Leicester to reveal estimated annual losses of £119.5MILLION - the highest in the Premier League

[splinterdream]

Well we had Peter Schmeichal saying we’re skint, Lineker saying is it time for us to become little Leicester again, I think the writing was on the wall.

 

I don’t understand how our wage budget could have got so much worse than other teams in and around us, because that figures not down to transfer fees. Is it the training ground?

[st albans fox]

3 minutes ago, splinterdream said:

Well we had Peter Schmeichal saying we’re skint, Lineker saying is it time for us to become little Leicester again, I think the writing was on the wall.

 

I don’t understand how our wage budget could have got so much worse than other teams in and around us, because that figures not down to transfer fees. Is it the training ground?

Too many pros on £75k+

not enough in the 30 -50k area 

 

we’ve been paying squad players as if we were a top six club and likely to stay there with occasional excursions into the CL 

 

our commercial income just doesn’t support that and we don’t have owners who are able to invest any longer 

 

 

Edited 4 September 2022 by st albans fox

[splinterdream]

2 hours ago, Line-X said:

The King Power business sustained huge losses during Covid, but that does not mean it is financially in trouble, far less an 'Empire about to sink'.

 

The owners have temporarily pulled the purse strings for sure, but no question, they have a long term commitment to the club. As they have consistently said - "To continue competing in the Premier League requires a disciplined, sustainable and innovative business model"

 

At a cost of £100m, they built a training ground which arguably rivals any other club facility in world football. That was money which could have been spent on the squad, but the vision has always been building something more lasting, a foundation and something which will help attract world-class signings in the future and help further develop the home-grown talent and an Academy that has served us so well in the past. They have not detracted from their plans to build the hotel complex, the events and entertainment venue, and stadium expansion and they resisted the sale of Tielemans, Maddison and Fofana whilst offering Vardy a new contract and negotiated strongly to keep Kasper. We currently, without the drain of European competition - (injuries aside) - have a squad capable of finishing mid table. 

 

The miscalculation appears to have been that to "continue competing in the Premier League" with a stagnating squad requires an astute strategist, and an innovative and clever manager. There are others, with the same resources at their disposal, that would have come away from the Brentford, Saints and United encounters with three points - notwithstanding some of the errors and poor player performances. I'd argue strongly that all those games were eminently winnable and Chelsea too, where we should at the very least ground out a draw. We didn't due to the wrong selections, bewildering tactics and substitutions. Were it not for that, we would be on at least ten points and sitting where Brentford are right now. Not to say that Brendan doesn't have problems - in particular the erratic Ward, (who has at least shown some occasional signs of potential). The frustration being, that many of these problems are of his own making. He seems to consistently ignore our strengths and play to or introduce our weaknesses, which is precisely why we have gone from 'fearless' to 'fragile'. 

 

The test of the owners resolve now is to relieve him of his position and find someone that can get us out of this morass. A solution is not forthcoming. Most of the suggestions on this forum have been either grossly unrealistic, fanciful or frankly, ridiculous. Right now, it's likely to be an unglamorous but pragmatic appointment. You know where I'm going with this...

I question who took the decision not to get a 1st choice keeper in and how that decision was made, any doubt and we had to make that investment. It’s surely unthinkable to put ward between the sticks against villa so if Iverson doesn’t work out we’re in big trouble. 
 

a winger we could live without, we needed a CB and got one, but the keeper for me was a massive error.

[Mehrez]

6 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Too many pros on £75k+

not enough in the 30 -50k area 

 

we’ve been paying squad players as if we were a top six club and likely to stay there with occasional excursions into the CL 

 

our commercial income just doesn’t support that and we don’t have owners who are able to invest any longer 

 

 

Problem is 75k is the going rate for semi decent players, our inability to drive commercial revenue is the problem, every other team is doing dodgy deals on their training ground ‘naming rights’ same for the stadium for example whereas we haven’t

[Fox seen in Norwich]

It’s down to Vardy claiming expenses for that wagatha Christie court case innit

[splinterdream]

16 minutes ago, Mehrez said:

Problem is 75k is the going rate for semi decent players, our inability to drive commercial revenue is the problem, every other team is doing dodgy deals on their training ground ‘naming rights’ same for the stadium for example whereas we haven’t

What was FBS worth?

[st albans fox]

14 minutes ago, Mehrez said:

Problem is 75k is the going rate for semi decent players, our inability to drive commercial revenue is the problem, every other team is doing dodgy deals on their training ground ‘naming rights’ same for the stadium for example whereas we haven’t

I dont agree 

75k should be the rate for starters in our team 

 

those starters who have been here into their second contract renewal can be 80/90 and there a a few exceptions 100k+ 

 

squad players should be 40/60k 

 

West Ham’s wage bill for the previous season was £129m. Ours was £192.  Spurs was £205. 

