For those still wondering why I continue to state Saints may not make it to the end of the season, or at best be stuck in terminal administration, I offer the following statistics from the club's financials, just released this week:
Saints last year made an overall loss of £4.9 million.
At the same time, they made a net profit in transfers of £12.7 million.
In other words, they actually lost £17.6 million and managed to recoup most of it back through a firesale of the best players (ie, highest wage-earners).
In the article linked to above, Rupert is smarming a little bit about how bad the board of Dulieu, Hone and the rest were, and about how he was better (well, for one thing he had Sky's Premiership parachute payments). What we'd really like to hear is what's been doing to stem the free flow of money and maybe some investment coming in.
But then, with bailouts making the news all over the world and nobody with any decent suggestions as to what to do about it, I don't see it happening. That said, if GM can get a bailout from the US government, so should Saints, since they're a business run every bit as badly (that's the criteria for a bailout, right?)
Saints v Argyle kicks off in eleven minutes. It still astonishes me that they are even playing each other in the league. At this rate, they won't be for much longer.
Postscript: Game finished 0-0. Most of the talk in the Pasoti chat room, before it crashed, was of cardboard vultures, which gives some indication of the excitement and passion shown by both my teams.
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4 comments:
It's depressing, they used to operate at a small profit, one of a few in the premier league. I never thought I'd look back on the mid 90's and think they were the good old days.
The trouble kicked into gear when strachan was around, the board got too big for their boots. ARC St Marys anyone
:-$
Or even AFC - damn iPhone!
To be fair, Rupert did attempt to get Sir Clive Woowoo to change Saints to a rugby club, so you're not far wrong. Sir Clive was too smart for that.
What's he doing now anyway?
Saints FC are a sorry mess. But some salvation may have come in the guise of the FA Cup 3rd round draw - Saints get Man U at home and also Plymouth have a day out in the big city against Arsenal!
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