Accounts to the Year Ended May 2018

[bazil85]

3 hours ago, Dibbles old paperboy said:

So you think it's smart business by the club that in the 25 months since Jack Ross was appointed manager we have made 60 signings?

Jack Ross made 45 signings in under 2 years - including contract extensions to Magennis (x2), Jack Baird (x2), Josh Todd, Jamie Langfield, Gary MacKenzie (x2), Gary Irvine, Adam Eckersley, Stelious Demetriou, Craig Samson. A decent amount of Jack Ross' punts on players making the step up resulted in players being benched or loaned back out at a lower level from where we were playing and where we were going to be promoted to (Craig Storie, Pal Fjelde, Josh Todd, Ross Stewart, Ross Stewart, Jordan Kirkpatrick, Gregor Buchanan, Darryl Duffy, Mark Hill, Myles Hippolyte, Donati, Kellerman).

Of Jack Ross's 45 signings how many would you say are of premiership quality? Ryan Flynn was signed when we were running away with the Championship (as were Danny Mullen, Myles Hippolyte and Massimo Donati) on a 2 and a half year deal (as was Mullen). 

Stubbs made 11 signings in 11 weeks in charge and Kyle Magennis signed a 3rd contract extension

Kearney has made 3 signings since he came.

Players we sold in the last 25 months: Jason Naismith, Kyle McAllister, Stevie Mallan, Lewis Morgan, and we have had almost £1m in a sell on fee from John McGinn's sale from Hibs to Aston Villa, we have probably brought in over £1.5m in player sales and compensation in the last 2 years and it is very clear that a huge amount of that has been wasted on signing players we did not use more than a handful of times. At the same time as Jack Ross was sending in applications (rather than waiting to be headhunted) he was resigning guys like Gary MacKenzie for the premiership.

Our wage bill was cut around £1.3m a season for many of Danny Lennon's seasons in charge (where we finished 8th twice in the premiership, won a League Cup and were at several other cup quarter finals) in the days when we were being run on a break even budget, for our wage bill to exceed £2m while in the championship is madness.

So what is your point here? The board shouldn’t have backed Jack Ross? They shouldn’t have let him spend money we had that ultimately got us promoted? 

What's your alternative solution that would still have gotten us success on the park, increase our profit margins and put us in a position to yet again be at profit this coming season?

You can compare him to danny Lennon if you want but he started life in the SP and not all his signings cut it at this level either. 

Still don’t understand the point you’re trying to make at all. Would you of been happier supporting a team that finished mid-table in the championship last season but showed bigger profits? What would you like them to do with those profits... maybe spend them to gain top flight football 

[buddies1877]

The club spent £2 million more on wages than last year. Just let that sink in... £2 million more!

What is sinking in is how much of a complete tool you are

 

In recent weeks you’ve tried to troll several threads making a complete fool of yourself

 

Complaining about Oran changing erhahon to midfield for the Dundee game when he was clearly played in the same position at left back

 

Complaining about Oran making the wrong subs against hearts when we won 2-0 pretty comfortable with Rodgers having very little to do.

 

Moaning about tv rights money failing at a simple calculation

 

Then yet again failing with your numbers claiming wages have went up by 2 million more this year compared to last.

 

Think it’s time to start another account buddy you’ve made a complete c**t of yourself too many times for anyone to even attempt to take you seriously

 

[Dibbles old paperboy]

1 hour ago, bazil85 said:

So what is your point here? The board shouldn’t have backed Jack Ross? They shouldn’t have let him spend money we had that ultimately got us promoted? 

What's your alternative solution that would still have gotten us success on the park, increase our profit margins and put us in a position to yet again be at profit this coming season?

You can compare him to danny Lennon if you want but he started life in the SP and not all his signings cut it at this level either. 

