There is nothing stopping Everton or Leicester from agreeing 8 yr contracts with players and spreading out the cost over a longer period, it is not FFP that is determining how this is done, it is accounting rules. It is a pain in the backside that clubs with higher revenue have higher spending power but c'est la vie. Clubs that manage their finances badly do end up with problems, just look at Barcelona, lat year they had to sell 25% of their TV rights income for the next 25 years to stay afloat and to try and compete. Selling the family silver is a very short term solution with high risk.
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Other Club Transfers 2022
- Thread starter TheBigIguana
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kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
Of course not but the risk is higher. We've had a lot of players on 4 year deals that have crippled us and we're unable to sell. Mainly due to wages.
You not worried about your clubs finances?
I would be... especially if Emery is given another chunk of money.
Personally see that if you're not in Europe next season, the bank will be closed.
The big difference, in my opinion, is that the damage in our case was done when we signed expensive nobodies who were in their late 20s. There was no justifiable reason (even in accounting terms) to spread the contracts over any longer than we did, in fact the majority of those signings overstayed their welcome by some distance.
If you go with predominantly young unknowns, like Brighton, you've no real need to game the system and you can just revel in the huge profits when the big clubs come sniffing. If you grab up top young talent, like Chelsea in this case, then of course the extended contract makes sense for all parties.
We've always seen ourselves as above trawling around looking for diamonds in the bargain bins of South America, etc, and tried to buy "oven ready" players with that all-important PL experience. I don't have to tell you where that has got us.
None of this is to say that I agree with FFP. I just think it is a reasonable straightforward system to play, when you have some semblance of a strategy. Which we do not.
I am not worried. FFP is about profit and loss and not about revenue. We have sold players for good accounting profit: Grealish, Targett, Chukwuemeka registered about 130m profit. There were other small sales that added profit too. Also, our owners sold Villa Park to themselves a few years ago while that loophole was open and that got us back on track with FFP. So since then, from an FFP perspective, we are allowed a loss of 105m over 3 years. With revenues of 180m pa and player sales in the 3 year period of say 140m, that is 500m in revenue over 3 years. Our last published accounts had a loss of 37m but we also got approved 56m losses associated to Covid which turns the loss into a profit. Villa has no debt, all money put into the club by the owners has been in the form of equity, so the club has no interest payments to pay out as Man U does to the Glaziers. All money generated is for AVFC to invest in AVFC.
Our owners are people who run businesses and not simply silent investors. They also have a lot of experience in Sports companies, one is the largest single shareholder of Adidas and the other owns Milwaukee Bucks. So they should know what they are doing and they employed a finance guy as CEO who has experience at your neighbours and Chelsea and who happened to be a member of the committee that wrote the FFP rules. Yes, I assume (and hope) they are taking calculated risks but I very much doubt they are putting the viability of the club at risk.
I could be wrong and they could be dodgy owners leading us to oblivion and only time will tell but for now I am very comfortable with how they are managing the club and how they are bringing it forward
kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
Personally felt the £90-100k a week wages to the majority of the squad killed any chance of being able to move them on.
As a club, the max it should've been is having 1 player, your best, on that amount and the rest competitive. But no we gave average or injury prone footballers £100k a week and had no ways of moving them.
United have/had the same issue hence why they've brought in a salary cap
kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
Yet your buying 30 year olds on high wages...
Just saying... we've been there and its worth noting not what to do
Exactly right. We thought we had it sussed, bringing in a load of players with experience in the league, and it backfired on us spectacularly. Even when we didn't sign players from PL, we just used the old "let's have a look who hasn't quite made the grade at Barcelona" method. It was such a poor strategy overall, it's unreal.
