Carrick to Charlton Athletic: It is just the beginning

pething101 · Apr 14, 2004

Hello, Nationwide ... Carrick supposedly out the door to Charlton Athletic, according to a story in the Daily Mirror.

Who will follow? Repka, Dailly, Brevett, I am sure there will be others.

panicfc · Apr 14, 2004

If we don't get up - he has to go. Thanks for sticking around this year.

Dazza WHUFC · Apr 15, 2004

You best believe it.

Here is a cut and paste from a West Ham fan very much in the know. He works on the sports desk of one of the country's biggest newspapers. What he says is pretty informed stuff and is not just hearsay:

I'll tell you what was told to me last Friday by someone who would know.

Brown is currently finalising a new loan deal with the banks that would enable him to convert the club's overdraft into a scheduled loan. This would involve extending the club's loan by three years, taking it to 2014.

It seems Brown accepts there is insufficient family silver left to raise the cash demanded by the banks.

Last exact figure I was given was £5.7million loan payment plus £7.5million to clear the unauthorised overdraft.

But it seems the club has been running at a considerable day-to-day loss since pretty much the turn of the year and the overdraft might now have topped £10million.

Brown knows he has absolutely no chance of raising that kind of dosh by the end of July - hence the loan renegotiation.
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and some more

Okay, let's run through this one more time...

West Ham announced debts of £44million for the financial year ending May 2003 and an operating loss for that year (once the figure-fixing had been ignored) of, from memory, £2.9million. And all of this on a gross annual income well in excess of £50million.

Then we were relegated.

Our gross annual income immediately dropped by an estimated £25mil-plus.

But, by shedding 17 players last summer and a further 3 since, while also making non-playing redundancies, we managed to save approx £30mil.

This enabled the club to break even for the year after buying 8 or 9 players to bolster the squad size.

But the club has only broken even, meaning it has NOT raised any profit with which to reduce that original £44mil debt.

Now comes the new bit...

I was tipped off last week that Brown has successfully renegotiated the club's loan. It seems he may have lengthened it by 3 years or so to cover the unscheduled overdraft.

It was this overdraft that was threatening to bring him down in the summer when he had to make a £5.7mil loan repayment AND find £7.5mil to clear most of that unscheduled debt.

With that threat gone, Brown is now safe and will retain control without having to accept any outside financial help.

Now the tough part.

West Ham didn't break even this year because Brown slashed running costs. West Ham broke even because Brown slashed costs AND raised about £20mil cash through the sale of players.

So for West Ham to break even NEXT season, Brown must find further huge savings in expenditure and/or raise funds through more transfer sales.

Which is why the banks have ordered him to substantially reduce the wage bill in the summer in return for this extended loan.

When you consider the combined wages of Carrick, Hutchison, Repka, Dailly and Lomas are equal to the annual wage bill of the average First Division club, this is understandable.

So, this summer, we can expect to see the club actively seeking to ditch those five PLUS raise money through further sales and/or player-releases.

But because there is no annual profit, Pardew will have no real money to spend on bringing in replacements.

And in the summer of 2005, West Ham will cease to receive SKY's parachute payment so we could be back to square one again.

I hope I have explained these figures simply enough so that you can all understand the true and full horro of our situation and realise why we will never go anywhere other than down with Brown in charge.
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Basically, come the summer, ANY offer for ANY player will be considered. The remaining big earners will be off (Carrick, Lomas, Repka, Hutch, Brevitt) and we will be left with practically nothing.

panicfc · Apr 15, 2004

Life in the EPL is done. We will be a QPR more or less.

pething101 · Apr 15, 2004

I have no idea what all that meant but I know it was not good. Next season is looking very ominous indeed.

If we made the playoffs, a big if indeed, and we actually got through them, a bigger if, how much of a cash injection would we get from going up? Do we even get one (assuming we will get some TV money atleast)?

Dazza WHUFC · Apr 15, 2004

We would get the increased Sky TV money if we go up.

TV fees for live Premier League games is around £500,000 per match. For a live Div 1 game it is more like £10-£15000 apparently.

Basically, we still have a debt in the region of £40m +

we have 5 squad members on unsustainable wages

In div1 we have a reduced income inexcess of £20+ a season

We are skint, unlike last year we do not have a big crop of players that we can get £5m+ for

Carrick is valued by the club at £4m. It is expected he will go for something in the region of £3m.

Things are no better off than this time last year.

pething101 · Apr 15, 2004

Is Cohen going to be the next Glenn Johnson? Play him a lot for the rest of the season and then start him next season with the idea of offloading him in the December transfer?

I dunno. Just a thought.

Dazza WHUFC · Apr 15, 2004

Cohen is highly rated by Pardew, and against Derby I thought he had a decent enough game. Whether he is in the same class as Johnson is hard to say, but it does seem like he may be the next one off the youth system that will help fund Brown's retirement.

Frieslander · Apr 15, 2004

enough to make a grown man cry.

BROWN OUT!