Swansea City: Soul Train

CroJack

CroJack

Key Player
"Huw Jenkins, Swansea’s chairman, who made millions when the club was acquired by American investors in 2016, has resigned. Reading between the lines it appears that there are conflicts in terms of day to day running of the club.

The club’s finances are clearly an issue, as is the strategy of the majority shareholders Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan in terms of how the club is going to deal with the aftermath of relegation.

Swansea haven’t yet published their accounts for 2017/18, but were there warning signs in the previous year?

Key Financial Highlights for year ended 31 July 2017

Turnover £128 million (up 31%)

Wages £99 million (up 21%)

Pre-player sale losses £22 million (up 12%)

Player sale profits £37 million (up from £6 million)

Player signings £64 million (up from £16 million)"

Read this excellent article about Swansea City finances here:

http://priceoffootball.com/swansea-city-soul-train/

Unfortunatelly, we still don't have any key numbers for season 2017/18 and 2018/19.
 
ivoralljack

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Some random quotes from the article:

When the deal was brokered a lot of people made a lot of money. Yes, including Jenkins, Morgan and other shareholders. Conspicuous by their absence was The Trust! :(

Good governance for any business requires transparency and honest communication and these both appear to be in short supply in SA1 at the moment. Absolutely sums up the situation.

K&L's motives for running the club are mysterious. Blatantly obvious to most of us!

The sale of the club in 2016 seems to have been the start of the club's decline on the pitch....... K&L's motives are unclear but they presumably perceive Swansea as a franchise and want a return on this investment. Damn right they want a return to pay their investors and themselves, irrespective, it seems, of the damage it will do to the club and its future prospects. They are treating the club purely as a cash cow and seemingly they have no intention whatsoever of investing any of their own money in playing resources AS THEY PROMISED THEY WOULD. In my eyes this confirms my opinion that they are nothing more than shyster liars and The Trust needs to sue their sorry arses for their part in what we all regard as a shady takeover. And I firmly include the selling shareholders in this.
 
Yankee_Jack

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
The 2018 FY financials and those for this current FY are going to clearly tell the cash flow story within the club and the club to the current and past owners. Any YoY variance on retain earnings after net income would indicate a cash distribution to owners. Any such distribution should also have gone to the Trust. The Trust has made no comment on receiving any such funds.

For me, there are three areas where we need to focus our attention going forward: Club finances and cash out; Trust financial operations and possible cash in; Trust v Old Shareholders (Jenkins et al .... which is where I see the Trust has to be focused and take action); Trust involvement in Club operations and goverance.

As I have opined in the past, Trust v Old Shareholders is taking much too long to come to a head. Since Sumbler reappeared it appears to have ground to a halt; a coincidence I wonder.
 
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