The accounts, 2014-15, from Companies House

[isrodger]

Oh, and one thing I forgot to add : if you stand still in football, you actually go backwards because everyone else keeps moving forwards.

Witness Aston Villa.

Not everyone moves forward witness villa & Newcastle!

[Deleted User 728]

Newcastle are a special case .. and more than a bit like us, with another ostrich owner !

[isrodger]

So, in a nutshell unless we start winning matches and moving up the table, we're in trouble.

It seems to me that we're standing at a crossroads :
- one way is a downward spiral with relegation and financial disaster
- another way is improving our situation by speculating to accumulate (cash and points) by recruiting better staff (playing and coaching)
- a third way is to tread water, which we are currently doing, papering over the financial cracks and hoping we can sell a McCormack every year.
.

Rigger I am not wishing to defend Cellino or knock whoever posted the narrative on the accounts, but the picture painted by lust doesn't really give a full insight the financial landscape moving forward.

What is without debate, and I'm sure Cellino agrees with, is we seriously need to work to address the reduced revenue - which was in excess of £30m in league 1.

That said the assumption that our losses will be circa £12m 2015/16 without the sale of McCormack are well wide of the mark. The cost base particularly in terms of wages, has been significantly reduced in this financial. 107 admin heads has became 69 during the year to June 2015. The cost of the additional 38 heads will not be in the 2016 accounts nor will the cost of their severance (that was a double whammy in 2015). Additionally on the playing side the big earners are now gone Kenny/Norris/Hunt along with their severance deals, along with the departure of Morrison/Austin, Warnock & Pearce. All in all salaries are down by circa £6m. Additionally catering rights are now adding to the revenue side. All this goes straight to the bottom line with projected loss for the year slightly above the 2015 figure probably the permissible £5m under FFP.

Whilst I don't fear an embargo like say Derby & possibly Wednesday - How we break out the cycle of reduced revenue is & fund a promotion push is however a totally different question, which I'm not sure anyone has the answer to at present.

[Deleted User 728]

So, in a nutshell unless we start winning matches and moving up the table, we're in trouble.

It seems to me that we're standing at a crossroads :
- one way is a downward spiral with relegation and financial disaster
- another way is improving our situation by speculating to accumulate (cash and points) by recruiting better staff (playing and coaching)
- a third way is to tread water, which we are currently doing, papering over the financial cracks and hoping we can sell a McCormack every year.
.

Rigger I am not wishing to defend Cellino or knock whoever posted the narrative on the accounts, but the picture painted by lust doesn't really give a full insight the financial landscape moving forward.

What is without debate, and I'm sure Cellino agrees with, is we seriously need to work to address the reduced revenue - which was in excess of £30m in league 1.

That said the assumption that our losses will be circa £12m 2015/16 without the sale of McCormack are well wide of the mark. The cost base particularly in terms of wages, has been significantly reduced in this financial. 107 admin heads has became 69 during the year to June 2015. The cost of the additional 38 heads will not be in the 2016 accounts nor will the cost of their severance (that was a double whammy in 2015). Additionally on the playing side the big earners are now gone Kenny/Norris/Hunt along with their severance deals, along with the departure of Morrison/Austin, Warnock & Pearce. All in all salaries are down by circa £6m. Additionally catering rights are now adding to the revenue side. All this goes straight to the bottom line with projected loss for the year slightly above the 2015 figure probably the permissible £5m under FFP.

Whilst I don't fear an embargo like say Derby & possibly Wednesday - How we break out the cycle of reduced revenue is & fund a promotion push is however a totally different question, which I'm not sure anyone has the answer to at present.

Thanks for that, ISR .. or should that be HMRC ??

It sounds a lot more positive with your prognosis

[isrodger]

So, in a nutshell unless we start winning matches and moving up the table, we're in trouble.

It seems to me that we're standing at a crossroads :
- one way is a downward spiral with relegation and financial disaster
- another way is improving our situation by speculating to accumulate (cash and points) by recruiting better staff (playing and coaching)
- a third way is to tread water, which we are currently doing, papering over the financial cracks and hoping we can sell a McCormack every year.
.

Rigger I am not wishing to defend Cellino or knock whoever posted the narrative on the accounts, but the picture painted by lust doesn't really give a full insight the financial landscape moving forward.

What is without debate, and I'm sure Cellino agrees with, is we seriously need to work to address the reduced revenue - which was in excess of £30m in league 1.

That said the assumption that our losses will be circa £12m 2015/16 without the sale of McCormack are well wide of the mark. The cost base particularly in terms of wages, has been significantly reduced in this financial. 107 admin heads has became 69 during the year to June 2015. The cost of the additional 38 heads will not be in the 2016 accounts nor will the cost of their severance (that was a double whammy in 2015). Additionally on the playing side the big earners are now gone Kenny/Norris/Hunt along with their severance deals, along with the departure of Morrison/Austin, Warnock & Pearce. All in all salaries are down by circa £6m. Additionally catering rights are now adding to the revenue side. All this goes straight to the bottom line with projected loss for the year slightly above the 2015 figure probably the permissible £5m under FFP.

