Chelsea is unsustainable, vast liabilities

[BaZ87]

Not yet they haven't.
The debt might be half what it was and the losses might be reduced the same as I'm sure you'll agree our spending has been cut dramatically.
I doubt we're in £500m of debt for starters and just guessing at a companies current financial health has never worked in the business world

Your spending has been cut but you're still making losses on old transfers when you were spending ott(and some gains), the likes of Veron for instance and this will continue with the likes of Makelele, Sheva and will still carry on for years to come with the likes of Drogba, Essien and SWP (unless they are sold while you can still make a bit of cash for them).

Im sure your losses will drop but i don't think it will be any where near as a dramatic drop as it was last time, simply because there is less room for improvement. The £500m debt is very possible though as im sure RA wouldn't have just given you the £500m but would have been over some sort of interest free loan.

And its not a guess its a forcast based upon previous financial performance, thats the job of an accountant

 

[JohnnyG]

Accountants should stick to counting the realities and not predicting the possibilities, that's what they're paid for after all
We'll know around Xmas time I'd imagine about the current status of Chelsea Ltd and it's subsidiaries, until then it's all guesswork and hopes

 

[BaZ87]

They do budgets and forcasts too

 

[JohnnyG]

You might, mine doesn't

 

[BaZ87]

i hope i don't have to, but have to learn how to do it

oh and you can take your thread back now, ive done it a day too much already.

 

[JohnnyG]

I'm away from tomorrow until Saturday so keep it barely afloat until then if you can please mate

 

[BaZ87]

lol theres going to be nobody left to vote come the weekend, i'll see what i can do but you owe me.

 

[Morba]

once again.... can people not remember that Roman said years ago that chelsea will run at a loss, but will slowly start to run at a profit after something like 10 years?
it was never a short term plan in buying chelsea.

 

[Gilly]

Yes, I can remember it. However, the facts are that it is a lot of debt for a football club to be in.

 

[JohnnyG]

Liverpool's new owners are apparently intending to borrow £500m to refinance the loan they took out to buy LFC and to fund the new stadium and this loan will be now be LFC's as they're the owners and can do that now.

 

[Morba]

Yes, I can remember it. However, the facts are that it is a lot of debt for a football club to be in.

are Man U not now in lots of debt as well, thanks to new owners?
same with liverpool.

yet all 3 clubs can afford the debt and have sound business plans (apparently) to clear the debt over time.

unlike other recent clubs that have gone under (wimbledon / leeds / crawley)

 

[Stag]

Do Chelsea have sufficient real fans to sustain a period of hardship without heavy detriment to their finances (if Abramovich went). Man United and Liverpools fan base dwarfs Chelsea's by some margin I would imagine (going by fair weather fan base or "real" fans).

Would the recently acquired fair weather fans stick with Chelsea or move over to the next top team?

 

[daz]

Who are the debts owed to?

It could well be money owed to Abramovich.

 

[JohnnyG]

Do Chelsea have sufficient real fans to sustain a period of hardship without heavy detriment to their finances (if Abramovich went). Man United and Liverpools fan base dwarfs Chelsea's by some margin I would imagine (going by fair weather fan base or "real" fans).

Would the recently acquired fair weather fans stick with Chelsea or move over to the next top team?

Chelsea's fan base is bigger now than it's ever been because they have been the most successful team in the country over the last 3 seasons on the whole.
Plenty of people started supporting Man.U, Liverpool and Arsenal due to the same reasons and they've stuck with their teams, how many football fans do you know who really change their allegiances once they're formed?

 

[BaZ87]

Chelsea's fan base is bigger now than it's ever been because they have been the most successful team in the country over the last 3 seasons on the whole.
Plenty of people started supporting Man.U, Liverpool and Arsenal due to the same reasons and they've stuck with their teams, how many football fans do you know who really change their allegiances once they're formed?

Its going to take much more than 3 years for Chelsea's fan base to grow to the levels of Utd's or Liverpool's. Even Arsenal (as well as plenty of other hugely successful clubs in europe, Bayern and Milan for a start) have never managed to reach the levels of Liverpool or Utd (+ Real and Barca) in terms of a global brand.

