Summer transfer thread

[teesred]

46m pre tax loss reported.
Here we fucking go.

[Insidious]

46m pre tax loss reported.
Here we fucking go.

I might set up an accounting/finances based thread for this season's accounts if there's an appetite for it?

Feel a Summer transfer thread that is a hybrid of people's optimistic wish-lists versus analysis of our current financial limitations could be a really muddled mess and cause debates to devolve into arguments.

[Kev0909]

46m pre tax loss reported.
Here we fucking go.

Sell the fuck up then right

Losing money sell !!!!!!!!

[faridtoxteth]

I don't really understand the subtleties of finances but the last four years we have been maybe the most successful club in europe along with Bayern Munich. How can we be losing money?. Is gates receipts so important to us, despite all the sponsorship deals?. Is it our wage bill? Are we investing in the development of the Anfield road stand? Surely we must be raking it in from our huge world fan base.

[Insidious]

Is it our wage bill? Are we investing in the development of the Anfield road stand? Surely we must be raking it in from our huge world fan base.

Wage bill is a factor. Details online are very, very sparse, but we are known to have an incentivised wage structure. The finer details aren't known and will vary from player to player, but the players are paid more for certain things - so if we are in the Champion's League, they're paid more. If we win the League, they're paid more. If we go on a deep run in Europe - and so on. The aim of this is to protect the club (and undeniably FSG's pockets, they're business people) a bit from the damage done by things like being absent from the Champion's League. So our £325m wages for that financial year will go up or down to an extent depending on how well/poorly we've performed - annoyingly accounts are always "out of date" so we need to see the ones next year (that will include most of the Covid-hit spell) to know more.

The Anfield Road stand apparently has been budgeted for. Some of the money we need to spend on that is "set aside" as it were - "that money was just resting in my account" said Father Ted.

We do take a fair bit of money in, but a hefty chunk goes on agents (renegotiation of deals) and bonuses to players for our success - this is the infamous "paying the bills" that Klopp referred in a press conference. Where in the past we would have simply "had" to sell successful players to Barca/Real/whoever we tend to have the capacity to keep them now - but this of course comes at a price.

[faridtoxteth]

Thanks Sid

[LEGS]

To be fair I dont think anyone is making a profit so its to be expected.

Well maybe Man City might !

[LEGS]

Am I right in saying accounts this year only account for 3 months with no fans ?

Next year will be this season figures which is pretty much no fans at all.

Mind we'll all be happy when PSG give us £100m for Origi 🤣

[Nineteenx]

Commanding centre back - Looks like there is a deal for Konate he has all the qualities we need in a commanding centre back - this position is vitally important, because our set pieces were a huge source of goals and assists for us in the past 3 seasons and without a commanding centre back (or two) who is mobile and great at attacking the ball and attracts so much attention from opposition defences that the analysis team can pick out how we might exploit the defending team using another player and brief the lads at HT, our numbers on set pieces this year are significantly lower

Midfielder - Needs to be able to play switches long diagonals and balls over the top and operate in our pressing and counter pressing game, they're the stock requirements for any midfielders we sign - we need a player who can do all those things and who can make the play and has a good assist record and creativity because we really lack that, shooting is also a requirement and set piece ability at free kicks would be preferable - We ideally need to add 2 players like this

Forwards - Ideally we need to add a forward who has good creativity who is comfortable in a front 3 and at playing left attacking mid, right attacking mid or centre attacking mid, Neto would have been ideal, but is sadly injured, it's the type of balls he has in his locker to find other forwards when he's between the opposition midfield and defence, really need that, that together with the more creative midfielder would make us much more potent and far less predictable

Need a forward who is just a lethal finisher, Ihenacho has looked like a player who could fit into and compliment our way of playing very well indeed of late, but he won't be coming, so it will have to be MBappe, to smooth things over with the fans and Nike for missing out on the Champions League

[Crimson Dynasty]

The simple and basic answer for that big loss boils down to the fact that more than other clubs (or at least among the other big 6 clubs) we rely more heavily on gate receipts and gameday revenue to make the books work.
And having a pandemic lockdown for over a year certainly hasn't helped - especially when you still had to keep the lights on and everything running all that time.


Probably Spurs and Arsenal are like us in this regard (of the big 6) - but in both their cases as you can quickly surmise, they just completed brand new stadiums that they were banking on for gate receipts for years to come and then the pandemic hits.
Not that dissimilar to our own Anfield expansion.

So it's no surprise that it was ourselves and Spurs last year, of the big 6 who had opted to go for the Furlough option before reversing course.
Well, this is the alternative.

And I don't even believe that furloughing workers would have saved the club from suffering a loss.
It might have reduced the sting somewhat - ....but not by much.