Originally Posted by
MadAmster
Are we, though?
No debt other than an alleged £1.5M we still owe Arsenal for Bielik.
On the plus side, the business plan we operated under last season budgeted on income from average gates of 17,000. Gates were 10K higher than that. We didn't overspend on the business plan budget AND we had 10K more through the doors at every game. There's £5.3M extra in gate receipts (based on £20 a ticket) plus whatever we had left from the budgeted income. That's more than the entire budget of some of our rivals. Based on modest fees, some freebies and sensible wages that's enough for the 10 to 12 players we need.
The current squad counts 16 players but that includes Loach who will be 3rd choice keeper and coach and it includes Oduroh who I expect to be in the 21s again. Basically 14 players. 10 to 12 newbies is what we need so we can rotate players to prevent another running out of steam. Having said that, we should remember that half of last season's squad only had 2 or 3 weeks of pre season and that, IMO, is what caused the "blow up". I fully expect the squad to be almost complete when pre season starts, probably on Monday June 26th, giving us a 6 week pre season which is par for the course.