Still don’t understand the point you’re trying to make at all. Would you of been happier supporting a team that finished mid-table in the championship last season but showed bigger profits? What would you like them to do with those profits... maybe spend them to gain top flight football 

I notice that you have chosen to completely disregard my point that 60 signings and contract extensions in 2 seasons is unsustainable in the long run for a club of our size or for most clubs of any size. 

If you discount the contract extensions made by Jack Ross he still made 30 other signings in less than 2 years at the club. Our wage bill increased by 46% during his time at the club.

Why do you only want to present a binary choice between giving Jack Ross and the board praise for getting us promoted or saying we are being negative?

I think the majority of people found Jack Ross's transfer dealing in the January 2018 to be rather short-sighted and wasteful... Hippolyte was a gamble given we were heading for premiership football rather than another few seasons in the Championship, so was Danny Mullen on a two and a half year deal... now we are in the premiership how many fans think Ryan Flynn looks like a good bit of business with 2 more seasons left on his contract as well, as Donati left a premiership club to come to us last season and play 1 game.

I think that after fans were frustrated about selling Naismith, McAllister, Mallan and Morgan for modest fees compared to their likely potential that all their fees have gone into carrying too large a squad and paying a large chunk of our squad to play a handful of games per season (in some cases mostly the League Cup group stages or Irn Bru cup).

Jack Ross signings which are premiership (lower half) quality: Stephen McGinn, Paul McGinn, Craig Samson, Adam Eckersley, Cammy Smith, Gavin Reilly... and that's probably your lot out of 30 signings.

I am quite sure you can accept that signing Donati, Mark Hill and Hippolyte in January 2018 had no bearing on whether we got promoted or not. Last year our average player salary was £46k a year in the championship. Summer signings from 2017 who hardly featured at all in the 2017/8 season (presumably contributing to the average £46k a player a season wages last year)... Ross Stewart (striker), Josh Todd,  Gregor Buchanan, Gary Irvine, Dale Hilson, Darryl Duffy. Signings which probably consume most of the £300k fee we got for Lewis Morgan.

[Soctty]

10 hours ago, oaksoft said:

The only reason we made a profit at all was down to one-off exceptional iteams (which player sales clearly are).

That hasnt changed.

I am prepared to acknowledge that Bazil is attemtping to spin these results. The alternative is that he genuinely doesnt have a clue about accounts.

Maybe if he just acknowledged that an operating loss of £640k IS a cause for concern rather than trying to bullshit people, we could have saved ourselves a couple of pages here.

We made a profit. This came about due to an exceptional item in the accounts. We also had a similar exceptional item the previous year, and will have one next year.  We had one in the 2015 accounts and the 2016 accounts as well, so that's 4 years in a row I believe. 

How often does it need to happen until we realise selling our best players is a fact of life and something all sensible smaller clubs do to balance the books? 

There is far more to accounts than numbers. 

Edited November 26, 2018 by Soctty

[shull]

7 minutes ago, buddies1877 said:

What is sinking in is how much of a complete tool you are

In recent weeks you’ve tried to troll several threads making a complete fool of yourself

Complaining about Oran changing earhahon to midfield for the Dundee game when he was clearly played in the same position at left back

Complaining about Oran making the wrong subs against hearts when we won 2-0 pretty comfortable with Rodgers having very little to do.

Moaning about tv rights money failing at a simple calculation

Then yet again failing with your numbers claiming wages have went up by 2 million more this year compared to last.

Think it’s time to start another account buddy you’ve made a complete c**t of yourself too many times for anyone to even attempt to take you seriously

The Calming Voice Of The Forum.

[Soctty]

9 hours ago, oaksoft said:

The only reason we made a profit at all was down to one-off exceptional iteams (which player sales clearly are).

That hasnt changed.

I am prepared to acknowledge that Bazil is attemtping to spin these results. The alternative is that he genuinely doesnt have a clue about accounts.

Maybe if he just acknowledged that an operating loss of £640k IS a cause for concern rather than trying to bullshit people, we could have saved ourselves a couple of pages here.

