Hillwood says money is tight

[Rob]

why do you all keep going on about spend spend spend all the time..work with what yuove got

You mean like all the other Prem teams do ????

[slag]

..

[Rob]

No but we do need to compete.

Otherwise 1st becomes 2nd. Then it becomes fourth. Then it becomes fifth as it now is and will soon be eighth or nineth.

Meanwhile we are TOP OF THE LEAGUE for ticket prices. The world league that is, not just the EPL.


Can you now see why some of us are not best pleased with matters ?

[Belfast Boy]

Is it fair to say Rob that the issue surrounding the ticket prices is only being trotted out because we are struggling at the moment???

One thing should have nothing to do with the other cos we all knew that we were goin to suffer some pain due to havin splashed out the better part of 400M, and altho I'll agree with everyone that the team/squad is some way short of what we're used to and what is required nowadays to compete properly on all fronts!

Look at how much money the Chavs and Utd have spent to stay in front of us, Utd have increased their capacity again by 20,000 since we built The Grove AND their prices are still rising at about five times the rate that ours are and don't forget the money you have to spend on binoculars to see the game from a good portion of their "cheap seats"!

Benitez has flirted with the chop a couple of times in his efforts to get Gillett and Hicks to splash even more money which by the way he's not gettin, but they like Villa are enjoying one of their better seasons while we have undoubtedly been unlucky and are currently very low on confidence along with the other problems which we all know about!

[Rob]

Is it fair to say Rob that the issue surrounding the ticket prices is only being trotted out because we are struggling at the moment???

That's disingenous. We are all told that current economic circumstances preclude any action. Really ? So the £3,400 I sent them at the start of the season for my Season Ticket somehow 'isn't' ? The current TV deal that spews another ton of money their way is invalid ? It might become so - but it's still running as we speak.

Gate receipts have been £100 million or thereabouts for the last three seasons. We are paying - with interest - less than £25 million per year on the mortgage for the Emirates. That would suggest @ £75 million gate receipts remain after that payment.

We are assest stripping the squad year in year out so that the money received from players flogged on exceeds any spent on players coming in. That has happened for the last FOUR years. No other Prem Club comes close to that. Even clubs with a fraction of our gate receipts - Portsmouth, Blackburn, Bolton, West Ham and Spurs all buck that trend.

Utd have just signed two Serbs for @£20 million - even through they don't need them - to go with the £28 million for Berbatov and the the similar sum spent the previous year on Nani and Anderson.


I draw two conclusions.

Either the Club is being grotesquely miss managed OR there is widespead fraud being perpetrated (or possibly both) because I don't see where the money is otherwise going

[Belfast Boy]

Well unless I'm very much mistaken it's common knowledge that Nani, Anderson and therefore more than likely the two Serbs as well were all purchased on the never never, and that's despite ManUre's unparalleled earning power??? it's also been the worst kept secret in the city that the Glazers are gambling with the club's future in order to make them more attractive when they sell out in the near future for around the 10 figure mark... apparently

As far as havin 75M left over, that has been either embezzled or wasted, you are kidding aren't you, what do think the costs are of running a stadium the size of the Grove smack bang in the middle of one of the dearest capital cities in the world are??? and the money for Highbury Square which only some of was financed by the main part of the loan which was refinanced a couple of years back, I mean I'm no expert but the AST have kept such a close eye on things that they were even able to do that in-depth report on ManU's finances which I'm sure you saw as well, so if there was any skullduggery goin on then............ c'mon it's not even a suggestion worth considerin IMO

[Bergkamp-Genius]

The board and AW seem to have forgotten the team is the product and every spare penny should be spent to make the team as good as we can make it, the sad thing is they talk about buying players like it's throwing money down the drain not like they are investing in the business and definitely not like they want to give the fans what they are paying for or what they want.
You say what choice does AW have, he has the choice to keep his mouth shut, this is half the problem we have a manager that thinks he is an economist and wants to have control over every part of the club, it's time he just got on with the job he is paid to do, getting the best players he can and getting the best out of those players and he is doing neither at the moment.
I don't want to hear his economic theories he's a football manager for christ sake we pay guys to deal with the financial side of things he has no need to get involved or comment on it. Every time he opens his mouth about this stuff it just proves to me that it is he who is making most of the financial decisions with regards players not the board, thats why he is constantly talking about it because he is trying to justify himself and his own decisions otherwise there would be no need for him to explain. He has been given far too much influence outside of what goes on on the pitch and that needs to be corrected, at least then we are more likely to get an accurate account of what and if money is being made available and who's choice it is not to spend it, instead of all the baloney that seems to be designed to keep us in the dark about what's really going on and who is to blame for it.

