Finances

[SecretPro]

So, where do we think we are financially? At this point a chunk of the 1st team squad seems to be up for grabs in the sense that we will let clubs make bids and possibly, possibly not, if the price is right take it...

 

Sam Martin who is pretty LCFC ITK seems to think we are in massive financial trouble on twitter.

 

Would seem weird to go investing all that money in the training facilities and stadium expansion without first securing our financial status on the pitch. 

 

Something clearly isn't right behind the scenes, financially. 

 

We have an extremely rich owner. Of course Covid played havoc with King Power finances during the lockdowns, but KP and the owners are still some of the wealthiest around. Is somebody else at KP pulling the financial strings behind the scenes? Tops mum? 

 

Looking for some insight here as I'm worried the bubble is well and truly bursting at this point.

[VLC86]

Recon it’s pretty rosy you know.

[CosbehFox]

Wouldn’t read too much into Sam Martin tbh personally. This sort of information would be privy to the very top of the club rather than the youth players etc he gets info off. 
 

Why are we rejecting transfer bids for example? 
 

Even in worst case, we’d be a very good asset for someone to purchase if money was a real issue with King Power. 
 

I’ve always been concerned that Thai politics at some point will kick off. Appears PM is refusing to step down this year and the king literally wanders around Bavaria with his mistresses. That famously affected Man City but they quickly managed to find a buyer 

Edited 1 August 2022 by Cardiff_Fox

[coolhandfox]

The fact he says "I think" tells you he's add 2+2 and has no real info.

 

We need to balance the book after bloating our squad to compete in Europe.

Edited 1 August 2022 by coolhandfox

[SecretPro]

Just now, coolhandfox said:

The fact he says "I think" tells you he's add 2+2 and has no really info.

 

We need to balance the book after bloating our squad to compete in Europe.

But at what cost on the pitch is the worry

[Tielemans63]

Sam Martin knows **** all about **** all.

[Dames]

We’re pulling away from our usual model of selling a star player each summer for big money and what we are witnessing is the knock on effects of that.

 

There are also lots of things contributing to our situation, high wages for squad players, contracts being run down etc. If anything next summer is going to be the big one and there needs to be money in the pot. 
 

It was annoying for Rodgers to bleat on about a rebuild but I think its also starting to become clear that the lines of communication between Rodgers and the Board are not as good as they should be. 

[Sly]

If we were in trouble, we would sell the club. We have a squad of talented players that has considerable value. If we’re in trouble we’ll sell and balance the books. We still have quality in the squad to stay in the league. 

[Dames]

1 minute ago, SecretPro said:

But at what cost on the pitch is the worry

Besides needing a new winger (like we have for years) we should be alright as long as there isn’t another injury crisis. 
 

If there is then serious serious questions need to be asked of management. 

[StanSP]

I think we're fine. 

[coolhandfox]

1 minute ago, SecretPro said:

But at what cost on the pitch is the worry

Success makes you lazy and fat, sometimes you have to go back to being lean and hungry.

 

We have sold big players before and still had success.

 

We have played 111 games across two, season, having no Europe will allow us to be more aggressive and physical in the league.

[cityfanlee23]

I think financially we will be okay, but with the global outlook bleak for the next year or so financially, I think we need to be very careful on spending money. The inflation we are facing will likely cripple flights + duty free, so I expect having just spend hundreds of millions on training facilities and committing to spending much more on the area, we need to be pragmatic in signing players. Unfortunately I do personally feel like this will bite us for a couple of years as we lose top talent to bigger clubs who can still afford to splash money out. We may have to just "ride this out" until the global situation improves and lose a few talents on the way before we can afford to properly rebuilt and put these massively expensive facilities to good use. 

[SecretPro]

1 minute ago, coolhandfox said:

Success makes you lazy and fat, sometimes you have to go back to being lean and hungry.

 

We have sold big players before and still had success.

 

We have played 111 games across two, season, having no Europe will allow us to be more aggressive and physical in the league.

Unless we have yet another injury crisis, which given how the game turned out yesterday I can't say I'm overly confident we won't. 

[drew]

I think the hierarchy has become fed up with BR spending money on players that add nothing to the squad apart from inflating the substantial wage bill.

He's probably been told if you want to add new players on the wage bill then fund them yourself by selling the chaff.

 

If the wages for players on the periphery is as high as we're led to believe then I expect the board are wanting a rebalance.

He won't resign in protest as he's one of the highest paid managers in Europe, the same reason why we wont sack him.

 

Major own goal announcing a summer rebuild, dumb.

 

[cityfanlee23]

3 minutes ago, SecretPro said:

Unless we have yet another injury crisis, which given how the game turned out yesterday I can't say I'm overly confident we won't. 

