These articles coming out today are really stretching with their headlines, in some odd attempt to make us sound worse off than we are.
Don't get me started on the shit the Guardian and DailyMail have released. Fucking hell.
Here's my quick, two-minute response to today's financial info:
We're honestly doing okay. We have 90m cash on hand, and an existing credit line of 150m (cash) that we can tap into if we need it.
The "net debt" figures you're seeing bandied about are over-sensationalized. Our net debt has been "down" this entire year - because of how much cash we paid for Maguire and Bruno. "Net debt" compares cash on hand to overall debt --- so when you pay someone cash, your "net debt" increases, even though your actual debt remains the same. That's what's happened here - we have less cash on hand - but our overall debt has not increased a dollar.
Was our quarter worse than this quarter last year? Yes. This quarter last year we had a pre-tax profit of about 11m. This year we took at 28m pre-tax loss, for an overall impact of about 40m. But only part of that is due to COVID - part of it is a hit taken due to fluctuations in exchange rates.
Despite not playing football for part of the quarter - ou revenue decreased 19% this quarter compared to this time last year. And most of that is lost broadcast revenue.
Although matchday and broadcast revenue decreased (shocker), our commercial revenue increased 3% to 68.6m.
Honestly, all things considered, we're in ok shape.