ?

Ok if memory serves correct we were 16M in debt 6 of the 8M for the south stand came from the sale of land and we have spend a further 4m on the corner infill and the new pitch. Add another 4M for the loss for the last year.

So this puts us in debt to the tune of 26M (before Sky money) If we presume that our wage bill increase and bonus payments accounts for a further 10M (Ok so im guessing) and we spent the princely sum of 2M on transfers that would bring a grand total of 36M

Sky Money has been reported as any number of different figures, But I have no reason to disbelieve the figure I read in the press elsewhere of 20M bringing us back to a  debt of 16M without taking into account increased gate reciepts (both through higher prices and higher capacity) or indeed increased sponsorships and other "Higher Profile"increases. Ok again lets estimate Increased reciepts (dont forget half last season we only had a capacity of 18,000 and hopefully half this we should have 26,000) call it 3M if we play football people want to watch. Add a final 3M for increased sponsorship and merchandise sales and this brings the debt down to 10M.

Can I just say I have no interest in the ah but the money comes in stages theory any additional interest should be able to be more than covered by the figures above.

So where does this leave us ?

Option 1

Do nothing and we are a Championship club with a debt of 3M after the parachute payment is taken into account (once Greeno has gone actually be in profit !)

I for one do not follow the "bounceback" theory I dont think it has ever been more difficult to get out of the championship and the teams that went down last year were stripped of all the best players they had negating the idea that we would have a better squad to attempt promotion with, add to that the fact that with the exception of the goalkeepers we have signed none of the other players can be seen as investments for the future ie all 32+.

Back to Square1

Option 2

Invest 3-4 Million in terms of a proven premiership goalscorer or attacking midfielder on loan (Ameobi, Scott Parker, Aliadiere)  and a young gun (someone to be the new Iwan for the next 7 years) Someone like Ashton gets my vote. This would give us a decent chance of survival if the current team can keep us in touch with the teams around us till then. Worst case scenario we either have another player to sell at the end of the season or a player who actually can help to get us out of the championship next season.

Potential extra income of 20M per year

Option 3

Spend Spend Spend 10M+ really go for it 2 or 3 quality players , could be a long term investment for our premiership future or indeed a millstone round our necks, high risk strategy.

Boom or Bust ?

Ok so its obvious which theory I follow to do nothing is to abuse the supporters and take the money and run, whilst it may safeguard our long term future it wastes the oppertunity we have for the first time in nearly ten years.

To spend money when we cannot see how to repay it is also a foolish course and ultimately ends in disaster.

Lets be realistic and optimistic, do everything we can to survive. In short give it our best shot. Like we did last season, everyone was aware that should we fail there would be some hard medicine to tak