Things could be set to get a lot worse

The current performances on the field have been pretty abject but this may be overshadowed by the potential impact of another relegation. When Khaled stated he was not worried about relegation it set me thinking.

The last time the club was relegated the ‘new’ owners were only a matter of months in to their tenure of the club. There was around £5.6m of cash on the balance sheet with around £1m nett to be paid to creditors the following year. This allowed the club the luxury of keeping the squad together and adding the likes of Woodrow and Bahre. The wage bill reduced from £10.6m to £8.1m but despite this the operational loss in a successful promotion season was £4.8m.

The owners were able to use the cash already in the club to meet those losses without having to consider putting money in or alternative finance.

Roll this forward to May 2020 and there was around £770k on balance sheet with a further £250k due net from debtors, so pre pandemic the club had around £1m left on balance sheet, after the £750k write off to pay for the purchase.

Unlike last time there is no treasure chest sat on the balance sheet, there are also limited options in player sales, given current performances and the general transfer market.

If Khaled is not fearful of relegation he must be somewhat delusional.

 

All becoming clearer, based on the Khaled interview. Last season was a failure because we didn't sell any players.

I think I've figured out what the plan is for operating income in a couple of months time.

More generally, I see the same issues as you do, which is why the whole £750k thing is so egregious to me, and completely contradictory to the general message of "our fans stepped up big time when we needed them".

 

That latest interview is an absolute PR disaster. Dear fans we may have been successful in the league but that is not how we judge success.

The fans stepped up? They most certainly did 2500 season ticket sale revenue used to pay off an instalment to the previous owner.

 

Selling players has been part of the business plan of Barnsley FC since I was a kid. Only for a very short period did Patrick Cryne provide funds to buy players and finance the losses. If you do not expect the club to finance itself in this way, you are being naive. Having said that, the use of the £750k to fund the purchase of the club was wrong, and that money must be repaid.

Nevertheless, the bottom dropped out of the transfer market last season because our usual market (clubs in the Championship) had no money. Premier League clubs still have cash, but they have no problems with player visas, so they can shop anywhere in the world. In that case, you have to ask yourself

a. Is Michal Helik good enough to play in the Premier League
b Does he offer good value for money as compared to another foreign recruit.

In my opinion, this is the reason we lost no players in the last transfer window, and not our way of playing the game at that time.

 

There's a big difference between selling players being part of the business plan and issuing a statement declaring that reaching the playoffs is less important than bringing in a few million via selling the best of what we have.

 

I do not think that he was quite so blunt.

 

"Barnsley had one of the five best seasons in their history - but there was not one offer for any player. If you look at developing and marketing the players, the value was zero."

That's what it means to me?

 

This is different to being a selling club while striving to be as successful on the field as we can. It's re-confirming what I suspected 2 seasons ago, in that the highest priority the owners have is to generate income from transfers and that on-field performance is absolutely secondary to this, which includes allowing the club to be relegated without a fight if necessary.

He's effectively on record as saying that last season was a failure because we didn't sell any players. I'm pretty certain that close to 100% of the fanbase would feel that comment is diametrically opposed to their own views on the season.

He's at least given us a heads up on the promotional campaign for season ticket renewals.

"Sign up today and join with us as we target another season aiming for promo....., sorry, profit on transfers."

 

Without an adequate cash flow, a company cannot continue to trade. The company (club) had gone through a COVID hit season when gate receipts would have been down by an estimated £1.5m, and it had had to strike off the debt with Hull City (£700k) and it had to pay out bonuses of a reported total of £500k when the players reached the play-offs . It had received a reported £2m for Ismael after the end of the season, but the accounts for the 2020-21 season will be a hard read. Of course they would have wanted to sell a player or two in order to mitigate those losses, and of course it will have affected the transfer budgets going into this season.

For me, Khaled has been honest, but for many, his honesty will make a very difficult listen. The point is surely that you should not reject the things that you do not want to hear. You listen to them, and you try to understand what is being said.

 

Course it is , they must think weve tumbled off a bus to think this seasons style of play and the consequences of it (league position) makes our players more valuable than last season

 

but with all things in life there is a balance, relegation for the club is financially catastrophic. Not balancing on field success and player sales is not a great business plan.

 

In my opinion, the league position is less a consequence of the change in style, than it is a reflection of the players who left at the end of last season, and the injuries to players this season.

 

I think you've interpreted the not worried about relegation bit slightly different to what I have. To me, he's claiming to not be worried as there's plenty of games still to be played this season. Different to saying that we're not worried about the repercussions of being relegated. We'll find out after another winless game, or two, how worried they are..

 

Think that’s a very small minority opinion imo

 

For me, he was not saying that he was not worried about relegation. As you have pointed out, last time it cost £4.8m. He is saying that there is still plenty of time to recover from our terrible start given better luck with injuries.

 

Very true.

 

The other worry, is that there are more and more players now running down contracts. Even Messi, and possibly Pogba and Mbappe. We've had Mowatt go on a free. Palmer will likely go the same way, probably Frieser as well (think he's in his last year?). Styles or Helik won't extend, so will have to be sold before the end of the next summer window if the club need to bring cash in, while we end up keeping players currently out of favour (e.g. Luke Thomas) to the end of their contracts.

I always got the impression that the owners saw the club as a footballer factory, looking to sell whatever products they had on the pitch, but Ganaye and Murphy would just nod at them when needed but ultimately try to find the right balance. Sounds like the new guy is fully on board with the footballer factory model.

 

My understanding was Mischa was of interest to clubs in the EU,not the EPL. I think he suits continental football, rather than the EPL, but that's my opinion not a fact. A Coach may believe they could make him a good PL defender.

 

Wow can't wait to see next season's season ticket sales !

 

Exactly. Extremely extremely annoying.