Usmanov

Wengerite

it has been used as an excuse and the revenue is going elsewhere
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You got it. The money is in the club and it is being used to increase the share price. Its certainly is not being spent on players to 'win things'.

Good companies are loathed to build huge cash reserves. You need a small rainy day fund but not of the scale that Arsenal have been doing. So you have to ask whats it for? Simply whats the point of money just sitting there? It should be working for the business in growth strategies. Its a question often asked by the Tax man.

come to think of it, the debt for all intents, have hovered around £280m for too long.

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First off, may I ask where your getting this £280 million from?

Secondly, we already came out and said they were long term low interest repayments. Less money over a longer period, so any repayments will slow. This isn't a problem, it allows money for elsewhere. We'd have to pay penalties for paying it back early anyways.

So you have to ask whats it for?

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It's to make sure we don't completely destroy ourselves. We are completely reliant on the Champions League football, and if we were to finish outside of the top 4, or not get through the qualification stages, that would be our fall back, to make sure we can survive, and avoid any other disasters.

And once 2014 is upon us and Arsene is in charge at PSG, what then?

Is our 'great business model' going to attract top young talent from around the globe to the club?

I'm going to go with... no.
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Personally I think its going to take something as dramatic to finally wake the board up.

First off, may I ask where your getting this £280 million from?
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I didn't say it, ask jenius

Passionpower.

What people are worth is different to what people have available to spend, both would only invest it if they feel that they can get a return from it.
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A person's net worth is directly related to what they can borrow and what money they can invest in their businesses. The reason why I pointed to their net worth is because their actual businesses and cash reserves are far greater than you can imagine! Kroenke has enough money to bid $1 billion for LA Dodgers before it was sold recently (he was outbid). He is cash rich! If one of my business was being hamstrung in its growth by debt that I could afford to remove, I would do it immediately. The money required to service the debt is taking away the ability of the business to concentrate on its core activities. Having debt only makes one type of businesses happy - the banks.

Now why do people invest in football when there is no direct return?

Because they use it for marketing purposes. It costs between £20m-30m a year to establish your brand in one Western country like UK. Multiply that for every country and think about the sort of money you would save by buying a premier league club. Football is the only truly global sport that reaches every corner of the world.

First off, may I ask where your getting this £280 million from?
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Its around that figure. Some quote £260m over 14 years.

Now why do people invest in football when there is no direct return?
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Man city, Chelsea and PSG did not invest in football, for me they are exception to the rules.

I haven't done my homework on this but please name me someone that has invested that amount of money (apart from Man Utd) that are seeing those returns. I just don't think there is that much money to be made in football at the rate it's going .

Man city, Chelsea and PSG did not invest in football, for me they are exception to the rules.
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What, they have invested billions. Almost all clubs in the premier league are now owned by billionaires. When you buy a club you invest in football.

I don't understand what you mean? Even Venkys invested in Blackburn precisely to get marketing from the premier league. Ashley at Newcastle wanted to make his Sportsdirect brand bigger etc. Who knew about Roman before he bought Chelsea? Abu Dhabi want to be bigger than Dubai thats why they bought Man City. And so on.

Marketing is like a deep well. You can throw money in and you would never know how much impact you have on sales. Its very hard to measure your bang for the buck! Its worked for those who wanted to use football for marketing purposes.

But you can never make profit directly from football as the Americans thought you could. Thats why Aston Villa are having problems, why Gillete/Hicks left, Glazers IPO falling flat. You can in America because their sports markets, mlb, nfl, nba, nhl etc are fixed with bargaining agreements. There is no such thing in football. FFP is not going to work. This causes wage price inflation and makes it almost impossible to be self-sufficient. Especially when you have additional debts.

When I talk about investment I mean it in the traditional sense of investment. put money in, you hope to get a monetary return.

Man city, Chelsea and PSG would not at the rate they spend get a return out football.

Yes maybe football is used as ego thing but to think that it will bring a return the way these guys are spending it a fallacy. Marketing or no marketing!

Even Ashley controls a tight ship in his management of Newcastle!

The question to ask is Usmanov an Ashley type of investor or an Abomovich, I think the former!