whitestreak
SC Supporter
- Dec 8, 2006
- 833
- 3,417
This is not from Lewis directly, but based on what I heard yesterday it may help to make real sense of what is currently happening from a financial perspective!
The "value" in a successful club is plain for all to see. The stakes keep getting higher. Joe Lewis (ENIC) is the longest standing owner of a PL club which belies all the chat that he is in this to make a fast buck, especially as he made more than £1b in 1 day on ERM. He has demonstrated that he is shrewd and does not need to make money out of Spurs to get his next meal!
Notwithstanding that.......He is professional businessman and wishes to make his assets sweat.
I think the advent of Abramovic and Man C made him realise that he could still compete spending a fraction of their total spend.
I think AVB demonstrated last year finishing 6 points behind them and scoring the same amount of goals, the art of the possible.
I also believe he had absolutely no regard for 'arry, as he probably did not trust 'arry one inch with money, and even if Daniel was buying the players he could not be sure if our 'arry was getting some kind of commission, or if he really needed the player in question, Suarez no.......... Neville yes? that is f*cked up!
Lewis is not a young man therefore it probably does not hurt to look back in time a bit to understand his thought process today.
Historically
30+ years ago the old order of the "big 5" was in no particular ranking
Spurs Arsenal ManU Pool Everton, and it had been that way from the mid 50s if not before!
Success on the pitch over a prolonged period, no matter how achieved determined who the biggest clubs were and most if not all of them appeared to be on a level playing field.
I said "appeared" since for a long time the Moores family pumped considerably more money into Liverpool than most if not all of the competition...
Man u got Fergie after a period in the wilderness and then putting together a winning team built Organically under Edwards (father and son), and as success came they smashed transfer records in order to stay there Ferdinand, RVN, Veron, Rooney, Berbatov, RVP, all over £25m and sold Ronaldo for £80m
They became for a time the most valuable sports brand in the world and are still up there. worth C£2b
Arsenal, much as I hate to admit it have also generally gone about their business the right way. They are in their new stadium, and have a sustainable model as long as they continue to produce success on the pitch even moderately and are worth c£1b this figure could be higher but for some inexplicable reason Wenger wont spend....
Chelsea were always a small club historically really untill Abramovic came and spent a fortune and hey presto they are now a big club as with City and al Nayan.
By shrewd financial management Levy has taken us to the brink but not really got us over the line. This would normally be ok particularly if we had gone to the Olympic park stadium, which probably would have cost say £100m
Currently (with FFP coming in)
BUT we now have to take a mega punt on the new stadium. This is a £450m punt, in order to justify it as a success within a couple of years the Club must either be worth something in the billion pound range or a la Arsenal paid back most if not all of the investment and be throwing off sustainable cash flow in order to compete on a more level playing field. My father used to say that "business is the art of taking the risk out of gambling" (an MBA later I agree with him).
If we can follow that maxim then we can look at the effect of "leveraging" our current position, and postulate a theory that our squad now is younger, leaner than it has ever been before, and the gap on paper is such, that whereas Chelsea and City have had to spend £100s of millions to get them to the position where they are today and in both cases not an "organically stable" model ie if the Russian and Sheik naffed off, it would all come crumbling down, Chelsea like us don't have a stadium ....unlike us they have not identified one. City will still be the 2nd club in Manchester in terms of fanbase and achievement for the foreseeable future.
Surely Joe Lewis looks at this and thinks "how do I maximise my chances of a successful new stadium" ie how to make sure I dont pour £300-450m down a hole
The first and most important thing is, surely to deliver sustainable success on the pitch, this leads to much increased revenue, leading to quicker payback, and decreasing his risk and exposure long term. Man U & Arsenal are examples of this strategy working
Ok that seems like a good idea, the next question has to be "Daniel find out how much it is going to cost me to GUARANTEE on the pitch success on a Consistent basis?"
Do you think Daniel replied "with or without Bale?"More likely he sat down with Andre who they both trust and said Andre "what will it take money wise to challenge for the title? If we aim high we may make sure of CL qualification..
"lets look at it both ways With Bale say £100m, without him realistically say £150m.More importantly how do you replace him"
I honestly don't know what the real numbers are..... but I bet I'm probably pretty close (within 10%.)
He would also have told Daniel to make sure that he got the players he needed rather than losing out through excessive haggling!
With no 'arry and FFP coming in, the new stadium 2 years off, the all bar 2 of the TOP clubs with new managers, this is like the perfect storm...
