Its good to know that the club will have the cash for transfers in needed in the summer.
But lets not be in a rush to be in the transfer market lets see what our position is at the end of the season.
Which of the young stars will be ready to play first team football ?,
If the club needs to spend then
for a stronger squad perhaps,
but with caution.

At last the board gave some information about the financial situation.
Save the money for the next manager due to arrive in the summer, I guess.

I think it will all depend on the boardroom changes that happen in the next 6 months and whether that brings in any decent cash into the club and quite possibly a different manager.

Just how much is the interest on a B#44m mortgage? I heard that it pretty much takes up most of our profits. More worryingly, I was recently told (by a reliable source) that Paulo was sold to pay a tax bill as JW refused to take out anymore loans and it was the only way we could get the money due. Not budgeting for the taxman would indicate we are not so well managed as AM would like us to think.

I have been telling people this on here over the last month and then the club confirmed it.
Told u lot my source has top conections and i was proved right again!
The club pays approx 3.15million per year to pay the loan back including intrest, th loan is with an American loan company and is secured against the ground, so that if we couldnt afford to pay them they would assume ownership of part the ground (however we was clever enough to insert a clause which meant we can still use the ground by rent back and keep gate reciepts). Then there is J Wardle debt which is around 13million which he wouldnt want back in any hurry. with the rest of the debt payable to PSG for Anelka (covered by his departure) the club has now gone 18 months spending around B#2.2million, while bringing in 6.8m Anelka, B#325,000 for The keeper to rangers, P Wanchope for B#1.3 million, Vuso sold for B#1.25million Huckerby B#1.0million and upto B#850,000 (dep on apperances) for Elliot (Shouldnt have got rid) add to that 50,000 x 2 for the two loan deals we have loaned out to oldham and coventry. What we have done is tightend our belts rather than splashing millions out on fees. However i think that we are waiting for a new manager before spending on a big scale carries on again. dont be suprised if we dont make at least 4 new signings in the summer as well as getting rid of expensive S McManaman and possibly P Bosvelt. Also by then We might be able to get C Neguie off the books for some money and even Sommiel, then we will have rid of dead wood and be able to build a team around DJ, SD, RD, SWP, JB, with the addition of KIKI if he wants to stay, 2 strikers a df and Creative Midfielder to go with KIKI will be most liked?

The accounts show a debt of B#62m as of December 04. Since then we have sold Anelka for B#7m , call me naive but by my reckoning this reduces the debt to B#55m , or am I wrong ?

Our debt will be peanuts compared with the rags when Glazer takes over !!

Craig in Chadderton - I was under the impression that Wardle's debt is actually B#18m and not the B#13m that you state? KiKi needs to improve on the Chelsea showing but hopefully he is getting fitter with each game and will have a decent game against the Ragamuffins. Someone else asked about the Anelka deal - I believe that it is a meagre B#5.35m spread over 3 years and would only rise to B#7m if certain clauses were met - eg: Champions League qualification, goals etc ??

This debt is nothing compared to other prem clubs and thats a fact.Our house is run within our means. C.T.I.D. THE BLUE MONKEY!!!!!!!!!!

The only way we will really know if the debt is hurting is WHEN... not if... SWP is sold, and for how much. If he goes on an Anelka-like deal, I really would worry. After all, we have all known for quite some time than the squad needs strengthening, KK himself keeps telling us of his appeals for funds which fall on deaf ears. I do accept that B#44m of our debt is like a mortgage, but as many people know, too much money can be borrowed this way. What matters is how much revenue we have to pay the interest. And on top of this, the club has then to be run at a profit to enable KK to strengthen the squad. It's my own belief that the boom has run out of the game and revenues all round will fall. We could be in trouble, and so could many other clubs too.

KK's job is completely untenable. You can't give money to a manager who's counting the days untill he moves on. With all the young talent we have coming through, the next three years are crucial. We need an ambitious young manager with a good record for working with young players, starting from this summer. There's been too much croneyism over the last 18 months of KK's tenure. Time to move on to a new era.

Sadij, if your source for the 18m figure is the article, AM only said "the bulk" of the 18m is owed to Wardle. That's consistent with Craig's figure of 13m. But maybe you have other info?

