Are Newcastle at ‘break even’ already?

Mike Ashley

Mike Ashley
Time to back the manager?
The accounts have been out and about for a good few hours now and although they only featured our stint in The Championship they do at least give us a little insight into the current years financials.

It’s been rumoured that Newcastle are breaking even this season, even without the money from the sale of Andy Carroll being taken into consideration. Having made a rough guesstimate using the figures from our latest set of accounts I would have to pretty much agree with the rumour and say that we are indeed breaking even.

Mike Ashley’s penny pinching has been much maligned by scores of the Toon Army, but it’s been done with good reason ultimately. You can question his footbal knowledge, but his business acumen is second to none and his tough penny pinching methods appear to have worked.

Where next though? What happens now? Surely a football club that is sustainable is a prime target for a takeover? Will Ashley be happy to remain on Tyneside now that the financial house is getting order? What are his intentions? Derek Llambias has lifted the lid on the ambition of the club. He said:

“Our vision for the club is to finish 10th or above every year – year after year. That is our target, we want to be challenging for Europe every single year.”

“Mike Ashley’s money has kept this club buoyant. Quite honestly, Newcastle United would not be here without him. It’s as simple as that. He has never taken a penny out of the football club but he knows what he has to put in every year and is keen to grow it.”

“He knows where we want to be and where we should be in four or five years. But we are a very tight unit here and a much better unit than we have been previously. At the end of the day Mike is a football fan – a Newcastle fan – and he loves coming here.”

“We are starting to get the stability we need into the football club, both financially and within the squad. That stability is one of our most important goals. That would give us the security that the club and the playing side needs. We need to get that stability back here, including on the managerial side.”

So the intention is to be challenging for Europe every year then? And Ashley wants to grow the club to boot. To me it sounds like he’ll be around for a bit.

Getting back to the money side of things again though, our bank balance should be starting to look a lot healthier when the next set of accounts are released. We’ll be breaking even at the very least and could even turn a modest profit, which would be a staggering turnaround.

Naturally expenditure will rise as we get the better players back to St James Park, but that won’t be an issue as long as they are earning their corn as the extra wage will be offset by the extra money associated with being higher up the league.

It’s all good news to be honest but the turnaround shouldn’t end with the accounts. That is Ashley’s comfort zone, and now he has to step out of that and sanction the purchase of players who will help to improve our on pitch fortunes.

By allowing all of the money from the sale of Andy Carroll to be invested it could set us up very nicely for the future, but only if we survive. If we don’t then all this positivity over the books will matter not and the Andy Carroll money will just cover any losses incurred next season back in The Championship.

Which brings us back to the importance of the Wolves game at the weekend….

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

87 thoughts on “Are Newcastle at ‘break even’ already?

  1. If like you say that we are break even right now then at then end of the season if we stay up the EPL pay out money for what postion you finish, im not sure but i think you get about 6-7 million just for finishing 17 and then it goes up about 0.8-1 million for every postion higher. so if that is the case maybe we will be in profit at the end of the season.

    for next season we wont be spending any money on players because that will come out of the money we have retained for carroll, so already we are in better shape than we are now becasue we have spent about 14 million on new palyer and there wages so….

    with that extra and the money that you get for staying up + that money from saving on players because that is being deducted from the AC money than that seems to be like business well done to me (if all goes to plan)!!

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  2. People mightent like Ashley, but without him we wouldn’t have a club to support, Freddie crippled us financially

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  3. looks canny the club now,thing is i dont trust that lam-**** one bit,blows with the wind that git 😡

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  4. Ironically, the post I’ve tried 3 times but hasn’t appeared hasn’t got so much as a “fucknugget” or “klunge-ticker” anywhere it it!

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  5. http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2011/03/30/future-of-newcastle-united-explored-after-accounts-revealed-61634-28426458/

    This is a good analysis if a bit positively biased – it doesn’t acknowledge that some of the debt is Ashley’s own fault. But it should be read by the “Ashley’s taking money out” brigade, who couldn’t be more wrong.

    Personally, I’m as impressed with their business and financial management as I am unimpressed with their football management. But as the author of that article points out, the former is the essential enabler for the latter.

