One thing that really gets me

[Spencer_White]

about this deal.

If the Adver figures are to be believed (and no one has come out denying them). Why would anyone even ask £8 million for a company £11 million in debt??? Why would anyone even think about paying £8 million for a company £11 million in debt?

Its my opinion that STFC isnt the drain that Wills/Diamandis have us believe it is. Someones done some serious creaming off over the past few years. And some of these debts look suspicious to me, like someone at STFC wants us to be paying large interest rates for many years to come.

End of the day, all they would have to do to disprove all of that would be to produce up to date accounts. But they dont, and any accounts that take 18 months to compile are not worth the paper they are written on.

[Simon Pieman]

Aren't the accounts up to date now?

[Lumps]

Well yes we've been paying interest to the bloody board members each year, which has meant that each year there's a loss to be covered by more loans, which means the next year the loss is bigger and more loans........... until we're where we are now. Hocked up to the eyeballs to the Wills family.

[Hexagon]

I'm pretty sure Bob Holt said on the radio it was less than a third of what was quoted.
Bob is always right so we should be fine.

[Samdy Gray]

IIRC, the annual interest payments amount to around £750,000 a year.

And our annual losses are... wait, hang on a minute... £750,000 a year.

Strange, that.

[RobertT]

IIRC, the annual interest payments amount to around £750,000 a year.

And our annual losses are... wait, hang on a minute... £750,000 a year.

Strange, that.

Not quite, interest equated to just over £375,000 in 2005/06.  Probably over £400k a year now though.

Our losses are generally over £1m, only going below when we've sold players on top.  The Admin expenses run at around 50% of turnover, which is a bit on the high side to say the least.

[Simon Pieman]

I thought it was £750k over 2 years. Although that's still astonishing.

[RobertT]

I thought it was £750k over 2 years. Although that's still astonishing.

just shy of that figure, yes.

Given another year has passed, then it's over £1m in 3 years

[pauld]

I'm pretty sure Bob Holt said on the radio it was less than a third of what was quoted.
Bob is always right so we should be fine.

Bob said the debt was not £18m, it was around 1/3 of that, and made out that was a rebuttal to the Adver story. But that wasn't the Adver story - they never said the debt was £18m, they said the deal was worth £18m, with £8m-£11m of that going to SSW/the holding co. Standard smear tactic really - try and discredit a story you don't like by denying something different.

[RobertT]

yep, if you take out the money related to the Wills family you'd probably be at around £6m of debt, maybe closer to £7m.

If the club was being sold for £1, Wills was cancelling hsis loans, and the rest remained payable, then the deal would be worth £6m to £7m still.  Just you wouldn't have to pay it all upfront.

[Spencer_White]

 The Admin expenses run at around 50% of turnover, which is a bit on the high side to say the least.

This is the sort of stuff Im on about.

St Modwen? 3 million? Fingers in the pie I rekon.

[reeves4england]

Although the Adver may not have quoted an £18 million there are some sources that have, perhaps Bob Holt got confused by that. Not trying to say whether he's telling the truth or not, just pointing out it could be an easy mistake to make.

I think we need a new 5 year plan, they always work  :|

[Phil_S]

Bob Holt doesn't make mistakes like that. He knew exactly what he was saying. Remember he was once an aide to Maxwell.

[Colin Todd]

Indeed. Maxwell had aides

[STFC Bart]

Basically the monies Wills etc are asking for back were accrued in 2 ways:

Incompetent management
Money going off down the M4 into other interests

I would be very suprised, looking at gates, wage budget, player sales if little or any of these losses were #real# football losses.