[Norfolk Baggie]

So which ever way we look at this I think the situation is clear.  We need to be self funding, no extra money will be coming into the club, and owner will not be offering extra investment.  He also lacks the experience and management skills of Peace, who was good at what he did, though not always respected by the majority of the fans.  So we will either go up this year or next (though I have doubts around how we would do in the premiership if we go up this year particularly), or we do not and then we enter a period of decline, floating around in the middle of the championship as the quality players we have move on.  Hard fact is that Wolves and Villa have more backing from their owners.... this is quite depressing to write if I am honest.

[caravanc58]

Any one care to guess/speculate how much the Dubai trip has cost the club? Just asking for a friend like 

knowing us it was probably done using the Sun £9.50 holiday vouchers.

[SmethDan]

So which ever way we look at this I think the situation is clear.  We need to be self funding, no extra money will be coming into the club, and owner will not be offering extra investment.  He also lacks the experience and management skills of Peace, who was good at what he did, though not always respected by the majority of the fans.  So we will either go up this year or next (though I have doubts around how we would do in the premiership if we go up this year particularly), or we do not and then we enter a period of decline, floating around in the middle of the championship as the quality players we have move on.  Hard fact is that Wolves and Villa have more backing from their owners.... this is quite depressing to write if I am honest.

To be equally honest it doesn't make for joyous reading either    .

[overseas baggie]

I am surprised so many people are ok with it to be honest. If the gamble pays off then its great, as gambles tend to be.

However we will already need to cut our cloth next season if we don't get promoted, and cutting in to our safety net concerns me. The fact it is suggested its for loans too, says to me that money is far tighter than any of us appreciated. Throw in that the players we have who are salable will be deteriorating in value and this could cause us huge problems.  Financial problems begin with moves like this and tend to be compounded if the move doesn't work. 

As adults, when has spending next months salary before its received been a good thing. You still have bills and you still are not addressing the underlying problems that have got you in that position.

No, but those issues can be addressed in the summer if necessary.

[overseas baggie]

So which ever way we look at this I think the situation is clear.  We need to be self funding, no extra money will be coming into the club, and owner will not be offering extra investment.  He also lacks the experience and management skills of Peace, who was good at what he did, though not always respected by the majority of the fans.  So we will either go up this year or next (though I have doubts around how we would do in the premiership if we go up this year particularly), or we do not and then we enter a period of decline, floating around in the middle of the championship as the quality players we have move on.  Hard fact is that Wolves and Villa have more backing from their owners.... this is quite depressing to write if I am honest.

Personally I’d rather not go through Wolves went through by getting themselves into loads of debt (they were incredibly fortunate that Morgan was prepared to sell them to Fosun for a nominal sum), nor would I want to go through what Villa have been through over the past year, with the threat of administration and there is still a strong risk of a points deduction ahead of them!

[NJS]

I wouldn't be surprised if Peace's reputation is greatly enhanced the further away in time we look back on it. 

[Norfolk Baggie]

Personally I’d rather not go through Wolves went through by getting themselves into loads of debt (they were incredibly fortunate that Morgan was prepared to sell them to Fosun for a nominal sum), nor would I want to go through what Villa have been through over the past year, with the threat of administration and there is still a strong risk of a points deduction ahead of them!

I am not suggesting we will go through the same pain that the Wolves and Villa have been through.  However, we now have an owner who has a low risk appetite and we can not expect the same level of investment as the other Midlands clubs.  That does mean if we do not gain promotion, the next few years will see a decline.

[paulosull]

Doing the maths (& assuming the £38 million in wages is for this season only i.e. Not the total fulfilment of contracts), it looks as though a 22 man squad would have an average wage of circa £30,000 per week. That would suggest there are not so many flex downs as was first thought.
From a financial point of view, the logical solution would be to let those players go when the contracts run out. ( I believe some high wage earners have contracts that expire at the end of this season).
If that were the case, then the club might be able to re-pay the overdraft from savings in wages, should we not get promoted.
As others have said, they've just used the parachute payment as guarantees.

or we paid over the odds on wages to aging players who we should have got rid of sooner.

[paulosull]

We are in a right mess whatever happens, if we go up our squad needs massive investment which let’s be honest isn’t going to happen regardless of what the biggest crotch sniffer might say or think and if we stay in the championship with the out of contract players leaving, the few loan and short term fixes leaving and the couple of players who can be sold are we won’t be left with much. And before you say if we sell it will be reinvested where’s the Chadli, McClean, Foster, Evans money gone? Plus the wages they were on, Bartley, Johnstone wouldn’t be on anywhere near the wages they were. Wake up we are in massive trouble.

average players seem to have been paid over the odds at this club for a while and remember we had only Darren and Jenkins doing recruitment in summer with their own jobs so God knows what pay package they got.

[johnny Cash]

I don’t think average players have been paid over the odds as such, they’ve been paid the going rate. It just shows the gulf in money and precarious position being a lower premiership side was.

If we can get up we can secure the balance sheet without blasting £300k per week on players like evans, Chadli, krychoviak and sturridge who really added very little iat the end. Then if we come down as we probably do, we are at least in a better position next time around.