Barcelona finance: A fast Ramble.
11:42 AM
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Football Mood
Q&A
If the club was in such a financial crisis, they shudnt have gone for the Ibra ridiculous ever transfer deal.
Or is it some politics gimmick to showcase Rosell doing something great and is saving the club?
What is really happening here?
This respond is a fast customization for comments I made about this matter on Barcelona Football blog. Soon I may write a more structured post about it.
Let’s agree that no one really knows the facts regarding the financial stability of the club. Laporta and co manipulated the numbers before. Sandro and co are manipulating the numbers now. I will manipulate the numbers if one day-God forbids-I became a board member. That’s something any board at any company does based on the firm interests and strategic plans toward “the others”. But sometimes it’s good to keep it simple rather than being over analytic:
Laporta and co delivered a budget for last season to the assembly. They claimed there was profit. Let’s assume that they were lying. But I can’t imagine that people who approved the board’s budget days before the election were that naive not to figure out there is no money to make coffee for any visitor who may come to the club’s offices this month. Believe me, they would have ridden this wave to the extreme against the continuity candidate. I can understand the presence of cash with unrecognized payable Accounts. But lack of cash? Not at that moment. Later? I will come back to that.
Taking Sandro’s words as the nonnegotiable facts, he said we will take a 150 M loan. He also said we have 89 M for transfers. And he said the club is in a disastrous situation, financially. Well then, for a disastrous situation we need a crisis management with enough wisdom to balance sports needs with the obligations that secure the club survival. A simple T-Ledger can help, putting the bank loans requested on one side and the transfer budget available+Yaya+Chegrnskiy transfers on the other side. Buy no players. Bring the loaned players back home and sell no more players. The Squad will still be competitive enough for next season and you will buy time to make a U-turn in terms of financing. You may not need the 150 M loan this way. Unless if the idea from the first moment was to invest the bank’s money in a project we planned rather than using the Clubs money. A project with ROI being higher than bank interest. Or may be switching some existing debts that have worse impact on the club's finantial stability.That’s not a bad loan then, it’s an investment that doesnt reflect a bad financial status but a growth ambition. But to tell me we can’t pay salaries. We need a loan for 150 M. then you book a ticket to South Africa to pay Wenger 40 M, while bragging that you have 90 M to spend. Thats a bit confusing for me. When you sell a player for 15 M knowing that -regardless of his quality- it’s unlikely to buy another for the same price without making the same risk we made when we signed this one (being untested on highest level). When you say we had to sell Chegrnskiy to pay salaries and urgent commitments then you add the transfer return (15 M) to the transfer budget, then there is something unreasonable to say the least. Which is not a promising start.
All these stories published in the past two weeks about Barca becoming a Portsmouth, and being unable to buy players are pure none sense. It was all “concluded” from Sandro’s acrobatic moves. Still, even if we take Sandro seriously -and I don’t- he was basically talking about cash flow for THIS month. Based on his estimations -had I mentioned that I don’t take him seriously?- everything will be OK afterward…don’t worry…calm down…our Rambo is working on it and he will save the day. You can’t be grateful enough that he rescued you from Laporta the Grinch, nor he wants you to. He feels he was sent to us -mortals- to save our dreams from Txiki the serial killer.
But look at the bright side-how desperate, hah?- I will live in a fantasy bubble believing that Sandro did all that as a part of a master plan to pull the prices of our transfer targets down:”Hleb? Ibra? Chigsomething? Caceres? hohoho mate! you are cutting deep! Dont bring transfers’ history to the table. Will you please please puleazze lower your demands and expectations?! We are miserable now.Look…look at our little boy Iniesta, see how pale he is? We are starving and we need to buy your player! hm…Can’t you manage a discount?”. I know it sounds more as a Rosella Sensi, but if it helps, high five Sandro! As I mentioned before, forget about this Cesc deal. If Sandro brings me an established CB and a DM, I will call him the transfers’ Casanova.
As you see, I am still giving the guy a chance. But soon I will lose my patience if he keep ignoring the instructions book. And when I lose my patience, I cant do a shit, as this guy is still popular enough in Catalunya to ban me from visiting the country!
Barcelona’s current lack of cash –if exists- could be a mix of different factors. The club could (and should) be better financially. But it’s still far from being in the Crisis Sandro Rosell and co try to show. The election’s factor forced Laporta to make a fast shopping tour getting Villa from Valencia with a hope that this will help his continuity candidate. He said that if Barca waited till after world cup they would have paid 20 M more, giving himself an excuse on advance. In fact he was right, but it’s possible that this transaction left a temporary impact on the cash flow level (especially that Valencia needed the money to be installed immediately).
The club requested the 150 bank loan during Laporta’s era, which gives an answer on why the assembly had no problems with Laporta’s last auditing (Noting that Barca has one of the lowest-if not THE lowest- bank loans=€29m). One of the means to pay back the new loan (155 M) in Laporta’s proposal was increasing membership fees. Sandro does not want to increase that fee so he had to come back with another proposal to the bank. That was another reason to delay the whole process, and delay the cash injection.
Sandro is trying to get advantage of the whole situation to damage Laporta’s image, which is not a surprise at all.
For more about Ibra transfer, read the last paragraphs in this article.
Dont forget, if you are sick of Cesc stories, do not worry, this rant may help you a little.
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