Whilst I don't fear an embargo like say Derby & possibly Wednesday - How we break out the cycle of reduced revenue is & fund a promotion push is however a totally different question, which I'm not sure anyone has the answer to at present.

Thanks for that, ISR .. or should that be HMRC ??

It sounds a lot more positive with your prognosis

It's not positive, but the club is not out of control financially as it was under Bates / GFH . The club is deeply fractured and unfortunately for Cellino, he is bearing the brunt of 12 years of frustration. The irony of some of the debate re his tenure, is I don't think anyone is really pro him. We all think he undermines his managers (although I think he has backed Rosler & Evans financially), we all see the acquisition of the ground as a line in the sand he has failed to cross, we all feel he shouldn't have agreed to sell the club to LFU & then back out (I'm glad he backed out personally) and we all wish he was a little less contoversional and more diplomatic to say the least! What I & others probably feel is he has done a good job turning around the club financially, & he has addressed many of the issues left by GFH, bates & Harvey. He has invested in the playing staff & resisted selling our youngsters under value & does seem to have the clubs interests at heart.... I know it's not saying much but I would have him over bates every day of the week. Problem for us and all the clubs without parachute payments, the rules of engagement the league have imposed have severely damaged the sporting integrity of the division. I know Derby who incidentally have a wage to turnover ratio of 94% are struggling to come up with a legitimate plan to compete within the rules of FFP - despite their owner being happy to spunk whatever it takes to get them up. I spoke to one of the senior guys @ hull the other week - "good win Saturday
Blah blah blah" they should bloody winning with a spend of £33m on wages was his response, Leeds United the biggest draw in the league & most commercially successful side in the league - completely maxed out in terms of revenue could only really hope to turnover what Norwich or Bournmouth will receive in parachute payments - now that's depressing.

[saintjimmy]

I think that's just about spot on how I feel personally towards MC, a very fair picture indeed isr.

[White Knight]

So, in a nutshell unless we start winning matches and moving up the table, we're in trouble.

It seems to me that we're standing at a crossroads :
- one way is a downward spiral with relegation and financial disaster
- another way is improving our situation by speculating to accumulate (cash and points) by recruiting better staff (playing and coaching)
- a third way is to tread water, which we are currently doing, papering over the financial cracks and hoping we can sell a McCormack every year.
.

Rigger I am not wishing to defend Cellino or knock whoever posted the narrative on the accounts, but the picture painted by lust doesn't really give a full insight the financial landscape moving forward.

What is without debate, and I'm sure Cellino agrees with, is we seriously need to work to address the reduced revenue - which was in excess of £30m in league 1.

That said the assumption that our losses will be circa £12m 2015/16 without the sale of McCormack are well wide of the mark. The cost base particularly in terms of wages, has been significantly reduced in this financial. 107 admin heads has became 69 during the year to June 2015. The cost of the additional 38 heads will not be in the 2016 accounts nor will the cost of their severance (that was a double whammy in 2015). Additionally on the playing side the big earners are now gone Kenny/Norris/Hunt along with their severance deals, along with the departure of Morrison/Austin, Warnock & Pearce. All in all salaries are down by circa £6m. Additionally catering rights are now adding to the revenue side. All this goes straight to the bottom line with projected loss for the year slightly above the 2015 figure probably the permissible £5m under FFP.

Whilst I don't fear an embargo like say Derby & possibly Wednesday - How we break out the cycle of reduced revenue is & fund a promotion push is however a totally different question, which I'm not sure anyone has the answer to at present.

Thanks for that, ISR .. or should that be HMRC ??

It sounds a lot more positive with your prognosis

It's not positive, but the club is not out of control financially as it was under Bates / GFH . The club is deeply fractured and unfortunately for Cellino, he is bearing the brunt of 12 years of frustration. The irony of some of the debate re his tenure, is I don't think anyone is really pro him. We all think he undermines his managers (although I think he has backed Rosler & Evans financially), we all see the acquisition of the ground as a line in the sand he has failed to cross, we all feel he shouldn't have agreed to sell the club to LFU & then back out (I'm glad he backed out personally) and we all wish he was a little less contoversional and more diplomatic to say the least! What I & others probably feel is he has done a good job turning around the club financially, & he has addressed many of the issues left by GFH, bates & Harvey. He has invested in the playing staff & resisted selling our youngsters under value & does seem to have the clubs interests at heart.... I know it's not saying much but I would have him over bates every day of the week. Problem for us and all the clubs without parachute payments, the rules of engagement the league have imposed have severely damaged the sporting integrity of the division. I know Derby who incidentally have a wage to turnover ratio of 94% are struggling to come up with a legitimate plan to compete within the rules of FFP - despite their owner being happy to spunk whatever it takes to get them up. I spoke to one of the senior guys @ hull the other week - "good win Saturday
Blah blah blah" they should bloody winning with a spend of £33m on wages was his response, Leeds United the biggest draw in the league & most commercially successful side in the league - completely maxed out in terms of revenue could only really hope to turnover what Norwich or Bournmouth will receive in parachute payments - now that's depressing.

Well done Isrodger, that's certainly one of the better summaries an analysis I've read