Only One

[Tom Bombadil]

Just peeked at the back page of the Argus. It seems McGhee only thinks we can afford one of the three triallists.

Is this cos we're potless or are there other players poised to arrive?

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

we're potless

 

[Set of Tracksuits]

he's got limited resources, so he'll have to sign one striker (please, please be molango) and use the rest of his budget for midfielders, i hope. we may well end up signing another striker on loan once the season gets underway, i reckon.

i think we may see a couple more trialists soon, hopefully a genuinely pacy winger will be amongst them.

 

[Tooting Gull]

It really is going to be a 'laugh' competing with West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds this season. Can someone make a convincing case for us not being relegated, that would really cheer me up.

 

[Marc]

could even be a polite way of saying "thanks but no thanks" to the other two trialists.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

I read that and of course we haven't any money...in fact I would not get anyone in because it doesn't matter how we do until we get Falmer after all.

Give the youngsters a go.

In fact I am very surprised we have not sold Knight and Cullip as they are our only bankable assets. Surely its better to get money for them which will give us more money to put in the Falmer kitty than hang on to them..isn't it?

 

[Marc]

In fact I am very surprised we have not sold Knight and Cullip as they are our only bankable assets. Surely its better to get money for them which will give us more money to put in the Falmer kitty than hang on to them..isn't it?

well thats the thing, any players sold will result in the transfer money being lost in running the club, Falmer stuff, debts etc etc. I cant see us getting alot for Cullip and Knight needs to prove himself at Div1 standard before any club will come in with a decent bid for him.

 

[Set of Tracksuits]

It really is going to be a 'laugh' competing with West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds this season. Can someone make a convincing case for us not being relegated, that would really cheer me up.

no. sheringham, zamora and harewood vs knight, molango and mcphee. no contest!

we'll just have to depend on team spirit, hard work and leon getting about 15 goals to keep us up.

just try and enjoy it!

 

[bellsize seagull]

i for one dont want to see us lining up in Div One without two of our best players do you ,
we have some great youngsters but you cant just throw them in at the deep end for full matches....i think McPhee will get a longer run out at last and will be suited to div one

 

[Easy 10]

I read that and of course we haven't any money...in fact I would not get anyone in because it doesn't matter how we do until we get Falmer after all.

Give the youngsters a go.

In fact I am very surprised we have not sold Knight and Cullip as they are our only bankable assets. Surely its better to get money for them which will give us more money to put in the Falmer kitty than hang on to them..isn't it?

Are you on a wind-up ?
We've got to at least have a go at staying up. It goes without saying that Falmer is the be-all and end-all for this club (so I dunno why I just said it). OK, selling Leon and Cullip would raise a small amount of cash, but that would be a drop in the ocean in terms of the Falmer kitty.

Obviously we can't go splashing cash around and will have to pick and choose very carefully in the transfer market. But throwing the kids in at this level would be suicide (as we saw last time). If we can maintain Championship status, it just further presses home the need for that new stadium.

 

[Rusthall Seagull]

It really is going to be a 'laugh' competing with West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds this season. Can someone make a convincing case for us not being relegated, that would really cheer me up.

Well the fact that we got promoted last year, over and above other clubs who have more money and better facilities must give us some hope....!!!?

I for one think we will stay up. We are not competing with West Ham, Sunderland, Leeds etc.....much the same as Norwich won't be competing with Man Utd in the Premiership. We are competing with the likes of Gillingham, Burnley, Stoke etc...all of whom I think we can better.

Are you happy now??

 

[maffew]

Well the fact that we got promoted last year, over and above other clubs who have more money and better facilities must give us some hope....!!!?

I for one think we will stay up. We are not competing with West Ham, Sunderland, Leeds etc.....much the same as Norwich won't be competing with Man Utd in the Premiership. We are competing with the likes of Gillingham, Burnley, Stoke etc...all of whom I think we can better.

Are you happy now??

 

[Tooting Gull]

I fear Stoke have moved up a level since we last played them, but you're right, those others are nothing special.

 

[Scotty Mac]

stoke are settled now - they have a godo ground, good manager and good team

 

[Rusthall Seagull]

stoke are settled now - they have a godo ground, good manager and good team

ok, ok.....maybe not Stoke!! QPR, Watford, Rotherham.......?

 

[London Irish]

Just peeked at the back page of the Argus. It seems McGhee only thinks we can afford one of the three triallists.

Is this cos we're potless or are there other players poised to arrive?

The Argus article clearly states that McGhee wants to look at other players. Quite rightly, he doesn't want to close off his options early by spending all his available budget on these three.

It's pretty encouraging that McGhee thinks we can get better players in than Kerekes and Tankary, who looked decent enough.

People may moan about us being potless, but we are not in as bad a situation as QPR, who are now having to bring in money from Italian and French investors as an emergency measure because otherwise they will cease trading in a few months given the disastrous scale of their current losses. And we don't have a chairman like Palace who says he's come to hate football given his experience of being in charge.

