In all my years supporting Barnsley I've never known such scrutiny regarding the money side at Oakwell.Is it because things are more transparant now Company House etc? A couple of our learned friends ie Sheriff and Archerfield explain in detail the financial side of events which personally I'm greatful for because I wouldn't have a clue where to start. A few financial things I recall over the years was,the time when the board clubbed together 10k to buy Barry Thomas and Johnny Evans,I don't know if it was a gift or a loan but it certainly turned our fortunes round.] The next massive financial hit was the administration year caused by tv money being withdrawn the bank withdrawing our overdraft and buying players we couldn't afford just to appease the manager at the time. The biggest misdemeanour for me was Patrick paying Ridsdale and his sidekick Walker 1.6 million a year wages.I'm pretty sure they were paid out of club funds and not personally from Mr Cryne. How would these transactions be viewed nowadays when at the time little scrutany seemed to happen.?
Tell thi what Bri. I run a tidy ship financially as you know. But fecked if I can get my head round the financial experts explanations on here. Even if they've tried explaining in layman's terms lol.
Oulare on 7k a week for 3 years works out at over a millon quid not to mention iseka cole and benson....
Speaking personally, the reason that I refer to the money side of the business is that it explains decision-making far better than any other logic. Simply, if the finance is in place, it is far easily to do things, change things and make things happen than it is when money is short, which is far more often the case at Oakwell. I realise that it is far from easy to explain from a set of accounts, but the assumption that the management at Barnsley is incompetent should be set alongside the fact that a full picture and understanding of the financial position in which the club finds itself is not available and never will be available, to those on the outside. Even the Accounts are 9 months out of date when they are released to Companies House. So when that information becomes available, it is virtually worthless in making day to day decisions. Internally, the club will have up to date Management Accounts, which will be prepared monthly, and it will have cash flows projected into the future which will show when cash shortages will occur. The Accountants on here are using their experience rather than any concrete data, in order to make predictions from an historical position at least 9 month previously. On the outside, it is far from an exact science, but at least the Accountants consider finance in reaching their overall view point Most opinions do not, and an opinion that does not consider such an important factor in decision-making, is an opinion that is not worth having, in my opinion.
I get most of that. It's why I never get involved in the financial reports. Too deep for me. I only give opinions on what I'm comfortable with. I do see a lot of twaddle by people that It would appear on the face of it, would struggle on how to budget their households. Leave it to the experts.
However you don't need to be an expert in finance to know that some, in fact many, decisions, are poor. Not a qualified firefighter but if I watch them pour petrol on a burning house I'd know its a poor decision and you would too.
Common sense a lot of the time. For example I do not have the club's accounts to hand but I know that if they offered a staple such as chips at the refreshment stands they would make more money than it costs to purchase the equipment. I know that hiring a cheap option manager when we sacked schopp was a big mistake. I know that signing exclusively kids last season was madness.
What percentage of turnover would you be authorising for wages? I only ask that question because it is fundamental to the way that the club trades. Frankly, serving chips might make a section of the home support happy, but is not one of the major decision-making questions that you need to answer to run the club well.
Frankly, if you don't understand that maximising revenue is important then your knowledge of accounting and business is much lower than I gave you credit for. We miss out on so much revenue it is actually unbelievable at times and these are decisions made by the people running the club (including in the past). As I said, I don't need to be an accountant to know that. Obviously I don't know what percentage of turnover but I do know that when you are staring down the barrel of relegation you have to adjust your decision making and make financial decisions you wouldn't normally make. Just like Patrick did
That must be where I made all my mistakes. I thought that making money was more important than maximising revenue. At least I now know where to come for business advice.