By Tony Attwood
It is always interesting to look at the project that is Manchester City, not just because they are seemingly creating a new brand of football development, but also because of the commentaries we always get back.
When Untold covers Tottenham, for example, we get a mix of abuse and serious debate, the latter being very welcome. But this seems to be less in evidence with Man C articles – although we do get a fair number of “why don’t you just focus on your own club?” type comments.
But undeterred I return to Man C boosted a little by the fact that our last two major forays into the subject have been rather successful in predicting the future. Untold was just about the only outlet that was suggesting that Man C would fail FFP and be sanctioned, until a day or two before the results of Uefa’s deliberations came out, Guillem Balagué did a piece on Radio 5 one tuesday night, and said that the BBC’s approach had been quite wrong and Uefa would find against Man C. The response from a few Man C supporters was that this would not happen as FFP would be found to be in contravention of EU competition laws and the EC would throw it out.
Which led to the second arena – the launch of legal action to get the decrease in the amount of money that FFP would allow clubs to lose each season, stopped. Untold suggested across several articles that this would not happen, not least because the court that was being used to launch the appeal was not capable of hearing the case.
Of course sometimes lower courts do try and take on matters they are not supposed to – I’ve sat in District Courts in England that have tried to hear database rights cases, only to find after a while that they don’t have the right. Such things happen.
Anyway, with due speed the action failed as Untold had suggested, so FFP marches forth, amended and tweaked but pretty much still there.
Man C drew attention to themselves as being not just one of the clubs fined and sanctioned for not getting its FFP amounts right, but being the only one that didn’t settle at once with Uefa, but instead held out for a while, making no response while PSG and the like accepted their punishment.
So it is interesting to speculate (and of course it is nothing more than that) on how Man C will fare this time around.
Man C are buying players. Quite a few of them in fact.
- Enes Üna £2m
- Raheem Sterling £44m
- Patrick Roberts £11m
- Fabian Delph £8m
- Nicolás Otamendi £32m
to name but a few. That gives £97m spent according to the figures published on Transfer League.
Going the other way are quite a few more players
- Álvaro Negredo £24m
- Matija Nastasic £10m
- Karim Rekik £3.5m
- Scott Sinclair £2.5m
and a few others.
£97m in, £41.65m out and so a net deficit of £55.35m – again according to Transfer League
So where does that leave us with FFP? There has been very little in the mainstream press about this – but then as they gave a lot of publicity to some of Man C’s fans supporting the legal case in Belgium, maybe they are holding back this time, waiting to see. (I would love to say that since Untold is one of the few publications that called both the outing of Man C, and the failure of the Belgium case aright, they are waiting to see what we have to say this time. But that would be pretentious.)
And there may of course be other cases (nothing to stop people starting legal cases – that’s a fundamental right in a democracy). I haven’t seen the next one loom up yet, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Maybe the media have seen something I’ve missed.
Anyway under FFP clubs can spend up to €5million more than they earn per assessment period (which is three years). However it can exceed this level to a certain limit, if it is entirely covered by a direct contribution/payment from the club owner(s) or a related party. This provision aims to prevent the build-up of unsustainable debt.
The limit is €30m for assessment periods 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18
In order to promote investment in stadiums, training facilities, youth development and women’s football (from 2015), all such costs are excluded from the break-even calculation.
Manchester City had their restrictions on transfer spending and Champions League squad size lifted after meeting their financial fair play target, although Gary Neville said Man City should take UEFA on over FFP.
City were ordered to play in last year’s Champions League with 21 players in the squad, four fewer than usual, and spending on new signings in last summer’s transfer window was capped. The club also agreed that total wages last season’s Champions League squad must not exceed that of the 2013-14 season. They were also fined £16.3m a year for three years totalling £49m but only the first year’s fine has been imposed. The rest is suspended pending good behaviour.
So it is interesting to speculate how Man City are doing in keeping this year’s £55m expenditure within FFP. The most likely argument that Man City will use is that revenues will grow over the next three years to allow them to eventually break even through increased match day revenue with the expanded stadium, and the increased sponsorship deals that winning more trophies will bring.
And the base situation is far from bad. In 2014/15 they made a loss down to £22.9m with their wage bill being a very acceptable 59% of turnover. So that makes it look possible.
There are a few ups and downs however.
A lot of the improvement comes from a £39 million increase in TV revenue. But history suggests that most of this money is then “pissed up against the wall” to use Lord Sugar’s elegant phrase, by spending on enhanced salaries. And we are seeing huge hikes in transfer fees at the moment – which means huge rises in salary. So broadcast revenue gives a boost, but then leaves a long tail of higher expenditure.
Man City also benefitted by reducing its wage bill by £23m in 2014 over the previous years. So they will now have pressure on the wages bill, from existing player demands and from these new transfers in this summer. Mindful of the CAS ruling about player contracts all clubs (seemingly with the exception of Liverpool who appear to be in a fantasy land of their own) recognise the need to negotiate deals well in advance for fear of losing a player for far less than they paid. Man C will have that concern as do all other clubs at and near the top of the league.
However they won’t have to bother about things like the pesky £16 million FFP bill in this financial year. But 2014 had very little in it from player profits, and as a total outsider looking at the financials I might guess that they were expecting to have a decent bit of income from player profits this summer. And yes there is £41m coming in. But the problem there is it is dwarfed by the money going out.
Man City has not made a profit since 2006, which shows just how far removed football can be from the norms of financial reality. But its losses have declined each year since 2011 when they hit £197m and as I said, they were just £23m last time around – and that is a positive move.
Commercial partnership income has risen over 800% in the last five years, but here it is difficult to see how that sort of rise can continue. It could, but the club’s revenue growth has exceeded everyone else in the Premier League so a tailing off seems more likely. They have almost half their income coming from commercial activity, as compared to 26% at Arsenal. It will prove much easier for Arsenal to grow this revenue than Man C, I suspect.
And this is a point I have ended up at in the past. How long can this commercial activity keep growing? Of course I don’t know, I can only guess based on what I see but I still think Arsenal still has a long way to go in developing its commercial activity. As we know it was hampered by the years of building the Emirates, and then by the successful negative promotions of the aaa which made everyone aware of how long it has been since Arsenal won a trophy. Two FA victories in two seasons however, have led some firms to a reassessment of this, and those who opted not to back Arsenal three years ago, have realised just how much exposure they missed out on from that double Cup success, Arsenal becoming the most successful FA Cup team ever, and Wenger equalling the 19th/early 20th century record for the number of wins. So for Arsenal the numbers in the commercial deals are really starting to rise.
It is a guess of course, but it looks to me as if Man City won’t get caught again by FFP despite the mega spending this summer. But that isn’t the issue they are facing. Their issue, which of course they will be fully aware, of is the escalating wage demands that always follow TV revenue hikes, and the fact that the growth in commercial partnership revenue must come to an end sometime.