 

[CliffyG]

are Man U not now in lots of debt as well, thanks to new owners?
same with liverpool.

yet all 3 clubs can afford the debt and have sound business plans (apparently) to clear the debt over time.

unlike other recent clubs that have gone under (wimbledon / leeds / crawley)

From my rather limited view I can't see how Man U aren't in massive debt. The interest from the loan to buy them is quite substantial and IIRC the Glazers have moved the debt to the club and have just splashed out over 50 mil on transfers. I'm not sure about Liverpool at all but imagine a similat situation.

 

[cheets64]

Yawn, read some of it then read the last bit summed it up

Take some good advice and worship the Russian and keep him as sweet as you can because without him you WILL be the next Leeds United.

No **** captain obvious.

Abramovich was looking to buy Spurs due to the Jewish links but got Chelsea on the cheap I believe, If he pulls out it will ruin Chelsea but I cant see him, owning a football is a true playboy, he loves it, look at the boat hes just pre-ordered something like £250 million, if he is spending that a on a boat then Chelsea is just a hobby.

If I was a Chelsea fan I would be more worried about Putin going after Abramovic's money.

 

[Morba]

look at the boat hes just pre-ordered something like £250 million, if he is spending that a on a boat then Chelsea is just a hobby.
.

you realise he has a few boats which reach into the many many many millions in value already?

 

[mcwildcard]

A debt of £500m and still losing money, surely thats proof enough?

If RA leaves for one reason or another then Chelsea would be in serious trouble, its going to take a sustained period of success to build up there fan base to even contemplate making a profit big enough to pay-off a debt that large (especially when you consider they are still losing huge sums), let alone make a return for anybody looking at Chelsea as a business.

The only way Chelsea would survive if RA left them in a position like this would be if another RA style guy comes along.

Chelsea were about to go bankrupt when RA arrived, he bought the club, wrote off the debts and on top of that agreed to spend £50mil+ on our Academy facilites, which resulted in our Cobham training ground. This fabled £500mil you speak of is not in the name of Chelsea, it's in the name of RA, so if he leaves, he takes that with him.
If RA left tomorrow, we'd be left with no debt, one of the world's best kitted out training facilities and a wealth of immensely talented youth players, some of whom may well break through into the first team squad (Scott Sinclair already has).
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, we'd also be left with one of the most talented first team squads in football history.
Granted the wage bill would be hideous, but I think when you consider how much we've got out of this deal, it's a small price to pay.

All those things aside, if RA left, he wouldn't just walk away and forget Chelsea existed, he'd clearly sell the club on, so we'd most likely be in the same position anyway, except I'd imagine there'd be shareholders to deal with.

In short, Chelsea have absolutely nothing to worry about.

 

[BaZ87]

Chelsea were about to go bankrupt when RA arrived, he bought the club, wrote off the debts and on top of that agreed to spend £50mil+ on our Academy facilites, which resulted in our Cobham training ground. This fabled £500mil you speak of is not in the name of Chelsea, it's in the name of RA, so if he leaves, he takes that with him.
If RA left tomorrow, we'd be left with no debt, one of the world's best kitted out training facilities and a wealth of immensely talented youth players, some of whom may well break through into the first team squad (Scott Sinclair already has).
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, we'd also be left with one of the most talented first team squads in football history.
Granted the wage bill would be hideous, but I think when you consider how much we've got out of this deal, it's a small price to pay.

All those things aside, if RA left, he wouldn't just walk away and forget Chelsea existed, he'd clearly sell the club on, so we'd most likely be in the same position anyway, except I'd imagine there'd be shareholders to deal with.

In short, Chelsea have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Did you read the article in the OP? Chelsea's last set of accounts state that you have a debt of £500m so the debt is not in RA's name like you think.

If RA left or decided he was no longer going to subsedise your losses then you would go bust. With the debts the club have, the continuous losses and the lack of a fan base the size of Utd or Liverpool to make an in-roads into those debts then i can't see anybody (other than another RA) willing to buy the club.

Its going to take a long time before Chelsea are no longer reliant on RA but untill then RA is definantly more important to Chelsea than JM is (the point of the article in the OP).