I think u have highlighted the biggest difficulty all clubs face. Do u pay more for an experienced 'more proven' player or do u shop around and look for diamonds? I like the idea of shopping around for a diamond but I will admit I am more excited to see Villa announce a big-name signing. Today, Villa announced the signing of a 19 year old Colombian striker (Jhon Duran) for a reported 15m + 8m addons. I like the idea of it, it has a risk regardless of how well thought of the kid is, but I would have preferred to see us announce someone like Marcus Thuram. But alas, fans are never happy and always want their club to be performing better than they are
We bought a 19 year old today, Kamara was 22 when we got him last summer, there are lots of Villa players that are young too. But yes, we are buying some 29 year olds and personally I think all clubs need a mix of young and older experienced. Ings has scored 5 in the last 6 or 7 games and his goals have directly gotten us 4 points. Our new LB was needed on Friday as Digne got injured and he came on for his debut, played well, and cleared a ball off the line preventing a certain goal, a game we won 2-1 so directly contributing to 2 extra points. These are the points that are keeping Villa out of the relegation fight and letting the fans dream of a top-half finish.
What 30-year-olds have we bought? To my knowledge, there have been none
kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
Diego Carlos, Coutinho (4year deal), Moreno, Augustinsson, Previously Digne, Ings, Dendonker. All the back end of 28-30.
You picked up Kamara on a free didn't you? Who's 22.
None of those were 30 when we bought them and Augustinsson was a loan as we had no back up L/B to cover Digne. Dendonker is only 27. We all have different views but my view is that a team needs experience to be successful, yes there will be exceptions but I prefer a mix of young and older. And yes Kamara was on a free, not sure what difference that makes, players that are free always get a hefty sign on fee, agent fees are expensive and wages are high. The club is still buying them and coughing up a lot of cash. Just like signing Tarks, big sign on fee and high wages. What age is he? And is he not one of the first names on the team sheet?
kenada_blue
Welcome to Barcelonaton FC
It's just very similar to when our car crash began under Koeman and Walsh who felt like spending £300million on 28-30 year olds (afurther £200mill on 25 years olds broken on £100k a week).
As long as the wages stay lowish, you'll be okay. But the minute you're throwing £100k a week on players (I'm sure Coutinho is)...be careful.
I'm a believer of buying experience too...but in key areas and not heavy.
As for buying Tarko... we've no choice to be fair as we've no money. You do.
mumwasablue
Player Valuation: £750k
We've just paid £30 million for Rutter plus extras. The German press reckon we have paid to much, double what he is worth. He is young loads of potential, plus we did well getting an Italian International for £5.5 million at 18 years old, Gnonto. Not sure who is stumping up the money for our acquisitions, probably the 49ers as part of the purchase agreement. Radz has said we will follow the Brighton route of buying young players just hope it works. Might be doing the Goodison Tour end of month with my Evertonian brother . Wondered if its worth it even from a Leeds fans perspective?
The problem is that the average PL wage is probably in or about 3m a year, so close to 60k a week. Villa is not in a position to buy lots of young players with potential. We were a Championship club three years ago and had to do a complete rebuild. If we try the approach of buying all young potential the risk of going back down would be too high imo. We need to take the risk of getting some 29 year old experience into the squad/team. A couple of seasons ago we stayed up on the last day by getting a draw away to West Ham. We need to try to consolidate in the PL before we can start to feel comfortable that will be playing in the PL the following year. I really admire the way Brighton did this but I think it is really high risk, they needed excellent scouting and they needed Potter. We have had Smith and Slippy as managers. Since we returned to the PL, this is the 1st season I actually feel like we will be in this league the following year. Of course we need some players that are younger and have resale value but we have Cash, Watkins, Bailey, Buendia, Luiz, Konsa, McGinn, Ramsey, Kamara and the Colombian 19 year we agreed to buy today so there are players that will command at least a half decent transfer fee if we wanted to sell them. It looks like we are still in the market for another player this window and a lot of links with Guendouzi (could be just lazy journos seeing the link with Emery), but he is only 23 so another potential player at the right age for reselling in the future.
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