I think a budget cut is coming, i think it has to now, will be hard on the players, but looks like this is our last chance to get back on the level with HMRC, you cant go missing a payment plan.
MAYBE they will stay on reduced money, cant expect them to do so and would depend on individual circumstances and any that go must go with our best wishes, but its possible, if a few do go then hopefully as part of negotiations, we have said ok we will reduce the budget but to do that we need the embargo off now we have a payment plan, to bring in loan signings which will probably be kids from league clubs. If we can keep say 10-12 of the current players (or all if they want to stay on less dosh) then we could still be ok.
Of course if we have an investor then the above doesnt need to happen. We will know more when the club expand on the statement today on how they are going to meet the playment plan.
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
I also suspect that a wage bill cut is inevitable as reaching an agreement with HMRC and failing to keep to it has proven to be fatal for many and within the business plan we also have to reduce our other debts to key creditors if we are to survive.
Its not rocket science to predict that any business plan will include an immediate wage bill cut and the only question is just how deep do we have to cut and what will the impact be on the current squad.
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YOUTH are the future
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"The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010
This involves a lump sum being paid this coming week
Can the club do this and if so, how? I wonder how much we're talking about? Very worrying.
Yes, very worrying. I know we have two home matches this week, but we have a backlog of wages to be paid to the players as well as this HMRC payment.
I know we're pushing for promotion, but we need to cut the budget more now (if that's possible) or get more money in via other commerical activities; I'd rather struggle in Conference South than not exist at all.
I think we need to get that down to 2.5k immediately even if temp. This should see us with cash to spare to pay the HMRC and buy us time to shape up commercially. We will have all summer to raise money and publicise the fact we paid the HMRC and are upto date (hopefully).
You could probably keep 6 or 7 of the first 11 players and Ant, Jordan, Liam ... How many season loans can we have? 2 or 3? get 2 or 3 of the academy on the bench and we should be ok, play offs will be harder but fresh legs and the right kids in from league clubs might go close.
To keep all the players you are asking them to take half their wages. Probably too much to ask, some need their wages to live on.
Will be interesting how Jamie plays it.
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Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize "
Firstly, terrible timing to put it on the website on the morning of a game ... could just as easily be posted tomorrow. What will the players think perhaps reading that before getting ready to go out and play the league leaders. A mistake I think.
Also, why are comments made about Bromley being cancelled and Luton gate being disappointing. We were clearly sailing close to the wind with or without these issues. Anything raised from Luton should have been a bonus anyway, even if it was only £1 it was still a £1 we should NOT have budgetted for at the start of the season because there was no way of knowing whether we would win through a few cup rounds, or who we would draw. That to me is a poor poor excuse for poor financial planning. Also, the monies are owed from September onwards, and the games called off were in December, so we were clearly losing money and running up bills we couldnt pay long before the bad weather.
Worst thing about all this is that we are flying higher than ever before with decent players but securing our future may mean we have to sacrifice all of this. Can't make the game today so good luck lads,will be there on tuesday.
This involves a lump sum being paid this coming week
Can the club do this and if so, how? I wonder how much we're talking about? Very worrying.
The £20,000 tax outstanding at the date of the Hearing will have grown to around £30,000 by now if nothing has been paid to reduce the balance. If HMRC have agreed a schedule to repay this sum by the end of May monthly instalments of £7,500 would be needed along with the current tax for February, March and April (approx £1,000 a week at current budget level.) There is also one VAT settlement outstanding which I would guess would be £10,000 max. To put these figures into perspective I reckon today's gate receipts (attendance 622) would amount to approx. £5,000. This would include £800 VAT which has to be paid over later.
As far as the embargo is concerned I would expect the Conference to require sight of the agreement with HMRC and confirmation that the February instalment has been paid before withdrawing it.
I recall that the money raised to pay the petition debt included one short term loan. The amount and repayment arrangements were not published but it is quite possible this loan has since been repaid adding to the current shortage of funds.
I also remember that it was stated that nothing more was payable to HMRC until May 2011 (but I did not believe this for one minute.)
Its a shame that the club statements are always re active to events than pro active.
It always seems that it takes something to prompt an anouncement to be made of where we are
Consequently as we have said before speculation and rumour will be rife in the meantime until we can adjust this situation
Was it reactive? To be fair the Club statement says that agreement was reached with HMRC yesterday and that being the case the announcement was as a result of this and was made within 24 hours.
The same cannot be said for the delaying of the constitution and election of the lenders rep where the lack of any anouncement from the Club about the delay for at least a week must equate to an own goal in terms of PR. We are 9 weeks on from the dismissal of the winding up petition yet neither of these issues which are central to the Club's future have been determined. Lets hope that the announcement due later this week brings news of progress on these matters.
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YOUTH are the future
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"The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010