Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
West Bromwich Albion make £9m profit
Thursday 19th January 2012, 10:59AM GMT.
And it was a day to remember for Gareth McAuley, who made his Premier League debut at the age of 31 and was West Brom's man of the match.
West Brom today announced a profit of £9m for the last financial year as they reduced their net debt by £8m.
Baggies shareholders were receiving copies of the annual accounts today with figures showing the club’s debt went down from £10m to £2m for the year ending June 30, 2011.
The club’s annual trading profit was £9m while the accounts – the first set published by the club’s new holding company – showed they are now committed to £48m in wages over the course of players’ contracts.
The annual statement also revealed the Baggies AGM will be held at the club’s new London office at 9am on February 9.
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Does anybody know where you can read a copy of the accounts, other than paying for them from Companies House?
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No doubt we will have fans come on here and ask where has the money gone, spend spend spend Mr Chairman.
However the figures actually show that currently we are balancing our spending very well, and we still have flexibility to spend within transfer windows if required.
Congratulations to all concerned…..i bet Roy is compiling his wish list quicker than my other half can buy shoes.
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Warren
Get a good nights sleep tonight mate, you’re guna be busy over the next week or so!
Adéu
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Very impressive.
Although we have the fiercest rivalry in the Country we are also the two best run clubs in the Premier League and I am proud of both clubs for this reason.
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Warren
I have access to the official accounts through our company access to CH and credit data.
Im not aware of anywhere you can view them for free yet though, but give it a couple of days and someone will post them no doubt on a website. If i see them anywhere i will let you know.
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This is the kind of thing Villa fans need to look at when they moan about the lack of investment in their team. With players wages getting out of control, dodgy dealings in football around the world and the ongoing issues between sky and european streams. The future of the premier leagues high income looks rocky and the bubble will burst. The big spenders will surely come on hard times and follow the path of Leeds and Portsmouth whilst those who are balancing the books now will live on. Villa, Wolves, Stoke and West Brom will come out on top if they stick to their guns and ride the storm.
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Bomber
Cheers mate….and I fully agree with what you write in post 2.
Our player valuations are usually quite low, so if you add a few million onto our assets on the assumption the likes of Mulumbu & Dorrans are worth more than their cost price, then we’re more or less in the black really.
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Well done Albion, We won’t go under like Sky Football when others start selling live football on the cheap. Something to be said for private enterprise.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Warren
All shareholders received a copy of the Group Financial Statements yesterday, so you can ask someone you know that’s a shareholder. I could send you mine, but I’m assuming you don’t want to give out your address online. Still a net debt of 1.9 million though.
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Well done,over there.Soon there will only be 2 clubs left.
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Hi they have sent the accounts to all shareholders and we all have copies it is a well run club and they make good reading.
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You gotta hand it to Mr Peace, shrewd businessman who is the envy of all chairman across the country. Fantastic to know the club is in good hands and the long term future is secure. You never know, next year(if we survive) we could be debt free and the playing squad improved even further.
It’s a nice feeling that we have done this without the backing of a multi bilionaire who needed to plow in millions to save us!
Keep up the good work!
Boing Boing
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That is all well and good, and kudos to the money men for achieving it, but until other clubs are forced to cut their cloth accordingly it doesn’t really benefit us in competition terms, we are still (unfairly) trying to compete with one arm tied behind our back. I just hope that when that day comes, there are some teams still solvent left around for us to play!
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1 Warren.
The answer is no but I bet it won’t stop them being analysed on here.
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Warren, my copy shows JP paying himself inc pension just over $950,000 + the other hidden expenses so not bad for 1 day per week’s work + sometimes attending a game! He has done very nicely out of WBA over the years! About time we invested to become more than survivors in this division, he can support Roy with a little bit now. The other interesting thing the AGM is in London at 9.00am! Not many there to question him!
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Bomber
Cheers mate!!
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Baggie Rose
I don’t really mind the address bit as nobody can find the place anyway. I wouldn’t ask you to do that though and I’ll probably be opening myself up to hoards of junk mail from anyone I’ve previously offended on here!! Thanks for the offer though, I’ll grab a copy on Companies House.
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As i understand it apart from us our great rivals only my new home town and Swansea are tradeing to a break even level or above. And
as some of you point out this is not a level playing field.
The rules change in the summer to the new fair play rules and hopefully it will give the prudent few a head start and we may actually be rewarded for lookoing after our finances.
I’m sure there are many loopholes to be explioted by the big boys but the Boltons of this world need a radical re-think or go bust
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Does anyone know is 9 mil our record profit for a single year…?