I've already resigned to the fact BR is one of the worst managers in the top flight of Europe when it comes to injury crisis. Every club he's ever managed has had massive injury problems, it follows him like the plague, and I have to resort to thinking it's to do with him and not the coaches. 

[jayfox26]

[SecretPro]

10 minutes ago, drew said:

I think the hierarchy has become fed up with BR spending money on players that add nothing to the squad apart from inflating the substantial wage bill.

He's probably been told if you want to add new players on the wage bill then fund them yourself by selling the chaff.

 

If the wages for players on the periphery is as high as we're led to believe then I expect the board are wanting a rebalance.

He won't resign in protest as he's one of the highest paid managers in Europe, the same reason why we wont sack him.

 

Major own goal announcing a summer rebuild, dumb.

 

The thing I find most worrying about the summer rebuild thing is that, do the club/board/owner and manager not communicate? If we are tightening the purse strings and have issues financially (as it appears we are) then why did Brendan not get the memo and start banging on about getting 6 players in during the summer for about 3 months non-stop? Must be some missing link there in either the communication or more worryingly, the relationship. 

Edited 1 August 2022 by SecretPro

[Corky]

The European finance rules being introduced probably forced it but I think we were due for a trimming down on the wage bill, trying to keep the main squad together and being considered with transfer fees. As we've seen and heard, we are still hard players in negotiations and refusing bids, even for fringe players.

 

It isn't rosy given the world situation but I think we were in for an even net spend or possibly a profit on sales this window but obviously with no outgoings we can't do that yet. Last year's business has changed our outlook, I reckon.

[filthyfox]

Kasper is gone.   Thats 100k+ off of the wage bill, although I am absolutely ****ED SHITTED OFF that he went for free.

 

Hopefully that will be all for outgoings. I am not sure about our goalkeeping options though.

 

So, sell another outfield player for to give more leeway and sign a proven top flight league keeper, and pay him half as much.

[SecretPro]

2 minutes ago, Corky said:

The European finance rules being introduced probably forced it but I think we were due for a trimming down on the wage bill, trying to keep the main squad together and being considered with transfer fees. As we've seen and heard, we are still hard players in negotiations and refusing bids, even for fringe players.

 

It isn't rosy given the world situation but I think we were in for an even net spend or possibly a profit on sales this window but obviously with no outgoings we can't do that yet. Last year's business has changed our outlook, I reckon.

I really need to do more research into the whole wage bill and financial rules issue. There are comparable clubs in this league paying some players obscene wages. I just don't understand what it is that limits our spending on wages (my own lack of awareness, obviousy).

Edited 1 August 2022 by SecretPro

[drew]

Just now, SecretPro said:

The thing I find most worrying about the summer rebuild thing as that, do the club/board/owner and manager not communicate? If we are tightening the ourselves strings and have issues financially (as it appears we are) then why did Brendan not get the memo and start banging on about getting 6 players in during the summer for about 3 months non-stop? Must be some missing link there in either the communication or more worryingly, the relationship. 

Or BR went rogue and did his own thing?

 

Tot up what we're spending on these fringe players each a week, it's mind blowing across 52 weeks. When the money is there from Europe you can massage the numbers with the income, that's evaporated.

 

I think the club has this great ideology of running as its own entity without a rich benefactor bailing them out. In principle it's a nice sentiment, if you want to compete at the top forget it.

[jmono84]

My take is we expected some players to go to free up squad places/wages but because of the lack of interest in our players it’s has stalled any future transfers coming in.

 

Sounds like we are in no position to bring another player(s) on good wages when our squad is already bloated full of players on good wages.

 

If FFP wasn’t a problem I bet we’d have signed at least a couple of players by now.

[RobHawk]

30 minutes ago, coolhandfox said:

The fact he says "I think" tells you he's add 2+2 and has no real info.

 

We need to balance the book after bloating our squad to compete in Europe.

Nail in head. 

 

We brought in extra bodies for a season in Europe and then stumped up for vestegard after fofanas injury in pre season. 

 

Suddenly we got no extra income from Europe and not really lost anything off the wage bill (lookman and jakupovich gone but all the loaners back including praet.

 

I also think the club expected Mendy to go last summer hence why he was left out of the PL squad so may have factored that in financially too. 

 

Add it all up and the answer is we absolutely have to cut our wage bill this year. Unless the go before the end of the window there's alot of players who will be out of contract next year who we don't really want here. Problem is finding a club who will buy them. 

 

I see this year as almost the step backwards we need to take in order to take 2 steps forward next year. 

[Lako42]

Wage bill vs revenue is unsustainable 

 

 

[coolhandfox]

2 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

Wage bill vs revenue is unsustainable 

 

 

Even more so with the impact of COVID.