SENTINELCELTS

The release of our annual accounts were very timely. They dropped as this blogs posters were debating Not Another Penny Campaign, the Collective had also done likewise, and of course they came just as we also experience a genuine and very alarming downturn on the field of play.

It’s worth mentioning those numbers would have been known in late July/early August.
What’s the point?
There’s several points when thats taken into account.

Faced with a significant drop and with about a month of the transfer window our executives were faced with major decisions namely what do we do?
Stabilize and slowly grow back then surpass the previous highpoint,,,
Curtail spending or spend very little,,,
Flex the financial muscle and jointly entice more supporter revenue, TV revenue, while stocking up on future player sales income via recruitment?
I insist most CEO”s in football would opt for the third option especially given the amount in the bank. We opted for the second and thats where the domino’s fall into place.

I thought we had bought well upto LASK, but like everyone felt it faded out after that even though some might turn out to be good footballers. That result, the accounts, and opting for that second option above essentially holed our campaign under the hull.
Martin is the man left holding the can, we also suffer to an extent, but he was hit with that double whammy in the space of a couple of weeks, bad accounts mean much less to spend unless he hits, the CL,,,then he doesn’t and realizes thats about it.
I often thought, and its been commented on, that it was almost as if a switch was flicked and our flame was extinguished. I now believe that double whammy floored football operations entirely.

It explains a lot of our transfer activity, like watching Sigur and Mahmic go to lesser alternatives. Like the board not being as keen on Genetis as the manager, per reports from Italy. Option 2, curtail spending and instead of about 15m to reinforce the midfield with three good players, we spent 4 on one and took two for free.

Option B, curtailing spend if the figures slide, more or less insures another Option B next season. The accounts aren’t going to suddenly leap in July’27, and now the heart has gone TV and prize income will decrease, as will player value, as will supporter income.
Option B just cost the bank balance 11 million smackeroonies.
You know this by now, but here’s my point, they cannot keep spending the bank account, which would be the result of Option B annually,,,faced with the backdrop of having to spend the bank account to not even stay still but get left behind, Option B must be abandoned.

Nobody especially Dermot would be silly enough to just save 77m and watch it dissappear, that would be unprecedented in football. 5 seasons of Option B would eat that cash in the bank, then who is paying the debt because Dermot won’t.
Besides all this would collapse the shareprice and the shareholders wouldnt allow that. As would Dermot doubling down and just reducing the quality slowly until we are the equivalent of a Sheffield Wednesday playing infront of 15k in League Two at 50k Hillsborough. Again, the money men just won’t watch their spoils dissappear.

Yup Option B must and shall be binned. The alternative is to avoid even facing Option B in the first place and coincidentally not long before the accounts were due a man who would known what they contained typed out an email asking to meet the Collective.
Brian Wilson would not have made that decision solo, he been ordered to and we all know who gave that order.

I find this very telling. Last season “we” were scum on the verge of knifing someone, apparently we are responsible for nobody joining the board (as if some well intentioned foreigner would care), now “we” are “invited” back onside as soon as they gulp at the figures and surely realize that Elite Level Adidas bonus will soon put a further dent in the coffers. This meeting (and I await the summary) was aimed not at unity but at finance returning, in my humble opinion.
What they offered as a carrot I’m dying to find out but apparently the world class club with a successful strategy have cottoned onto the terrible fact that they need us.
I hope they quickly realize we neither need nor want them.

By Mahe
sentinelcelts@gmail.com