Tony Orlando - Halfway To Paradise

Great night. Remember the Trav sending off - Not a difficult one for the referee to be fair!

The Stone Roses - Mersey Paradise

The authorities also don’t care about accumulated losses -if they did it would be a factor in the profit and sustainability (ha!) rules.

They’d still keep 72% of anything over the purchase price so it still makes sense for them to get as much as they can. Of course, other than inflation, it’s unlikely the club is worth more now when they purchased it. Unfortunately (to say the least) the bastards don’t appear to be going anywhere.

Jimmy Hill never did like us.

Let's remind ourselves of this ahead of Saturday... #DifferentTimes

We have in stock red & black scarves - the ideal Christmas stocking filler...order today & we can mail out tomorrow...

And that's my firm preference too, always has been, always will be. Responsible owners would ensure that happened and would do their utmost to avoid putting it into administration by handing it over to new people and giving up their debts. But I also firmly believe that under these owners the club is on a terminal trajectory that will eventually lead to at best a long spell in the bottom 2 divisions. The status quo is not sustainable or acceptable. Too many people are influenced by the fact we are surviving in the Championship and have a facade of normality but look beyond that and it is a crisis situation. With that in mind we need rid of them. That, in my view, is clear. The only debate surrounds how that comes about. Let's also remember that if Waggott's scheme had come to fruition we'd have already sold the training ground and there would be a great big housing estate being built there right now. We know about that because he couldn't keep it hidden from the public. Lord only knows what other plans he's had in secret to cut and reduce the club further that he would have followed had he been able.

He is beyond reproach. Our man in Pune.

Shadow Man-unimpeachable? Name me anyone, who thinks that lol

Yep and there have to be reasons so many get involved and are happy to run with these kind of loses. I'd imagine the loopholes are plenty and advantageous in ways only specialist accountants and highly trained lawyers can exploit.

It's the one and only constant positive they've managed in their time here apart from actually keeping the lights on at the club despite numerous close calls. They deserve a bit of credit for standing firm on the academy as it's on record one or two managers and execs would prefer a lesser of different model, one of them is still drawing a fat salary and benefits so we can never rule it out whilst he's around. Lets not forget though that grants make up a large slice of the running costs for it and it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the Academy has had to make cutbacks as well. Only in the future would we begin to see if that has a negative affect or not as by the nature of that model it would take time to show unlike instant hits at first team level through players sales etc.

The low balance sheet value of the club is a reflection of the realities of operating for years and years in the Championship. Looking at the Bristol City accounts - a club owned by people who are certainly not engaged in creative accounting - there were accumulated losses at June 2023 of just under £195m.

Look in the mirror lad you only acknowledge the half truths that suit your own narrative.

I think if you are going to make claims of the kind you made you need to have rather more evidence than vague claims about what you heard on the grapevine - which apparently these days stretches as far as New Zealand. You have access to the club accounts on the internet although they will not provide the level of detail needed about the Academy. I'd judge the Academy on the standard of the players it produces which does not appear to have declined since Venkys took over/

So the one and only thing that would make sense is put it up for sale at the price they paid. Crazy looking at it when it hasn't increased in value one jot in 14 years despite over £150 million in 'investment' on their balance sheet. And is actually one fixed asset lighter in terms of the training ground which would mean they'd have to knock that off the price unless they gifted it back. So a 200 million 'asset' is now worth about 15-20 million in potential sale price with the added caveat it'd come with an instant annual loss of 10-20 million once present transfer income is concluded. No wonder their authorities are having a closer look at it, whether by design or not it absolutely reeks of creative accounting or Persil.

Nothing other than hearing through the grapevine from people who worked there that they'd had to do more with less etc. basically the same as everything else at the club. I don't have access to the club accounts so not like anything can be posted. Can you prove that what I'm saying is incorrect?

I don’t know whether there has been any scaling back but they did have that plan a few years ago to merge the STC and academy training grounds (to sell land for housing). I suspect that would have involved scaling back but of course we’ll never know.

Please could you provide the facts in support of that statement.

Years ago, it's been cut back a lot from what it was before they took over.

When did they scale back the Academy?

Exactly, just like they already have been doing for years. It's like talking to a vegetable, and not a very fresh one.

I think those ‘hoping’ for administration are only doing so because they see no other way the Venkys are ever going to leave. I don’t think a single one of them would choose administration over Venkys deciding to sell. Of course the Venkys (or anyone they ever sold to) could also decide to cut back on staff/scale back the academy etc.

It's a strange argument to say we've had cuts (which have been bad), but then be indifferent to the impact of admin, which could include closing or scaling back the academy, selling the training ground and so on. My preference is for the owners to sell the club, not to go into administration.