UNTOLD ARSENAL » Blog Archive » Arsenal finances safe, but yet another EPL club heads for the abyss
The great thing about supporting Arsenal is that we all know the club will be there next year, and the year after and the year after that.
Which is more than can be said for a growing number of teams. I have reported regularly on the financial disaster that is Manchester Utd and Liverpool where debts cannot be serviced. Chelsea is on a knife-edge – the Russians it appears didn’t give Chelsea the money – they only loaned it, and one day it might have to be repaid.
With major league clubs tumbling out of control financially it is odd to see another team who rather than see Manchester U etc as a warning see them as a blueprint.
Everton – a team not normally associated with debt – have been buying debt faster than they have been buying players. Now what is curious is that they are doing this through a virtually unknown bank in Edinburgh (presumably all the banks in Liverpool are shut) Adam & Company. This oddness becomes almost sinister however when one notes that the main source of money for Everton comes from Barclays – who have loaned the club advances on future money from Sky.
Everton in fact have now wracked up an amazing 12 separate loans – all still outstanding and “guaranteed” against their supposed assets. These “assets” are not what you or I would call assets (like the house or the car) but instead include money from future season ticket sales (which guarantees a loan that is costing £68m over 25 years). That loan is with the Pru with whom I used to have a pension – I moved it once I found what they were up to.
And all this while they are still looking to move out of Liverpool (well you would, wouldn’t you) and build a new super-stadium (as one does.)
So, that’s Manchester Bankrupt, Liverpool Weetabix, CSKA Fulham and now Everton Multi-Loans. The men in white coats are going to be busy when the bubble bursts as they take the gibbering wrecks away.