Personally, I hope we sell SWP at the end of the season. I really like him, but right now we have too many eggs in the SWP basket both financially and from a playing point of view. If SWP picks up an injury like Gazza did he might be half the player from then on (and worth a tenth of the money) and he is more likely to pick up that injury when he is on his own in a team as "the man that has to be stopped". If he went to Arsenal he would be only one in a team full of heavyweights, and he wouldn't have to bear the brunt of all the fouling. Plus he is the new sensation right now, excitement around him is high, and Arsenal and Manu are going to be desperate at the end of this season and a bidding war would do us fine. We could get 30m+, and that would do this club a power of good. We aren't going to be as good as Chelsea any time soon, so in the interests of steady progress I hope we sell. To the Rags? I hope not but I wouldn't sniff at 30 of Taggart's millions, no matter how much it might stick in the throat. I care more about the future of this club.

from the bbc website:

"The B#44m is not a debt someone can call in at a day's notice like an overdraft.

"To service that we only need an average of 10,000 fans per game and we have 35,000 season ticket holders.

Citizen Babage, I'll stand corrected over the 13m/18m? if that is the case. However, I must debate whether selling SWP would be the right thing to do. The worry I have is that City wouldn't sell him for B#30m plus as you state! Going off past City incompetency, we would probably let him go for less than B#20m, perhaps as low as B#15m! This puts your proposal in a completely different context. We couldn't replace someone of his stature (figuratively speaking, not size!) for that amount of money and what signal would that send out to the rest of the playing staff and more importantly, THE FANS????
In my opinion, we should try our damndest to resist any overtures and only even consider this IF the bids were B#30m plus; which, as I have already stated, is unlikely. I must confess that I have heard noises from Stretford about 'a top-class youngster about to make England waves' being touted for the Ragamuffins and this worries me a great deal but I would think that Arsenal would still be in pole position given his Dad's history with them. On that note, you may recall Webger saying that he couldn't afford B#20m for SWP.

Arsenal are not usually big spenders but Chelsea have changed the landscape of the game. I thik that United will put in a big bid for SWP, and I think that it might be forced higher. We are not desperate to sell SWP, and he doesn't seem desperate to go, so unlike Anelka we won't be perceived as having to sell. United don't want to wait 3 seasons to catch up with Chelski, they will want SWP at the end of this season. Even if you don't think the board are much good at this sort of thing, and I haven't seen any evidence that they aren't, you would still have to expect United to keep raising until they get what they want.

I asked my Chelski buddy, who is a financial guru, to check out if what AM says is correct or it's a load of bobbins and we should all be panicking; seems that its correct. Here's his advice: It does seem to ring true. Basically you've got yourselves a mortgage on your stadium ( I thought you had it on a long lease from the council rather than owned it?), which is very similar to the debt position of Chelsea, i.e against strong real estate assets. This is completely different from the likes of Leicester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield Weds, etc. who were borrowing money to pay players' salaries, which worked fine if you stayed in the Premiership (or Champions' League in Leeds' case) but pretty much bankrupted you if you didn't. They just rolled the dice - which doesn't qualify as sound financial management. On the other hand, mortgaging your real estate (and other fixed assets) makes very good financial sense - it's not necessary for you to own the ground so long as you've got secure long-term access to it. Most large companies who use large real estate portfolios, especially retailers, don't want to own them. Tesco, Homebase, Curry's etc, tend to build their own stores and then sell them to a financial institution (GE Capital, large pension funds) and then lease them back for long periods, sometimes up to 25 years (known as a sale and leaseback deal). This releases cash from the real estate portfolio for the business to either use to expand or return to shareholders. Good financial management. I'm also pleased to report that he took the loss of two points far better than Matalan Man.

Fair points Citizen Babbage but you can't really be serious when you say that you are not aware of any incompetency on the Board's part when it comes to transfers! As a club, we have a history of paying over the odds and letting players go for next to nothing!!!!! Here's a few examples off the top of my head immediately - Steve Daley, Lee Bradbury, John Macken, David Sommeil, Kevin Reeves, Matias Vuoso, Danny Mills (5yr Contract!), Steve Mcminimum....and let go cheaply or for nothing: Michael Brown, Nicolas Anelka, Stephen Elliott. I know there's lots more on both counts but that should suffice for now. I just hope and pray that the likes of SWeeP, BeeP, Willo Flood, Lee Croft and Chinedum Onouha don't go down the same road. To end, no way should SWP ever be sold to the Ragamuffins (I still maintain, if anywhere, he would end up at Arsenal) - I don't care if they offered us B#35 million, which they could not afford any longer anyway. On that note, I believe that Glazer has already lined up a replacement for Fergal - interesting times ahead for the deluded souls of the Florida Swamp!!!!!