Full story here: I'm having trouble with that "p" word in the second paragraph. Anyone care to help me out with that?
So we made an operational loss because the value of the players went down by £17.2m? I suppose that's Carroll? Didn't think it would be that much considering who has come in and who's gone out. But at the end of the day its a way of accounting to pay less tax so I don't see a problem with it. The business plan is working, I'm beginning to wonder if other clubs are looking at the way we do things and thinking that we have it right. Heard a great quote about Liverpool before... "with the team they have they're in about the right position in the league, but for the money they've spent they're not." Our policy is about getting value, its something that's been overlooked by a lot of British clubs. Spending £20m on a player doesn't translate into making you significantly better in the English market. I'm sick of seeing the media every year equating success in the transfer market to how much wedge you've blown. I spotted this in the Chronicle's interview with Llambias today by the way: "A deal for one cash signing next summer has already been sanctioned by Toon tycoon Mike Ashley."
Rumored it's Romain Amalfitano on a Bosman, at least according to the Independent. I think it's important to show that the model can still work. Some people will say the Carroll sale funded the turnover this year and probably stopped us from having another big loss. But you have to remember that most of that was reinvested in some form (Cabaye, Ba, Santon, Squidward, Marveaux?), and we also got guys like Barton and Nolan, on huge wages, off the books. At 50k a week (probably more for both) that's almost 10 million including Nolan's transfer fee. Llambias explaining the transfer policy is telling. He recognizes that if the Citehs and Uniteds of the world come in for our players it's going to be hard to keep them, but the player still has the right to say no regardless of how much money is offered. Transparency is starting to come about, and that can only be a good thing to restoring the bridges they napalmed earlier in the regime.
Got to say I like the paying and receiving fees up front idea. It had become needlessly complex buying players and paying it off over three years like they were a sofa on interest free credit. I don't want Ashley to sell, and that's something I never thought I'd say two years ago.