To be fair Haarland did say he was "Super Happy" - yes if there was a serious attempt at financial sustainability and fair play then there would be be some kind of salary cap - I guess the cost of tattoos must have increased...
@werdermouth My tattoos were a lot cheaper than that! Although after I had the club crest tattooed on my leg after 29/02/04, it would have been nice if MFC had tipped me off that they were going to change it before the ink was dry.
@werdermouth My tattoos were a lot cheaper than that! Although after I had the club crest tattooed on my leg after 29/02/04, it would have been nice if MFC had tipped me off that they were going to change it before the ink was dry.
Oh no 😂 Still at least you ended up with the better badge and also shows you're not a recent glory hunter 🤔
Well, he could buy Boro and a couple of other clubs in Spain, Italy and France for the that money. And his contract runs for nine years ...Half a million pounds per week? It’s madness. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/jan/17/erling-haaland-signs-new-manchester-city-contract-to-2034?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Up the Boro!
Who is going to write the preview for the Middlesbrough versus West Bromwich Albion to be played on Tuesday 21st January?
As a request, I would like to know more about their new manager as it looks likely that a new appointment will be made in the next 24 hours. A nice surprice I hope.
Hoping to know more soon. Up the Boro!
just realised that £500,000 a week Haaland deal is a whopping 9 and a half year deal - which my rough calculation makes it worth a quarter of a billion pounds!
That is a crazy amount of money to give to one player and also a big risk investment given any potential injury for a physically big athlete.
Who is going to write the preview for the Middlesbrough versus West Bromwich Albion to be played on Tuesday 21st January?
As a request, I would like to know more about their new manager as it looks likely that a new appointment will be made in the next 24 hours. A nice surprice I hope.
Hoping to know more soon. Up the Boro!
Powmill is slated to do that preview Jarkko
@jarkko. Nice to hear that he will be returning but I would have much preferred that it wasn’t before they played us! Could be another disappointing night at the Riverside as he knows our team inside out. 😉😎
@werdermouth so you would advise against us giving similar terms to big Josh?
The above might enlighten some people on the finances of MFC and the importance of Steve Gibson’s contribution.
Come on BORO.
I have checked the more reliable transfer sources and I can’t find anywhere that says MFC have verbally accepted 20m (what ever currency) my understanding is the only bid that is on the table (which MFC are mulling over) is from Atlanta worth £18m with £2m add ons, could you please post the link to this report. According to Carrick Lath will be playing at Portsmouth and has trained really well all week.@OFB on the Transfers thread - $20M offer for Latte Lath verbally accepted by MFC with only personal terms to be agreed.
It will need some good PR to sell that to Boro fans. But MAYBE Boro has identified a gem of a player for £16M - a young Thierry Henry or the like!
Come on BORO.
@exmil I don’t think any of us is in any doubt as to MFC’s reliance on SG. It’s good to see that (financially) we’re headed in a positive direction. For me, that still remains more important than achieving promotion (although I accept that the two things can be directly linked).
Yes it's an useful article by the Gazette's financial correspondent and read it this morning - with the interesting point being the £19m loss of 3 seasons ago will be dropped out the 3-year cycle for next season's spending limit - meaning there's only £18m loss from the previous two seasons and some wriggle room to invest next season and stay within Profit and Sustainability rules.
Incidentally, it's hard work searching for definitive rules to how much an owners can actually inject into a club to cover debt and academy or women's teams - the debt limit is around £39m over three seasons or even £41.5. I think I recall academy cost of up to £5m can be added that are not covered by the £39m/£41.5m.
I think what many don't fully understand is that Steve Gibson both injects the cash to cover allowable expenses - such as the academy - plus he then takes on all the debt and converts it to equity. So he's actually paying in twice to make up the shortfall of running the club. Craig Johns mentioned a figure of around £20m a year that Steve Gibson ultimately pays into the club - which is around the maximum allowed for a Championship owner.
I think what many don't fully understand is that Steve Gibson both injects the cash to cover allowable expenses - such as the academy - plus he then takes on all the debt and converts it to equity. So he's actually paying in twice to make up the shortfall of running the club. Craig Johns mentioned a figure of around £20m a year that Steve Gibson ultimately pays into the club - which is around the maximum allowed for a Championship owner.
I am not sure what you’re saying about SG paying twice is actually correct. He invests money into the club via way of director’s loans to assist the club in covering expenditure which exceeds income. He has then agreed that the loan monies owing to him are capitalised into equity as you state.
He hasn’t paid twice, but he has agreed effectively to defer recouping the loan money until such time as he decides to exit the club, at which point he may recover some or all (unlikely) of the funds invested or to write off his investment entirely.
That’s my understanding but I could be wrong. What is not in dispute is that without SG we would be a much poorer club and probably not competing at the level we are. 😎
OK, I probably phrased it confusingly - though I'm not totally sure what the headline debt figures fully represent but what I was meaning to say in that Steve Gibson pays twice is that he both invests in items that are not counted when it comes to P&S limits (academy, infrastructure etc) but also then covers the debt (loss?) reported into equity.
I haven't studied the accounts so I can't say exactly what the overall shortfall is in terms of revenue received against total expenditure - therefore what the actual amount Steve Gibson is injecting into the club - that is definitely one for the accountants on Diasboro.
