From the original Gasman.
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That’s not good reading….
No one in their right mind was expecting the books to be balanced, but this makes the profligate Hayes “trust me, it’s my money” years look like the epitome of financial prudence. I’m guessing these losses do include the upfront costs of setting up the academy and the modular buildings installed on the Marlow Road training ground, but it’s still a huge outlay we cannot sustain on our turnover excluding player sales.
These are very dangerous times for Wycombe Wanderers FC. If Lomtadze decides to can his project, it’s very difficult to imagine anyone coming in to bail it out and continue as before.
We are at a similar stage to where Reading were when Dai Yongge was ingratiating himself with them by bankrolling their training facilities at Bearwood. In terms of being able to recover should Lomtadze pull the plug, I fear we are well past the point of no return.
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The trust will have to start putting a few pounds away ,just in case they have to rescue the club again.
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What does net player sales profit mean in this context? It can’t be the net of transfer fees out and transfer fees in given this period includes the club record signings in January 2025 but doesn’t include the Kone sale in August 2025.
I believe that is already the case. The idea being that if WWT still own AP but WWFC ceases to exist, a phoenix club can start from scratch without having to ground share or go through the rigmarole of trying to find a suitable site for a new ground in High Wycombe.
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There’s no way realistically we’re getting this back; bar the academy and first-team player sales covering all outgoings over the medium to long term.
Even then we’re just feeding the bubble
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That might sustain the club at a non-league or L2 level (which isn’t a bad thing per-se)
This is what having a billionaire owner means - it allows the club to spend millions more than it earns
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#EnjoyTheRide
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Surprising to see the limited amount of comments on this thread. If you think this is just a problem for a rainy day, look at how many other clubs have suffered a veritable monsoon when these things go south. That’s the gamble I guess and we are mere pawns. For balance, yes it’s great to have upgraded training facilities, a competitive playing budget, and the promise that a rejuvenated Academy might bring. But it’s also bloody brilliant to have a football club to support. Enjoy the ride indeed.
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Yeah, it’s just that billionaire owners are capricious; and without stable, long-term commitment this club has absolutely no business model. If the owner walks away we’re Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and the rest with a far smaller fan base.
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There are limited comments because it is a fair accompli. You are a couple of decades too late for the debate, which will take you years to catch up on if you care to check out the archives of the Gasroom and of 2.0.
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I wasn’t suggesting it was a good thing for the club or for football in general. But it is what has happened. And if anyone is surprised by the financial results they haven’t been paying attention.
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I’m not sure that these figures are unexpected, or worrying.
If ML has a reputed net worth of £5.4 billion, a loss of £10 million only represents less than 0.2% of his assets. I can’t imagine he’ll lose any sleep over that.
Furthermore, if - and it’s a big if right now - we were to win promotion, there would be a need to spend a lot more on players in order to be a competitive Championship side.
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I wonder how much we needed to pay Dodds and the backroom staff when they were sacked?
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Nowadays more than ever all clubs outside the Premier League run the risk of going bust at some time. Even in the old days the likes of Accrington, Barrow, Bradford P A etc. and of course Bury recently ran out of money.
We were supposedly about to go out of business under Trust ownership. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter if you are left with debts of £1m or £20m if you have no money to repay them, look at Derby for an example. I think all our losses relate to the Academy which after all Lommy said was his absolute priority, so the club’s current financial position cannot be a surprise and he knows that he won’t get his money back should he give up.
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I have to ignore this thread, or I’d never sleep again. La la la la la.
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