Mashed Potatoes

Looking at various clubs' accounts you are right that annual losses for clubs without parachute payments are often in the £15m or so range. You have to wonder how much longer this can continue. We are now in a situation where the parachute payment clubs take 2 of the 3 promotion places and the other 19 or so clubs are fighting it out for the other place. Why any businessman looking at that would think it justifies the risk involved in buying a club in the Championship baffles me.

It was £20m before tax and £16m after tax. They are in the same group as the other Hemmings family UK businesses and can offset the football club's losses against the profits of those other businesses. Unfortunately that option isn't open to us as there are no significant UK profit making businesses in the Venkys group.

Lost £20m the previous season.

He left us in our highest position since we were relegated from the Premier League - 15 places higher than when he joined.

Which other ones have you heard giving interviews ?

I think these sorts of claims tend to come from posters on this website with no evidence to support them.

Confirmed by who ?

Not the ones who might lose their livelihoods as a result, I suspect.

I think you should look at the legal case involving the Oystons to see the difference between them and the Raos.

That's a wild exaggeration. Stanley went bust in the 1960's because of a stand development that cost too much. I can't see any comparison between the Rao's and the Oyston's.

Preston's pre tax loss for the year ended June 2023 was £14.3m; that was reduced to a post tax loss of £12.2m because their losses can be offset against the profits of other businesses in the Hemmings' group. We can't do that because Venky's don't have other significant businesses in the UK. Their turnover of £15.6m for 2023 was a bit less than our £16.6m for 2022 and I assume our TV appearances and cup runs in 2022-23 will mean that it will come in a fair bit less than ours. Food for thought for those that think slashing ticket prices is going to lead to more revenues. Their staff costs were £21.5m compared with our £24.4m but they don't operate an under 21/23 team and I would guess some functions like legal/IT/accounting etc will be carried out by another company in the Hemmings group which should reduce their staff costs. The principal area where they do better than us is "other operating expenses" which for them were £6.2m but for us were £9.9m. I don't know what the explanation for that is.

A change in the board will result in new members being appointed by the owners. Nothing would actually change.

Now 3-3

Think we're currently winning 3-2

That seems right. When Batty played against Division 2 Walsall he was badly exposed for one of Walsall's goals - so a loan out looks a good idea.

Home to Wrexham

Isn't there a rule you can only have 2 players on loan from 1 club ?

The problem is that the track record of the owners - starting with John Williams - is that anyone who tells them a truth they don't want to hear gets to receive a P45.

We're making fire loans ! Which free transfers have you identified ?

You mean clubs like us .

In January those on free transfers are the ones that their clubs are desperate to get rid of.

Those players were out of contract - which won't be the case in the January window - and no doubt other than Nyambe will have made sure that they received hefty signing on fees.

If they are so good why are they available on free transfers ?

I am afraid that just because he is called Chief Executive doesn't mean that in our case that he has the powers that would usually be associated with that title. Judging from the speed with which Venkys dispensed with the services of John Williams I don't believe anybody at Ewood Park is ever going to be in a position to stop Venkys making daft decisions.

You are assuming that the players who walked for nothing did so because of decisions taken by those at Ewood Park rather than back in India - I don't see justification for firing Waggott over decisions taken by Venkys.