So what happens this summer about investment.

[Wearethewhites]

If I'm right in thinking, the parachute payments have come to an end, we lost 16M last season, rules have changed in regards to the FFP, which means you can only lose 39M over 3 seasons?? Not sure if that's starts from next season, or, is already in play, but if we are to invest in the summer, someone will have to be sold.

Based on this, our 2 biggest assets are Cairney or Sess, so who will the Club cash in on to fund first team investment?

[Andy S]

That depends on what league we are in at the start of next season

[Wearethewhites]

That depends on what league we are in at the start of next season

The Championship.

[Chutney]

It doesn't matter as long as you go up, the club need to show the ambition required by giving Slav everything he needs transfer wise. Should we go up, the losses over 3 years become irrelevant. Recent examples of this are Bournemouth and Southampton, both invested heavily on a gamble that they would go up and stay up, both achieved it. Recent victims of this are QPR, who went up and came back down, but even then they got off very lightly (have they even been punished yet?).

If we operate within the FFP rules we will become stagnant and struggle to get out of the division. If we want to go up, we need to spend and not worry too much about the FFP rules, under the ambition that it won't matter as we will go up.

[RP24]

How did we lose £16m? I thought after the sale of McCormack, Mitroglu and Roberts the season before we would have made a profit? or am I totally wrong (I don't actually know).

So in my opinion we should spend the entire £39M you can lose over three seasons in one season, get promoted and not worry about it. But that's me living in my fantasy world where we spend what we'd spend if I was the billionaire owner.

[nose]

based on recent history i have no faith in either division and if we remian in the championship i suspect we will lose joca for a reasonable fee and not replace him or any squad members for a proper sum. joca wants to go up and manage in the prem, he will not wish to stay here to have a repeat of this season!

[FPT]

I'm no accountant, but the finances didn't look too healthy since relegation (unsurprisingly). I think however that Slavisa will fight to keep hold of the likes of Cairney and Sessegnon (our two strongest playing assets) and he'll also fight to improve. We've found success in bargains recently, Aluko being a free transfer, Floyd Ayite and Stefan Johansen being under £2m, Kevin McDonald being a shade over £1m, Scott Malone in a swap, Piazon and Kalas on loan: fortunately, the large majority of our previous window was a success and our squad is in a good place to fight for promotion for another couple of years thanks to the oldest core starters being 28. The benefit of that success is that whatever we choose our transfer budget to be this season, we're only dividing that by 3-5 players rather than 10/11 again.

Say the budget allows us to spend £8m (plucking figures from thin air so completely theoretical), we could make extra room by moving on the likes of Richard Stearman and (for now at least) the failed transfers for Ragnar Sigurdsson and Jozabed: not to say either can't work out, but we'll see what happens.

I know we are in talks with potential new shirt sponsors - an increased deal with VisitFlorida or elsewhere would benefit, and I'm looking forward to seeing what more Casper Stylsvig does in his first full season at the football club. Creating revenue stream with FulhamFCTV is also beneficial, I still think the football club can do so much more promoting that and making it more of a "can't not subscribe" subscription service; something I think they need to do before even thinking about a price increase (though I understand the £2.99 or whatever it is a month doesn't even come close to covering running costs at the moment).

Anyway, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that stress, as a fan, it's probably better not to know in the Championship as finances will look bad no matter what.

[Wearethewhites]

How did we lose £16m? I thought after the sale of McCormack, Mitroglu and Roberts the season before we would have made a profit? or am I totally wrong (I don't actually know).

So in my opinion we should spend the entire £39M you can lose over three seasons in one season, get promoted and not worry about it. But that's me living in my fantasy world where we spend what we'd spend if I was the billionaire owner.

I believe 16M is an improvement on what we initially lost in revenue when we first got relegated, along with Kahn bailing us out in certain areas. I know that our wage bill has improved, or been reduced quite a bit, but will still run at a loss. Like I said above, with FFP, Khans hands will be tied as to what personal finances he can put in, and if we want to really invest, then one of Sess or Cairney will have to be sold. I believe the Clubs policy of 'sustainable' football was to sell one asset a season anyway. 

[filham]

Essential we keep Cairney but a big fat fee for Sessegnon, although disappointing would be acceptable as he is not as useful to us as Malone at the moment. The income would then finance a good striker and immediately we would have an improved first eleven.

Don't misunderstand me, I want Sess to stay but he is not yet the finished article and if promotion is the priority next season we have to find money for a new striker.

[westcliff white]

It doesn't matter as long as you go up, the club need to show the ambition required by giving Slav everything he needs transfer wise. Should we go up, the losses over 3 years become irrelevant. Recent examples of this are Bournemouth and Southampton, both invested heavily on a gamble that they would go up and stay up, both achieved it. Recent victims of this are QPR, who went up and came back down, but even then they got off very lightly (have they even been punished yet?).