As I said in another post, we had one off exceptional items in the 2015, 2016, 2017 and now the 2018 accounts. 

Just how much of a one off are these items? I think in most cases the money was made, or was at least all but guaranteed, before it was spent, which means the club has spent money it had coming in to try to achieve an aim. 

There is a lot of knicker wetting going on, with people appearing to assume that those in charge of the club are naive or lacking in business nous. This isn't the case. 

[Dibbles old paperboy]

15 minutes ago, Soctty said:

As I said in another post, we had one off exceptional items in the 2015, 2016, 2017 and now the 2018 accounts. 

Just how much of a one off are these items? I think in most cases the money was made, or was at least all but guaranteed, before it was spent, which means the club has spent money it had coming in to try to achieve an aim. 

There is a lot of knicker wetting going on, with people appearing to assume that those in charge of the club are naive or lacking in business nous. This isn't the case. 

And how many players did we get transfer fees for from 2010-14?

[billyg]

Probably the wrong thread , and it may have been posted elsewhere too , but it shows where we really stand player budget wise !

[oaksoft]

1 hour ago, Soctty said:

We made a profit. This came about due to an exceptional item in the accounts. We also had a similar exceptional item the previous year, and will have one next year.  We had one in the 2015 accounts and the 2016 accounts as well, so that's 4 years in a row I believe. 

How often does it need to happen until we realise selling our best players is a fact of life and something all sensible smaller clubs do to balance the books? 

There is far more to accounts than numbers. 

How long does it take to realise that relying on extraordinary items cannot go on forever?

What happens when we run out of players to sell in the next couple of years? Or are we blindly hoping that St Mirren will somehow be exempt from the swings of the transfer market?

We are covered for next year's accounts thanks to McGinn but what about the following year?

One of two things will happen. We either sell perhaps MacGennis or we will have to slash our playing budget substantially (probably by about 25-30% - more if we are relegated).

Can you imagine how poor our squad would be compared to even this one?

That is why operating profit/loss is so important. It gives you a much fairer summary of the underlying finances of the club when you run out of players to sell.

Yes we made a small profit and we should be glad of that but it is entirely correct to be able to see potential problems in the underlying accounts.

You can be certain that any buying club worth it's salt will know that operating loss by heart the next time we come to sell and will know how desperate we are to get a fee of any size. They will bid appropriately. We might as well put a big banner at the club entrance saying "Please underpay for our players. We'll take anything".

Edited November 27, 2018 by oaksoft

[oaksoft]

1 hour ago, Soctty said:

There is a lot of knicker wetting going on

And a fair bit of denial too.

[stlucifer]

6 hours ago, oaksoft said:

How long does it take to realise that relying on extraordinary items cannot go on forever?

What happens when we run out of players to sell in the next couple of years? Or are we blindly hoping that St Mirren will somehow be exempt from the swings of the transfer market?

We are covered for next year's accounts thanks to McGinn but what about the following year?

One of two things will happen. We either sell perhaps MacGennis or we will have to slash our playing budget substantially (probably by about 25-30% - more if we are relegated).

Can you imagine how poor our squad would be compared to even this one?

That is why operating profit/loss is so important. It gives you a much fairer summary of the underlying finances of the club when you run out of players to sell.

Yes we made a small profit and we should be glad of that but it is entirely correct to be able to see potential problems in the underlying accounts.

You can be certain that any buying club worth it's salt will know that operating loss by heart the next time we come to sell and will know how desperate we are to get a fee of any size. They will bid appropriately. We might as well put a big banner at the club entrance saying "Please underpay for our players. We'll take anything".

I believe the club are wise to the facts. MacPherson has already said the squad needs downsized. There will be more out than in in the next transfer window. That should begin to redress the balance. We still need players able to compete on the stage we find ourselves so individual wages are bound to be higher. IF we are relegated then I would think players contracts would have a proviso written into them, either reducing their income or allowing them to leave.

