As I said “an expensive hobby”?‍♂️

They had no choice but to put money in else we would have been insolvent & players might not be keen to play if they’re not getting wages. The interesting thing for me is how they fund it. Share capital implies permanence, bank lending less so, parent loans more so (but not as good as shares).

...& that will have contributed to a loss in the P&L which V’s will have to have funded either by increased share capital or loans. Any agent fee had a similar impact on the P&L of BRFC. So not Myles away...?

Money from player sales is seen in the P&L as “Profit on disposal” e.g. £10m in the 2017 a/cs. That money is recycled in the business. So the £10m accounting profit meant the value of the business rose by £10m more than it would have. (This is a very simplistic argument and any accountants reading will be going “but...but...whatabout...” etc, but I’m trying to keep it high level for illustration.) It’s important to acknowledge that this is accounting profit...so in other words, buy Player A for £1m sell him for £5m does not necessarily lead to an accounting profit of £4m - I could go on here...but I won’t ? I can easily get carried away with explanations of depreciation and net asset value....I think Philip made this point on the pod just in case people did the calculations for Gestede, Rhodes etc based on newspaper headlines of their sale fees.

Don’t forget that BRFC is just one of the Venky group companies. It’s relatively easy (albeit at a high level) to see where the money has come & gone for BRFC. But the V Group is a multi-national operation subject to lots of different legal frameworks, tax regimes, reporting regimes & so on....so short answer, it’s not easy to answer unless you are the Venky group auditors.

They really have spent £250m - that’s a public (& audited) fact. As for the second part - I don’t want to have to spend any money on libel lawyers ?

Ah right...Philip was referencing total investment - so Shares plus Loans - that’s the £250m, so that clears that up ?? Share capital is (kind of) permanent, loans are temporary. Under UK company law, it VERY difficult for a business owner to take money out of a business that’s been invested as share capital. It’s not impossible but the law prescribes specific circumstances so as to protect all shareholders in a business & creditors. Essentially we can be reassured by increasing share capital. We are of course almost wholly reliant on them to keep funding the business - whether through loans or shares. Shares is best, but interest free loans is pretty good 2nd best. Either way, believe it or not, the bald facts are that their dalliance into English football has cost them £250m - that’s why I said on the pod that it was an expensive hobby. Does that clarify ?

Well that’s not borne out by the 2017 a/cs - the 2018 may well be worse but I doubt by that much. Some people may have equated accumulated losses of £225m with debt perhaps ? V’s total “investment” in BRFC equates to £147m of share capital plus the £95m loans - maybe that’s what has confused some ? I dunno, but debt (as at June 2017) is nowhere near £250m.

There was a reference earlier in this thread to our Pod (Episode 93) that covered this in some detail but I’ll try & summarise briefly & with no jargon... All references to June 2017 a/cs of course... In a nutshell:- TRADING Turnover is down by a third as parachute payments ended. Costs have been significantly reduced but not quite in line with t/o. Losses have been reduced by positive impact of player sales. Interest costs have reduced by two-thirds as much of the debt has effectively moved from the bank (who charge interest of course) to the parent company (which does not). All in all - loss of £3.7m recorded for 2017 - up from £1.5m in 2016. ASSETS & LIABILITIES Total creditors (money owed) stood at £114m up slightly from £112m BUT less of it owed to the bank, extra £7m owed to Venky parent - on balance this is a good thing, better to be in hock to the parent than the bank I would say. Of the £114m - £95m owed to V’s So what ? V’s are undertaking good housekeeping to manage a difficult position (I know they got themselves into it...this isn’t an opinion piece BTW ?) 2017/18 will probably reveal decreased t/o given the relegation - less TV money, sponsorships, corporates, ticket sales etc. Promotion opens up increased possibility for s/t income, TV, sponsorship, commercial etc FFP rules are frankly impenetrable...made even more complex if you move between Championship & League 1...which we’ve just done twice - as the rules are different in each. V’s can still cover part of any losses with share capital (rather than loans) in the Championship, but it’s not as easy as in League 1. What is not up for debate is that Championship clubs FFP is based more around turnover and profitability....and so to that extent, increased spend by fans in Ewood in whatever form can only help the FFP calculation and give the club less of a headache. Finally, whilst we will earn more TV money etc, I suspect large parts of that increased income will be swallowed up with improved player contracts etc. If we expect them to take a hit after a relegation, chances are their agents will expect the reverse after a promotion...? Hope that helps....but listen to the pod, read this & then pose whatever questions you might have & I’ll have a stab....but Not FFP...I cant make head nor tail of the EFL site ?

I remember that “Minutes without conceding” piece...Kick Off would cover it on a Friday then On The Ball would do likewise on Saturday lunchtime...it’s all flooding back... ?

No idea...the guy who used to sit next to me on the Riverside always trotted it out at least twice a year...and I laughed every time

Time to churn out the old gag (again): Radio Blackburn commentator: “Glenn Keeley leaves the field with a badly bruised and cut leg...no idea who it belongs to...”

Volare ? ?Aaaaa-maaarrri....woah oh...? ?

His injury record was appalling, that might have had something to do with it. At the time I thought 3 years for him with that record was ridiculous....I was wrong. Again ?...thankfully.

Graham Fenton Danny Graham Howard Kendall Martin Taylor Billy Wilson

I saw him in the queue for ticket collections before the Rochdale game on Boxing Day *just beaten to it by SparksRover ?

Stuart G posts as STUBBSUK on here (to clarify any confusion... ?)

