wilko154

I have to agree, as sad as it is we require a re-build from the ground up and this can't happen with the current financial mess the club is in. If we hit administration I believe we can cancel contracts of players, so we can rapidly lose players that are no longer required and a burden on the wage bill. Of course we will also end up losing our key players for very little but it will straighten out the finances and reset the club so to speak. However, the only way administration would work for us is if a takeover happens during this time, with someone to either bankroll us once again, or someone to take over the reigns and build the club again as a finanacially stable, income dependant football club. Due to FFP both will mean we will be playing young players for the next few years and with the point deduction we will most probably be fighting for relegation or dropping for a season or two. However the rebuild would begin. If we don't hit administration and Xia keeps papering over the cracks there isn't really a way out unless a miracle takeover occcurs.

As we can only get 30,000 fans in the ground each week I would imagine we won't be getting 50,000 fans to part with £2,500 He also doesn't explain how the 5 million per month hole will be filled once the fans have ownership of the club. Fair play to him for actively looking for a way out, and his video last night spoke a lot of sense.

Half price season tickets to be offered next week to help clear June's wage bill...

This article is absolutely shocking if true... https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/inside-story-behind-aston-villa-12655774

I know FFP is currently the least of our worries... but if a takeover were to go through what would this mean for FFP? Does it still get looked at it in the same way this season?

Essentially yes. FFP is wrong in the fact that if a club has money in the bank and in the owners pocket they should be able to spend it regardless of how much income/loss the accounts show. However, if a club has no money in the bank with an owner that also has no money then FFP is correct in saying that a club can't spend more money than it is bringing in. This stops the Portsmouth/Leeds situations that have happened in recent years. Our case is slightly different in that the club has no money (due to the recent years of losses being higher than income), but our owner does have money... he's just not able to bring it into the UK to spend. Had FFP not been in place, the last 2 seasons we could have blown double the amount, not acheived our goal of promotion and currently be sat in a bigger mess than we currently are.

Exactly, the board have had 2 years to straighten out the finances and get the club into a position where primarily we pass FFP regardless of being promoted or staying in the Championship, but also to have the club healthy enough that we are in a position to pay our bills without relying on funds from Xia. At some point in the last year Xia must have realised that funds were not able to be moved from China and a backup plan should have been looked into. Steve Bruce is the head coach of the football team, not the owner, the CEO, or the finance manager. Stability wise, whilst the board is a mess, we need to retain him to carry on the job he's doing with as little impact as possible. Obviously over the next few days/weeks we will see what sort of an impact this mess will cause to the squad Bruce has assembled.

Terry was cheap. We payed 2.5 million for him over the course of the time he was here, there was no transfer fee involved. We sold Nathan Baker for 3.9 million, and so over the course of last season we made 1.4 million plus Bakers wage savings from the deal. This also includes having John Terry over Nathan Baker for a season.

For the first time it seem's that FFP has done its job. If FFP hadn't been in place over the last 3 seasons we would be in a much bigger pickle than we currently are... It wouldn't matter if FFP was lifted today, as we haven't got a penny to spend until Xia manages to get his money out of China... if there even is any money in China...

Just to be clear on this, Bruce doesn't take any blame for the financial mess the club are in. He would have highlighted his targets and the board would have sorted the financials. It's not the managers job to play accountant for a football club, they simply spend what they are told they can spend.

Agreed, I also think Hogan could be a player that benefits from having a younger team around him next season. Players like Green, Grealish, RHM, Doyle-Hayes will play to his strengths.

Hogan - 10.5 Million - Hasn't worked out although we don't play to suit his style of play Bree - 3.5 Million - One for the future, bargain price and wil hopefully push on this season Thor - 2 Million - Bargain, hasn't played as much as he should have but could be key next season. Also will be a sellable asset if required after the World Cup Hourihane - 3.5 Million - Bargain, scored 11 goals this season enough said. Lansbury - 3.4 Million - Bargain, hasn't played as much as he should have but could be key next season. Not bad business at all

Bruce leaving is the last thing the club needs, we are clearly a mess in the board room and need to spend time fixing that and working on FFP. The one bit of stability we have currently is the Bruce and the remaining squad of players.

