Sell to who? The Club is essentially worthless. In fact it’s less than that. Runs at a loss and the real estate belongs to someone else. And if that’s not enough, it also comes saddled with this frankly weird expectation, that the owner should then spend millions of their own £ with no expectation of return. Who on earth is gonna want to take that on? Apart from Mark Nettleton.
They’ve clearly bought the club with the hope of making a return on their investment. Why else if they have no connection to the town or the club? I just really struggle to see how they’re going to make any return on their investment. The club breaks even at best and only makes a profit if we get lucky on player sales. Relying on player sales is a risky strategy: selling players makes the team perform poorer, makes it more difficult for talented players to shine and nobody pays top dollar for players from a club that isn’t performing. Given Barnsley’s location, size and wealth relative to the rest of the country, there’s limited opportunities to increase the size of the fan base or commercial opportunities either. The club doesn’t even own the ground outright. The only way they could make any money is if we’re promoted to the Premier League, but what are the chances of that? Particularly if you have a policy of selling players to balance the books. If the owners were to sell up now they’d get less than they paid. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re regretting getting into football as their other investments aren’t performing well either. The risk for us is that they decide to cut their losses and refuse to put anymore money into the club and our league position suffers. I doubt anyone would be interested in buying the club if they did decide to sell up.
Their chance of making money was at the very start when they had cash to gamble on young talent. With the cash reserves depleted and the club running at a substantial loss the likelihood of selling the club for anything more than a nominal pound is minimal. Recent cash injection of £4.25m from the current owners was simply providing the working capital to get the club through the season. Without promotion this year the owners face really tough decisions.
That was definitely the reason the 80% bought the club - I think the Crynes arent in it for the money though, but obviously cant afford to keep putting large sums in, But we arent a lot different to around half the clubs in the league Once you take out the Big clubs who are likely to be in the premiership on a regular basis and generate lots of revenue from TV and sponsorship you aren't making much money - Most of the owners of the clubs these days are very rich and run clubs as a hobby. I don't know who would buy us if the current lot sell out but its certainly possible someone else would have a go. If Wigan and Bolton could find buyers we might too. Unfortunately we aren't likely to be given the time and sympathy Derby were . I am sure we would be seen as an expendable club like Bury so I would be much happier if we weren't put in a position where we needed a buyer urgently. Having said all that Since the Coup last season I dont have any real criticism of the transfer dealings, being realistic I couldnt expect much more but unfortunately the summer signings generally havent worked as well as we could have hoped but at the time of signing they looked reasonable . Despite that we are still in a better position than I expected and our dealings this window look sound
Ipswich are a good/bad example with a reported £11 million a year playing wage. Their new American owners have borrowed heavily to bank role this years promotion tilt. Speculation is rife if they don’t go up they are in serious trouble due to the way the debt is financed.