I suspect it is not this year that is a problem, but the change of direction needed next year to balance the books again.
————
From today’s anniversary files
23 August 1975: Arsenal 0 Stoke 1. Arsenal won only two games in the first ten and ultimately ended the league in 17th.
23 August 1986: Arsenal 1 Man U 0. George Graham started his career as Arsenal manager. Unfortunately this was one of only two wins in the first eight. Charlie Nicholas scored.
- @UntoldArsenal on Twitter
- Arsenal Annivesaries each day on the home page
- Remember, remember. The history of Arsenal’s pre-seasons: now covering every season from 1983 to 2014, with more articles forthcoming.
- 23 August 2006: Theo Walcott became the youngest Arsenal player to play a match in a European competition against Dinamo Zagreb. He was 17 years 129 days old.
I know this article is dealing with facts and figures on the table, but, for what it’s worth, it’s widely reported De Bruyne to City is pretty much done, for somewhere north of fifty million, but guess we have to wait on that should it happen before this significant amount goes into FFP calculations.
Must not forget they have the fifith biggest turnover in Europe after Madrid barca Bayern and man u and their three year assement starts from this season. After their fine unlike other
Clubs
Worth remembering that £97m (so far) spending this season is in fact, assuming 4 year contracts, £24m spending in each of the current and next 3 financial years not £97m spending in one year. However income of £42m, less residual contract liabilities (mainly those not amortised) would go straight on the current years bottom line and is current year income.
There is the domestic ffp which precludes clubs from increasing their wage bill by more than 4 million annually using the tv money. Of course in practice this will likely mean that players simply get larger signing on bonuses up front and higher ‘agent’s fees’, but in accounting terms this might help city and other clubs meet their uefa ffp requirements too. Not sure about that but it’s a possibility.
Who cares bout city spending at least they spend the money. Not like other clubs who hav the money and go trophiless for so many f years. ( called a big club)
The wage structure has changed in the last couple of years moving from a base wage to a split of base and bonus. Bonuses are excluded from the FFP element. Players originally signed when we hadn’t won anything so wanted a higher base salary to compensate for not having a bonus, when new players are signed or contracts renewed it is changed so overall they earn more but the base salary is less hence the wage bill being less than before. We can now attract players to this as we are more likely to win trophies.
All you Arsenal fans do is worry about City spending and hope FFP do City, you’ll never win league even if City was out of the equation Chelsea spending will see to that. LIVERPOOL spent well out of there budget another winging two face club.
It’s the Tony Attwood comedy show – complete with big clown shoes and exploding car.
Not very observant are we Tony if you haven’t noticed that all players so far signed by City have been signed on 5 year contracts. So divide the amount spent by 5 for FFP amortization purposes.
Secondly, City must have made a profit in season 2014/15 of for all FFP sanctions to have been lifted back in June. It’s the only way it could happen. Not that difficult when you consider that City only made a loss of £23m the season before (with £16m of that the UEFA fine). Again not particularly observant are we?
Assuming City’s revenue went up by ONLY the increase in UK broadcasting revenue and assuming 5 year contracts then City could spend £150m + sales this summer should they wish too. I suspect it will turn out be more like £175m + sales.
One has to wonder why Arsenal are not doing what is necessary to compete?
The case against FFP and UEFA’s attempts to fix things in favour of the establsihed elite is very much up and running and this explains why UEFA’s double standrds have once more been shown for what they clearly are.
The reality is that City are not carrying debt but wonder of wonders FFP is not there to prevent clubs being in massive debt simply to stop ivestment by owners wanting to develop their clubs. It is exactly this which will utimately bring down the FFP pack of lies (I mean cards).
Investment is not the problem. Massive debts are. Rangers, Portsmouth and Leeds were all crippled by debts not investment.
Equally City are not the fourth most valuable brand in World football so the commercial aspects are following very nicely behind the wonderful football they play on the pitch.
Add that to state of the art training complex and an increasing stadium capacity with an ever increasing reach world wide reach and you have a club very much setting the pace everywhere.
Now how about an article on why Wenger spends more time obsessing about every other team other than the one he is very expensively employed to manange.
I congratulate you for one of the more objective articles i have ever read on an opposing teams web site . I agree with Gary Neville that MCFC should take UEFA on . I think without the softening stance this would have happened and MCFC and UEFA had an unwritten agreement on this .
The facts are that City got lucky and Sheik Monsour wanted a medium to promote his country and chose City. The FFP strongly promoted by the likes of David Gill ( for obvious reasons) still doesn’t allow any other club to go down the City route because as proved it is a 10 year gamble, at least ,which means incurring serious losses along the way. Previously this was done with debt which was not good. City did it with equity. Any capitalist like Mr Wenger has to accept that that is not bad for football.
So back to how City can comply and the answer is in your article. All new foreign purchases have 5 year contracts so the purchase price is spread over 5 years. From recollection only Sterling has to be paid and accreud over 12 months.
Of course we have to wait to see how much money of that commercial revenue will be thrown out because of being from a related company or way over the top
Don’t forget that they have just got two high earners off the wage bill in Negredo and Jovetic. Valencia still owed us the Negredo money so in reality Otamendi only cost City £8,000,000 and Delphs wage will be a lot lower than Milner. The wage bill will have been significantly reduced I would expect.
You have the competition money (£500,000 per premier league position) and then the Champions League money.
Doubt you’ll find any city fans applauding articles like this. They get very touchy when the clubs dodgy business is exposed.
Thing is they used to have a sense of humour and perspective about their club.
@Walter – What you mean like the Etihad or Etisalat deals, those ones that UEFA rubber stamped a long long time ago and weren’t the reasons City fell foul of FFP, those ones? In that case, dream on fella.
@Tony, you haven’t amortised the fees, as quite rightly pointed out by others. Patrick Roberts was £2m, which may eventually rise to £11m. Nor have you included loan fees for Jovetic and Dzeko, nor the fees that the buyers will be locked into.
You clearly know little about City contracts either, most these days at City are lower basic and heavily incentivised. Seems you’re pinning any hopes on City falling away on the possibility of commercial revenue dropping away, but offer no details as to why this might be the case and smacks of hopefulness. Now the 2nd best revenuer in the league, growing year on year, stadium expanded, the future is bright blue.
As you quite clearly state ‘How long can this commercial activity keep growing? Of course I don’t know, I can only guess’, sums it up perfectly for me.
@Dex – We are no longer under any FFP sanctions so I’d love to hear your update on what dodgy deals, they’re holding the front in readiness.
Just Like I said, really touchy with zero sense of humour.