The fact remains our financial plight is not great but, thanks to Dick Knight's caution, is under control and manageable. We perenially underestimate, I think, the financial difficulties of other teams we will be competing against in the Championship this year. It won't surprise me if more reveal problems like QPR over the forthcoming season.



Telegraph last Thursday, check out those losses, £4.3m at QPR, AND GETTING WORSE this past season, and we thought ours was bad a few months ago!


Foreign investors step in to keep QPR in business
By Mihir Bose
(Filed: 15/07/2004)

Queens Park Rangers are being rescued by a Monaco-based company of unnamed Italian and French investors who are putting in money to make sure the west London club survive.

In a series of dramatic recent developments at the club, who came out of administration only two years ago, the chairman, chief executive, and one other director have resigned and a new board have taken over.

The accounts for the season just concluded, in which QPR won promotion to the newly named Coca-Cola Championship, are not yet available. The club have only just finished preparing audited accounts for the year to May 2003, which covers the 2002-2003 season. However, these accounts have some information on the latest cash crisis. The Daily Telegraph has seen a copy and in it the directors confess that if new money is not made available the club would have to be wound up.

The directors' report says: "The directors have reviewed the group's budget for the current year and outline projections for the subsequent year including cash flows and forecasts of headroom available against current borrowing facilities, together with other likely sources of cash generation.

"Following this review, the directors have formed a judgment that, at the time of approval of the financial statements, the group does not have sufficient resources to continue operating in the foreseeable future without raising additional working capital. For this reason, the directors are actively seeking to raise further capital to meet the shortfall."

QPR were a casualty of the football recession even before the collapse of ITV Digital but their main problem is that they were never properly rescued. They went into administration with debts of £10 million and instead of coming out with no debts, as clubs that go into administration seek to do, came out with a long-term loan of £10 million. This is to a Panama-based company on which the club pay a crippling 10 per cent interest.

Since QPR came out of administration, the board have been seeking new money and all sorts of schemes have been floated, but none has worked.

QPR's ground-sharing with Fulham for two years was largely unsuccessful. Fulham paid £1 million a year as rent but QPR had to pick up the bill for all the extra match-day costs and made very little money. One source said: "It would have been much better if we had got [Mohamed] Fayed to pay us £15,000 a match to hire the ground and they met all the other bills."

Several people have been offering to find money. One of them, Tim Krause, an American who owns the United States team Milwaukee Wave, had various discussions with the club in the last few years. Bill Power, who is the new QPR chairman and provided £200,000 as a loan for the club, said: "In the end we found he was acting as an agent and it was not his own money he was investing. Why use an agent to find money when we can do it ourselves?"

It was a failure to find investors and disagreements about the way the club was run, leading to the horrendous cash situation, that forced the three directors to go: David Davies, the chief executive who was paid a salary of £135,000, Ross Jones, the chairman of the plc, and Nick Blackburn, the chairman of the football club.

The Monaco-based investors were introduced to the club by Gianni Paladini, the husband of Olga Paladini, who, through Moorbound Ltd, is a major shareholder with 22 per cent.

The new investors will buy new shares that QPR are issuing. This will give them 29.9 per cent of the club. Since they are buying new shares and not shares from another director, it will mean the £1.8 million they are investing will go directly into the club.

Chris Wright, the former owner with 14 million shares, and Moorbound with 18 million shares, will remain the other main shareholders.

Although the latest available accounts are a year out of date, they give an indication of QPR's predicament. The accounts show that in the 2002-03 season, while income rose from £5.6 million to £7.3 million, the loss increased 10 times from £413,000 to £4.3 million.

The accounts for the season just gone are expected to be much worse. But by the time they are revealed to the world the Monaco-based Italian-French alliance will be on board. The deal is expected to be done in the next few days.

Power would not disclose who they are but said: "They are football fans."

 

[Tom Bombadil]

An excellent post as usual there LI. I only skimmed the Argus but I was wondering if the subtext was there are other players about to arrive.

What is odd is that McGhee has said he's after a new striker, 2 midfielders and a defender to add to the existing squad. With Chris not resigning that should be room for 2 forwards, or was Iwelumo being counted as the new striker?

As for QPR, from that article they are in deep shit unless they refinance.

 

[London Irish]

I reckon McGhee is after another striker but has other targets in mind - I think that's a reasonable intepretation of his Argus quotes. We'll see, a bit of patience is needed as ever. Let's just hope we get news of Molango's signing in the next few days lest we count our chickens with him!

 

[bhafc99]

With Chris not resigning that should be room for 2 forwards, or was Iwelumo being counted as the new striker?

I think our 4 strikers are going to be: Leon Knight, Chris Mcphee, Jake Robinson and 'one other' – hopefully Molango from what people are saying.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

We need to stay up for the money side.
you get more than double the money you get for playing in div 1 than div 2 plus when on tv you are given more.
The fa cup 3rd round more chance of drawing a prem club away which means more money again.
All the time we are in div 2 we will lose more money