Billyblah wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 6:34 pm
The 'tipping point ' hopefully comes at the end of this season and sees us scrape out of relegation and a new season in the Premiership with a new owner who is willing to bring in 2-3 good quality young players each season who can 'grow ' with the club and appreciate in value to then be sold to bigger clubs for a healthy profit.
I was anticipating such a scenario under Garlick. Instead £40m plus was stacked up while our player assets aged, slowed down, became more injury prone and in the case of Hendrick, simply walked away.
I'm struggling with the 'legacy' that he has left behind.
I would hope that the new ownership will take on the challenge of judicious signings of quality young, fast, durable players who can 'grow ' within the club.
That said, if they've already 'plundered' the £40m cash maybe we will still be resorting to bringing in ageing pros such as Dale Stephens and Danny Drinkwater. If that is the case, there is no hope of Sean Dyche renewing his contract at the end of next season.
I can help on the legacy part.
* A category 1 academy
* A brand new training ground, that will be there for the next 20 to 30 years
* Improvements to the ground, including significant changes enabling disabled supporters to be treated with respect
* The best squad of players that most of us have seen, and a business supporting a wage bill of £87m
* A debt free business, which in football is an anomaly
* A cash reserve that was large enough to support the club through what is a somewhat inevitible situation of relegation
* A legacy of a club that over performs against EVERY SINGLE ONE of it's peers. Every one. A club that should by rights be mid to lower table championship enjoying an 8th consecutive season above that level.
* Selling the business to people who could supposedly invest more. There was a significant proportion of the fans that wanted this to happen - but now aren't happy with the reality of what that means.
None of these come for free and require the right decisions to be made. People on this board often seem to quote a number without context. So £40m sound large, until you realise that's less than 6 months of funds for wages at the club. It sounds large until you realise that it's less than a 3rd of your most at risk revenue. It sounds large until you contextualise it against your wage bill running at 6 times your controllable income (Gate receipts and commercial revenue - even that has been shown to be at risk). 40m sounds large until you realise that if you invest £15m in a player purchase, plus a further £2 - £3m in annual salary, would reduce your relegation support fund by half - thus uf relegation happens, triggering the absolute cost cutting panic that tends to lead to relegation spirals through the leagues..... ah but Parachute Payments I hear you say..... they are less than half of our annual wage bill..... ah but we will sell players...... only if people want to buy them......
People now whinging that the club have been sold to people who have leveraged the club with debt, having wanted more investment is so typical of Burnley fans. On the match when they shout Shooooot - and then whinge when it goes wide, don't mean shoot they mean score. When they say sign a pacey right winger - no not Lennon, or Nkudou - or anybody the club can realistically afford. When they say Get new investors, they mean find sugar daddy billionaires who will invest in Burnley, not hard nosed business men who will try and drive the business forwards whilst taking a salary out of the club, and increasing the risk of a debt spiral. Burnley fans, regularly, unappreciative of what they have, and often resentful for what they haven't. No wonder life's frustrating.
If you can't see the legacy that has been left, then you truly have become complacent in the situation, and have lost context of where the natural level of the club is, and the brilliant job that the board have done over the years. They made far fewer mistakes than almost any other club in the British Leagues.
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