[bazil85]

8 hours ago, Dibbles old paperboy said:

I notice that you have chosen to completely disregard my point that 60 signings and contract extensions in 2 seasons is unsustainable in the long run for a club of our size or for most clubs of any size. 

If you discount the contract extensions made by Jack Ross he still made 30 other signings in less than 2 years at the club. Our wage bill increased by 46% during his time at the club.

Why do you only want to present a binary choice between giving Jack Ross and the board praise for getting us promoted or saying we are being negative?

I think the majority of people found Jack Ross's transfer dealing in the January 2018 to be rather short-sighted and wasteful... Hippolyte was a gamble given we were heading for premiership football rather than another few seasons in the Championship, so was Danny Mullen on a two and a half year deal... now we are in the premiership how many fans think Ryan Flynn looks like a good bit of business with 2 more seasons left on his contract as well, as Donati left a premiership club to come to us last season and play 1 game.

I think that after fans were frustrated about selling Naismith, McAllister, Mallan and Morgan for modest fees compared to their likely potential that all their fees have gone into carrying too large a squad and paying a large chunk of our squad to play a handful of games per season (in some cases mostly the League Cup group stages or Irn Bru cup).

Jack Ross signings which are premiership (lower half) quality: Stephen McGinn, Paul McGinn, Craig Samson, Adam Eckersley, Cammy Smith, Gavin Reilly... and that's probably your lot out of 30 signings.

I am quite sure you can accept that signing Donati, Mark Hill and Hippolyte in January 2018 had no bearing on whether we got promoted or not. Last year our average player salary was £46k a year in the championship. Summer signings from 2017 who hardly featured at all in the 2017/8 season (presumably contributing to the average £46k a player a season wages last year)... Ross Stewart (striker), Josh Todd,  Gregor Buchanan, Gary Irvine, Dale Hilson, Darryl Duffy. Signings which probably consume most of the £300k fee we got for Lewis Morgan.

See below, bloody phone! 

Edited November 27, 2018 by bazil85

[bazil85]

7 hours ago, Dibbles old paperboy said:

I notice that you have chosen to completely disregard my point that 60 signings and contract extensions in 2 seasons is unsustainable in the long run for a club of our size or for most clubs of any size. 

If you discount the contract extensions made by Jack Ross he still made 30 other signings in less than 2 years at the club. Our wage bill increased by 46% during his time at the club.

Why do you only want to present a binary choice between giving Jack Ross and the board praise for getting us promoted or saying we are being negative?

I think the majority of people found Jack Ross's transfer dealing in the January 2018 to be rather short-sighted and wasteful... Hippolyte was a gamble given we were heading for premiership football rather than another few seasons in the Championship, so was Danny Mullen on a two and a half year deal... now we are in the premiership how many fans think Ryan Flynn looks like a good bit of business with 2 more seasons left on his contract as well, as Donati left a premiership club to come to us last season and play 1 game.

I think that after fans were frustrated about selling Naismith, McAllister, Mallan and Morgan for modest fees compared to their likely potential that all their fees have gone into carrying too large a squad and paying a large chunk of our squad to play a handful of games per season (in some cases mostly the League Cup group stages or Irn Bru cup).

Jack Ross signings which are premiership (lower half) quality: Stephen McGinn, Paul McGinn, Craig Samson, Adam Eckersley, Cammy Smith, Gavin Reilly... and that's probably your lot out of 30 signings.

I am quite sure you can accept that signing Donati, Mark Hill and Hippolyte in January 2018 had no bearing on whether we got promoted or not. Last year our average player salary was £46k a year in the championship. Summer signings from 2017 who hardly featured at all in the 2017/8 season (presumably contributing to the average £46k a player a season wages last year)... Ross Stewart (striker), Josh Todd,  Gregor Buchanan, Gary Irvine, Dale Hilson, Darryl Duffy. Signings which probably consume most of the £300k fee we got for Lewis Morgan.

