Finances and Transfers

[BenTheFox]

I am starting to wonder if there is a lack of funds available. This isn't me letting the manager or the players off the hook, but I'm looking at Aston Villa and seeing how much they are willing to invest in their playing squad and really giving the manager the best possible chance of taking the club forward. I am not suggesting that we go out and spunk millions up the wall but we need some investment to freshen things up and address our weakest areas. 

Is it a case of King Power being heavily affected by the pandemic or is there just a lack of willingness to spend? 

I'm expecting the usual "January is a difficult time" but some of our best ever signings were made in January. I wasn't expecting a complete overhaul, but I can't accept that were no players out there that couldn't have improved us. 

[eblair]

surely owners funds are depleted, not rocket science this is it

 

they own and operate in airline industry in thailand, they must have been royally ducked

 

not much they can do about it, but not surprising investment in club has decreased (does not explain the southampton two though, that is just brain dead)

[Fox92]

I would think there is lack of funds/no investment somewhere. 

 

I think King Power want to see us "self sufficient" in terms of buying from the profit we make on players. There's nothing really wrong with that, the last thing I want us to do is chuck money around like Villa/Everton as that's how you end up in the shit, but the issue is not bringing in players who improve the first team which we did in the summer. We spent £60m and I only Daka has worked out really. Samoure doesn't feature enough - not picked up any form - and Vestergaard is rubbish.

 

Of course they will have been affected by the pandemic but all their money is not going to be in one pot (millionaires won't work like this) plus we're still making money from the Premier League.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

44 minutes ago, eblair said:

surely owners funds are depleted, not rocket science this is it

 

they own and operate in airline industry in thailand, they must have been royally ducked

 

not much they can do about it, but not surprising investment in club has decreased (does not explain the southampton two though, that is just brain dead)

King Power have never pumped money in to the levels of other owners in our current bracket. It's just been done with players sales and loans against future earnings. It's very clever, they've turned us from a £30m club to a £300m club whilst hardly spending any of their own money. 

[filthyfox]

46 minutes ago, eblair said:

surely owners funds are depleted, not rocket science this is it

 

they own and operate in airline industry in thailand, they must have been royally ducked

 

not much they can do about it, but not surprising investment in club has decreased (does not explain the southampton two though, that is just brain dead)

Neither of the Southampton 2 were there yesterday...

[Kierzz]

The owners chose not to back Rodgers in January which says quite a lot about his current situation.

 

It would be a very bad financial decision to provide funds to a manager who could be off in the summer or sacked. Any new manager would then need further funds to bring in his own style of players.

[eblair]

12 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

King Power have never pumped money in to the levels of other owners in our current bracket. It's just been done with players sales and loans against future earnings. It's very clever, they've turned us from a £30m club to a £300m club whilst hardly spending any of their own money. 

we currently have highest wage to earnings ratio in the prem; i am not sure how sustainable the current model is

[turlo]

We've not spent in the last 3 January transfer windows when we were crying out for reinforcements, so no surprises this time around. We spent our transfer budget in the summer and are maxed on the player wages front.

KP have never pumped in big money in to support transfers, as most of their investment was on infrastructure, clearing out our debts when they bought the club and supporting us through the pandemic via working capital loans so we could pay the bills. 

[Claridge]

We spent loads in the summer on rubbish, it’s not a money issue, it’s the total lack of desire from some players. New training ground seems to have made them as soft as ….

[turlo]

4 minutes ago, Kierzz said:

The owners chose not to back Rodgers in January which says quite a lot about his current situation.

 

It would be a very bad financial decision to provide funds to a manager who could be off in the summer or sacked. Any new manager would then need further funds to bring in his own style of players.

He wasn't backed in the two January windows either. when we were odds on for top 4 and were desperate for reinforcements. We don't spend above our budget unless we sell players.  

[leicesterseddon]

I don’t think lack of spending is the reason for this season if I’m honest. 
 

We haven’t spent gazillions, but investment has been perfectly adequate in the circumstances, particularly when you factor in off-field investment. 

I’m sure King Power has had a tough couple of years, but let’s not exaggerate the extent they are putting any money in (answer: not much in the PL era)

 

Also let’s not look at Villa/Everton as some sort of model either; their spending is clearly unsustainable and hasn’t really delivered for them IMO. 

 

[Stadt]

Transfers don't have to expensive to improve the squad. There's plenty of good players playing at small clubs in overlooked leagues. Choosing known entities like Vestergaard and to an extent, Soumare have costed us £40m+ this season. Even without hindsight, we certainly could have made that money go further.

 

Our wage budget is massive relative to our financial position, having a vastly overpaid manager (and backroom staff too, probably) is significant contributing factor to that. 

[oadby.fox]

39 minutes ago, filthyfox said:

Neither of the Southampton 2 were there yesterday...

Which says it all really, bought in as defensive cover and squad options but aren’t even good enough to be in contention for a game against a mid-table championship side...

