Statement from the club

[SBRed48]

To me as someone who has not grasped the financial workings of the club so basically a lay mans point of view, it represents some kind of harmony in the camp ,which was obviously missing under Conways watch , again without knowing how the money side of the club there has been the recent cash injection of some £3 million or so which probably again would not have happened under Conway so things would appear to be smooth in the boardroom , all this coupled with improvements on the pitch must be positive , or am I just a silly old naive fan who hopes that the club off the pitch is on the mend.

In summary with rounded approximate figures--

--Before he was binned by the Investor Group the Board watched Conway run down the club's reserves in the accounts from £5 million to zero.

--Relegation cost the club £6 million in TV share income, from £8 million in the Championship to £2 million in the Third Division

- A loan from the EFL of £2 million during Covid remains unpaid

--A 20% drop in ST sales and failure to secure a proper sponsorship deal lost another £1 million from £4 million down to £3 million

--So with income down to around £5 million, no reserves, loans to pay and annual running costs of around £10 million (mainly wages ) the only answer was to sell players for as much as they could get and offload others to reduce the wage bill. The sales and offloads didn't bring in as much as anticipated and squad gaps still had to be filled with free transfers and loan players adding to the wage bill.

--Despite all this Parekh has stated the club is still losing £1 million a month in running costs. An emergency sale of £1 million worth of shares was announced in the summer, all bought by existing shareholders in proportion to their existing share of the ownership ( including Lee and Conway). This meant £1 mill was now available to the club but the owners now had more shares which can be sold, in other words it is not a straight gift cash amount to the club from their pockets and lost forever.

--To cover continued monthly losses of £1 mill in running the club until January another emergency share issue, this time £3.2 mill, has been announced on the same basis--again not a gift cash injection from owners pockets never to be seen again, but shares which can later be sold.
The take up of this share offering is not yet known

--Being aware of the cash crisis at the club the Crynes have agreed to drop the Court case to get back through the Courts the money still owed to them by the Consortium for purchasing the club and have agreed to delay instalments due to them of the remaining £2.75 million owed until next summer.

The club is living from hand to mouth each month with another £1mill a month hole to fill starting next January.