Not ignoring it in the slightest, to clarify. It sounds to me like you have issue with the strategy that got us promoted which confuses me.

Do you genuinely think JR signed all these players thinking every single one would make an impact? You’ve answered that question already in your numbers and if memory serves me right JR actually spoke about it in an interview. So unless JR was under impression rules had changed to 25 a side matches, he was aware they wouldn’t all play  

He and everyone else at the club knew a number of those players wouldn’t be first team players. The question was always which ones? The strategy was to sign a big squad then bring a team together to do the business. It paid off.

At the time of signing did you know for a fact players like Hippolyte and Irvine wouldn’t be important players in the SP/ Championship? Irvine for example ended the previous season on great form, Hippolyte could have filled the Morgan gap (he still could have,who knows, Stubbs got rid of him) 

as for Donatti, he was signed as an old head going into a coaching type role to support the squad for the rest of the season and cover for McGinn. If McGinn got injured I would wager he would have played a part. We had the finance to do that as clearly shown in the profit, so why not? 

If you don’t like the strategy JR used, fine but you can’t deny it worked a treat. We’re in the SP now and made a profit.

From the Q&A with OK it sounded like he was more of a fan of a small talented squad. It’s simply a different strategy. Neither right or wrong, whatever works for each manager. 

As for selling players on the cheap, it’s been discussed many times and it’s all a matter of contract length. Our hands have been tied. We could sign up promising players to longer terms sooner but for every Morgan, you’ll have three Thomas Reilly and Lewis McLears stuck on long term deals. 

[bazil85]

6 hours ago, oaksoft said:

How long does it take to realise that relying on extraordinary items cannot go on forever?

What happens when we run out of players to sell in the next couple of years? Or are we blindly hoping that St Mirren will somehow be exempt from the swings of the transfer market?

We are covered for next year's accounts thanks to McGinn but what about the following year?

One of two things will happen. We either sell perhaps MacGennis or we will have to slash our playing budget substantially (probably by about 25-30% - more if we are relegated).

Can you imagine how poor our squad would be compared to even this one?

That is why operating profit/loss is so important. It gives you a much fairer summary of the underlying finances of the club when you run out of players to sell.

Yes we made a small profit and we should be glad of that but it is entirely correct to be able to see potential problems in the underlying accounts.

You can be certain that any buying club worth it's salt will know that operating loss by heart the next time we come to sell and will know how desperate we are to get a fee of any size. They will bid appropriately. We might as well put a big banner at the club entrance saying "Please underpay for our players. We'll take anything".

Can you explain to me what your strategy would have been in spending less money, getting us promoted and recording a larger profit margin? 

[Lord Pityme]

9 hours ago, buddies1877 said:

What is sinking in is how much of a complete tool you are

 

In recent weeks you’ve tried to troll several threads making a complete fool of yourself

 

Complaining about Oran changing erhahon to midfield for the Dundee game when he was clearly played in the same position at left back

 

Complaining about Oran making the wrong subs against hearts when we won 2-0 pretty comfortable with Rodgers having very little to do.

 

Moaning about tv rights money failing at a simple calculation

 

Then yet again failing with your numbers claiming wages have went up by 2 million more this year compared to last.

 

Think it’s time to start another account buddy you’ve made a complete c**t of yourself too many times for anyone to even attempt to take you seriously

 

And yet you are all over me like a cheap whore. Sorry mate just not interested.

[Dibbles old paperboy]

1 hour ago, bazil85 said:

Not ignoring it in the slightest, to clarify. It sounds to me like you have issue with the strategy that got us promoted which confuses me.

Do you genuinely think JR signed all these players thinking every single one would make an impact? You’ve answered that question already in your numbers and if memory serves me right JR actually spoke about it in an interview. So unless JR was under impression rules had changed to 25 a side matches, he was aware they wouldn’t all play  

He and everyone else at the club knew a number of those players wouldn’t be first team players. The question was always which ones? The strategy was to sign a big squad then bring a team together to do the business. It paid off.