[don_danbury]

5 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

I dont agree 

75k should be the rate for starters in our team 

 

those starters who have been here into their second contract renewal can be 80/90 and there a a few exceptions 100k+ 

 

squad players should be 40/60k 

 

West Ham’s wage bill for the previous season was £129m. Ours was £192.  Spurs was £205. 

west ham 129m and ours only 192 quid?

Edited 4 September 2022 by don_danbury

[erlee]

why such big losses?

 

we don't buy crazy like Man U

nor do we pay 400K quids to one single player

 

is it all the free beers we are dolling out at KP Stadium?

 

p/s sacking BR will be a good remedy

Edited 4 September 2022 by erlee

[Staffs Fox]

Commercially we’re way off it. It does seem a little unrealistic to look at those figures but when you factor in how much clubs like Man United and Chelsea generate through Merch and other deals, then you add in our Training Ground, plus the terrible recent signings we can’t shift, it does start to make sense.

 

However what is surprising is how this has been allowed to happen. For example The only benefit of having your parent company having the naming rights for the stadium is it enables you to do some dodgy bookkeeping ‘last years sponsorship was worth XXX’ to explain over spending (see Man City). However obviously KP aren’t doing that, so our stadium name should have been sold years ago to maximise revenue.
 

In addition any commercial deals we sign whether it’s on or off the pitch seem second rate and do not match our recent ambitions. For example our kit deal with Adidas is less than Newcastle’s with Castore and half of West Ham’s with Umbro. They’re clubs of similar size and when you factor in the ‘Top 6’ teams get 10x even 15x that per season, we’ve been foolish to think we can complete without extra investment.

 

it’s been good whilst it lasted 

[FoxesWalk]

You know it’s going well when across the space of a year or two we go from wondering “can we can break the top 6 again”, to “are we going to cease to exist within in then next 2-3 years?”.

[volpeazzurro]

8 hours ago, splinterdream said:

I question who took the decision not to get a 1st choice keeper in and how that decision was made, any doubt and we had to make that investment. It’s surely unthinkable to put ward between the sticks against villa so if Iverson doesn’t work out we’re in big trouble. 
 

a winger we could live without, we needed a CB and got one, but the keeper for me was a massive error.

In Iverson we had a player, albeit in the Championship, had just played a full season and gained experience. He'd won player of the year and players player. He had a full pre-season with us.

 

Ward hardly made an appearance last or previous seasons and was injured pre-season. Ward gets thrown in on the first day, go figure. 

[CosbehFox]

42 minutes ago, Staffs Fox said:

Commercially we’re way off it. It does seem a little unrealistic to look at those figures but when you factor in how much clubs like Man United and Chelsea generate through Merch and other deals, then you add in our Training Ground, plus the terrible recent signings we can’t shift, it does start to make sense.

 

However what is surprising is how this has been allowed to happen. For example The only benefit of having your parent company having the naming rights for the stadium is it enables you to do some dodgy bookkeeping ‘last years sponsorship was worth XXX’ to explain over spending (see Man City). However obviously KP aren’t doing that, so our stadium name should have been sold years ago to maximise revenue.
 

In addition any commercial deals we sign whether it’s on or off the pitch seem second rate and do not match our recent ambitions. For example our kit deal with Adidas is less than Newcastle’s with Castore and half of West Ham’s with Umbro. They’re clubs of similar size and when you factor in the ‘Top 6’ teams get 10x even 15x that per season, we’ve been foolish to think we can complete without extra investment.

 

it’s been good whilst it lasted 

I was thinking this yesterday. We aren’t helping ourselves on a revenue basis when different outlets such as naming rights are not being sold. 

[Blue-fox]

I don’t think the finances are in such a mess really, unless we go down of course. 
 

we’ve spent 100 million on a training ground, so I would guess that part of those losses are going to be against that.  The fact that we signed dogshit last summer, and didn’t sell a player to counter balance that hasn’t helped. By Signing no one this summer will help to balance that out. 
 

Plus in the summer we’re going to be shifting a lot of wages off the bill, which we probably don’t need to replace them anyway as Brendan doesn’t play some of them/some aren’t good enough. 
 

We’ll be fine

[Babylon]

11 hours ago, Line-X said:

The King Power business sustained huge losses during Covid, but that does not mean it is financially in trouble, far less an 'Empire about to sink'.

 

The owners have temporarily pulled the purse strings for sure

They’ve put more money in since Covid than they had done for a long time. Prior to that it hadn’t been since the championship that they really put their own money in outside of the sponsorship.

