Ozza wrote:He's never managed to even when he's had the chance to. Let's never forget he's in this for one reason and it isn't to turn us into a top 6 team regardless of all the guff that comes out of his mouth.
Hoping that he'll change is folly, they've got a set model they have run for years, why change it?
Oh I think he'd love to turn us into a top six club, then he could preen himself and tell eveyone how well he'd done. Unfortunately he hasn't got the vision or the willingness to risk money that's needed. That's why he's in uncharted waters, summer spending looks like paying dividends, goes against his business model. Will he back the manager in the next 3 windows? It'd be a first for him
A quick glance at twitter seems to confirm that a lot of fans are quite happy with a strategy to hold back appropriate money over a number of windows and spend it in one splurge whilst giving it the razzle dazzle about £100m* (when in reality we are pretty much mid table for both spend and wages over the last three years)
Note: still not sure we actually spent £100m but if everyone keeps repeating it then it must be true
The summer window of 2019 is the big test for me - we should be capable of the same level of investment based on the club’s actual numbers, however i’m expecting the party line to be that we spent most of our funds in 2018...
It was in the accounts that we had a net spend of £89.5m on transfers in the summer (including agent fees, and I presume signing on fees). So with Kouyate, Burke, and Quina being sold our gross spend (including fees) was probably £100m. However our net spend (including fees) the previous year was £3.1m so we have spent 2 seasons money in one.
My biggest concern, as raised in the accounts thread, is how G&S have withdrawn accrued interest (which I’m fairly sure isn’t compounded) to the tune of £17m over the past couple of years, instead of paying back the capital (which would reduce what they’re paid in interest in the future). That’s before you even get into the question of why do they feel the need to charge us interest when other owners don’t.
why do they feel the need to charge us interest when other owners don’t.
Because that's their business model. We put money in a building society or whatever and get 0.0001% interest. They put money into their own business and decide to pay themselves between four and seven percent interest. It doesn't even matter if the business doesn't actually need the loan, that's how they get the money out. Dividends are more awkward to pay (they can only be paid out of declared profits after tax, you can't borrow to pay them are just a couple of relevant impediments) but loan interest serves to reduce profit and hence tax. It's basically an easy and efficient method of helping themselves to a chunk of TV money.
Don't be under the illusion they bought the club out of a love for West Ham*. They saw the Olympic Stadium, took a chance they'd get it and their long term plan was to reduce capital outgoings to a minimum (someone else pays for the ground, pitch, even the posts and flags), do just enough to remain in the Premier League as that has the biggest pot of money they can access and let the money roll in.
*They tried to do the same with Cardiff and the Millennium Stadium before they bought West Ham but the council wouldn't play their game.
Don't be under the illusion they bought the club out of a love for West Ham*. They saw the Olympic Stadium, took a chance they'd get it and their long term plan was to reduce capital outgoings to a minimum (someone else pays for the ground, pitch, even the posts and flags), do just enough to remain in the Premier League as that has the biggest pot of money they can access and let the money roll in.
So how would that apply if their original offer to buy the stadium had been accepted
Last edited by codger on Sat Dec 22, 2018 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
bubbles1966 wrote:If we're sitting top 6 (or thereabouts) on New Years Day then they need to give Pellegrini what he needs to cement it.
Can’t see it Bubbs
They didn’t look to cement it when we were 4th two seasons running. It will take more than one summer spend for me to be convinced they have changed their spots.
codger wrote:
So how would that apply if their original offer to buy the stadium had been accepted
They may have made even more money. They'd still be lending to it at advantageous rates but would also have had the possibility of selling the club at a large profit.
Lil Joe 17 wrote:I'm going to play devils advocate here cause I know the general consensus of the board on this forum and I know they're not amazing owners but....
... Why do we feel so entitled to their money for free?
If the owners are going to charge interest they should drop the narrative that they are investing their own money as some sort of favour to us fans. Especially when they were charging interest at 7% despite the BoE rate being 0.5% for the majority of that time.
That's without mentioning the likely hundreds of millions they will benefit from when they sell the club. Other owners genuinely invest their own money in to the clubs they own and you don't hear them spouting off how they are a fan of club first and owner second.
Lil Joe 17 wrote:I'm going to play devils advocate here cause I know the general consensus of the board on this forum and I know they're not amazing owners but....
... Why do we feel so entitled to their money for free?
Has anyone said that they expected to give it to the club gratis? However extortionate interest rates, poor transfer windows (with the clubs cash) paying Brady 430k consultancy fees...making out they saved us...telling people they were dropping the interest rates