Edited 7 February 2022 by oadby.fox

[CrispinLA in Texas]

2 hours ago, BenTheFox said:

I am starting to wonder if there is a lack of funds available. This isn't me letting the manager or the players off the hook, but I'm looking at Aston Villa and seeing how much they are willing to invest in their playing squad and really giving the manager the best possible chance of taking the club forward. I am not suggesting that we go out and spunk millions up the wall but we need some investment to freshen things up and address our weakest areas. 

Is it a case of King Power being heavily affected by the pandemic or is there just a lack of willingness to spend? 

I'm expecting the usual "January is a difficult time" but some of our best ever signings were made in January. I wasn't expecting a complete overhaul, but I can't accept that were no players out there that couldn't have improved us. 

Villa are just spending the 100 million they got for Grealish

[Ric Flair]

2 hours ago, Fox92 said:

I would think there is lack of funds/no investment somewhere. 

 

I think King Power want to see us "self sufficient" in terms of buying from the profit we make on players. There's nothing really wrong with that, the last thing I want us to do is chuck money around like Villa/Everton as that's how you end up in the shit, but the issue is not bringing in players who improve the first team which we did in the summer. We spent £60m and I only Daka has worked out really. Samoure doesn't feature enough - not picked up any form - and Vestergaard is rubbish.

 

Of course they will have been affected by the pandemic but all their money is not going to be in one pot (millionaires won't work like this) plus we're still making money from the Premier League.

Of course there is a lack of funds this season. We spent around £60m net last summer and didn't sell anyone like we usually do. That doesn't mean we won't have significant money this summer and beyond, we bring in hundreds of million and big changes are coming. Would we have enough to sack Brendan mid season? Yes, they'd just pay him off monthly rather than chuff up the full £10m there and then and there'll be contingencies that they aren't always prepared to use on the playing side mid season.

[Ric Flair]

36 minutes ago, CrispinLA in Texas said:

Villa are just spending the 100 million they got for Grealish

Villa spent that last summer on Ings, Bailey, Buendia etc. Villa have spent a fortune and are willing to keep pumping it in, its easier when coming up only a few years ago and not yet being in Europe funnily enough. Their owners are willing to take some early risks.

[LCCFox96]

We probably had a plan on the amount we wanted to invest in the playing squad, which was a much higher net spend than usual. Ditto we probably do have money available but are sticking to our guns and only investing it in the summer as planned.

 

In terms of what we brought in it's been mixed. Daka has done well. Lookman has contributed positively on the whole. Soumare has shown flashes but it hasn't had the instant impact we all hoped.

 

Vestergaard and Bertrand have been abysmal. When you consider how concentrated our injury and performance issues have been to the defence that really hasn't helped us. I'd hoped Bertrand would come in and offer a rotation option with Thomas and support his development but he's been beyond shite. Vestergaard was everything we feared he would be and has played far more often than we had hoped. Hopefully both are on their way come the summer. 

[CrispinLA in Texas]

57 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Villa spent that last summer on Ings, Bailey, Buendia etc. Villa have spent a fortune and are willing to keep pumping it in, its easier when coming up only a few years ago and not yet being in Europe funnily enough. Their owners are willing to take some early risks.

Thanks, I didn't realize that Villa spent all the 100m they got for Grealish last summer, thumb up to their owners then for splashing the cash 

[CosbehFox]

They generally don't inject sums of liquidity into the club. 

The money has been there this year but we spent it incredibly poorly (Daka excepted) 

[smudgerfox]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

Villa spent that last summer on Ings, Bailey, Buendia etc. Villa have spent a fortune and are willing to keep pumping it in, its easier when coming up only a few years ago and not yet being in Europe funnily enough. Their owners are willing to take some early risks.

Financial Fair Play a factor here. Allowed spending depends on income and we don’t have the income to support a large transfer budget - hence the plans to expand the stadium. Villa have underspent for a long time so have more headroom financially - Newcastle similar. Plus big stadiums already. And in Villa’s case of course the Grealish money and in Newcastle’s case the Saudi money. West Ham also benefitting from having the Old Olympic stadium in similar fashion. So even if the owners have money to invest in the squad they can’t legally spend it…

[Vestan Pance]

I believe BR has spent around £180m gross on transfers, a good chunk of it on players that haven't improved us or he's not favoured.

 

Perez

Vestergaard

Praet

Soumare

 

 

 

[MalletFox]

3 hours ago, Kierzz said:

The owners chose not to back Rodgers in January which says quite a lot about his current situation.

 

It would be a very bad financial decision to provide funds to a manager who could be off in the summer or sacked. Any new manager would then need further funds to bring in his own style of players.

Correct, as they backed him in the summer by bringing 4 first team players in and not selling anyone of significance.

 

Everyone knows there is zero value to be had in the January transfer window, so BR can’t claim he’s not been backed, he has been, unfortunately 2 of his summer signings are Championship standard filth!

[murphy]

Whenever I see a thread like this it instantly makes me think of how we have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in The Champions League chase twice.  Where would we be now if we hadn't somehow chucked it in?

 

I know I'm stating the obvious, I know it's not helpful and we've all been over it before, but even now, it still pisses me off.  It was practically self-sabotage.