Happy Face

When the accounts are available in pdf, you might have to. I look forward to your thoughts on that.

Have to say like, I'll argue the finances and signings all day, because i still don't buy into what they're telling us. But having said last year Ashley would NEVER achieve better than 12, I cannot believe the front of Leazes now challenging people to bets that we'll NEVER get 4th. Have an ounce of humility man Leazes, the league position is the one place we have to hold our hands up. I said we wouldn't improve on last year this season too. 7th (if it happens) and 12th the last 2 years are better than the 13th, 7th and 14th place finishes in the 3 years before Ashley arrived.

Santander and BP will be chomping at the bit to hoy £100m at that sort of sales pitch. Way to showcase the opportunity Decka.

Dont think so. The commercial line is the best reflection of the wider economic picture. TV/Media money is insulated and collectively bargained, Matchday demand is fairly inelastic (not completely) and is driven up by cup progression and European qualification. Commercial is driven off sentiment, business confidence and consumer confidence. There is a decrease from the peak in 07 which cant be attributed to poor management but is of course later linked to the management of the club but for me reflects underlying demand contraction. The crisis, recession, impact on the NE business and consumer environment etc is of one of the drivers. Compounded by relegation and boycotts too. Looking at a few other teams supports your argument, about 2007, but doesn't make our comparable performance with other clubs any less disappointing. Everyone apart from us is doing better commercially than they were 5 years ago. Deals made this year will hopefully see it recover, following the plateau since relegation.

I've not seen a reported figure on the Virgin deal. I'd hope the stadium naming rights would dwarf that deal though and we'll smash the commercial record.

Agreed, revenue is affected by a wide array of things. Getting into europe as opposed to getting relegated is one of them. Being able to sell tickets at top dollar to a willing sell-out crowd as opposed to halving the price of season tickets to keep attendances above 90% is another. These aren't mitigating factors in Ashley's defence though. These are the results of his decisions.

.....of course things are a LOT better than they were 2 years ago. We could have been in real shit, so he deserves credit for correcting his initial mistakes too. As he now basically has us where we were when he first arrived, and he's fully aware of the debt this time, and the danger of handing out contracts willy nilly, we'll see how he gets on over the next 5 years. You'd hope it'll be a great deal better.

You can't, that's the shame of it. He's the worst of both worlds. Shepherd got dogs abuse for running up £76m debt (off me too), but at least it went onto the pitch. Ashley has run the debt up to £140m, and none of it's been seen on the pitch, if anything it's taken off the pitch so the debt doesn't spiral further. All this cock sucking going on is for him having taken 5 years to get us back where we were in 2007, with several figures much worse...the ones it takes business acumen to maximise, as opposed to the TV money that lands in your lap as long as the team perform. 2007 v 2011 Turnover £87m v £88m Wages £59m v £54m Commercial £28m v £16m Match £34m v £24m TV £26m v £47m What he's done well, is get us into this position with just an annual loss of £3m, rather than a loss of £26m which we were seeing then. all credit to him there. I'll gladly go down on the fucker and start sucking him off when he does something notably better than Shepherd, who I consistently abused for financial performance like this...that went hand in hand with investment on the pitch. But for cutting £5m off the wage bill and not buying anyone? I remain to be pleased.

It's a bit rich when we have the 4th highest debt in the league. I think what he means to say is you shouldn't spend what you can't borrow.

It's a bit rich when we have the 4th highest debt in the league. I think what he means to say is you shouldn't spend what you can't borrow.

What figure you looking at? Turnover = £88.4m (actual) Matchday = £24.3m (actual) Media = £53.9 I based it on what Villa got (see the latest story on Swiss Ramble) in the absence of anything better. I've since been pointed to this so the bare minimum media money is £47.3m, but you generally get a few million from other sources onj top of the PL total. Commercial = £16.8m max based on that PL distribution and the other amounts above. £15.7 could be about right. Source?

Think they've said the income on that will be spread across the term.

You can see it dropping year on year every year since he arrived. I've got no idea how that breaks down in terms of Shirt sponsor, match sponsors, shirt sales etc, but the shirt deal being a one off drop suggests it's something other than that.

Man U concede at home. 7 year since they didn't win anything. Howay Bilbao.

What does commercial income cover HF? Is it everything from shirts to pies, bars, restaurants etc? I wonder whether a bit of the shortfall is accounted for by the sponsorship deal......didn't the NR money get spent upfront by Shepherd leaving nowt left in the pot till the end of the deal? Or maybe that's ancient history.... Shops and sponsorship basically. Dunno if that includes pie and pint shops (outsourced or not) or if that goes into the matchday income (which also has a way to go towards full recovery).

Aren't they though? .....hang on, are you being sarcastic? Me? Never! They're great man. That commercial drop-off is what I was wondering about earlier. If that estimate for 2011 is close to being right it's shocking. It would mean our commercial income is almost a third of what it was when Ashley arrived. It's been said money is tight, but in the same period villa have almost trebled theirs from £6m to £18m and arsenal have added about 50% to go from £30m (where we were) to £45m.

What time should I look out my window?

Aren't they though? .....hang on, are you being sarcastic?

2011 Media income based on Villa's released details, commercial based on difference between Turnover and the sum of Media/Match.

Howay HF, I expect Howl at the Moon stuff from Leazes, but I thought you more rational. Carroll was sold because of the batshit mental fee we were offered, Jose wanted to go, but everybody else that went has been improved upon. We're not the asset stripping club that Leazes makes us out to be. How's that howl at the moon stuff? It must be one of limited options...in decreasing order of preference 1) Cisse and Ba will remain and we'll bring in even better forwards than Best, Shola and Ranger to cover their absence. 2) Cisse has been bought with the knowledge Ba is getting off and we'll be adding better forwards to cover his absence. 3) Cisse and Ba are the main strikers for next season, and we'll miss them both for at least a month for the African Nations. 4) Cisse has been bought with the knowledge Ba is getting off and we'll get by with him Best, Shola & Ranger I'd love it to be number 1 or 2. 3 would be ok, but a right pisser when January roles arouind and derails the season. Given that I'm hoping for a significant investment in a couple of defensive position and maybe on the right wing too, it would be asking too much to bring in more quality strikers I think, so 4 isn't at all daft. We entered the back end of last season in a worse position than number 4, and started this season in almost exactly that boat (assuming Ba = Cisse).

I'm guessing its not a gamble, I'm considering it a cost effective replacement. The alternative is its only ambitious to the extent that we're happy to lose our 2 main strikers next January, rather than 1, which will fuck our season up big style.

For 8 years matchday income was getting on for £35 million. £24 million is 2000 levels. It's up on the championship year, but disappointing for a PL season. Any report on how the revenue breaks down? Interested in commercial income.

Because we'll get canny wedge off Ba and his wages are quite high, we could bring in cisse without spending too much and gives us a better chance of retaining top flight status than best and shola.

Then why buy Cisse? He could do all that without an additional £10m expenditure/gamble. For next season when Ba has gone. Planning.