That is a very fair point B-G except that if it weren't for AW's awareness of the economic side of the game then we would have never been able to build the new stadium!

When Leeds went tits up O'Blarney typically tried to wash his hands of the whole affair sayin that it wasn't his fault as it was his job to ask for money for certain players and it was up to the chairman to decide wether or not the club could afford it, now I admit at the time I thought that was a fair enough comment until other PL chairmen pulled him up on the fact that it wasn't the fact that he'd spent the money the chairman gave him but the fact he'd spent it poorly leaving the club with virtually no assets to sell off when they got into financial trouble!

I have therefore no doubt that AW is very wary maybe even scared to splash serious amounts of money until he is 100% because his record at that end of the market is less than impressive eg. Wiltord, Reyes and if you look at the other clubs in the "big four" they have all signed massive flops making those two look like super signings and that is something unfortunately we cannot afford to do!

ManU are a freak of nature and even they are living beyond their means, along with the Chavs, L'pool had no assets to speak of, had never won the Premier League and yet they had to sell out to avoid goin bust and where the scousers are concerned that is pretty scary considerin they are a huge club with a far bigger fanbase than us!

Like I said I hope the club do spend a few quid this month cos some new blood can work wonders for a team especially one so low on confidence as we clearly are, only time will really tell whether or not the club have been shrewd or too timid,but I know where my money is!

Just look at Gordon Brown a man who is currently in demand all over the world giving other governments advice on how best to handle the current economic downturn, pretty unbelieveable innit a man who not 6 mnths ago was a dead man walkin is now seen as a financial guru to the entire western world and even he thought (and was so sure he actually allowed himself to be quoted) that he'd "abolished boom and bust" so be very careful before assuming that football is going to somehow be immune from being so prolifagate in the past ten years!

Don't get me wrong BB, i understand the thinking behind what AW and the board are doing, i am and always have been a supporter of the principles that the club have been run under it's just that the balance has swung far too much towards financial prudence and away from whats best for the team and i believe that AW is the main reason for that, i think his ego is writing cheques not his or anyone elses talents can cash. In other words he is being overly prudent because he thinks he is good enough to constantly compete under that handicap and he isn't, no one is.
Your right without AW we could never have achieved anything like what we have in the past dozen years both in a footballing and financial sense, he has been the perfect man for the time, but he needs to learn to have a better balance between financial prudence and what is needed for our team to be successful now, because he seems to have lost sight of that.
If the only thing that is going to change that is taking a lot of the power and influence he seems to have over and above football matters away from him, the sooner the better.

[stg]

I wonder if we are looking more long term than most of the other teams in the prem. According to reports Man U will be sold in the near future so the yanks have to keep united at the top of the pile and I am guessing that they are buying players with money that should be used to pay loans instead of actuall profit money. There does not seem to be any long term plan at lpoo except trying to find banks that no major buisness usally deals with to finance a loan for a new stadium. Listen to the money men and you will hear stories that Abramovich is looking for away out from Chelsea. In today's Express there is an article about how well PL clubs are run and are given marks out of 100. Arsenal are on 98 points Portsmouth are on 0 points.

If the quota system is introduced by UEFA for home grown players will spending lots of money on experenced players do us any good in the long term?

With the new TV deal about to be looked at and Virgin, ESPN and other international TV company's looking at getting a piece of the action will the actual money recived by the clubs be as big as it is?

With the Yanks at our club perhaps a big push for the American market(TV etc) is being planed and some of the money is being diverted for that

I think the other problem is that Wenger has put his head on the line by promoting his youth program that he has now backed himself into a corner. If he buys his grand plan would of failed and eveybody and his uncle in the media will be saying "We told you so".

So Im thinking that it's abit of both the board are saving money for something and Wengers pride that are to blame

[DB10GOONER]

Hill-Wood Is A c**t

Fitzsman Is A c**t

The Board Are All A Shower Of Lying c**ts

Don't beat around the bush, Augie.

Just say what you really think.

mmmm... I don't get it, does augie like the board or not like the board?

Be more succinct augie, please...