Sky-high Transfer Prices Are Forcing Gers Out Of The Market

[Bluedell 5,329]

What 30M?

 

If you want to see how much extra we have to spend you'll have to wait for the accounts and look for the retained profit. I'll bet it's nowhere near �£30M.

 

If we spend �£10M on transfer fees that will be pretty high considering our current finances and is likely to increase our debt. The wages are another matter and all of them can only be paid out of our likely annual gross profit - ie revenue minus cost of sales. Then there a load of other expenses including servicing debts and of course tax.

 

Balancing the books will be more complicated than just going out and spending a �£30M increase in revenue.

 

I'd estimate our wage budget to be about 20-25M. If we pay Premiership type wages of say 50K per week, that would mean we could only have 10 players. To have about 30 players means we have to average about 15k.

 

If you want to keep your team happy you need a wage structure so that you don't have a couple of guys on far higher wages than the rest, which puts plenty of noses out of joint.

 

After the huge debt we got into, I thought Rangers fans in particular would be a bit more understanding.

I would generally agree.

 

I would say though that I expect last year's wages to be well over �£30m. I would also expect our profit to be under �£20m and when you then take the Hutton profit as being used to fund last season's purchases, and the uncertainty of us qualifying for this year's CL, you can see why the transfer budget is not higher.

[UCF2008 0]

What 30M?

 

If you want to see how much extra we have to spend you'll have to wait for the accounts and look for the retained profit. I'll bet it's nowhere near �£30M.

 

 

I have to agree. I really don't understand why some fans are holding SDM to ransom with this �£30m figure. Last year we spent �£10m+ and it looks like we've got roughly the same amount to spend again this year. When was the last time we had 2 successive seasons with that amount in the transfer kitty?

 

Last year we brought in a whole squads worth of players. The most 'high profile' of which was arguably Roy Carrol

 

Yet at least six of those players played an integral part in our run to the UEFA cup final, with one of them winning POTY along the way. I can understand why some fans are getting a bit jittery about our midfield situation ATM, but at the same time we should really be showing more faith in the management.

[ascender 352]

I think most fans probably realise we can't spend big, but I think the concern this summer has been that what we have spent has been spent on the wrong positions. I'd have thought a creative midfielder was top of the list above all other signings who'd cost money. We're now in the position where we've spent what appears to be the bulk of our budget on new strikers, possibly the one area where we could have got by this season with the personnel we had.

[Frankie 8,151]

I think most fans probably realise we can't spend big, but I think the concern this summer has been that what we have spent has been spent on the wrong positions. I'd have thought a creative midfielder was top of the list above all other signings who'd cost money. We're now in the position where we've spent what appears to be the bulk of our budget on new strikers, possibly the one area where we could have got by this season with the personnel we had.

 

Exactly... It may well have been worth signing a new striker or two but surely we should have made sure the existing surplus ones were moved on first.

 

We seem to have went about our business in a backwards fashion.

[calscot 0]

I think most fans probably realise we can't spend big, but I think the concern this summer has been that what we have spent has been spent on the wrong positions. I'd have thought a creative midfielder was top of the list above all other signings who'd cost money. We're now in the position where we've spent what appears to be the bulk of our budget on new strikers, possibly the one area where we could have got by this season with the personnel we had.

 

 

This I can agree with and I find it strange for WS as when he came back he seemed to bring a fug [sic] of commonsense to the club. We were crying out for a couple of decent central defenders and it's the first thing he did.

 

He has since been pretty sensible in his personnel choices until now - unless of course he has something up his sleeve.

 

There is the possible mitigation that he may have presumed that he could easily move on Cousin and possibly Darcheville while he wanted to get his new strikers in early. At the same time he may have thought Fulham would be easy to deal with over Davis and there could be deals that didn't go anywhere that we haven't been privy to.

 

I think the despondency from the fans is that while we had a very promising season that was a whisker away from delivering the goods, we're now looking for a significant improvement in the squad to build on last year and do that bit better, with the priority of winning the league.

 

Walter's signings have been good, but not exciting - and certainly not a significant improvement, while we feel we are weak in a few positions that haven't been filled.

 

I think we can now see why we were biting Fulham's hand off when they offered 3M for Cousin but FIFA scuppered that one in a disgraceful fashion. We may be regretting selling Hutton now, but at the time it seemed a great piece of business for a previously inconsistent player who, even after his vast improvement, was valued at between 5 and 6M by Rangers fans - and Celtic fans were even scoffing at that valuation. So it's not surprising that 9M was not turned down.

 

We overspent last year and I'd guess that we increased our debt to about �£25M to do so. That is pretty much at the limit of what we can service and more than 50% of the previous year's turnover. We did it as it was necessary for the future success of the club. We had to spend our way out of trouble.

 

If we do retain �£20M this year including the Hutton money then it would seem prudent to earmark at least 10M to reduce our debt to a more manageable, but still high, �£15M.

 

That leaves us with a very generous �£10M to spend on transfer and signing on fees, while the wages have to be juggled around to keep the costs the same as last year.

 

Getting rid of a few players will help with that and we've already said goodbye to a few with Buffel's the most notable wage freed up. I'm sure we'd love to off-load Cousin, Darcheville and Gow as well.

 

It's all a complicated balancing act.

[Guest Mac]

I think there's a way of off loading Cousin to Cardiff as they're deserate for a new forward line after lossing Fowler and JFH, plus with WS interested in Loovens it just a matter of brokering a deal.

 

That scumbag Mckay is Cousins agent and he is usually pretty good at moving his players about so i'm sure he'll be away soon enough, so that'll his wages away but what kind of fee will we get, �£3m???

[Frankie 8,151]

I think there's a way of off loading Cousin to Cardiff as they're deserate for a new forward line after lossing Fowler and JFH, plus with WS interested in Loovens it just a matter of brokering a deal.

 

That scumbag Mckay is Cousins agent and he is usually pretty good at moving his players about so i'm sure he'll be away soon enough, so that'll his wages away but what kind of fee will we get, �£3m???

 

I'm pretty sure Willie McKay actually owns Cousin's contract.

 

We'd be lucky to get �£1million for him now IMO.

[calscot 0]

I think that shows you why it sometimes right to grab a good offer. The same could have happened with Hutton especially considering his history.

[Gribz 743]

I think that shows you why it sometimes right to grab a good offer. The same could have happened with Hutton especially considering his history.

 

Would you accept 10+ million for Carlos???

[calscot 0]

Depends on the +.

 

I would definitely accept 100M for him.