    From that point of view we’re in very good shape, ahead of the opposition and should be able to capitalise when other clubs hit the financial skids and new regulations.

    If we stay up…

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  6. It’s all well and good saying we won’t be sold and they plan on being around years, the club will have it’s price though and if it’s met…

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  7. The Journal has a good analysis if a bit positively biased – it doesn’t acknowledge that some of the debt is Ashley’s own fault. But it should be read by the “Ashley’s taking money out” brigade, who couldn’t be more wrong.

    Personally, I’m as impressed with their business and financial management as I am unimpressed with their football management. But as the author of that article points out, the former is the essential enabler for the latter.

    From that point of view we’re in very good shape, ahead of the opposition and should be able to capitalise when other clubs hit the financial skids and new regulations.

    If we stay up…

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  8. I had read it this morning Whumpie and agree, good article. Was positively biased towards Ashley which made a change!

    Interesting how some sections of the media are putting a negative spin on the accounts and some a positive. Just shows you that with the media, we are a bit like marmite

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  9. They are only decent figures provided the players here present, ie Colo, Barton, Tiote and Jose see it the same way.
    They are on the inside and time will tell whether Ashley has convinced them it’s worth staying.

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  10. It has emerged United had the largest payroll in the Championship last season at £47m, more than three times bigger than West Brom’s at £15m, but the Toon board were determined to take a gamble on promotion first time.

    😯 😯

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  11. 😆

    Vs Westbrom on the last day I’d like see Gosling, Ireland & and Ben Arfa in the same side, even if it’s just for 20 minutes or so 😀

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  12. CC – Not heard back yet. Taken about a month to be considered apparently, according to their blurb like 🙂

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  13. First off thanks Mike for all you have done on the financial side of things esp last season!

    We should ease ben arfa n Gosling back this season , give them enough mins at towards the end of games to help build up match fitness n then unleash them for next season

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  14. Ice, hopefully yeah. Shame we can’t play our best XI for Man U, would have been nice to give them a good go full strength!

    When Ben Arfa does make his comeback, I’ll be wincing every time someone goes to tackle him 🙁

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  15. I wonder if anyone out there has run the computer models to work out the highest possible points tally is for 18th?

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  16. DAN dont worry so will he i think.

    wonder why club have back-heeled ireland training camp,it seemed to bond the players well the twice they went 😕

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  17. Oh, dear. Curry, pint and chocolate for lunch. No amount of coffee is going to get any sense out of me for a couple of hours.

    The Spanish have this lunch thing so right…

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  18. Ok, so how did people feel when the Judas goal went in last night?

    a) Good on ‘im
    b) Dammit; wish his leg had broken when he hit it
    c) Was there a match last night?

    Must admit, I was c – but interested to know where others stand on this one.

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  19. If I’d been watching, I think mainly b for me. Less bothered about what he does for England though – I’d be delighted if his blank spell at club level went all the way to the end of the season.

    Childish, I know. But then… I just am. 😎

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  20. I would have been B but I reckon he hasn’t given us much a second thought so in return I’ll go for a C

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  21. Seriously – didn’t know there’d been a match till a mate asked me this morning what I thought of the goal. 😳

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  22. What’s the latest on the singing section, then? Does it look at all likely that it’ll spring up elsewhere next season? (Sorry for the ignorance – bit out of it down here!)

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  23. Whumpie, Utd For Newcastle will be releasing details of their meeting with the club on this matter today I hope 🙂

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  24. One thing that winds me up about that Utd for Newcastle is that they take ages to get around to writing up these notes.

    That and they never even gave me a plug last time 👿

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  25. ****, I’m bored. Today I have discovered that I was wrong about there being nothing more dull than writing a programme brief. Reviewing someone else’s comments on your programme brief – that’s proper dull. I may need a pacemaker to keep me from slipping into a coma. 😯

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  26. looking at fixtures blackburn and west brom aint got a payer of getting to 40 points, blackpool will struggle with their form and wigan wont either barring some freaky **** happening

    We need a win and a draw or two

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  27. the accounts we have seen today arnt the full accounts,so who knows whats going on.
    more smoke and mirrors from this lot

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  28. TOONSY thats what is a worry for me banking on the wolves result,how will the “players” re-act if we dont get a result,how will it affect them for remaining games 😕

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  29. Not really hitman. They’d look like arseholes and it would destroy Ashley’s business credibility if they released a load of fake figures, especially when they can be easily disproved for just £1.

