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Dion - In And Out Of The Shadows

Bon Jovi - In And Out Of Love

If one has a little cock, should they be swinging it in public? Should they be swinging it in public regardless of size. No, keep it in your pants folks!

Cheers. I spend way too much of my working day analysing the financials of other businesses. Although analysing the Dons latest shit shows is slightly less enjoyable than ramming shards of bamboo under your finger nails, I don’t want to merge it with my work too much.

Definitely quite interesting if not a little cock swinging.

You can get a pretty good summary of the last 5 years in a lot more detail here: https://psrwatch.com/club/sco-aberdeen/financials

The Supremes - In And Out Of Love

Thanks OD, much appreciated. That’s actually better than I expected it to be. Roughly 100% increase in revenue with an equivalent 60% bump in salaries. I guess the unknowns to square the circle are spend on fees which I assume have risen in that period, possibly in a bit of a bell curve with recent figures dropping (see current squad 😞) and also other non-staff expenditure increase To my earlier point, I’m guessing if you remove player sales that looks like a messy picture of sizeable losses. I’m not even going to touch the European income but I’d suggest these should both be seen as added benefits and not expected to keep the lights on.

The accounts don't provide any separation of player wages, but unless we've hired a fleet of tea-ladies, I'd suggest the leap up of £2.5million between the last 2 years is probably a reasonable indicator that we have significantly increased the player bill.

OK but we can reasonably assumed that playing staff are the vast majority of it. We've all played FM here I'm sure.

Snoop Dog - Gin and Juice

It's all staff costs, not just playing staff

That means about £300-400k average player salaries, right? And Brad Lyons, for example, is classed as an 'important player' so is he on £10K + per week? Am I taking crazy pills or what lads?

Financial year ended 30 June Staff costs Revenue 2021 £9.4m £11.1m 2022 £10.2m £13.9m 2023 £11.9m £15.8m 2024 £12.7m £23.6m 2025 £15.1m £21.7m

Lazy question but how much has our salaries grown in that period and our revenue? We’re about £16m in salaries are we not? Apologies, I’m not across the detail of our financials.

The accounts only run until June 2025, so I'm guessing a fair chunk of the £8m in the bank has been bitten into for: Thelin's 2025/26 squad (fees and wages) Paying off Thelin and his staff for early dismissal Any panic-stricken January window spend (fees and wages) Compensating St Mirren for Robinson and his staff Robinson's 2026/27 squad (fees and wages) Paying off Robinson and his staff for early dismissal Paying off any players we failed to sell and let go early to get off the books at any point of the above None of which is going to look pretty given what we are left with squad-wise. On the flip side, we don't know what the profit on player sales looks like for this year, so that may offset some of it.

OK so where is that money on the pitch and if it's not on the pitch what's it being ringfenced for? Cormack Park? New stadium? Or were we just totally ripped off in the last transfer window?

Or you could just check the public annual accounts on companies house to answer both your questions: Financial year ended 30 June Gain on disposal of players’ registrations Cash at bank and in hand 2021 £2.98m £4.07m 2022 £0.96m £0.83m 2023 £7.45m £2.72m 2024 £1.30m £2.44m 2025 £5.27m £8.82m

Yeah, I think we are fast becoming a basket case (see my post in the other thread - I don’t actually know which one which only emphasises the point 🫣). Heard an interesting point on some podcast or other, think it was The Terrace. They were discussing Nisbet and whether he was done as an impactful player. Jambo slants aside, they came to the conclusion that he doesn’t look like a ‘good team mate’. As nebulous an idea as that is, I immediately got what they were saying. He doesn’t come across as a leader, he looks a frustrated character most of the time. It’s been unfair to an extent as he’s being asked to play in a system that regularly doesn’t suit him but it doesn’t feel like he is galvanising the team and driving them forward, even just from a blood, guts and thunder perspective.

Vanilla Fudge - You Keep Me Hangin' On

Yeah many such cases of two people arguing saying the same thing on the internet. What makes the current Aberdeen situation so hard to unpack, and what makes it feel so alienating to the fans, is precisely how enigmatic and, quite frankly just weird, this all feels. It's like the starting XI on a Saturday is an afterthought of all this other stuff, not the primary concern. We're like Celtic or Rangers in that way with all this board room drama and all these commercial concerns, but we don't have the budget to go spend £5-10 million to bail ourselves out of a hole we've dug for ourselves, and developing youth has always been a backbone of our starting XI, it's not like we could ever afford for that not to be the case. That's what makes all this feel so strange and unfathomable I think. We're looking around for a figure we trust, an anchor for the reality and the best we have is Nicky Devlin. There's no Considine, no Anderson, not even a Zander Diamond or a Darren Mackie. The only thing about it that feels real is losing five games out of six or whatever.

Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone

This is from an article about Man Utd in The Athletic but it goes some way to explaining my feelings on the type of manager we need. We‘are clearly not a “super club” but the general description of the qualities such a manager needs can also be applied to us, albeit on a much lower scale. It’s why “successful” st Mirren and Falkirk managers don’t necessarily make good Aberdeen managers. Clubs of United’s size tend to be coached successfully by main characters. Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho. Mikel Arteta in the present day. They have a strength of personality and a muscularity in control that helps them define the environment in which they work. It does not stand that every alpha succeeds. Clearly that is not true, nor does it follow that someone different — such as Carlo Ancelotti — is unable to succeed, but historically the odds are not in their favour. That’s because big-club management under normal circumstances is not about releasing pressure, making players feel more comfortable, and being friendly with the media. More often, the task requires enrapturing charisma, ludicrous self-belief, and the ability to harness vast egos. Taken a step further, a coach in that situation is also a salesman of sorts, responsible for pitching the club to new players and for representing the path forward. Big club management is big tent preaching.

Would cut down on club expenses as his bus travel would be free. He would probably also get a cheap deal in the staff canteen. Looking at his record. and given he’s managed some big clubs, his W:L and GF:GA stats are nothing special.

Tuchel rules himself out of the Aberdeen job