Tony
Speaking of commercial revenue I would like to say that Arsenal need to plan a little differently if they want to significantly increase commercial revenue earned from countries in the Asian subcontinent and also from a few countries in the far east. While some people can buy current Arsenal merchandise most that support Arsenal in this part of the woods cannot afford it. Smaller items like key chains, pens, photo frames with an arsenal logo would go well. There have been increase in the number of people supporting Arsenal in this part but the untapped market is huge. Winning PL or CL would help too as most people where I live don’t even follow FA Cup. Sure some do but those who don’t but support a premier league side are much greater in number. Recently newspapers have started to devout a column or two for premier league games. Also selling a few merchandise online would help as I am not sure that there is an Arsenal store within 200miles from where I live. Another point worth keeping in mind is that most people who support a premier league side are young. I started supporting Arsenal in 1998, the day my dad bought me a cable tv subscription. Cable tv was introduced here in 1994 or 1995. So whenever we win something we enter that untapped market and get new supporters who are say, mostly teenagers.
Thanks
Why can’t the elephant in the room be discussed when analysing Manchester City’s finances.
You said : ‘Commercial partnership income has risen over 800% in the last five years, but here it is difficult to see how that sort of rise can continue. It could, but the club’s revenue growth has exceeded everyone else in the Premier League so a tailing off seems more likely. They have almost half their income coming from commercial activity, as compared to 26% at Arsenal. It will prove much easier for Arsenal to grow this revenue than Man C, I suspect.’
How is it that a club can grow commercial revenue by 800% so quickly?
Are we allowed to say what is REALLY happening here?
The truth is Cit’s commercial revenue will grow as much as it needs to regardless of demand for their brand. It will continue to cover expenditure, even if has to reahc 99% of their income.
FFP is a nonsense with too many loop holes and a corrupt governing body not interested in really enforcing it.
It was always going to be thus.
FFP was always going to be a bit limited, as would anything be that the arch pragmatist Michel Platini puts his name to .
I did used to get frustrated that we put so much emphasis, and perhaps sacrifice on FFP, but I do wonder if it’s because we had to rather than really believing the product would ever be enforced.
Why don’t Arsenal do what’s necessecary to compete…..think Arsenal do all they can to compete in the circumstances given , but it is very simple, Chelsea and City have owner bought success. Utd virtually unlimited resources, compare and contrast those three with Arsenal in recent years.
Good suggestions Samrat, hope Arsenal are listening.
Amortisation is indeed the answer to solving the equation but it requires increases in income (including from player sales) in the years to come. In other words Man City are mortgaging their future income to strengthen now and that remains the risk that it has always been. Mistakes will continue to be made in the transfer market (as they are by all clubs) and others will spend their own increased revenues in an attempt to undermine everyone else – including City.
City have made it very obvious that they are trying, via significant investment in their academy, to be less reliant on buying success through the transfer market and have probably used this to persuade UEFA that the future will be very different. History tells us that it’s very difficult to combine both squad development techniques and the only ‘rich’ team that seems to have cracked it is Arsenal. Maybe City will do it as well but they’ll probably need to have a very different management structure in place for it to work.
Nicer article than usual from a city perspective. However you say your interested in the new business model and model of football development that city have with CFG. From what I remember of your past articles its not been interest more viewing it as cheating or not going to help much. You seem to have little idea of how we will do thats fine given the complex nature of things as they stand but makes the article kind of pointless. You raise a good point about how long can revenues go up from commercial operations and about TV money going to agents and players. However you might have accidentally over state things one. Winning increases sponsorship something Arsenal fail to do and something that requires continued investment in the team. City still have a long way to go ie winning the Champions league. Another area where revenue can increase. furthermore our match day revenue and merchandise sales can make up for the slow down in commercial growth as can the growth of CFG CFM CFS. Article would be improved with full list of in and outs the loan fees and tho this might suit a another article a explanation of the tv deal changes
Dex – For zero sense of humour to be relevant, the thing has to be at least funny in the first place.
Commercial revenue only seems to slow not stop in football so spending it seems will continue to rise. TV revenue seems to be rising astronomically
did city not amortise players they brought in last year and year before the last and before that? If so, they have stars that are not there in the sky. That will have to be factored in IMHO.
Jayram pretty much covered what I wanted to say.
They will stop at nothing to make life near impossible for whoever is setting the rules. The sponsorship/commercial stuff is obviously the main thing in that respect but for a second elephant in the room- supposedly all their big stars took hefty paycuts last year when they restructured all the big contracts. Plus, supposedly, a big saving with non-football staff going off the books.
Aye right, Aguerro, Silva, Company,etc, in 2015, taking paycuts. Worded differently, I’m sure, but if your new contract makes it easier to comply with ffp, what can that mean, logically, aside from a reduction in the amount of money involved?
So obviously garbage, so obviously pure accounting shenanigans or outright lies, but, as with the rest, it puts a huge onus on administrators to chase you and try dig through all that’s been put in your way. We know City surely have the better lawyers, and we know they also have the stronger desire to have their way.
The plan, I’d guess, especially if De Bruyne signs, is cover things up as well as possible, make life hell if they try challenge us, and lets see if, and hope that, this ffp thing collapses in the next couple of years.
For me, something as difficult to implement as ffp in the first place, inexorably collapses once the commitment to it weakens to any significant extent. You need near 100% commitment to it, given that’s exactly what your adversaries, with their gigantic resources, have to defeating your efforts to stop them.
We need FFP in football. The premier league is exciting and popular because any club stands a chance of winning at any time. When City goes around poaching the best players from other EPL clubs – Boney, Delph, Sterling etc this summer, this instantly makes those clubs less competitive and the EPL more boring, turning it into a Formula 1 style parade, and reducing it’s popularity. Oil money in football clubs is akin to drugs in athletics – an unfair advantage. If clubs work to produce extra money, be this through marketing or winning competitions, this is equivalent to athletes doing extra training – fairer, as with work any club can bring in the extra money.
@gmv8 – What on Earth are you on about Son? So City giving Liverpool £49m makes them less competitive, maybe they could just go and spend the money on Firmino and others to compensate themselves?
As for ‘oil money’ being akin to doping in athletics, I’d suggest the only dope here is you fella. Rambling, scattergun argument, rounded off with ‘If clubs work to produce extra money, be this through marketing or winning competitions, this is equivalent to athletes doing extra training – fairer, as with work any club can bring in the extra money.’, which is exactly City’s approach?!?
Off topic, but good to see TV get a game in Barca’s win this evening. Always had a lot of time for him, hope his injury struggles are in the past and wish him well.
HeavyRiffs, see your point, but Liverpool are a bad example, up with Spurs in the squandering money league, despite Rogers saying he would never do “a Spurs” with the Suarez money. How well have they spent this season……we shall see. I may regret posting this tomorrow after the game, but remain to be convinced by their signings, quantity doesn’t always mean quality.