    Granted the accounts aren’t available at Companies House yet, but they were only filed today. The headline figures, which is what is knocking about all over the place, will be exactly the same.

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  30. its just been on ssn toonsy,some bloke was saying these are edited accounts and not the full ones..

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  31. Whumpie and Toons, you should have watched the game last night, it was an absolute belter. Best friendly I’ve seen, probably ever. Ghana and their fans are a tribute to football, even though Gyan farkin scored the equaliser!

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  32. Hitman – I know. I saw exactly the same thing. Did he not also say that these figures could be spot on but couldn’t be verified because, as I said, they aren’t on Companies House yet?

    I’m sure I heard that with my own ears….

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  33. Ah – hitman! Thanks for finally providing another side to the original debate!

    So how are these not the full accounts, exactly? If they’re the ones filed at Companies House, that’s it; there are no intermediate versions that I’m aware of. And falsifying them carries a biiiig ol’ jail term.

    Besides – the numbers look about right to me and don’t say anything surprising beyond the club having trimmed its costs a bit better than many of us thought.

    Oh, and the bit about how much Ashley had to pay out in transfer instalments on players bought by the previous regime. Oops. 😯 Due diligence next time, fella. 🙄

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  34. aye he did toonsy,but why just not release the full accounts,put everyone squarly in the pic,he just leaves him sel open for criticsim.
    he must get off on it me thinks

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  35. Whumpie – Exactly. I mean like I said in the last article I predicted our income and was only £2 million off. The figures are a bit better, but certainly not substantially better than I thought.

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  36. I don’t think you could ask for much better in terms of getting our finances straight – but it’s all for nowt if we go down again. I know it’s unlikely – but it seemed unlikely last time too. The idea of us only getting 3 points from 8 games isn’t all that far-fetched.

    As many have said: the result at Wolves will determine a great deal… as long as it’s not a draw. 😐

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  37. No highly visible company like this would dream of filing the full accounts without putting an exec summary to the media first. It’s all part of PR. It’s your one chance to manage the message and the club would be mad not to take it. Sure, some may try to find bad news hidden in the full set, but the sting’s taken out of it by getting the club’s interpretation out first.

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  38. BTW – the Chron says the AC money is a separate account. Sounds unlikely.

    If we stay up and still break even without even taking the AC money into account it will have been a really great year and the perfect starting point for recruitment in the summer.

    A key point on top of that is that other clubs will still be struggling with losses each season for years yet, which should make our squad-building a lot simpler. Yes, we’ll still be up against the really big clubs with huge revenues, but we’ll be in a very select 2nd tier and working our way into that bracket.

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  39. Whumpie – I’ve been beating that drum for over a year now but nobody wants to know. End of the day we are in much better shape than many clubs and we can capitalise on it as a lot of clubs are at the top of what they can get away with paying out (Bolton, Sunderland, Everton, Villa) no without having any room to improve.

    On the other hand, we still have room to grow.

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  40. One question is: when does Ashley expect to get his £139m back? I assume he’s balancing that against the value of the club and will get it whenever he sells up… provided he’s upped that value sufficiently. As long as that’s the case, all good as far as I’m concerned.

    Now if only they could stop it with the ******* decisions on the footie front…. 🙄

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  41. I totally get it when people are cynical about believing what’s said – even up to expecting smoke and mirrors in the summary accounts. What I don’t get is this garbage about Ashley milking money OUT of the club. That just doesn’t add up from any angle at all and seems to be an opinion driven purely by peoples’ deterimination to find undiluted fault from every angle.

    They must be fun at parties, eh.

    Bottom line: the club is in a far better state than before he took over (although the route here has been pretty nasty and unnecessarily so in places). On the other side, Ashley’s net worth has taken a hammering to the tune of over £100m to achieve it. I’d say the gain was on our side, not his, and the recognition of that in the press makes a nice change.

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  42. A – good on im

    You must remember he was forced out by the club!

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