I notice the fixtures for next season’s Premier League were released yesterday which served as a reminder that the EFL fixtures would normally be out by now. No doubt the authorities will have their reasons, almost certainly financial, why they are late this year, but it all adds to a feeling that we’re still in the wind down from the old season as opposed to the build up to the new one.
There is very little coming out of Cardiff City suggesting that we’re building up for the new campaign. BBM and his staff are back working after their holidays apparently which is something to make you think it’s not too long before we see the team in friendly game action I suppose. Also, the transfer window has been open for a while with some clubs (e.g. Southampton, West Brom, Burnley, Wolves and Bolton) being active in the market already. Apart from the last named, I’d say these teams have spent the sort of money on players in terms of transfer fees and wages that, I suspect, will be beyond us in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, I’m not aware of any what I’d call worthwhile rumours of players arriving or leaving the club that have broken in the last week.
I’m not too bothered about that – as I say, it still doesn’t feel like a new season is imminent and, with there still being ten days to go before the date when players’ contracts traditionally run out, I’m not expecting much to happen in terms of arrivals until the end of the month.
There has been one big story which is still in the all but officially confirmed category for now. That said, I’ve had an acknowledgment this morning from Companies House that appropriate documents seem to have been received by them even though this cannot quite be confirmed yet because they’re still not available for public inspection and so it’s conceivable that they may relate to other matters.
To clarify, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned there had been messageboard talk about Vincent Tan turning more of the club’s debt owed to him into equity. It was said that the sum involved was substantial and this week brought confirmation in the local media that it was £42 million.
I will be explaining why I can’t get as enthusiastic as some have about this news shortly, but, first, I should say that my opinion of our owner has reached a stage where I now am only critical of him for two things. The first is the rebrand about which there’s been more than enough said down the years, so I won’t add any more to it today. The second thing is Mr Tan’s stubborn refusal to surround himself with people on the administrative side of the club with a better knowledge of the game, both on and off the field.
No doubt, Vincent Tan would point to what he would see as bad experiences with “football people” in his early years at City and, to an extent, I can understand that, but in the decade or so since then, it’s my opinion that he’s been cutting off his nose to spite his face. Hence, the club has suffered both on and off the field and Mr Tan has, I would argue, had to pour more of his own money into the day to day running of the club than might have been necessary if we’d had more football expertise in the Boardroom.
Remember the time (I would guess it was five or six years ago) when the line was that, although our debt is huge, it’s all owed to Vincent Tan who, again much to his credit, does not charge the club interest on most of the loans he’s made to it down the years? If we were still in that position, then I would be celebrating a lot more than I am about this latest debt to equity conversion.
As it is, City still owe Vincent Tan £55 million I believe – a substantial figure of course, but, in terms of typical Championship club debt levels, I’d guess it would put us in something like upper mid table if top of the league was the club with the biggest debt.
What’s happened in recent years though is that we’ve lurched back into the sort of territory we got used to being in back in the days of Sam Hammam and Peter Ridsdale with substantial debts to other parties besides the club’s owner.
True, the large bulk of the present day additional debt (around £37 million I believe) is to a company that Chairman Mehmet Dalman has strong connections with, so you’d like to think they won’t be rushing to the courts in an attempt to get their money back. However, my understanding is that this is a secured debt upon which 7 per cent annual interest is due – we’re back in the unfortunate position where we’re paying millions annually solely in interest.
The last club accounts filed at Companies House were for the period year ending 31 May 2025, so I daresay things have moved on a lot since then. When you consider that we’ve spent all of our time in a lower division with a reduction numbering millions of pounds in TV money, it’s hard to see how our debt levels could have improved even if you’d like to think our wage bill would be a lot lower and our transfer spending pretty modest.
Rather than speculate on our current debt levels though, I’ll fall back on the 24/25 figures which puts club liabilities at £161 million. Therefore, a basic calculation tells you that, even after £42 million worth of debt to equity conversion, liabilities would still be just short of £120 million.
Just to repeat, thank you for this latest conversion Mr Tan, it’s more evidence that you have not been the complete disaster as club owner that many would say you’ve been. Indeed, although I suspect others may be able to put me right here, I’d say that Vincent Tan is second only to the owners at Leicester City in terms of the amount he’s converted into equity from debt and, I don’t think there’s much doubt that, as of today, your average Leicester City fan would rather be in City’s position than their’s!
I suppose my concluding remark on all of this is to warn anyone thinking that BBM will have £42 million more to spend on his team than he was expecting to consider the wider view that we still have liabilities which I’d guess puts us in the top six of that Championship debt level table I mentioned earlier. I still expect our level of transfer spending this summer to be modest by the standards of this league.
I mentioned earlier that there’s been just one big City related story this week, but I’m sure the more fashion conscious supporter of the club would say there’s been two in fact – yesterday also saw the playing kit for 26/27 revealed. I’m sure I’ve said on here before that, as someone who couldn’t get too worked up about City kits when I was a third of the age I am now, I can’t see anyone being particularly bothered, or interested, in my view on the new one, but here it is – I’m always in favour of white shorts instead of blue, but, that apart, it all strikes me as very five out of tennish, pretty nondescript really.
I’ll finish with a few words on the World Cup. I’ve not seen much of it so far, but I must say that, from what I have watched, the football’s been better than I was expecting given the increase to forty eight teams. I must admit as well that England have been as impressive as anyone so far – it’s always worth recording that teams which start a World Cup in really good form, don’t tend to end up winning it and surely this applies more in an event where, this time, you’ll have to play an additional game to end up victorious, but I’ll be surprised if England don’t make the last four at least.
As for Scotland, they followed an unimpressive 1-0 win over Haiti up with a 1-0 loss overnight to dark horses Morocco which left them with no shots on target, but plenty of complaining about two penalties they could have had. Now, as a Welshman old enough to remember Anfield 1977 and, to a lesser extent, Ninian Park 1985, I can’t get too sympathetic about Scottish moaning when it comes to penalties. However, with them, seemingly, in a position where a draw or even a narrow defeat in their remaining group game on Wednesday would see them qualify for the knock out stages, I’d be quietly confident if I were a member of the Tartan Army of Scotland doing this for the first time in their history given that their opponents, Brazil, have been pretty unconvincing so far in drawing 1-1 with the Moroccans and overcoming Haiti 3-0.