If we operate within the FFP rules we will become stagnant and struggle to get out of the division. If we want to go up, we need to spend and not worry too much about the FFP rules, under the ambition that it won't matter as we will go up.

only irrelevant if you don't come back down

[Scrumpy]

It doesn't matter as long as you go up, the club need to show the ambition required by giving Slav everything he needs transfer wise. Should we go up, the losses over 3 years become irrelevant. Recent examples of this are Bournemouth and Southampton, both invested heavily on a gamble that they would go up and stay up, both achieved it. Recent victims of this are QPR, who went up and came back down, but even then they got off very lightly (have they even been punished yet?).

If we operate within the FFP rules we will become stagnant and struggle to get out of the division. If we want to go up, we need to spend and not worry too much about the FFP rules, under the ambition that it won't matter as we will go up.

This attitude scares me. If you gamble everything and DON'T go up then things get really bad as embargos etc hit. Bolton, Blackburn, Portsmouth, Forest? I'd rather not risk the very future of the Club.

[Woolly Mammoth]

I actually feel and believe that they are risking the future of the club by not gambling. As we will lay dormant as a club for a long time. In fact any lack of ambition will push us backwards.

[GloucesterWhite]

We should spend big this summer knowing that we have Sess 'in the bank'. If we don't get promoted this season or next Ryan will go and the club will receive a big fee. IMO no harm in spending that money this summer knowing we can recoup the outlay and balance the books when Sess goes. I agree with Woolly that there is more risk in doing nothing.

[Rambler]

It actually sounds like FFP is risking the welfare of the club more than if it didn't exist. We have a billionaire owner who could very easily spend money and write it off yet we are restricted on what we can do by FFP and risk being punished if we overspend.

[toshes mate]

As has been said, more than just the once, FFP is advisedly about stopping clubs from going out of existence, something that rarely, if ever, happens.  Civil court actions are still pending in the areas the authorities have tried to prove fault and actions and arguments by certain clubs could go on for years.  Meanwhile Fulham have to cut their cloth and I wonder, as Statto does, just how much truth is being revealed in the figures being passed to and by the EFL from any clubs.  Like any accountancy there is strategy involved and we do not know what 'impairments' have been saved up for a rainy day and that is true about both the 'taxable accounts' and the 'EFL accounts' if they are in any way different.

Hence the argument about what the Club does depends on what leeway they have created within FFP for this season just ending from the viewpoints of promotion or another season in the Championship.  At the start of the season I would suggest the former was a strong wish rather than a target for SJ's team.  I think our Board has played the correct stroke for the longer game with SJ knowing his target has been promotion, if not 2016/17 then definitely 2017/18 or 2018/19.   Expect investment to show that during the summer either way.  It's a three season plan with a desire to get there (the PL) no matter what.  That is why we hear the hype as 'whatever it takes'.  I just hope they know what they are doing.

[FulhamStu]

Let me put one scenario on the table:

We spend a crazy amount in the summer on areas we know are weak.  Central defence.  Goalkeeper.  Central striker.  Say we go for 2 top centre backs, 2 top strikers and a keeper.
Add in a few backup players, defensive MF and a Johansen replacement. 

We really push the boat out and spend £30 - £40 million.   

What we have then is a superb squad backed up by players coming through the youth setup.  As long as these new players are all say 25 or younger, we have a squad that will keep us in contention for a good few years.  In this scenario a transfer embargo would not matter as we would not need more players.

If the players bought are good enough we would be able to sell, potentially at a profit plus as said above, Sess is a crown jewel that could also bring in big bucks if we needed too. 
Example, Cairney if sold would deliver big profit on his purchase price.  What is Ayite now worth, same for Aluko and McDonald or Fredricks.   Of course you need to avoid a Seggurdson, but even if you got a few wrong, this seems a sensible strategy to me.

[We Are Premier League]

so the accounts said -13m for last season, does anyone have the figures for the two previous seasons to hand?

[Woolly Mammoth]

Let me put one scenario on the table:

We spend a crazy amount in the summer on areas we know are weak.  Central defence.  Goalkeeper.  Central striker.  Say we go for 2 top centre backs, 2 top strikers and a keeper.
Add in a few backup players, defensive MF and a Johansen replacement. 

We really push the boat out and spend £30 - £40 million.   

What we have then is a superb squad backed up by players coming through the youth setup.  As long as these new players are all say 25 or younger, we have a squad that will keep us in contention for a good few years.  In this scenario a transfer embargo would not matter as we would not need more players.

If the players bought are good enough we would be able to sell, potentially at a profit plus as said above, Sess is a crown jewel that could also bring in big bucks if we needed too. 
Example, Cairney if sold would deliver big profit on his purchase price.  What is Ayite now worth, same for Aluko and McDonald or Fredricks.   Of course you need to avoid a Seggurdson, but even if you got a few wrong, this seems a sensible strategy to me.

This seems reasonable and practicle to me. I am sure the Manager would also agree.
If, and I know it's a massive if, say if we managed somehow to get promoted this season.