At the time of signing did you know for a fact players like Hippolyte and Irvine wouldn’t be important players in the SP/ Championship? Irvine for example ended the previous season on great form, Hippolyte could have filled the Morgan gap (he still could have,who knows, Stubbs got rid of him) 

as for Donatti, he was signed as an old head going into a coaching type role to support the squad for the rest of the season and cover for McGinn. If McGinn got injured I would wager he would have played a part. We had the finance to do that as clearly shown in the profit, so why not? 

If you don’t like the strategy JR used, fine but you can’t deny it worked a treat. We’re in the SP now and made a profit.

From the Q&A with OK it sounded like he was more of a fan of a small talented squad. It’s simply a different strategy. Neither right or wrong, whatever works for each manager. 

As for selling players on the cheap, it’s been discussed many times and it’s all a matter of contract length. Our hands have been tied. We could sign up promising players to longer terms sooner but for every Morgan, you’ll have three Thomas Reilly and Lewis McLears stuck on long term deals. 

Harry Rednap won a cup with Portsmouth and he also overspent to such a degree that the club was almost liquidated a season after Harry left.

I'm all for having some cover and some squad players, hence why I didn't mention Ross Stewart (goalkeeper) being signed and hardly used. A club like St Mirren will always take a look at players from the lower divisions but I can't think of any Jack Ross lower division punts who turned out to be a Darren McGregor.

The 46% rise in the wage budget and mess of recruitment by Stubbs probably play a big part in why Gus McPherson was brought in as technical director.

[faraway saint]

2 minutes ago, Dibbles old paperboy said:

Harry Rednap won a cup with Portsmouth and he also overspent to such a degree that the club was almost liquidated a season after Harry left.

I'm all for having some cover and some squad players, hence why I didn't mention Ross Stewart (goalkeeper) being signed and hardly used. A club like St Mirren will always take a look at players from the lower divisions but I can't think of any Jack Ross lower division punts who turned out to be a Darren McGregor.

The 46% rise in the wage budget and mess of recruitment by Stubbs probably play a big part in why Gus McPherson was brought in as technical director.

Is he related to Harry Redknapp? 

[Dibbles old paperboy]

1 hour ago, bazil85 said:

Can you explain to me what your strategy would have been in spending less money, getting us promoted and recording a larger profit margin? 

The profit margin was achieved by selling Kyle McAllister, Steve Mallan and Lewis Morgan within the same 12 months... without those sales we were running at a monumental loss.

My strategy would have been to tell Jack Ross to work to a budget rather than saying yes to every signing he wanted to make.

As for Hippolyte, Mullen, Hill and Donati being signed when we were running away with the Championship I don't know many fans that thought at the time that those were decent signings for a club eyeing a place in the premiership.

[oaksoft]

1 hour ago, stlucifer said:

I believe the club are wise to the facts. MacPherson has already said the squad needs downsized. There will be more out than in in the next transfer window. That should begin to redress the balance. We still need players able to compete on the stage we find ourselves so individual wages are bound to be higher. IF we are relegated then I would think players contracts would have a proviso written into them, either reducing their income or allowing them to leave.

Yep, Gus is talking about downsizing being needed now. I think a further 20 to 30% is a reasonable estimate of what would be required when we run out of players to sell. Of course relegation would make it easier to enact those cuts but either way, it could be brutal.

[oaksoft]

1 hour ago, bazil85 said:

Can you explain to me what your strategy would have been in spending less money, getting us promoted and recording a larger profit margin? 

I will do that when you answer my question about what happens when we run out of players to sell and have to make massive budget cuts overnight.

I want to be certain that I am talking to someone who understands the importance of operating profit before I start talking about other budgetary things.

