[SIGNED perm] Yaser Asprilla

I drum it home time and time again but it really was this. We thought we could just get by that season and we were one Deulofeu injury away from doing so.

20/21 strike force would’ve been Cucho, Joao Pedro, Suarez, Sarr, Deulofeu.

Estupinan, Capoue and who knows what else. Such a shame.

 

In fairness, I don't think there's anything to suggest any of these three would have been any great shakes in the Premier League at that time, Cucho would have had the best shout, but JP was a kid who hardly set the Championship alight that season, and Suárez hasn't exactly set La Liga on fire neither

 

They have already borrowed against parachute payments last season, and to make a profit they need a buyer to cover the Pozzo loans as well.

 

Yes they aren’t going to make a profit on the sale of the club given the Pozzo loan funding that has been pumped in. Not unless we get back to the prem and that’s a long way off now. The risk to them is only that they would make a bigger loss the longer they hold onto the club.

I don’t think paying down debt is anything to do with a potential sale. I think it’s recognising that they have to pay down debt to avoid administration in 12/24 months. We will then be back into the world of operating at a loss and bridging the gap by player sales. Andrews in a couple of years. Asprilla in a couple of years, or if we get a silly offer now. We are unlikely to be able to create a £30m+ player asset whilst operating in the lower reaches of the champ.

 

I thinks its called " Austerity "

 

What would be in it for Pozzo by that point? He's no philanthropic fan owner, if he can't engineer a way of making money out of the club, surely he'll drop us quick as anything? He's not going to want to own a club that needs to just sell every season just to stand still.

 

Gino reminds me of one of those sad individuals you see pop up on Twitter, who won the Lottery, but weren't smart enough to know what to do with it and within 4 years they were bankrupt. We had 7 good years under him, but he's not right for this club anymore. The longer he stays the more damage he's going to inflict.

 

How many champ owners are philanthropic ? We are where we are, what exactly are his options today ? He can still make money by buying the Asprillas of this world, selling them on at huge profit, pumping a little into the club just to keep "the shop window" open. Or he sells the club today for "not a lot", and buys another identical cheap club and has the same issues ? He's not rich enough to bank roll a promotion and survival in the prem if we even get there again.

 

Fair enough, thought you were suggesting his player trading would be used just to keep us going and plug the operating losses rather than him being able to take money out too.

Agree with the overall points you're making though, feels very much like we won't have much (any?) money to spend for the foreseeable future. I remember he was trying to buy another Spanish club - might have made sense to get rid of us and use them as the Udinese partner going forwards. Wonder whether the ongoing investigation into tax evasion during his time at Granada has killed the purchase of Sabadell?

 

If they bought the club for £350K, even with the money invested I think they would make £10s millions in profit. How much was Birmingham City worth when recently sold. I think the 45% stake cost £35M. Plus you factor in salary for Gino for a decade. It might not by Centrica scale of profits, but handsome enough.

 

Maybe a silly question but has he been paid? He's famously not a director or employee of the club and Duxbury's usually the top earner listed in the annual account.

 

What else do you think the money we funnel to Luxembourg via agents has been doing?

 

I meant as a salary. He's obviously quids in overall.

 

How much was the Pozzo loan balance ? Birmingham will be worth more than us I would think, they always had bigger gates when we were on a par status-wise I think ?

 

Slightly off thread I read the new owner is USA Hedge fund multi millionaire (who isn't) and part of the plan is to redevelop the ground-maybe sell it for housing (inner city Brum) and built a new one. In the shadow of Villa one can see the appeal to him of buying into Englands second city with potential upside and a property play as well.

 

£25 million plus add ons and a loan back for the season is the only deal we should be doing.

 

We would sell for £15m upfront I reckon,

 

£10-12m including add ons, plus a sell on percentage, and he'll be gone.

 

If Asprilla joins Brighton he’ll probably spend the season on loan somewhere and in 12 months time he’ll still be stuck in England. If he plays his cards right, this time next year (/month/week?) he could be pitching up at Udinese.

 

Why would he leave?

If he plays his cards right with us he can follow in the footsteps of prodigies like Penaranda and Quina.

Much more exotic loans than Udinese await!

 

Or as a replacement for Samardzic

 

It was really just shorthand to say that Gino must be making money out of the club somehow. He apparently works full time on Watford matters. So unless he does so for free and his day to day living expenses are covered from savings or income from non Watford related activity. I assume he makes regular money from his Watford activity.

 

Brighton have just gotten a nice £20m windfall from their backup goalie

 

Wow, Chelsea are complete mugs

 

Are United still after a bench warmer?

 

They've just told Chelsea to suck a fat one - Caicedo staying.

Until the Saudis come...

 

Hold on, who is their first choice, then?

 

Jason Steele, a long time EFL journeyman whose ability with the ball de Zerbi has taken a liking to

 

Was aware of Steele there, certainly not that he'd earned significant favour though!

 

My son is also called Bort