I believe this type of conversation has taken place..... it explains our activity and the reasons behind it!
The "value" in a successful club is plain for all to see. The stakes keep getting higher. Joe Lewis (ENIC) is the longest standing owner of a PL club which belies all the chat that he is in this to make a fast buck, especially as he made more than £1b in 1 day on ERM. He has demonstrated that he is shrewd and does not need to make money out of Spurs to get his next meal!
Notwithstanding that.......He is professional businessman and wishes to make his assets sweat.
I think the advent of Abramovic and Man C made him realise that he could still compete spending a fraction of their total spend.
I think AVB demonstrated last year finishing 6 points behind them and scoring the same amount of goals, the art of the possible.
I also believe he had absolutely no regard for 'arry, as he probably did not trust 'arry one inch with money, and even if Daniel was buying the players he could not be sure if our 'arry was getting some kind of commission, or if he really needed the player in question, Suarez no.......... Neville yes? that is f*cked up!
Lewis is not a young man therefore it probably does not hurt to look back in time a bit to understand his thought process today.
Historically
30+ years ago the old order of the "big 5" was in no particular ranking
Spurs Arsenal ManU Pool Everton, and it had been that way from the mid 50s if not before!
Success on the pitch over a prolonged period, no matter how achieved determined who the biggest clubs were and most if not all of them appeared to be on a level playing field.
I said "appeared" since for a long time the Moores family pumped considerably more money into Liverpool than most if not all of the competition...
Man u got Fergie after a period in the wilderness and then putting together a winning team built Organically under Edwards (father and son), and as success came they smashed transfer records in order to stay there Ferdinand, RVN, Veron, Rooney, Berbatov, RVP, all over £25m and sold Ronaldo for £80m
They became for a time the most valuable sports brand in the world and are still up there. worth C£2b
Arsenal, much as I hate to admit it have also generally gone about their business the right way. They are in their new stadium, and have a sustainable model as long as they continue to produce success on the pitch even moderately and are worth c£1b this figure could be higher but for some inexplicable reason Wenger wont spend....
Chelsea were always a small club historically really untill Abramovic came and spent a fortune and hey presto they are now a big club as with City and al Nayan.
By shrewd financial management Levy has taken us to the brink but not really got us over the line. This would normally be ok particularly if we had gone to the Olympic park stadium, which probably would have cost say £100m
Currently (with FFP coming in)
BUT we now have to take a mega punt on the new stadium. This is a £450m punt, in order to justify it as a success within a couple of years the Club must either be worth something in the billion pound range or a la Arsenal paid back most if not all of the investment and be throwing off sustainable cash flow in order to compete on a more level playing field. My father used to say that "business is the art of taking the risk out of gambling" (an MBA later I agree with him).
If we can follow that maxim then we can look at the effect of "leveraging" our current position, and postulate a theory that our squad now is younger, leaner than it has ever been before, and the gap on paper is such, that whereas Chelsea and City have had to spend £100s of millions to get them to the position where they are today and in both cases not an "organically stable" model ie if the Russian and Sheik naffed off, it would all come crumbling down, Chelsea like us don't have a stadium ....unlike us they have not identified one. City will still be the 2nd club in Manchester in terms of fanbase and achievement for the foreseeable future.
Surely Joe Lewis looks at this and thinks "how do I maximise my chances of a successful new stadium" ie how to make sure I dont pour £300-450m down a hole
The first and most important thing is, surely to deliver sustainable success on the pitch, this leads to much increased revenue, leading to quicker payback, and decreasing his risk and exposure long term. Man U & Arsenal are examples of this strategy working
Ok that seems like a good idea, the next question has to be "Daniel find out how much it is going to cost me to GUARANTEE on the pitch success on a Consistent basis?"
Do you think Daniel replied "with or without Bale?"More likely he sat down with Andre who they both trust and said Andre "what will it take money wise to challenge for the title? If we aim high we may make sure of CL qualification..
"lets look at it both ways With Bale say £100m, without him realistically say £150m.More importantly how do you replace him"
I honestly don't know what the real numbers are..... but I bet I'm probably pretty close (within 10%.)
He would also have told Daniel to make sure that he got the players he needed rather than losing out through excessive haggling!
With no 'arry and FFP coming in, the new stadium 2 years off, the all bar 2 of the TOP clubs with new managers, this is like the perfect storm...
I believe this type of conversation has taken place..... it explains our activity and the reasons behind it!