OT
Here is some news of not Two Gentlemen of Verona but two arsenal players in Verona and in particular a http://www.eurosport.com/football/serie-a/2015-2016/wojciech-szczesny-makes-special-double-save-on-roma-debut-to-earn-draw-at-verona_sto4873945/story.shtml
certain goalkeeper.
Heavy riffs
Start calling people ‘Son’ just makes you sound like you think you have some kind of superior knowledge over them.
Do you, ‘son’ ?
Or are you just expressing your totally unbiased, reasoned perspective, much the same as gmv 8 is, ‘Son’ ?
Lots of suggestion here that City’s sponsorships deals are fake and perhaps something to do with the sheik. So are you suggesting that Nissan,LG, Heineken,Hays,Nile,Vitality,ion to name but a few are all in with the shiek. Ethiad (cleared by uefa as being a non related deal) now only provide 10% of our income and is probably now one of smallest deals in the premiership.
HeavyRiffs
“…which is exactly City’s approach?!?”
And there I was thinking Cities approach was to spend as much unearned ‘oil money’ as they possibly could, in order to counteract 30 years of mismanagement, then try every trick in the book to hide where they got it from.
Or is that just me?
Another factual inaccuracy in the article:
[1] Patrick Roberts cost £2m not £11m (that’s £9m deferred till he starts to deliver in the first team and win trophies.
[2] Nicolás Otamendi cost £28.5m (rising to £32m as City win stuff).
Well done however for pointing out that Raheem Stirling cost £44m (to pay the extra £5m City have some serious trophies to win!
As to comments from @Rich – yes City players did take pay cuts for every £2 cut they got £3 in bonus payments – so for a 2nd rank City player – lets pick Raheem Stirling – he gets £160k a week basic. On top of this £15k a week for qualifying for the Champions League, £10k for winning the league, £5k per CL knockout round advanced too (i.e. £20k for winning it) for winning the Champions League, £7.5k per cup. So if City win the lot that’s £220k.
If City win stuff the players get a hefty bonus but City get additional revenue to compensate. It’s all in Ferran Soreano’s book “The ball doesn’t go in by chance”
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Goal-Ball-Does-Not-Chance/dp/0230395031/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440363078&sr=8-1&keywords=ferran+soriano
A good read for anyone who wants to REALLY know were City are going. City’s behind the scenes organisation is just so professional these days it is frightening.
Observation
For a while now,I’ve noticed that the ‘code of conduct’ 4 commenting on dis site is not being adhered to.A litany of distasteful comments aimed to get a cheap one over other commenters,name calling ,abusing the writers, making mockery of the d essence,purpose and pre-ocupation of dis site has been made to persist for too long.It is becoming increasingly irritating to me as a person.I believe it had bn put forward and agreed upon a while ago that comments that are devoid of respect will not be tolerated even when it touches on the most sensitive of subjects-it dosent really fill one with enthusiasm when the alert of a new article is up on twitter knowing that once that subject is touched upon ,it will be accompanied with sarcastic, undermining comments. I suppose I’m not the only one who has observed it and feels this way.This site I feel is more better without all this over the top sarcasm and abuse.
I hope Mr Attwood and Mr Broeckx will address this shortly.Thanks.
Mr-Ed
What about Aguero? If that guy accepts less than Rooney per week he must either (a) not be interested in maximising his earnings or (b) be aware of City’s need to be ffp compliant and want to do his bit to help or (c) be clueless about his worth on an open market. Any of those would be areal surprise.
At Arsenal, we’re in trouble if a single one of our top players gets it in his head to seek the highest possible wages. We’re reliant on them being the sort of people who can be happy with huge wages but not the maximum wages they could possibly get.
Maybe City have managed already to switch successfully from a culture which relied exclusively on cash to one where someone like Aguero wouldn’t just point to Rooney and go – ‘I’m way better than him, you know it, now show me you know it’ but it struck me as too soon for that and, besides, I would expect it to make a difference for negotiating players when they know, outside of restrictions which concern the club but not them, there really is no limit to what they can be paid.
What you’ve said is interesting, however. It certainly sounds plausible, albeit a tiny bit neat and against the modern grain- where top modern players will typically not countenance lower guaranteed earnings but want large increases instead.
I’m just a cynical type who can’t believe anyone can pull off savings or modest rises while renewing the contracts of top players and constantly bringing in lots of expensive new ones. The government should send out an SOS to the behind-the-scenes team at City if that’s what they’ve managed.
City may have this ultra professional behind the scenes outfit, but Sterling….160 pw plus….really? What has he done so far to make that realistic other than have a good agent?
Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea were well aware of him before he went to Liverpool, but the bigger London clubs stayed away, there is a reason for that, hope he has outgrown that reason, but reports in the papers over the summer cast a little doubt on that. Fair play to City for paying it, he may end up an amazing player, but that is a hell of an investment in a clearly talented, yet unproven player, not all clubs would have the luxury of making such a gamble but guess it is all relative, and like city , we can make gambles others cannot.
@Rich
Aguero is supposidly paid £303k a week if you divide his notional yearly sallary (source = Forbes) of £15.87m by 52 weeks But that includes image rights payments. Note that City were the first club to insist that all player image rights are feeder to the club – a pattern all other clubs are now following. Now image rights are zero rated for FFP purposes as there is always matching income to pay them.
In reality, Aguero will be paid about £250k a week basic with that equivalent to 70% of the maximum he could her if City win the lot. I.e. £357k a week.
Note: The bonus is paid in arears over the followung season BTW. No lump sum is paid as this would incur a major tax payment.
In the above response, “feeder” should read “given” – I’m on my android device at the moment.
Jambug – I used the term Son, as his argument was that of a child, Son.
‘“…which is exactly City’s approach?!?”
And there I was thinking Cities approach was to spend as much unearned ‘oil money’ as they possibly could, in order to counteract 30 years of mismanagement, then try every trick in the book to hide where they got it from.
Or is that just me?’
That’s just you, otherwise we’d still be subject to FFP sanctions, Son.
@Mandy Dodd – I know what you mean with regards Liverpool spending. My point was merely in relation to gmv8 stating that City makes the league less competitive by buying the best players, then some drivel about ‘oil money’.
The best teams want the best players, thus has it always been and thus will it remain.
Rich you said ye right, Aguerro, Silva, Company,etc, in 2015, taking paycuts. Worded differently, I’m sure, but if your new contract makes it easier to comply with ffp, what can that mean, logically, aside from a reduction in the amount of money involved? Nothing thats what so whats wrong
So obviously garbage, so obviously pure accounting shenanigans or outright lies, but, as with the rest, it puts a huge onus on administrators to chase you and try dig through all that’s been put in your way. We know City surely have the better lawyers, and we know they also have the stronger desire to have their way.