For all anyone knows the missed tax payment could be for 30p. The warning from HMRC is going to be a standard issue letter that would be issued to every business type, corner shop or football club. The mass reaction here is madness until anything further is issued from the club. Talk of winding up, selling all our players, Grealish leaving next week... crazy

I don't really understand why everyone is once again jumping on the Xia has no money bandwagon. Wyness hasn't paid the tax, he's been suspended. Xia isn't going to suspend the bloke after not making the funds available to him. FFP is restricting Xia from spending any money, it's not that he hasn't got it. The Amavi & Sanchez deals were pushed through last season to deal with FFP, it's a gamble that we were going to go up and the cash would iron out last seasons FFP problems. Granted that hasn't worked out but it's still all a part of the 3 year FFP pot. Some people need to chill out, it's been less than a week, give Xia some time to sort things out and release a proper statement.

Benteke has missed out on the Belgium World Cup squad.

Not really true, when you look at the net spend over the last two seasons I believe we were actually in profit over both season's (between the summer and winter transfer windows). Yes we have spent a lot of money over the two season's however not all were by Bruce, (McCormack, Elphick, Gollini, De Laet, Tshibola were all RDM's failings). Yes Cardiff went up, but they have put together a team that has a great team ethic and have been together for a fair amount of time. We were a club in dire straights when we went down, Bruce has turned this around and brought the dressing room back together. If we can get through this summer with as much of the squad still together as possible we can be in a strong position to continue next season.

It's a sad state of affairs when we are hoping for sell-on bonuses from Jordan Vertout and Adama Traore to help with our financial woes...

The problem with offering him another contract is that we would once again be looking at the short term... even in the unlikely event that he were to accept 20-30k, we could get a young centre back in for less than that per week and give them a season in the first team. Or promote Suliman or Bedeau from the U23's. Terry's been fantastic this season, but he's not getting any younger and it has shown at times. In the dressing room he has been brilliant and we now need to carry that on into next season. If we are going to go with the rebuild the squad and meet FFP plan then unfortunately decisions such as letting Terry go (if that was even a decision for the club) have to be made. The same decision will need to be made for Hutton, Whelan, Jedinak, Adomah... cash in and get them off the wage bill now and bring a younger player in from elsewhere or keep them for another push next season.

Does anyone know the impact of FFP next season? I know we currently have this season to worry about, but say we were able to ride it out but unable to get promoted this season, what then happens? Over the 3 years that are looked at for FFP, next season we lose the parachute payments completely but we are also not having to look at 2015/16 with the 80 million loss. Would we then be able to start spending extensively? Or would that be the following season from that?

If we had sold him at the end of the 1st season and spent the money on a couple of players, we would now be in a worse position than we currently are with a number of contracts on our hands instead of just one. If we can get Kodjia firing again next season then it is one position we don't need to fill. Grealish in this form playing behind him could be special.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Do you think the fans would have accepted selling our top goalscoring striker at the end of the season? At the time nobody knew he would have 2 serious injuries.

I don't understand why we are touting him as a potential sale, we need Kodjia more than anyone next season. We will be lucky to get many players in at all. Imagine going into next season with Hogan, Davis and Hepburn-Murphy as our only strikers at the club...

Yeh understand that, really hoping he sticks with us. When you think about it though the team that was dismantled under Lerner was a lot better than the current team. Players like Young, Milner, Downing... then later Delph & Benteke, were irreplaceable and have never really been replaced. We now only have Grealish & Chester who are unlikely to be replaceable, most of our other players have their flaws (as do most players at this level). Cardiff have proved that you can find players that can perform in the Championship without spending a lot of money. Possibly clutching at straws here but there is hope in there somewhere.

I don't understand all the comparisons to Lerner here. Yes Xia has got it wrong to some extent, but he has at least steered the club in the right direction. Without him we would be in the same situation Sunderland are currently in. Unlike Lerner the spending cuts aren't due to his own choice, but simply because the club is blocked from spending due to FFP. If we had been promoted, or if FFP was taken away the spending would continue at a more impressive rate.