25-05-2019, 11:25
Here’s my take on a few thing;
Firstly Chris;
I’m with beefy on this one. I’ve met him a few times. He seems like a good guy who just wants to bring the news to us. Let’s not fool ourselves though his main priority was to sell the news so there may have been some elements of sensationalisation but far less than the BBC or Sky ever do.
That loan;
For me this is just sneaky and snide from JP. This loan came about the exact time that he bought the shares to take control presumably knowing that he could sell up with full control. He was short of purchasing all the shares so took the money out of the club. Rather than taking it as a dividend he took out a loan. Therefore, bypassing the other shareholders (hence why they’re so pissed) and avoiding a hefty tax bill on a near 5mil payout. This actually isn’t the issue, ethically wrong as it’s a club but it’s ok. The loan then stands for years untill he sells. At which point he should be paying off the loan. Therefore reducing his income from the sale, but this is where is gets shady. He doesn’t, he just sells the whole thing to Lai and runs. Having never paid the 5mil and never having to pay a penny of tax on it. As a business man, Lai should have been able to see this. It’s ridiculous that he didn’t! This is potentially why JP wouldn’t just sell to anyone. He needed someone stupid enough to not ask questions about why there’s a 5mil directors loan that is still unpaid. Again, none of this is illegal but it is completely ethically wrong!
Lastly, going forward and costs;
Again going back to last years accounts filed, unfortunately there’s no breakdown of costs exactly so estimating what people are on and where I’d expect costs generally that’s where my figures came from in my original post. The overall cost last year was 112mil but let’s face it. That could include anything! Someone mentioned purchases of players over a period. As of last year we still owed; 17m within 1 year and a further 11m after that. Hopefully by now the 1 years worth has been paid and we just owe the 11m but it fully depends what’s happened in the year. The big question is who the hell are we still paying for!!! I can’t think of anyone we actually bought last year so at-least that figure shouldn’t rise. The point is upon selling the actual assets we have (players initially mentioned) we should have more than enough money for a full squad rebuild and the odd good player! So why is our board making out we are totally broke when there’s more than enough to go round? That is unless the plan is to strip the assets and sell up. Leaving someone else to rebuild. It would make sense that they can’t tell anyone and further to that makes more sense that suddenly this loan has come out in the press as due diligence is looking into it.
Who knows, all I know is that this whole thing is a mess and we really need someone to step in and run things properly! The squad above that I’ve predicted for next year isn’t awful (not great don’t get me wrong) and should be a decent starting block to rebuild from. We need to go back to the days of buying low and building players up. It’s going to be a big old task to get us back to the Prem or High achieving champ side but it is doable.
Firstly Chris;
I’m with beefy on this one. I’ve met him a few times. He seems like a good guy who just wants to bring the news to us. Let’s not fool ourselves though his main priority was to sell the news so there may have been some elements of sensationalisation but far less than the BBC or Sky ever do.
That loan;
For me this is just sneaky and snide from JP. This loan came about the exact time that he bought the shares to take control presumably knowing that he could sell up with full control. He was short of purchasing all the shares so took the money out of the club. Rather than taking it as a dividend he took out a loan. Therefore, bypassing the other shareholders (hence why they’re so pissed) and avoiding a hefty tax bill on a near 5mil payout. This actually isn’t the issue, ethically wrong as it’s a club but it’s ok. The loan then stands for years untill he sells. At which point he should be paying off the loan. Therefore reducing his income from the sale, but this is where is gets shady. He doesn’t, he just sells the whole thing to Lai and runs. Having never paid the 5mil and never having to pay a penny of tax on it. As a business man, Lai should have been able to see this. It’s ridiculous that he didn’t! This is potentially why JP wouldn’t just sell to anyone. He needed someone stupid enough to not ask questions about why there’s a 5mil directors loan that is still unpaid. Again, none of this is illegal but it is completely ethically wrong!
Lastly, going forward and costs;
Again going back to last years accounts filed, unfortunately there’s no breakdown of costs exactly so estimating what people are on and where I’d expect costs generally that’s where my figures came from in my original post. The overall cost last year was 112mil but let’s face it. That could include anything! Someone mentioned purchases of players over a period. As of last year we still owed; 17m within 1 year and a further 11m after that. Hopefully by now the 1 years worth has been paid and we just owe the 11m but it fully depends what’s happened in the year. The big question is who the hell are we still paying for!!! I can’t think of anyone we actually bought last year so at-least that figure shouldn’t rise. The point is upon selling the actual assets we have (players initially mentioned) we should have more than enough money for a full squad rebuild and the odd good player! So why is our board making out we are totally broke when there’s more than enough to go round? That is unless the plan is to strip the assets and sell up. Leaving someone else to rebuild. It would make sense that they can’t tell anyone and further to that makes more sense that suddenly this loan has come out in the press as due diligence is looking into it.
Who knows, all I know is that this whole thing is a mess and we really need someone to step in and run things properly! The squad above that I’ve predicted for next year isn’t awful (not great don’t get me wrong) and should be a decent starting block to rebuild from. We need to go back to the days of buying low and building players up. It’s going to be a big old task to get us back to the Prem or High achieving champ side but it is doable.