Are you sure you want to accuse a global company and its global independent auditors of lies ? Accounting shenanigans whats one of them ? Why is it bad ? and if they do not break the rules or the law so what ?
@Will Rickson,
I will tell you why the accounting shenanigans are bad. They are bad because they set an example, or, in the anglo-saxon justice world, a precedent. It will send a message that if you do enough tricks you can get away with them, and that puts a dent in the concept of justice. And the more people are going to do it, the less relevant justice will become, until one day people will wonder what the World has come to, and how did we get there. It’s a bit of a parabola, but it illustrates the wrong direction bad guys like Cheatski and ManCity are driving the state of things. Anyone who pretends it is fine to go on like this is blind, stupid or ill willed.
Maybe if the bonus percentage exceeds a certain point UEFA may chose to intervene just as they did on the sponsorship deals.
Let me state that I hope that Man City always finishes about Man United, Mr. Gary Pretentious/Overrated Neville.
I have no issue with andy’s response to Tony’s succinct summation of what ia after all pre Kevin-de-Bruyne Man City.
But some (well, many) of the other responses/comments are hilarious in the sense they lack any sense of humor whatsoever.
And then, we have the best “are you sure you want to accuse a global company and its global independent auditors of lies?”
I showed this to two friends who are lawyers for an international independent auditing company; they laughed really loud.
Man O Man!
When without money,
eats vegetables at home;
When has money,
eats the same vegetables in a fine restaurant.
.
When without money, rides bicycle;
When has money rides the same ‘exercise machine’.
.
When without money walks to earn food
When has money, walks to burn fat;
Man O Man! Never fails to deceive thyself!
When without money,
wishes to get married;
When has money,
wishes to get divorced.
When without money,
wife becomes secretary;
When has money,
secretary becomes wife.
When without money, acts like a rich man;
When has money acts like a poor man.
Man O Man! Never can tell the simple truth!
Says share market is bad,
but keeps speculating;
Says money is evil,
but keeps accumulating.
Says high Positions are lonely,
but keeps wanting them.
Says gambling & drinking is bad,
but keeps indulging;
Man O Man!
Never means what he says and never says what he means..
I wonder if nowadays you have to do a test in accountancy if you want to become a City fan?
@Mandy Dodd.
City were aware of Sterling at QPR – Indeed City were one of the 3 clubs that competed for his signature. As to what has he done? Totally transformed City’s counter attacking by the looks of things. His performance isn’t far behind Silva currently. So drfinately worth the money. More to the point if Liverpool think he was worth £50m then they definately should have paid him at least that amount.
Player sallaries ate indeed obsene but then again they are proportional to the clubs revenue.
LOL Mr. Ed. that last sentence. Was it you who early on said something about a clown and a big shoes….
Goodness me, all this talk of money, I’m with Brickfields here, it’s just human nature to be jealous and envious of those who are putting their money where their mouth is, and giving the fans the cheapest season tickets in the premiership, along with the best football, the best footballers, and the best fan experience possible, and hopefully some shiny cups to ogle on the stadium tour 🙂
We should be talking about the football, and those fantastic goals from Kolarov, who looks like a new man, and Samir Nasri, who had only just come off the bench when he dinked the ball over the keeper – world class 🙂
Of course Everton had a really good go, hit the bar, had a goal disallowed for offside, so full marks to them for their efforts too.
I will make a prediction about one of our young players who was on the bench, Kelechi Iheanacho, I think he will be right up there with the likes of Aguero, and has the potential to be even better, particularly if he can avoid any major injuries, he really is the real deal and will be a massive star for City.
Despite my disagreement with their financials, Man City is a team I can generally watch and really enjoy, the way they play, City vs Arsenal games are what the BPL should be, skill, intensity, great attack play and generally no stoke like tackles.
Will Rickson
I’m glad your faith in global companies and their auditors remains so high despite what could easily have tested the faith a little back in 2007/8.
Accounting shenanigans are what you can entertain when you are large enough entity to test all rules and regulations to breaking point and, sometimes, beyond. It’s more black and white with us little folk. For us, there are rules, and if we don’t abide by them it’s easy to spot, and that’s us in the shit if spotted.
Needing a dump is a legitimate reason for breaking the speed limit, if your lawyer is good/expensive enough, is one way to sum it up. If you can’t get mr loophole, hold on,just hold on.
Quite ironic that you darkly suggest I could land myself in bother with an unwise word or two. Suddenly you approve of rules and laws again!
I guess it would take directly going against one of those big entities over some matters of justice and the law to make you question what’s wrong with accounting or other legal shenanigans if, after all, no laws are found to be broken. After losing, you’d have opportunity to think ‘but…what about the spirit of the law, what about the fact they did what the laws were designed to stop?’; then maybe you’d go, ‘aye, but, why is that bad? They didn’t break the rules or law so what?’
Thankfully for us all the odds are infinitesimally small, especially here, where the little guys are relatively safe to have a little moan on the internet.
Florian Rich Accounting shenanigans What accounting shenanigans. Not amortizing all clubs do that. Not paying bonuses all clubs do that and its a good way to improve the sport after all most people complain about footballers pay this way they have to actually work for it.If its about our backroom staff working for City Football group City then get charged for the work they do for city specifically. So so what? CFG will make football better and city better by improving scouting training marketing and increasing revenue with this new business model. If it the sale of interlectual property thats because image rights of player are full owned by city they where sold to CFG once and it wont happen again. City then charged for CFG work good business done by other types of companies all over especially conglomorates which is what city are now So whats the problem and as you have said no rules or laws broken
@Rich
You state that talking back room folks off the books is fancy financial schinanigans. That’s your opinion but it is standard business practice for multinational companies to separate common services off into a seperate company. As it happens service use is paid for and use is auditable by UEFA.
Of course not Will. Man City is as white as a virgin can be and would even never dream of doing anything wrong. Never, ever. No way. They are the beacon of light compared with the rest of the football world. And we all know this because you have said so. And the rest of your accountants-fans.
I wonder what they would do if one day another rich owner (richer than theirs) would enter the playground and disrupts the whole league by buying their players with outside money. I somehow think that suddenly they would be the first to shout: foul play. As they were in the days when Chelsea came above water in the same way.
Come to think of that last sentence… no as in those days they were just bouncing up and down the leagues a bit and probably just being happy that they were still alive.
And I might have missed it but I think no current player from Man City has played in the youth and has made it to a long term career since the money came in. Not even bought when being 16 or thereabouts… Despite for years City fans telling me that they will produce the best youth in the country.
This looks like Chelsea that has only one player left who was there before the money came in and once he is gone there will be no more youth players making it to the first team. You can believe all you want but despite all the talk about the academy it is only a big and costly PR-trick.
No manager will risk his neck to give a young lad time to grow in to the team at City (and at Chelsea).