Craig Johns wrote in an article last year that he calculated Steve Gibson injected around £20m each year to keep the club running. As reported in the article that Exmil gave the link above - the owner can cover a debt of on average £13m per season but then that figure doesn't include all expenditure made. Craig Johns seemed to imply that on top of the allowable £13m an owner can invest in items not covered by P&S - i.e. £20m.
If anyone versed in reading accounts wants to have a look, the link to submitted MFC accounts is...
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01947851/filing-history
@werdermouth. Following a quick look at the published accounts, it appears there is not a detailed breakdown of expenditure. As a consequence, it is unclear if items like the academy/infrastructure costs are counted as expenditure when calculating the statutory profit and loss figure and then discounted when calculating the P&L for PSR purposes.
I am aware that it had previously been reported that SG was injecting £1M+ per month into the club and over the three year cycle this would equate to the c. £39M allowable loss.
Given the costs of running the academy etc then I agree that SG could well be investing c. £20M per year.
Irrespective of how rich you are, a not inconsiderable sum for which we are eternally grateful. 😎
The accounts do not include
That'll be me Jarkko.Who is going to write the preview for the Middlesbrough versus West Bromwich Albion to be played on Tuesday 21st January?
As a request, I would like to know more about their new manager as it looks likely that a new appointment will be made in the next 24 hours. A nice surprice I hope.
Hoping to know more soon. Up the Boro!
Sorry I have been a bit absent this week. I had my second knee replacement on Monday, so been a little preoccupied and occasionally pumped with morphine to have followed and contributed to this thread. Great opening though OFB and lots of good posts I have been catching up on.
I planto compose the WBA piece over the weekend. Definitely will have something posted for Monday morning at the latest. I will, Jarkko, do my best to do an introduction to their new manager if he has been named, although from what I hear you might be quite familiar with him already!
As for tomorrow. Three points please and a clean sheet.
Thanks for having a quick look at the accounts - I do find it difficult to make sense of some things reported in accounts as I'm never sure what some terms actually mean 🙂
But yes either way Steve Gibson should be regarded as a major revenue stream that allows the club to compete towards the top of the Championship!
Good luck with new knee and hope you're recovering well - though it would've been interesting to read a morphine-fueled preview 😉
Just heard the sad news that one of the greatest in my view, Denis Law, has passed away at the age of 84.
Like so many of his era, Denis had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
RIP Denis, thanks for the memories and condolences to his family. 😎
@k-p-in-spain He was THE player I wanted to be as a kid. Not Charlton, not Best - always Denis Law.
@martin-bellamy. Yes me too. Copied his way of playing holding his shirt cuffs and that raised arm pointing to the sky when he scored. Great memories. 😎
Mr Mowbray confirmed as WBA Manager
Interestingly Shea Connor, who has been on the bench as sub goalkeeper played for the U21's at Blackburn on Friday night. Would be a lot of travel if he is to be on the bench at Pompey, considering the first team flew down on Friday afternoon. Hopefully we aren't going to have a bench with no keeper.
I watched part of the Burnley v Sunderland game and noticed a few things about both teams.
Both had excellent goalkeepers, good shot stoppers and very confident. They also played football,down both sides of the pitch and didn’t resort to using one side all the time.
I think Boro have a long way to go to catch up technically to match either team.
OFB
@powmillnaemore Get well soon. I hope your knee will be much better than before when it heels down.
My comment on the next blog and WBA manager was about Mogga. We might know Mogga quite well - an interesting choice by WBA. And it shows that Mogga is finally OK after his fight with cancer.
Up the Boro!
Going back to the chances of making it into the EPL against those with Parachute Payments.
Sunderland appear to have a very good chance this season. Their games against the teams above them have impressive.
And all done, I believe, on less money than Boro.
As I was the tallest of my brothers, I was called Jack Charlton, "giraffe". I hated that at the time, as my brothers were Bobby C. or Zairzinho. But I was best of the lot at heading the ball!@k-p-in-spain He was THE player I wanted to be as a kid. Not Charlton, not Best - always Denis Law.
Later, especilally after following Boro, I am proud to have been called after Big Jack as a kid. Happy days playing footy with my brothers ❤️.
Denis Law was not for my generation. Nothing away from him, perhaps we just did not know him that well here in Finland. Up the Boro!
Best of luck with the new knee Powmill.
Sad news about the great Denis Law.
There is that great scene in Kes, the best football scene in cinematic history, when Brian Glover is wearing the red No 9 shirt and one of the kids asks him
"Are you playing Denis Law again , Sir?"
"No, Charlton today lad....anyway Denis Law is in the wash this week"
Barry Hines who wrote Kes was a good mate of mine during the 70s and 80s, and he told me that he had played against Denis Law once, marking him in a reserve game. It was a terrible day, the rain lashing down on a sodden pitch and Denis spent the whole game, hands in his sleeves making jokes about how his main aim was to get off and into the shower as soon as he could. Barry idolised two players, Tony Currie and Denis Law, and that line from the film is a nice tribute to Denis
Barry was a decent player who turned down a chance to sign for Man U to fulfil his ambition to be a PE teacher.
Yes teaching was a steady reliable job in those days as opposed to the lottery of making it as a footballer.