a good read here.
http://le-grove.co.uk/2010/02/26/gazidi ... ting-plan/
Gazidis exposed as a con artist as financials reveal disgusting plan…
Arsenal just released their latest financials so Geoff and I have put a few comments together about our initial thoughts on what we’ve been presented.
Key points and questions:
We’re £200million in debt. £130million less than last year.
What happened to the sponsorship money we received up front? £100million from the Emirates + whatever Nike provided.
How come the property sales haven’t covered off more of the debt? £95mill to develop, we’ve recouped £200+ million so far with a further 130 odd flats to go.
What happened to our television money? We earn £50million+ from the EPL and the Champions league.
What has happened to the transfer budget we never spend? We’re in the black for the last 5 years.
Pleading poverty when you can comfortably increase the wage bill by £17million seems a little outrageous. This is before Cesc has signed a new deal, so expect it to increase further despite no additional achievement (You know, trophies). This increase is despite losing Adebayor (80k p/w) and Kolo Toure (50k p/w).
The player sales of Adebayor and Kolo appear to be key to keeping us in profit, despite the fact we lumped £130million off the debt. Will are use this as a stick to beat the fans who want us to spend money?
Arsenal make £3million a game of of you, the fan but don’t want to give anything back for your investment.
Conclusion:
The club are being frugal to pay off the debt quicker, but why? We have a 17 year mortgage don’t we?
Is it to be able to invest in the world class player that are currently out of our reach or is it to make the club more attractive to sell to an investor who will immediately plunge the club into debt and put us in a Manchester United/Liverpool situation.
If it’s the latter, like Geoff and I have predicted for a while… are you still happy?
More to the point, what is the MO of Gazidis? Is it to make us a world class club or is it to clear the debt for the owner in waiting, Stan Kroenke. I wonder what the bonus scheme looks like for our master of marketing and man of the people?
Is he the trojan horse, has he been employed to use our money to fatten the wallet of a billionaire? Is this the reason Stan hasn’t taken his holding to 30% becuase he doesn’t want to buy the club till it is debt free? No wonder he doesn’t answer questions at the AGM…
Will the fan base wake up and smell the coffee now? Are the debt buster brigade still pleased to see fan money go towards making a hideously wealthy cowboy even richer?
We’re being conned and it makes me sick to the pit of my stomach.
Geoff + Pedro