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It must be a great comfort to the players to know they will be paid every month
It should also be an incentive to players considering joining us.
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4 and take a look where we both are in the table …
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Lovely bit of synchronicity on dark side
Wednesday 18th January 2012, 2:00PM GMT
Mick: “It could be the year of the underdog.”
Wednesday 18th January 2012, 10:10PM GMT.
Wolves 0 Birmingham 1
With the ability to make predictions like this why do they all want him sacked. Unfortunately I don’t think they’re far from getting their way.
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It’s interesting that the major financial institutions have been slaughtered in the media for getting deep in debt,yet when the likes of Man.U and Liverpool were almost ONE BILLION in debt between ‘em,the media still luved ‘em to bits,they didn’t dare criticise them.
Rather than ignore the Baggies,I said a long time ago that we should be focused on as a role model.
Well done Jeremy Peace,what a great Chairman,
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17 Tan-
I’ve taken your advice and looked at the league tables-
wow! Albion and Wolves are both in the Premiership.
How does it feel to be the only person miserably whinging on here?
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A few weeks ago, Steve Berry on Talksport (was on around 3am so most people would have missed it, but you could always ring in and ask) was trying to get the station to organise a league table for past three seasons based on points gained, position finished, and crucially, money spent, would make for a very interesting table!
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Two Interesting items.
1 The 48 million for wages is not a seasonal total, but the total commitment over the life of all contracts!
2 The reporting this year is not consistent with JPs prior years of running cash flow to the max at the year end balance date.
With these results, the new company structure, and the setting up of the London office, I wonder if he is REALLY ready to try to sell the club now?
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26 Jim.
Interesting facts although I must admit that I don’t fully grasp the meaning of your second point. Could you or Warren explain a bit more fully for the financial dunces amongst us.
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Man of MysTERRY
Yo as much as anybody should realise that if we finish 17th it will have been a successful season.
Come out ya mood, yowm beginin’ to act like an Italian!
Adéu
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Peace should spend some of the cash he has ,because if he doesn’t we will be in the championship again next season.The squad is not strong enough,if we have injuries to the first eleven we cannot cope,we are lucky there are 3 teams worst than us or we would be in the bottom three
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Thats just my point Kev 17th a successful season successful for whom certainly not for me and if thats success not sure i want to be a part of it much longer and no doubt we will sacfrifice the fa cup to finish our successful 17th…
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29, frankly silly
”lucky there are 3 teams worst than us or we would be in the bottom three”
such a shame there are 14 teams better than us, else we’d be top of the league
d’oh!
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Man of MysTERRY
As they say “It’s a Marathon not a Sprint” and we have made safe steady progress over the last 10 or so years, so too stay in the prem for a second consecutive season has got to be seen as
successful.
How many clubs are in debt up to their eyeballs or are Billionaire’s play things, so hang on in there and wait and see what happens when these new financial rules come in to play.
In the mean time cheer up you miserable bar steward!
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28 Kev,
and to think,some of us older,more mature fans remember the ‘orrible Bobby Gould days of the old ‘third’ division.
Would have bit yer arm off to be in the top flight.
Spoilt,ay we?
Adeu.
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(12)
Boy 80,
Yes, Jeremy Peace has given us a warm glow of achievement with his business acumen. Not like another club I know, who had to have a couple of Sugar Daddies.
(13)
One Half,
Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas wants English football to allow a clubs “B” side into the football league like Spain does. This would be equivalent to owning two clubs in our football league. Why not bring back area reserve leagues again, I know it would be expensive but it is better than some clubs having another unfair advantage. Andre should be told he is in England, if he is not satisfied I am sure they would welcome him back in Spain.
(29)
Frankthegas,
It is being worked on mate.
(30)
Tan Trum,
We are heading in the right direction with our board. Simmer down a bit if you are a Baggy.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Frank the Gas
“Peace should spend some of the cash he has”.
Profit for a single year and overall net debt are two different things entirely. You can make £1bn profit in a year and still be in a debt position. The accounts say we’re in an overall net debt position of £2m, on that basis we (not Peace) don’t have any surplus funds.
In reality I think in previous years the valuation of our assets (players) has been more than cautious, so we’re probably above water, but not by much.
£9m profit does not mean we have £9m lying around.
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O cor count,3rd!
Adéu
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It’s OK lads,somebody’s coming round in a minute to take away all the sharp objects, talk about a senior moment,I’ll get me coat.