Ha ha ha Walter,
funny and entertaining as always, you have us City fans sussed out as usual, amazing really as you live in Belgium and have never actually been to Manchester (should you not support United by those criteria?)
Ho ho ho, I’m only kidding, I can see you have fallen in love from afar with the Arsenal and hang on every opportunity to big them up an belittle their competition, and that’s what a good fan should do on the interwebs, so yo have my utmost respect for sticking up for your club.
On a Belgium related topic, what do you think of City signing Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg, a fellow countryman? Do you think he will push us on to Champions League glory this season?
I hope so, because then the Sheikh (long may his camels and goats prosper) won’t need to put any more of his pocket money in to building our squad, just think of all the prize money rolling in, lawks a lordy, that will be most welcome 🙂
If I were Arsene Wenger, I would try and hi-jack that deal to make City weaker and the Arsenal stronger, as it’s plain to all and sundry your squad isn’t deep enough to win the big Cups 🙁
Walter,
“I wonder what they would do if one day another rich owner (richer than theirs) would enter the playground and disrupts the whole league by buying their players with outside money. I somehow think that suddenly they would be the first to shout: foul play. As they were in the days when Chelsea came above water in the same way.”
Now I’ve seen you throw that one around a fair few times in the past and to be quite frank, you couldn’t be any more wrong if you tried. I know of not a single City fan that complained when Abramovich bought Chelsea but as you say, we weren’t in direct competition with them so it’s not a great example. A more relevant scenario is Jack Walker’s purchase of Blackburn and subsequent huge investment in the playing squad. At the time they were in the 2nd division and City had just finished 5th in the top flight. The season Blackburn got promoted we finished 5th again. The following season (their first in the top flight) they leap-frogged us. Did any City fans complain about their spending despite the fact that they’d pushed us down the league? Not a single one mate. And believe me, if someone more wealthy than City’s owner comes along and trumps us in the future then fair play to them. You won’t see me complaining. It’s all part of football’s rich tapestry as far as I’m concerned.
You must have missed the bit where I said kelechi Iheanacho was going to be better than Aguero earlier Walter, easy mistake to make, and also we have Jason Denayer on the bench on Sunday, so two young lads who will certainly make it in the top flight – and just to make clear, the Academy is open, but there are finishing touches being made as we speak, the lads and lasses in hard hats and concrete mixers are still on site, so give the place a chance before writing it off 🙂
I know you’re only on a wind up, you know full well the long term benefits of having the best Academy in world football will see us at the very top of European football for decades to come, the future is in fact a lovely shade of Sky Blue, as indeed is the Ladies team I should add.
I invite you and your friends to become secondary City fans, and look out for our results with warmth in your hearts and a fondness for the City Football group, there is room for all and you will get a typical friendly Northern welcome no question 🙂
Are you Pellegrini in disguise It’s grim Oop North? 😉
I remember Chelsea fans saying the same about McEachran a few years ago. He would outshine all our own players. It was as certain as 1 and 1 being 2 for them. Their academy would start producing anytime now. There were a few others they mentioned as that young French kid that almost got them a transfer ban a few years ago.
I’m waiting. And to be honest I think I can wait for a while as big money teams have no time to grow these kids.
So I think you are just kidding yourselves. He will get a few chances in the league cup, but the chances those two you named making it up to 25-30 PL starts in a season are as big as me winning the Euro millions (I let you know when I do 😉 )
Denayer his only chance will be by kicking his other defenders to pieces in training I think. Why do you think you bought Ottamendi? To help Denayer and give him more chances???
I hate to wake you up but all that academy talk is just something they tell you because they know the fans like to hear it that way. I do however know a team where these youngsters do get chances and get to hundreds of games in the first team 😉
You found me out Walter,
yes I am that very Chilean, and yes my English is very good isn’t it 🙂
You haven’t discussed KDB ‘tho, which I’m disappointed with, you do know of him?
Also Jason Denayer is a fully capped Belgian who has just signed a five year deal, and as for Iheanacho, I suggest you do some research on him, he is the real deal, and the reason we have let Dzeko go without replacing him (KDB is a replacement for Jovetic).
Happy Days Walter, two points clear at the top already, no goals conceded, going to be a long, busy season where we’ll be using our squad to full effect, like Wenger tries to every season I guess 🙂
Gael Kakutu was the other his name. Also sold this time. 6 matches in 6 or 7 season for Chelsea if I can believe wiki (I know) but that is the way your youngsters will be going. Unless a real injury crisis hits City they will have almost no chance.
KDB is good but paying that much money is well over the top. I also think that he is somehow mor made for the Bundesliga and not so much for the PL. Bundesliga is played in a less violent atmosphere than the PL most of the time and I think KDB needs that in order to completely shine. Referee protection in the Bundesliga is much higher than in the PL and he might lose his temper a bit more in the PL if he gets kicked from left to right.
How will Denayer improve if he isn’t give matches? I fear another lost young player who will end up at a lower team in a few years time.
Walter,
squad rotation, long season, going all the way in as many competitions as possible, the young lads will get a game because those two are good enough right now – the other youths I don’t think are yet, if ever.
Of course I will be reminding you of these stars at the end of the season 🙂
It’s Grim Oop North
KDB is a difficult player to handle. Mourinho said that he was begging for a transfer. Hope he doesn’t become a Podolsky-in-a- big-team. Moreover do you seriously think he is better than Sanchez or Ozil? Is he really worth £50m? Trouble is you are having to buy every player at inflated price. This doesn’t make them world class though. How much did you guys pay for Mangala? And if you do have a brilliant, deep squad, why did you guys suffer like you did last year when Aguero and Toure were out?
Fellas, you win. All is well and money dominating football to the extent and in the ways it does is the best of all possible football worlds. Don’t like it? Show some ambition and get yourself a better class of billionaire.
Plus ,the ways of big global businesses. They are the standard everything, including football, should look to emulate and be measured against. They’re our best bet and they’ll provide what’s best for us. I just wish everyone would leave them alone so they could do the job even better, starting with the NHS.
Anyway, I should be careful with all this guff which strays a bit too close to moral talk- I haven’t been put to the real test, have I.
If Usmanov,say, gets control of Arsenal, who knows what contortions I’ll do or hoops I’ll dance through in order to avoid troublesome thoughts which get in the way of fully enjoying what gives the club its best chance of success? Would be amusingly convenient,to say the least, if what we argue for here, which would undoubtedly suit our club, happens to actually be, I don’t know, the right thing?
I suppose it’s possible I’d be a bit better able to appreciate the rich tapestry of it all if there was at least honesty- and not the type which is there one second and fades to nothing the next- about what the logical effects of money are in football.
So we can all try forget about those effects at times, and concentrate on the game, but only after we’ve all agreed what those effects are and are bound to be.
