Good Morning. It's Thursday 9th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Augustin edges closer to permanent deal German Media outlet Sport Bild have disclosed that French International Striker Jean Kevin Augustin will join Leeds in the Summer, if the Whites secure promotion. This contradicts what the Former Chief Football Writer for the Yorkshire Evening Post says. According to Phil Hay, Augustin was yet to agree terms with the Whites, and talks would progress if and when Bielsa's side won promotion. According to the German source, Leeds will part with 18.5m to bring the former PSG hitman to West Yorkshire after both club, and player agreed personal terms. Augustin hasn't endeared himself to the Elland Road faithful. Since January, big Kev has only managed 49 minutes of game time, and due to his lack of fitness, picked up a hamstring injury. He is currently working hard with Rob Price, Leeds head of medicine and performance. please log in to view this image Popey - Club is confident of working within FFP Following the 2018/19 accounts being disclosed, Leeds journalist Adam Pope has put a positive spin on the disappointing figures showing a 21m loss. Speaking from his twitter account, Popey was quoted as saying:- "So, just to be clear this period represents the transition from Heckingbottom to Bielsa & the costs associated with that change including his staff & alterations at Thorp Arch etc. The player sales in the period are the £15m for Ronaldo Vieira & Jack Clarke". "The figures do not include the sales of Pontus Jansson, Kemar Roofe & Bailey Peacock-Farrell. Despite the losses shown the club is confident of working within FFP as the current year (19/20) will reflect better with revenues in excess of £50m". please log in to view this image We are well clear of (FFP) trouble Life long fan, and Director of LeedsFansUnited, Mike Thornton has gone into depth to show exactly why the club is not only in safe hands, but 'well clear' of being penalised under Financial Fair Play regulations. Profitability and Sustainability Rules: 1) Losses between £0 and £15m = prove the owner can support club with cash 2) Losses between £15m and £39m = owner buys shares to cover ALL CASH losses (not accounts losses but CASH losses) 3) Losses over £39m = sent to Tribunal "The level of debt and its increasing nature a worry without the added issue of COVID-19 shutdown. It's noteworthy that for the first time in yonks the bank trusts the Club enough to agree an overdraft facility". "Even with all the cash Radz pumped in the Club still needed to squeeze another £2.5m out of its operations There still seems to be evidence of "forward selling" of transfer debtors although the exact sums are unclear". "All in all, my first glance at the accounts is positive and they are in line with expectations. As regards FFP, we are well clear of trouble as at 30th June 2019". "Congratulations to all Club personnel for their great performance in raising revenues and points on the field". please log in to view this image
Morning Elland and all. Don’t think there will be many clubs penalised over ffp in coming seasons (not that there ever was) due to current crisis. Figures will be so screwed up, most clubs will be focussing on survival first. Hope all our brethren and extended families are all doing ok
Morning all. I've not left the house since the 10th March, since getting the all clear it's actually made me paranoid of catching the virus. Hope all my 606ers are well
I’ve asked him about the gfh fiasco and their current position. He’s in mid reply and will post his statement shortly
Think my questions would be more for Mr Radrizani. 1) Why have wages been allowed to increase from £20.71 million to £46.16 in only 2 seasons ? Especially as many players have been released and the squad size trimmed to a minimum with U23's used to plug any gaps. 2) In addition there seems to be a further £20 million in bonus payments due should promotion be achieved. Are there any other liabilites, such as to GFH on promotion and do players contracts have a wage ecsalator clause upon being in the PL ? 3) Some of the loans to the company are now being charged at 6% interest which seems excessive in the current climate. Can you clarify who has made these loans and if other lenders are being sort at a lower interest rate ? 4) Directors wages of which there is only one increased from £200,000 in 2017/18 to £300,000 in 2018/19 (50% increase). How is this justified and is it an indicator of increases to other staff members like our Director Of Football for instance ? Seems like the gravy train is up and running again at ER and as usual it will be us the fans that suffer when the inevitable downturn on the pitch means income streams reducing.
Great question. Million pound contracts awarded to Cooper, Ayling, Dallas and Klich late last year Not sure if there are others. 80k a month each
Great questions & I'd like to have further clarification of #1 - i.e. how much of that total is actual wages, and how much of it is signon fees & contract pay-offs. I've got a funny feeling that the latest wages figure is bloated significantly by the signon fees that are part of the long-term contracts recently agreed, and the contract pay-ups & loyalty payments paid out to enable the player exodus last summer. I wonder also if loans fees come under this. If the answer is 'yes' to any part of the above, I'd like to see the breakdown. All of the above are fairly standard, but we've had a bit of a bubble in these costs recently.
Last line of note 7 states: "Included in wages and salaries are redundancy and ex-gratia payments of £808,743 (2018: £829,984).
The answers, in part are as follows: 1) Average number of persons employed were 928 in 2018 and 1,058 in 2019. 2) All contingencies are noted in note 26 to the accounts. 3) Not accurate, it is even worse! Some loans are at 6% ABOVE the Barclays lending rates! This can be justified by Leeds United being a very high credit risk. 4) That increase has to be for AK, right? How did he earn that increase? Was there a bonus for some measurable achievement. Hard to justify this one, for me, unless, perhaps 2019 is a complete year and 2018 was closer to 8 months. Another question I would ask is please be specific as to how an annual rental of £1.5m for Elland Road was determined? If it matched the debt service costs and other expenses incurred in maintaining the stadium then its fair, if not....
