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Any news on investment?

Jul 12, 2016
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I agree, but how we grow will be dependant on how much we can spend on player resources.

At the moment we are looking for finance for infrastructure.

One of our sources for success will be our Academy which we will expect to provide us with player resources and sales in the future.

We also have the self funding Player Investment Fund which theoretically will provide continuous profit from our investment in player purchases which will then be sold at a profit, but which is not, in itself, a source of guaranteed regular income.

TV money is a welcome source of revenue, but is of no advantage as all the clubs in our division also receive this revenue, but it is of greater importance to a club in our financial position.

Other areas of profit include increasing ground capacity (although investment into this will not be turned into profit for several years and is dependant on continued capacity crowds), increase in use of hospitality facilities during non football days, and an increase of a myriad of other minor profit making schemes.

We need to continually improve player performance which means continually improving player contracts of those that we wish to keep, and those that we wish to bring into the club.

At the moment we have players that could be sold at a profit, but we would be diminishing team performance and would probably be relegated by selling them. There is a fine line between keeping and selling our best players and it is imperative that we stay in this division.

We also need to fund player loans to obtain footballers that are out of our price range, but who can improve the team performances on the pitch.

Any major investment has to be funded from further investors which is why it has become so important to our future to find the right investment.

Football finance is very demanding and Hallett has said that we must make every pound count.

It is important that we all understand what the club are trying to do and that we all pull in the right direction.
“One of our sources for success will be our Academy which we will expect to provide us with player resources and sales in the future.”
The most important word in your sentence is “expect”. SH is an Investment Manager and will have undertaken a risk assessment but even he is taking a big gamble that we will find enough gems in the future to warrant the investment.
 
Feb 8, 2005
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“One of our sources for success will be our Academy which we will expect to provide us with player resources and sales in the future.”
The most important word in your sentence is “expect”. SH is an Investment Manager and will have undertaken a risk assessment but even he is taking a big gamble that we will find enough gems in the future to warrant the investment.

Just think how many youngsters we have missed and where we might be now if we had been better equipped with an Academy in the past!!

The future is beckoning, Oldy, try to become part of it.
 
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Feb 8, 2005
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Well the club has said it is trying to compete in the play offs within five years. It is you who seems out of synch with the clubs plans!
That was more than a year ago, GF, to keep the Green Army's interest in these gloomy relegation threatened days. Let us see how it pans out, but unless we can bring in investment and improve our infrastructure I cannot see how we can improve our finances enough to compete with the clubs around us, let alone climb the table to get to the giddy heights of the play-offs. We are not competing on a level playing field, if you will excuse the pun.
 

MGM

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Dec 7, 2021
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I'd like to read again SH statement about the playoff ambition in 5 years.

From what l remember him saying is that we would hopefully, in 5 years time, have a mid-table Championship budget and with some good planning he felt that 6th spot was something we could sneak our way in to get.

That's how the playoffs might be achieved. Which sounded to me as more in hope than expectation, because the realisation is Argyle will still have a significant financial gulf between themselves & the top 6 clubs.

Then factor in clubs like Birmingham & Wrexham who will join us soon. It's a pipe dream. A way of maintaining interest. The only way things can change is to have a billionaire owner. Otherwise, this is about as good as its going to get. Our depth of pur squad currently shows this.
 
Jul 12, 2016
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I'd like to read again SH statement about the playoff ambition in 5 years.

From what l remember him saying is that we would hopefully, in 5 years time, have a mid-table Championship budget and with some good planning he felt that 6th spot was something we could sneak our way in to get.

That's how the playoffs might be achieved. Which sounded to me as more in hope than expectation, because the realisation is Argyle will still have a significant financial gulf between themselves & the top 6 clubs.

Then factor in clubs like Birmingham & Wrexham who will join us soon. It's a pipe dream. A way of maintaining interest. The only way things can change is to have a billionaire owner. Otherwise, this is about as good as its going to get. Our depth of pur squad currently shows this.
Spot on. The revamped academy will take years to produce these marvellous players which we can sell on for millions. In the meantime we will need to tread water to stay in the championship without a very wealthy investor on board. The harsh truth is we are no closer to the Premier league than we have been in the last sixty years I have supported the club.
 
Jul 12, 2016
10,054
8,508
Just think how many youngsters we have missed and where we might be now if we had been better equipped with an Academy in the past!!

The future is beckoning, Oldy, try to become part of it.
The future is uncertain ,jimsing, experience shows what happens when we take unnecessary risks!
 
Jan 6, 2004
10,475
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Spot on. The revamped academy will take years to produce these marvellous players which we can sell on for millions. In the meantime we will need to tread water to stay in the championship without a very wealthy investor on board. The harsh truth is we are no closer to the Premier league than we have been in the last sixty years I have supported the club.
I do not believe it is possible to "tread water" in the championship (or rather it is, but only by underachieving with a large budget as the likes of Stoke and Bristol City do season after season). We either start to increase our relative budget or we will be relegated, if not this season, then next season or the season after. I am not saying that means we can magic money out of nowhere but the plan must be to obtain more investment to properly compete in this league or to return to league one.
 
