Swiss Ramble - Indepth article on Charlton's finances

newyorkaddick

http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2011/11/charlton-athletic-into-valley.html

This is arguably the most indepth and well-researched football blog on the web (with a particular focus on football finances).

He has just published an article on Charlton (not yet read as you need a good hour spare to go through it!).

Lincsaddick

Goodness gracious .. this man knows his stuff and hardly a mention of 442 or 433

McLovin

Pretty good, but a few funny inconsistencies: I'd tend to argue that Reid, Diawara or Bougherra were really poor signings - and the latter was definitely not signed by Dowie.  Also JFH was not a loan signing and Thatcher wasn't signed by Dowie.

DickVanDykesDiscoDog

Pretty good, but a few funny inconsistencies: I'd tend to argue that Reid, Diawara or Bougherra were really poor signings - and the latter was definitely not signed by Dowie.  Also JFH was not a loan signing and Thatcher wasn't signed by Dowie.

but apart from that is was ok then McLovin ?

redman

Interesting stuff. Amazing how any business can lose 75% of its revenue in 3 years and still survive.

I also note that although we cut costs, it was nearly all in wages. Not much dent made in other costs. A breakdown of that would be interesting.

The new wages cap will have a big difference if we dont get out of this division as it will for most of our competitors.Not sure if it includes all wages or just players. If it is all there will be a lot of outsourcing of things like cleaners, IT, ticket sales etc

newyorkaddick

Interesting stuff. Amazing how any business can lose 75% of its revenue in 3 years and still survive.

I also note that although we cut costs, it was nearly all in wages. Not much dent made in other costs. A breakdown of that would be interesting.

The new wages cap will have a big difference if we dont get out of this division as it will for most of our competitors.Not sure if it includes all wages or just players. If it is all there will be a lot of outsourcing of things like cleaners, IT, ticket sales etc

I guess the directors of most companies in this situation would have thrown in the towel, rather than keep it alive by dipping into their own pockets to provide loans.

Indeed structuring a football club as a limited company seems a bit pointless if intruth it is more like a partnership. 

It's not surprising that most sane and wealthy people avoid investing in them like the plague. 

se9addick

Is the guy that wrote this an Addick ? Haven't been able to read yet as I'm at work but will print out and read on the way home, always enjoy NewYork's interpretation of our finances so if this is reccomended by him then should be worth a glance.

newyorkaddick

No, he's not an Addick (which makes it even more impressive)

Weegie Addick

An excellent and extremely thorough article.  I don't thnk many clubs would have avoided administraiton in such cicumstances - for all his (admitted) mistakes, we still owe Richard Murray a huge amount - both emotionally and financially!!

ValleyGary

opened up the link about 30 mins ago and i still havent got past the pic of CP. such a legend the bloke.

Bagpuss

Comparison graph of our revenues (L1) vs Blackburn (prem) and Forest (Champ) is particularly interesting.

paulsturgess

Mclovin how was reid a bad signing? was our best player and was sold at a profit

se9addick

"Even the £1.4 million profit in 2005 would have been a loss without an exceptional £2.8 million insurance payment for injured players"

 

Would that be Gary Rowlett ?

DA9

I think I've got a headache?

 

newyorkaddick

"Even the £1.4 million profit in 2005 would have been a loss without an exceptional £2.8 million insurance payment for injured players"

 

Would that be Gary Rowlett ?

and maybe Rufus?

se9addick

Yes possibly, wasn't sure if Rowlett was pre-this time.

The TransferMrkt.co.uk site mentioned frequently in the article is really interesting, here's our page.

Not sure if Gary Doherty is really worth £875,000 !

_MrDick

I like the players nicknames...

Rolls Rhoys Wiggins

Big Ben Hamer

Kiely#1

Mikael Alonso £1.1m hahahahahahahahahaha

bigstemarra

'Rolls Royce' is a good one - it could catch on!

BlackForestReds

I've looked at Transfermarkt before and never really trusted it...

Is Jon Fortune really worth £875K? He's only nominally a Charlton player I think, in fact what's the situation with him, anyone know? I thought the club were looking after him until he recovered from injury.

se9addick

Give him a contract and flog him for that value ! Not sure how they arrive at their valuations, my understanding is that fortune's on some sort of short term contract (for insurance purposes) that allows him to use our training facilities during his rehabilitation. Someone might know better than me though

Off_it

That's a good read.

I wonder if the people who were moaning for Murray to "put his hand in his pocket and buy some new players" a year or two ago now realise just how much the man was doing to keep the wolf from the door. But then again I doubt those people are intelligent enough to understand an article like that.

EGAddick

That's the best and most coherent article I've ever read about the finances of the club.  It highlights what a catastrophe two relegations were and also how reliant we had become on TV money.  Our income from television has dropped by 95% in just a few short years and with it set to drop even further for next season it cannot be underestimated just how important it is to get out of League One this season, the consequences of failure are not  worth thinking about.  The wage capping is important but, as a business, the club is still losing money and cannot exist in the third tier.  This puts a lot of pressure on the people running the club as well as those playing for it, at least we can say we're in the best position for it as the league table stands at this minute, but I'm sure there will be a few 'squeaky bum' moments between now and the end of the season!