The following account is fictionalised version of real events, any names (people, teams etc) and locations are made up but the events are all real and have happened to myself, coaches I know or things I have witnessed. Sunday, 11:45am The final whistle goes and we’ve been beaten again. It’s a common occurrence this season and unfortunately it looks like we’re going to get relegated. We had a very good year last year but unfortunately we lost a few players. We’re playing at U15 level this year and that’s around the age that kids start to turn away from sports. We lost two players who just gave up football. Two went to a local academy and one went to another team to play with his friends. The players who came in to replace them, despite our best efforts just weren’t as good and so we’re having a “bad” season. I put the word bad in quotes because it depends wholly upon your perspective. What do you think grassroots football is for ? On the one hand, there’s the traditional view of a good season; you get promoted, win a cup or make the playoffs if that’s how your league is set up. Perhaps you got promoted last year and so a good season this time round means you stay in the same division. Or maybe you’re a club that exists to give as many kids as possible the opportunity to play football? In which case your measure of success is more likely to be measured in how much better individual players are over the season or how much they enjoy themselves. I shake hands with the opposition coaches, give a quick pep talk to the players, try and emphasize the things that went well in the game. We played some good football in places, but we didn’t do enough to get the ball from the opposition and gave them too much time without putting them under pressure. I tell the players this, tell them we’ll work on it in training and wait for the spectators to wander over. I take a minute to listen to the other coach’s team talk. He’s pointing and jabbing his finger at the assembled group of players, he’s going full Warnock on them, not that they’d know because they’re all staring at their feet, I doubt they’re listening. Meanwhile my players are already talking amongst themselves about what they’re going to do better next week and how they’re going to win. I wonder what he’s like when they lose? I pick up the cones that made up the 2 “technical” areas, I need to mark these or I get fined £10. No “Respect Barrier” is another club fine. Once I’m home I fill in the the FA’s Full Time system for today’s game. I need to give marks out of 100 for the ref, managers, players & parents of the opposition. Fill in the referee’s ID number & county affiliation, mark the pitch, what type of pitch, details of any injuries anyone who was injured last week & couldn’t play, did the players shake hands before the game and did the managers check registration cards of the players before kick off … and that’s before I get to the bit where I fill out the team sheet with scorers etc. I have to do this before 6:30 or I get fined £20. Monday lunch time at work I get a call from one of the player’s dads; it’s usually a dad, mums normally talk face to face. Little Jimmy isn’t a left winger, he’s a striker and I should play him up front more. We have a discussion for almost 30 minutes about how, at the age of 13, kids are not strikers, or wingers, or goalkeepers, they’re players who are still developing and growing. As they grow and their body changes they may not keep the speed they had 12 months ago, they may not be the tallest player on the team any more or they may not be the strongest any more. I try and explain my philosophy that every player benefits from an extended run in any position. Then we get on to tactics, and how we’re naive and should be playing a diamond formation that adapts to a christmas tree when we’re “in the attack”. In the end I spend almost an hour, my whole lunch break on the phone with him and it ends with a threat to take him to another team. Sometimes on a Monday night the local coaches’ club gets together for a demonstration by a guest coach; they usually happen every couple of months and it’s a chance to watch professional coaches and how they interact with the players, a chance to pick up some tips. Rather than take away specific drills I try and watch their mannerisms, how they communicate, where do they stand, what are they looking at. My biggest problem as a coach is observation, all too often during a game I’ll find myself watching as a spectator rather than a coach so this is my opportunity to see how others do it. Recently we’ve had Chris Sulley, Graeme Carrick and Dean Saunders amongst visits from the heads of various Premier League academies (Newcastle and Liverpool). We’re at home this weekend so Tuesday is the day I need to get all the match details to this week’s opposition. A couple of texts is all it takes, but not without a little moan about the kick off time. I need to get this done by 9pm or I get fined £5. Wednesday is training night, we are lucky in that we have some astroturf with floodlights so the weather is never really an issue, my only gripe is it’s a bit small, but we do better than many so I can’t really complain. I spend my lunch break looking at drills that encourage players to press for the ball when we’re not in possession, we’ll work on the notion of 1st, 2nd & 3rd defenders, when to press, high risk/low reward and low risk/high reward areas of the pitch. It’s not the first time we’ve worked on these ideas and it won’t be the last, they’re not simple concepts and not easy to pick up. Some of the players understand so their role in the drills has to be more complex and some players struggle with the ideas and have to be given something that’s a challenge to them. I base all my sessions on small sided games (or SSG’s) because the kids come to play football, not stand in a line and kick the ball every now and again. I think this makes it harder for a coach to mix and match the players, but the players benefit more. I plan the session with a full squad in mind, we have a notification system where parents can let us know if they can’t make it, we get a couple drop out at the last minute and by the time the session is due to start we’re 5 or 6 down, which means a quick change to the session on the hoof. This isn’t unusual and while it’s annoying when you’ve spent a good couple of hours putting something interesting, fun and relevant together you get used to it and plan in ways to adapt. Thursday there is a league managers’ meeting, they’re fairly rare and we just sit around and discuss the same things we did the last time we met. Not enough facilities, the facilities are too expensive, the league just fines us to make money, some argument over a rule change that’s been implemented for over a season and of course the tales of how good football used to be and how it’s ruined nowadays by political correctness. Before we know it, it’s Sunday again. View full article

From Stuart Roy Clarke's portfolio...

Today seemed to confirm the guideline of "No more than 1 flair player on the pitch at any given moment"

I've heard this from more than1 source...makes life easier...for those temporarily overseas ?

No, there are some overseas territories that offer PayPal as an option...on an unrelated topic, this is an interesting website http://www.discoverhongkong.com/uk/index.jsp

I use Safari on my Mac rather than an app. The app is for iOS. https://www.rovers.co.uk/ifollow/

Request noted..! I intend to develop a "squad" of panelists so will gladly add you. could you let me have your email address via PM ?

No love for Linz this time ? ?