[CosbehFox]

Tell ya what the tribalism of football can go **** itself. Reading social media - the fans of big six clubs like this news because we haven’t given to them lowballing us on transfer fees, Spurs fans like it because we made them look mugs, Everton fans because they thought it would be them looking like this, Forest fans cos it’s Leicester and they don’t care. 
 

I don’t think the penny has dropped on many this is the curse for having a go at breaking the elite 

[Babylon]

9 hours ago, jayfox26 said:

It's a bit of a mis leading article as it seems to try and suggest we've lost this amount even including the money we got for Fofana which isn't true. £70m for Fofana plus however much we paid to St Etienne plus what we paid for Faes, then deduct that from the £119m and that would be more realistic. Feel like the media really have it in for us at the moment and will spin any story to make us look bad. 

Two totally different sets of accounts, the Fofana fee will go in the next set.

 

But yes, they are being misleading. 

[FoxesTez]

We've been treading a dangerous path for a long time. Paying wages as if we were a Top 6 team without the commercial revenues to match it. Add in the fact we now own the Women's team, we have the costs of running both Belvoir Drive and the ridiculous costs of running Seagrave - both of which offer no return. The warning signs have been there in the last few sets of accounts, some truly horrible underlying operational results masked by significant profits on player trading.

 

Missing out on the Champions League in the fashion we did (twice) was so so costly. We need a huge reset of the wage structure and I imagine there are some tricky times ahead, especially with the number of players out of contract at the end of this season and the threat of relegation. We are not far from all of the hard work in establishing ourselves in the Premier League being undone in my opinion. 

[Babylon]

The club needs a total rethink, and that means not relying on player trading outside of next summer. We no longer have a team full of assets worth more than they cost. Add into that players running down contracts, and it’s a nightmare. 
 

Huge cost cutting exercise for the foreseeable. 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

1 hour ago, Babylon said:

The club needs a total rethink, and that means not relying on player trading outside of next summer. We no longer have a team full of assets worth more than they cost. Add into that players running down contracts, and it’s a nightmare. 
 

Huge cost cutting exercise for the foreseeable. 

The approach Southampton have taken this summer is one we will have to follow.

 

Still can't get my head around how we've lost so much money when you compare our accounts vs other similar clubs. We must be paying a fortune in wages.

Edited 5 September 2022 by Chocolate Teapot

[Sly]

11 minutes ago, Babylon said:

The club needs a total rethink, and that means not relying on player trading outside of next summer. We no longer have a team full of assets worth more than they cost. Add into that players running down contracts, and it’s a nightmare. 
 

Huge cost cutting exercise for the foreseeable. 

Outside of the Superrich clubs, a lot of teams will need to adopt this model. 
 

I foresee more players running down contracts and going on a free. 

[jonthefox]

And we thought the clappers were ditched because the fans didn't want them 

[Sly]

4 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

The approach Southamotin have taken this summer is one we will have to follow.

 

Still can't get my head around how we've lost so much money when you compare our accounts vs other similar clubs. We must be paying a fortune in wages.

We’ve got a hole somewhere, as everything I’ve read had us around £115m - £125m before the outgoings this summer. 
 

Unless we’ve staggered payments for the purchases of Soumare, Vestergaard, Daka. 
 

We’ve then take out a loan, against future TV earnings, to keep the liquidity with the business. 
 

It’s clear we wanted to sell other players like Soumare, Vestergaard, Soyuncu. Maybe as much to clear out the wages as anything else. 

[Babylon]

7 minutes ago, Sly said:

We’ve got a hole somewhere, as everything I’ve read had us around £115m - £125m before the outgoings this summer. 
 

Unless we’ve staggered payments for the purchases of Soumare, Vestergaard, Daka. 
 

We’ve then take out a loan, against future TV earnings, to keep the liquidity with the business. 
 

It’s clear we wanted to sell other players like Soumare, Vestergaard, Soyuncu. Maybe as much to clear out the wages as anything else. 

Amortisation of players is a big one.

 

eg. Pay £40m for Tielemans on a 4 year contracts. That goes on the books as -£10m for each of the four years of his contract. That that £100m loss includes £10m for Tielemans. 
 

Same goes for every other player we’ve bought. 

[reynard]

Simply disastrous set of financial figures. Massive questions need to be asked about how the club has been allowed to reach this stage. The borrowing of money against future TV rights is such a dangerous road to travel. Barcelona have done it and look where they are. For a club of our size it threatens the very existence of our club in the future.

Becoming clear that relegation, which right now looks more than probable, will be a lot more than just very bad news.

Frankly time we sold the stadium naming rights at the very least. Unfortunately these are the kind of figures that can lead to deep cost cutting and then possibly it won't be the players that suffer but those employed by the club in other areas.

Edited 5 September 2022 by reynard