Adéu
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35 Warren,
you’ve tried to make it clear to ‘frankthegas’.
I’m no accountant,but as you say,the main story here tells us that Albion are still 2 mil. in debt.
What part of ’2-million-in-debt’ don’t people understand?
How much of that can you go out and spend?
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34 JTprat south stand row 19 block 38 seat 936 turnstile 45-47 where will you be sitting…
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CR78
In fairness, our player valuations are such that we’re probably really above water if you consider Youssuf Mulumbu to be worth more than a depreciated amount of what we paid for him (now about £150k probably).
However you’re right and there seems to be a number of people who think £9m profit means someone has handed us a golden envelope with £9m in, rather than seeing us as having reduced a debt.
I’m purely speculating here, but I imagine we could spend a few million if the right man came along, like another Shane Long (which by all accounts is what the current strategy is), but if people are talking about £20-30m, then what’s the point???
We’d have to borrow it from a bank (not a rich owner), who could ask for it back anytime and threaten the future of the club if we got relegated and sank without trace.
Also, what does £20m get you? In the past it’s got us Moore, Meite, Valero, Bednar, Miller and Carson. Yet £4m got us Jones, McAuley, Dorrans, Mulumbu and Odemwingie. £20m expenditure is not proportional with success in this league. I think we’re better off carrying on as we are.
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40 Warren,
I was just tryin’ to highlight the figures before the moaners start droning ‘where’s the money gone?’
I noticed that ‘Inside Man’ has claimed Albion have put 6 million on one side for extra expenditure on players.
If that’s true,it’ll be interesting to see how they decide to ‘divide it up’,when spending that amount (transfer fees,salary,etc.).
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34Jacques. If ever they allow ONE club TWO teams in the same League, that’s me finished.
A disgraceful suggestion and typical of Chelski. They know the price of everything and the value of nothing. It could happen though with the money maniacs running the banks, the country, the FA, FIFA, EUFA….you name it.
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CR78
Apologies, it sounded like I was addressing all the points above to you. I wasn’t, I agree with everything you wrote, but then decided to throw everything else in too for anyone else who cared to read.
Inside Man also said we were close to signing Kevin Davies and Nicky Maynard last Friday, could this be his first glitch????
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If Inside Man did get it wrong for the first time in a while, I imagine there will be around 10,000 Albion fans who’ve been going to the games since as far back as 2003, that will be be ready to shout:
“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Replace him, he’s useless!!!”
At least it might keep them off Odemwingie or Thomas’s back for a week or two.
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I think the telling phrase here is “…the Baggies AGM will be held at the club’s new London office”
it’s not a club anymore, it’s a brand
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Just seen the funniest football headline for ages in today Super Soaraway Sun – “Roy Bags a £9m transfer boost”
Apparently our recent £9 million profit is being given to Roy as a transfer war-chest.
These southern reporters really don’t know JP do they – if he saw that I bet he spat coffee all over his desk!!!
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So wheres the money gone …
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44 Warren.
I cast doubts on some of IM’s early posts but can I now come to his defence. His info about Davis and Maynard may well have been correct as we know with buying players there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip (or in Wolves case between mug and lip Ernest.)
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Only managed a quick read through them this morning but we are certainly in fantastic shape financially. The £9m in profit includes a £6.7m amortisation of players’ registrations.
Balance sheet also looks very healthy, even with £5.7m in Negative Goodwill and unexplained Other Debtors of £3.7m. If players were actually valued at market value we’d be laughing. The accounts also don’t include the net gain of £3m+ from the summer transfer window.
Never any cash flow statements unfortunately, as that would tell us a lot more about our operations and liquidity.
Some positive noises on here and elsewhere with regards to available funds. Clearly there is money within the club and I’m hoping we can find that additional 3-6 million that I’ve always craved!
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Oh and Warren, if they don’t become available on the Internet over the next few days (I’m sure they will) then I’d be happy to fax you a copy etc.
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(39)
Tan,
So you are a Dog Head then?.
BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Hmm. My initial analysis of the financials seems to have been lost (or blocked…Jeremy, is that you?). Needless to say we are in great shape and when you see through the huge Amortization of Players and Negative Goodwill even better so.
Offer still stands to Warren…
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TB
Cheers mate, hopefully they’ll be on the website in the next few days!!
TRBH
Inside Man could well be right, I was perhaps being a little mischievous. It seems on the other thread he says Tamas and Fortune are playing today, so we’ll see if he can add to his credibility in a couple of hours….
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