Edited November 27, 2018 by oaksoft

[oaksoft]

20 minutes ago, Dibbles old paperboy said:

 

My strategy would have been to tell Jack Ross to work to a budget rather than saying yes to every signing he wanted to make.

 

I think fear of losing Jack is almost certainly the key reason we spent so much on players.

[bazil85]

3 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

I will do that when you answer my question about what happens when we run out of players to sell and have to make massive budget cuts overnight.

I want to be certain that I am talking to someone who understands the importance of operating profit before I start talking about other budgetary things.

We budget in advance every season, if player sales aren't coming in for the next couple of years (which is no guarantee) a proportion of the money will be offset by being in the Scottish Premier. If we get relegated, we will  downsize. I have no doubt wage cuts will be in a number of players contracts and we also always have half or more of the squad who's contracts expire. 

Billy shared the wage budgets for this year and you can clearly see we are one of the lowest, yet we don't have the lowest crowds and potential for income. We spend what we earn, as we have practically all of our history. Having more money to spend due to transfer income right now, does no mean we'll have a disaster if that doesn't come in. We survived nine seasons recently in the top flight with little transfer income. 

In giving examples of previous situations the club has been in, in detailing we only spend what we have, coupled with the profits we've recorded and the increased revenue that comes with being an SP club, I feel I should have adequately passed your test. 

Now feel free to enlighten me to how you would have gotten us promoted and saved more budget?

[Lord Pityme]

5 minutes ago, oaksoft said:

I think fear of losing Jack is almost certainly the key reason we spent so much on players.

And why he got two wage rises following interviews at Dundee, Ipswich and Barnsley.

[beyond our ken]

19 hours ago, bazil85 said:

Yep mistake acknowledged, oft it was massive wasn't it?  it was clearly splitting hairs though. You tried to use that to discredit my point and question my knowledge of reading accounts, which failed miserably and just made you look petty. 

You literally used the word 'worrying' in your post.  But I'm glad we agree, the accounts are anything but 'worrying' 

I am fully aware of the different context of the accounts. My point is we spent the money because we had it. We didn't spend the money and sit back hoping we'd sell a couple of players. You seem to be looking at areas of the accounts in isolation, which in my opinion would be a 'worrying' approach to the reading of any set of accounts. 

2 corrections

1.  The club (not "we") wasted the money

2.  They did it because they hoped they were getting it, not because they had it.

The only money the club should predicate their future spend is that which comes from season tickets and that which comes from the lowest available share of that year's prize fund.

If someone else had hit financial problems and failed to pay up for Mcallister or Morgan then where would the shortfall have been covered from?

 

The answer, in my opinion, would have been the SMISA share fund 

 

[beyond our ken]

2 minutes ago, bazil85 said:

We budget in advance every season, if player sales aren't coming in for the next couple of years (which is no guarantee) a proportion of the money will be offset by being in the Scottish Premier. If we get relegated, we will  downsize. I have no doubt wage cuts will be in a number of players contracts and we also always have half or more of the squad who's contracts expire. 

Billy shared the wage budgets for this year and you can clearly see we are one of the lowest, yet we don't have the lowest crowds and potential for income. We spend what we earn, as we have practically all of our history. Having more money to spend due to transfer income right now, does no mean we'll have a disaster if that doesn't come in. We survived nine seasons recently in the top flight with little transfer income. 

In giving examples of previous situations the club has been in, in detailing we only spend what we have, coupled with the profits we've recorded and the increased revenue that comes with being an SP club, I feel I should have adequately passed your test. 

Now feel free to enlighten me to how you would have gotten us promoted and saved more budget?

All hogwash, the club has always operated on the basis of debt.  The myth of a new stadium and being debt-free was debunked very shortly after we left Love St.

It's just that now the directors dont lend to the club anymore, they ask SMISA to cover the incidentals and if we hit a cash-flow problem we are sailing WAY to close to the wind to weather it.