There's a lot of similarities between Bazunu and Ferguson at the moment. Both hugely impressive as teenagers, both had big injuries which led to massive loss of form. Bazunu a bit under the radar at moment but both need a big bounce back year if we are going to consider them top class players
Its really not that complicated!!!
You really don't have a clue about any of this - maybe you should quit while you're behind?Originally Posted by Razors left peg
For one thing, I'm a lifelong Spurs fan - Season Ticket holder, was in Bilbao etc. But as it happens, I have an "in" at Brentford (check "Ealing" and "Brentford" on a map of West London) and since they are almost always at home when Spurs are away (and v.v.), I get to see nearly as many of their home games as Tottenham's. Indeed I've been popping down the road since the days when they were slumming it in the 3rd (even 4th) Division Of course, there was no contradiction between the two until a certain Mr. Benham came along, but while I greatly admire what they now do, my good wishes towards them are firmly suspended for two games a season.
Oh dear, if you're going to comment on the All Blacks' "No Di ck heads" policy, you might educate yourself as to what it actually means. That is, it has nothing to do with a person's private life, rather it concerns his professional one. And if the former doesn't intrude on the latter, that's what counts.
To take some current examples, if you believe half the stuff about Kyle Walker (sex parties during Covid, numerous mistresses, prostitutes etc), then he'd fail your test. But in the world of professional football, the guy has had well over a decade at the very top of the game, with several top clubs/managers and with England. Compare that eg with Marcus Rashford, who clearly began to believe his own publicity and went missing on benders to Belfast when he should have been getting his head down on the training ground at Carrington - a 'Poundshop George Best', if you like.
Now of course all clubs look to root out (unprofessional) di ck heads, but some will overlook still their precadillos if they also possess great talent and they persuade themselves that they can still get a tune out of them - see eg Balotelli or Pogba, to name two other Manchester players.
However, if you look at Brentford's record, it is better than the great majority of clubs, if only because they can't afford to get it wrong in the same way as others. Or maybe you can list some of the failures for me?
Wow! It just gets worse. A "massive money making machine", is it?
A quick check on the club's accounts for 2022/23 (the most recent I have to hand), shows that Benham had invested £104m of his own money in the club, in the form of both equity and interest-free loans (much of the latter non-recourse). And of that sum, £28m went towards the building of the new stadium. The remainder was put up by the site developers, who hope to make a profit from the sale of up to 1,000 flats. However, they have to get their cut first, with Benham getting a share of any profits only after sales have reached a certain level. Meaning there is no guarantee he will get back any, never mind all, of his stadium stake. While on buying the club from the Supporters' Trust, he agreed to grant them a Golden Share, which would allow them to veto any sale by him of the stadium without their say so.
He is not an especially wealthy man (by PL club owner standards at least) and all this undoubtedly constitutes a large part of his personal wealth. He does not take a salary or dividends Now he has said he's open to selling a share, even a majority, of the club to outside investors, but that is only to fund a progression to the next level beyond his own means. However, he has to date declined a number of enquiries or firm offers, since he wasn't sure about their motives and competence.
And talking of "motives", none of this should be a surprise, since he is a (genuine) boyhood fan, from his time being brought up in the area. (Yep, 3rd Division days for him, too, though unlike me, he did aways as well). While he is also on the record as pointing to an ambition to pass the club on to his son some day.
Anyhow, you were saying?
Good man, nice essay. If you dont think a club that is regularly in the Premiership, that sells as well as Brentford do, isnt a massive money making machine then Im not sure an economics lesson would even be beneficial to you!
Anyways.... Evan being linked with Roma today according to Sky Italia apparently.
https://x.com/reptracker/status/1942362533353902312
Last edited by Razors left peg; 08/07/2025 at 12:15 AM.
Its really not that complicated!!!
Strange for a club to be offering a player to a specific other club, no? Is there a link between Roma and Brighton? Or have Brighton been offering Ferguson to other clubs too? Which really wouldn't be a positive
Who knows at this stage, hopefully he just starts playing football again
Its really not that complicated!!!
Absolutely this. He hopefully worked like a beast on his fitness in the last 2 or 3 weeks with his own personal fitness team and is coming back to preseason ready meet the intensity needed for top level football. For whatever reason he has been nowhere near the athletic ability necessary for the demands of top.level football over the last 18 months.
Ultimately that is his issue and he needs to find the solutions , blaming clubs or managers is just a distraction. In the last 18 months 2 top flight clubs and 3 top flight managers have not felt he has been at the level.required
yea club wouldnt be, agents no doubt. May not even be fergusons agent but somoene else trying to rustle up a deal.
I'd say they are trying to get Roma to signal interest in the hope someone else comes into the picture wit
h a bid
Yes - ans it is unfortunate because we have a limited pool of top quality players.
Now - this make a lot more sense - and fits more into the method of how Bloom operates. A loan move to Roma could be a positive move. It gets Ferguson out of the PL spotlight - it lands him in a team that needs a striker - he will be playing European football. Gasparini, who has just taken over at Roma after leaving Atalanta where he spent the last ten years, is noted for playing a very offensively minded game which would suit Ferguson. Roma have been linked with several strikers but they do have financial issues - so a loan deal might be more attractive to them. The only potential downside of this move for Ferguson is that Italian defenders have a habit of tergetting players with known injury histories.