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Marsbarker

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You're right that there is no way to guarantee a supply line of academy talent. A lot of it is down to luck of birth. If the next Lionel Messi is born in Milehouse then he'll make us a fortune whether Brickfields exists or not.

Where Brickfields will be crucial is that it'll enable us to step up to Category 2 status. This will give us an U21 side in the Professional Development League, where we'll be able to challenge our better youngsters like Isaaka, Hatch and Finn against older pros on a weekly basis. At the moment, the only way to give players like them gametime is in the U18 Youth Alliance League (which they've all outgrown in terms of development) or by chucking them into the Championship.

The PDL bridges that gap in a way that's impossible for us at the moment. We could even give minutes to the likes of Sorinola and Ogbeta because you can field four over-age players in your team.

Cat 2 has a further benefit in that your best U18s can move up into the U21 squad. This in turn frees up space in your U18s, which means we won't have to keep releasing so many kids because the group above or below them is considered slightly more promising. It'll literally double the number of young pros we can retain, which will significantly reduce the bottleneck we experience currently and might polish up one or two rough diamonds that currently we're releasing at 18.

So Brickfields won't necessarily have a big impact in terms of academy recruitment in the younger age groups, but it'll be transformative for the upper end of our academy.
Messi ' the flea' was picked up by Barcelona from Argentina as nine year old? I believe he moved to Spain with his old man whilst the rest of his family stayed behind. Barca gave him growth hormones as a kid to encourage his size. I could be wrong.

If we had a nine year old 'Messi' he would likely end up at one of the big clubs farms?

Just a thought.
 

Marsbarker

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I fancy:-
Massive investment.
A super humungous stadium.
Really expensive players with £200k a week wages who are on the subs bench.
Cheap season tickets.
Free pasties.
A squad bigger than Chelsea’s.
An airport near the humongous stadium.
Regular European competition football.
Half time wrestling.
A manager who can wear a pullover and still look cool while being interviewed in three different languages.
And other assorted stuff.
If the free pastys are Ginsters... I'm OUT.
 
Jun 27, 2019
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Messi ' the flea' was picked up by Barcelona from Argentina as nine year old? I believe he moved to Spain with his old man whilst the rest of his family stayed behind. Barca gave him growth hormones as a kid to encourage his size. I could be wrong.

If we had a nine year old 'Messi' he would likely end up at one of the big clubs farms?

Just a thought.

He would eventually, no doubt. Messi was probably a bad example because a player like that would be cherry-picked by one of the big boys as soon as they could persuade his family to move.

That said, EPPP is supposed to protect smaller clubs so we'd still be in line for regular payments over the course of Milehouse Messi's career.
 
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Nov 18, 2018
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Spot on. The revamped academy will take years to produce these marvellous players which we can sell on for millions. In the meantime we will need to tread water to stay in the championship without a very wealthy investor on board. The harsh truth is we are no closer to the Premier league than we have been in the last sixty years I have supported the club.
Brentford's 2018 accounts (five years ago) showed a turnover of £12.7m with an average attendance of 10,500. In 2017 they were in profit by player trading by £12.8m. A year later that was £14.1m. a year later again it was £27.2m. They made £100m profit on player trading in 6 years. The rest is history.

Luton's 2019 accounts show a turnover of £7.6m (2018 accounts did not show turnover). Player trading profit was £1.2m. The 2020 accounts showed a turnover of £14.5m. Profit on player trading £9.1m. The 2021 accounts show a turnover of £12.6m and a player trading profit of £2.1m. A year later turnover was £17.6m with a player trading profit of £1m.

Argyle are trying to follow the Brentford model. Previously they were substantially bankrolled by Matthew Benham with little change in their League position (like mnay current Championship clubs). The switch to the data driven approach for player trading profit help them get to the Premiership. Benham helped achieve their new stadium financed by the building of loads of apartments arounf the ground. Their location enabled them to run an u-23 / B team to play across Europe rather than draw on Academy players. They have since re-established an Academy.

The above shows that a team CAN reach the Premiership and they don't necessarily need a large turnover or a big player trading profit to do so as Brentford and Luton did it in different ways. It gives me hope with the stewardship we have that the 5-year plan is realistic with the chance of sneaking a play-off spot. Then it is a 1 in 4 shot. I'd take that as the sort of progression to pursue.
 
Sep 6, 2006
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I dont necessarily disagree with anything you say save that I consider it completely unrealistic to expect us to survive on one of lowest budgets in the division for more than a couple of seasons. We have spun the roulette wheel once and survived, we are spinning it again and may or may not survive but in any event we cannot keep doing it and expect the ball never to land on red. If we dont improve our budget relative to other clubs in the league we will almost beyond doubt be relegated within 3 or 4 years at the latest. This is what I mean by standing still not being an option. We grow or we fall back.
We got lucky with injuries last season too. Doesn't look that way this.
 

Marsbarker

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He would eventually, no doubt. Messi was probably a bad example because a player like that would be cherry-picked by one of the big boys as soon as they could persuade his family to move.

That said, EPPP is supposed to protect smaller clubs so we'd still be in line for regular payments over the course of Milehouse Messi's career.
Milehouse Messi! 😍

He could jump to Brickfields, and be back for his tea! 💚