For instance, it is very hard- possible, I guess, but hugely improbable- not to enjoy huge success if you pump 500 million, or a billion or whatever it is now, into a football club, and it is very hard to do better than such a club if you have spent 100s of millions less. Agree on that, enjoy the football, and never suggest or pretend it’s otherwise.
Do I keep in mind at all times when playing teams with lower budgets than our own that, well, thanks to our resources, we really should be better than your lot, and any time we win most of the credit should go to those resources of ours? Nope. Not all the time, not even nearly, or at least not during individual games. But in the long term,yes.I’d have some pretty big questions to ask of our manager if West Brom or Sunderland ever finished above us, let me tell you! Unless a free spending billionaire took them over. that I’d understand.
And my judgement of them and all teams over a season or seasons is anchored by whatever budgets they had at their disposal and how they used them.
It has been painful over the years watching a manager I admire so much be denigrated so often by a media, and by civilians including our own fans, whose knowledge of the real and sure effects of money in football fades in and out or has never formed adequately in the first place.
Also cannot be underestimated how big a thing we effectively ask of City fans, or anyone in a similar position, to let anything intrude on their enjoyment of their good fortune. I never start with this, on the few occasions I’ve debated with City fans, but when the debate gets this far along I always say it : it would take herculean effort for someone in your position to speak out against excessive money in football.
You get into the game because it’s enjoyable, you develop a huge passion for your club in whatever circumstances you do, that passion leads you to want the very best for your club- the best players, the best results- and then you’re expected not to completely support something which gives you players and results which, not long ago, were beyond your wildest dreams!?
So I don’t really think badly of anyone who doesn’t do that, and I don’t know for a fact that I wouldn’t do the exact same thing. But I’ll go on making my arguments, often in a heated way which appears to make no allowances for the type of thing I just mentioned, and I’ll believe completely most of the time that I’m not merely arguing out of self/club interest; and you’ll make your arguments; and round and round we’ll go.
Samrat,
we had a FFP squad number restriction in the CL, and did only OK, getting knocked out by Barca, which is no disgrace, although the manner was poor.
Our squad depth this season is what I am currently referring to, and even then we did come second in the league last season, so not too shabby in comparison to everyone else, bar Chelsea.
I do have high hopes for this season because of the new signings, and those to come, which I greedily hope will still contain Paul Pogba, and of course KDB.
As for comparisons between KDB and Ozil and Sanchez, I will admit I have no clue, and just have to trust in our scouting system (not that the whole world isn’t aware of the Bundesliga player of the year!) – oh and purleeeeeeeeese, Ozil???? Sanchez yes, but Ozil had a rotten end of season did he not? the money is what we have to pay to prise the best player from a club who are financially solid, they can ask what they please and we have to pay it, same as the Arsenal would – bot your board and manager don’t seem to understand they need to also pay these players to win the Big Cups, and so you will continue to come a close third at best – and don’t tell me you cannot afford the fees and wages, your board have boasted before how when the stadium is paid off etc you will be splashing the cash – turns out they have changed their minds it seems, and know their fanbase will happily accept the runners up to the runners up spots 🙁
Rich,
I’ll be serious with you, as you seem like you’re an honest kind of guy.
Modern football is played in the same way finance wise it has always been since the professional footballers association got the minimum wage abolished all those years ago – from then, and indeed before then in reality, the clubs with the big money backers were the most successful, but the gaps in capital were just not so great as they are now with folk like Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour, and Usmanov and Kroenke.
However, the Champions League is to me, the root of all the money evils in the game at the moment – get into the elite clique and the fourth placed club in the Prem can make up to £60,000,000 more than the fifth and everyone below placed clubs – do it every year, buy all your rivals best players, and year on year the quality and financial gap gets so wide, that no other club can join the cartel, unless of course your name is Sheikh Mansour and you throw a billion pounds at an already huge club (Record attendance holder Man City).
The inequalities started by the inception of the Premiership, then the back door European elite league, and have just grown and grown until only the intervention of a man with a nation’s coffers at his beck and call can change the cosy status quo.
If you really cared about having a level playinng field, you would be campaigning to have CL revenues distributed absolutely equally to every single club in the european professional remit, from Aldershot to the Arsenal, from Brentford to Barcelona, and introduce a wage cap etc – but I bet you won’t, as that would probably mean you drop out of the top four, as might City.
FFP? nothing to do with doping, just making dopes of honesty.
There is to much viscosity in the finances of some clubs. The money that Arsenal has didn’t slip in @Dave, it was worked for. Money grafted for is not easily spent.
City play good quality football because they are modelled on Arsenal with several ex Arsenal personnel milked for ‘Wengers intelligence’. However buying quality players does not make a quality team.
What will happen when the oil flow stops? The ball will forget how to roll.
Menace,
is that what they taught u at skool today M8?
The Champions league money was worked for was it?
O……………………….K…………………….!!
Also, we are modelled on Barca, every man and his dog knows that, just ask Yaya Toure on the Twitters if you don’t believe me.
@ menace
Some weeks ago whenTony was stiring the pot with regard to FFP and most on here , as you are again, claimed that every £ Arsenal have spent has come due to their earnings yet when I gave details in the past of Granda Medias huge injection into Arsenal in exchange for 9.9% of created equity most either can’t see the woods for the trees or are in denial
Now there is nothing wrong with outside interests injecting capital and there is nothing wrong with companies increasing the number of shares but please don’t try to kid anyone that Arsenal have never been the recipients of funds from outside
Walter your certain that City are dodgy but have no evidence and do not even know what form there dodgy deals would take or what proof would. I might as well just call every club dodgy it carries as much weight. City have more money than Arsenal out of there own pocket now also its time you realized that and stopped pretending otherwise. It is also time you realized whats going on at city with the campus and CFG model. You should also have more understanding if the time it takes o get kids to the first team and how well the academy is working etc
So it looks like Benzema isnt coming.Good to see Jienny or whatever her name is, has put all the blame on Wenger,(nicely deflecting form the fact she said that Benzema was having a medical in London at one point)which will be the next mythos around it all. Who will the hacks now say is coming until the window closes?
Lets hope we win tonight.Come on Giroud bag a hatrick! COYG!
HeavyRiffs
“That’s just you, otherwise we’d still be subject to FFP sanctions, Son”
Proves the tricks worked, that’s all.
-We’ve earned everything we spend.
-We’ve paid every penny back.
-Our youth policy works.
-We deserve everything we’ve got because we followed our team through years and years of dire football.
-We deserve to be where we are despite our Club being run like a back street market stall for 30 odd years.
Yep, you’re just another noisy neighbour with his deluded head buried in the sand.
So many off sides not given. Asst refs are unaware of their jobs. Offside player attempts header – no flag.
menace,
has it ever occurred to you that your team just haven’t played well enough?