"Massive money making machine"?
Profit/(Loss) 2023/24
However, last season Brentford swung from a £9m pre-tax profit to an £8m loss, a decline of £17m, as significant investment in the squad led to a £35m (21%) increase in operating expenses from £166m to £201m, while net interest payable quadrupled from £1m to £4m.
This was partially offset by a significant improvement in profit on player sales from £6m to £25m, though revenue was flat at £167m.
https://swissramble.substack.com/p/b...inances-202324
If you knew even the first thing about the club's finances - and you clearly don't - you'd know that in order to keep up with genuinely "massive" clubs like Man U and Liverpool, every penny they can find has to go to paying PL-level wages for the PL-level players needed to keep them in the PL. Thereafter, any left over has to be ploughed back into infrastructure and facilities etc. You know, things like their (expensive new) Academy, or the massive, multi-million pound upgrade to their Training Ground, which until recently relied heavily on Portacabins and temporary planning permission from the local authority.
As I said before, the best thing you could do is to "Quit while you're behind"...
Ok cool, you support the only charitable organization in the Premiership run by an owner who's a mix between the Pope and Gandhi.... next you'll be telling us that The Premiership as a whole makes less money that the Lithuanian 3rd division
Its really not that complicated!!!
Any chance you could lay off the ridiculous hyperbole and respond to some of the facts which I have quoted. You know, real facts, not the "alternative" kind, dreamt up in your imagination?
No, I won't. I prefer to leave that to others. Though tbf, there aren't many others on this board who subscribe to this sort of BS besides you.
Ok this is the last thing Im going to say on this because its beyond stupid. You have the opinion that Brentford are there simply for the good of the community and their Owner, who made his money in the world of gambling, is just running the club for philanthropic reasons.
Meanwhile there are investors from all over the world trying to purchase pieces of Premiership clubs as they are amongst the safest bets for a huge return on investment. We are at the point where people like Tom Brady are buying parts of Championship clubs with the aim of earning Premiership money. The TV revenues alone are astronomical.
Just last year Everton were bought out for $500 million approx, by another American Billionaire. That makes 10 clubs in the Premiership that are majority owned by American Billionaires. These type of people are draw to English football, and Premiership clubs in particular, because of the vast money making machine the Premiership is.
As for me not understanding finances, well ... dont tell anyone, somehow I work in finance and have been bluffing for years
Its really not that complicated!!!
You claimed that BFC were making "massive" amounts of money, which the owner was siphoning off for his own benefit. This is complete and utter BS.
I pointed out that the club is NOT making "massive" profits, or anything like it, in fact some years they don't make money at all - as was clearly demonstrated by the 2024/25 Accounts which I provided for you. Beyond which, even in seasons when they do make a profit, ALL of it is reinvested in the club, for operating purposes and/or infrastructure, in an affort to "keep up with the Jones's". Or didn't you notice eg that they're playing in a brand new, £82m stadium? (I don't expect someone so clearly uninformed as you to know about eg the sparkling new Training Ground, or the Academy, both of which have eaten up many extra millions.)
As for Benham himself, he is known to be a boyhood fan. Which is why he stepped in when the club was up to its eyes in debt in 2012, with the Supporters Trust which owned the club openly admitting it was was going to go bust. Initially he provided a loan, then subsequently bought out the club and cleared the (substantial) debt. And what was he getting for his investment? A struggling League One club which had spent 49 of the previous 50 seasons in the 3rd or 4th tiers and was playing before crowds of 5k in a dilapidated 12k stadium, while losing money hand over fist. (The supporters had been doing sponsored walks and bucket collections just to keep the lights on)
Since when he has plunged over £100m of his own money into the club, without seeking a penny in return. Which for someone who's not very wealthy by PL owners' standards, represents a large propoartion of his personal wealth. And now that he's transformed the club to solid PL membership, he could have sold out at any time in the last 2 or 3 years for £400m (give or take?) and trousered a 300% profit.
Instead, his ambition is to see the club to the next level - Europe perhaps? Yet being realistic, even humble, enough to know that he cannot bankroll the club for that personally, he has said he's open to outside investors, ideally for a minority stake. Yet despite having been approached by, and even having held talks with, several interested parties, he has declined to take any of these further, since he didn't feel they were right for the club, over the long term at least.
All of which completely contradicts your utterly ignorant claims that he's only in it for the money, like all these other carpet-baggers and fly-by-nights you refer to.
And which part of that applies Brentford or Benham? (Or eg Tony Bloom at Brighton for that matter, Bloom having invested £300m of his own, larger fortune into his boyhood club, for zero financial return to date)
Then it's probably time you cleaned up around you in whatever finance firm you work for and loaded up the tea trolley in time for tomorrow, when the Accountants will be expecting you to bring them their mid morning cuppa.
Awwww Tets, come on I was enjoying hearing all about how Brentford are going solve world hunger next
Its really not that complicated!!!
It was getting some-what niche alright !
I'd nothing else, you have to admire the passion
The Ferguson debate is like a merry-go round at the moment. I'd second Razors line that he just needs to get regular gametime in one of the top 5-8 leagues
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