Also there are no such things as aliens and the yanks did actually land on the moon 🙂
It’s Grim Oop North
Can’t argue with a lot of that. Worse still, right at the heart of my arguments there is a very unhelpful lack of exactitude : basically, some investment from owners good, but not too much.
How much is too much? Ah, now we’re in tricky territory. It’s easy to recognise what you feel is undoubtedly too much, but, for those with any power to affect things, that’s obviously not sufficient as a basis to try do anything about it. Nor for anyone tasked with saying exactly what they believe is right.
There’s an arbitrariness to any lines that are drawn up, but all the same I felt and still feel it was the right thing to do.
For the record, in my earliest years- from about 10 to maybe 20 or so- as a football supporter, 90 to 2000, I had no problems with any of the investments owners made. Strange to admit, or even for me to believe, I think I enjoyed it all and generally found the whole business of clubs buying and potentially building good teams exciting.
Bryan Roy! Lentini! The exoticness of Stefan Schwarz. Ole Georgi Kinkladze. Derby going on a mad one with Paul Kitson and Gabbriadini! Even Spurs and their questionable 5 or whatever it was.
Hard to compare then to now because nearly all my thinking back then is truly foreign to me from here, but I believe it is inarguable that the scale of owner investment, as well as of money in football overall, has changed massively since then. That had to make regulators and everyone else question whether that was,well, good.
Like most laws, or regulations at least, particularly in financial realms, the will to create them comes with something of a heavy heart and is done in the knowledge that the effort will involve setting these somewhat arbitrary limits. Not easy and not exactly pleasurable. It involves setting yourself against forces which you have no problem with, per se, so long as they don’t go too far.
Again, back to how much is too much. Anyway, that’s enough of that I guess. I will add though that my appetite for going over it all really is nil at this point- I’ve thought about it, said my bit a number of times, there’s nothing new for me to add- I simply get drawn back into the fray when I hear criticism of the club or manager I support which ignores the financial realities of the game.
That’s what’s impossible for me to ignore. Aside from that, I’m pretty much ready to accept things as they are, sit back and watch the team and hope for the best, thinking about financial stuff occasionally, maybe, but all on the quiet.
Ha, in other words, i’m never gonna get to sit back and stop getting drawn into the arguments : Adrian Durham alone is enough to ensure that. Many of our own fans even more so.
Rich,
appreciate your heartfelt reply.
As a lad in the 70’s and 80’s, we always felt our club could win the title, indeed anyone could come up from the old second division and win the first division the next year – come the Premiership, and the Nottingham Forests of this world all of a sudden became impossible to replicate – that is when the big problems arose, not when Chelsea and City got rich owners.
All those moves to turn football into what we have today in Europe truly changed the landscape from a roughly equal competition, to a cartel at the top who changed the laws to suit their own ends and greed, and those clubs and individuals involved are the ones all decent football fans should lay the blame at, IF you don’t like the monster that we have now, running amok, and making a mockery of proper competition.
FFP never was designed to make the competition fair, as we can see by the end results now, and we all knew it if we’d read up on it.
Anyway, boo-hoo, as a City fan I’ll take the fun from supporting my team, and let those who hypocritically cry foul stew in their own bile, and I suspect you are not one of those my friend, all the best for the season ahead 🙂
It’s Grim Oop North
Aye, same to you.
As yet, can’t say I’ve ever felt any of the hatred towards City which overflows from me towards Utd and Chelsea, and it still feels like I’m talking to people with working souls and humour when I occasionally interact with City fans. That counts for plenty.
It’s Grim, what do I read now in the papers in Belgium today? Jason Denayer probably on his way out to be loaned to Galatasaray?? So it looks that you will not need to remind me the number of matches he will play for City 🙂
Walter he signed a 5 year deal his future is bright at city
Walter,
I’m confident he’ll get his chances next season – Demichelis (who has turned out to be a far more useful player than many expected) will be 35 then and is expected to return to Argentina. That leaves Kompany, Mangala, and Otamendi at CB. We’ll still be well stocked in that department but you don’t need me to tell you that Kompany has his fair share of injury problems and will be 30 next year. He’s not getting any younger and long-term I suspect Denayer is being lined up to succeed him.
I believe the club want him to stay on the bench and fight for a place, and surely he will get a fair few games if we progress to the finals of as many competitions as we can, not to mention Vinne K and Mangala are injury prone – we really could do with five centre backs in my humble opinion – however I have read Denayer and his agent are keen to get him playing regular games at this stage in his career, so the club have left it to him, happy in the knowledge he has a new five year contract.
This is probably Demichelis’ last year at City, he is no spring chicken, so next season Denayer will be a year older and wiser, and hopefully a first team regular.
Of course we’d all love to see our local team full of local lads winning everything in sight, but realistically the best league in the world is full of the best players in the world, and they do not come for free, hence we are where we are – but I suspect you know that already.
In the future City will have academy graduates in the first team, like Barca, and like Barca most of them won’t be from the local area, they will just be the best youth from around the globe, and a couple of Mancs probably, and that will have to do, just a fact of life.
Citys comercial revenue will slowly grow to the requiered level for buying the players they want. Its not a club we compete with, but a country.
Norwegian Gooner are you suggesting something dodgy ?
I don’t really get all of this. The rules of the game are the rules, and if UEFA says clubs have to support themselves with only limited owner help, that’s what they have to do, otherwise they will be thrown out. Otherwise they could go to court for all sorts of things, such as referee decisions. We don’t want the champions to be decided by the size of the owners wallet, that isn’t sport and rapidly becomes very boring like F1, with the same teams winning all the time, and no one else standing a chance.
Amortisation is key here, not only do the signings made this summer get amortised over the length of the contract (hence 5/6 yr deals) but also 2015/16 is the first year that the lavish spending of 2010/11 is wiped from the books. So whilst we may have spent approx 150m this summer spread over the next 5/6 years, we will have cleared the c. 180m we spent five seasons ago. This combined with increased match-day (expanded stadium), television (new TV deals) and commercial revenue (continuing apace) will leave us in a much better position to deal with FFP. I suggest you find something else to write about because this is no longer an issue for the MCFC hierachy.
It’s all well and good criticising another clubs finances, and I know you make a reference to replies such as this one in your article but…
I currently pay £299 to watch (the best?) football in the league, you probably pay the best part of £1000 to also watch a very good standard of football. Who in all honesty is getting the better deal? Just think about that for one minute, away from all the FFP aspect of the game, who has the better owners? Which club cares more about its fans? Which club has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on the local community and will continue to do so?
You honestly need to give it a rest now, as you are trying to fight something that you won’t win and focus more on how your own club is ripping your fans off as that is what is ruining football, not a guy that is investing in a club that if any other business, nobody would even bat and eyelid.
Simon, if you are winning the argument as you contend, why does it matter to you whether we go on with the issue or not?