I think you're making quite a few assumptions without much basis

most of all, that the club is in a significantly better state off the pitch. Time will tell if that is really the case.

Webber took over a club with the Murphys, Pritchard, Maddison, Oliveira and Howson. Around £50m of assets ready to cash in on. There was also Godfrey, Aarons, Lewis and Cantwell all on the cusp of breaking into the first team. Which (admittedly with some development by Farke - particularly Cantwell) would go on to be worth something like £80m.

That's £130m of assets at the club, even if some of them had to be nurtured to improve the value, they obviously all had huge potential from the moment they were given their first team opportunities.

So, contrary to some public statements by Webber, I'd argue that the club was actually in very good financial health at that time. It had liabilities from some poor signings, but had way more than enough assets to cover for these and to fund an entire rebuilding of the playing squad.

Once Cantwell and Aarons are finally sold, what exactly will be left in terms of playing assets? The young players currently out on loan don't seem to be pulling up any trees - certainly nothing like the impact that Godfrey and Cantwell had. And now we have a lot of expensive (for us) new signings who may come good, or may end up being long term financial liabilities if we get relegated.

It's a bit early to be heaping the praise on Webber for the improvement in the financial situation, until we see what kind of assets and liabilities he leaves his successors. It may turn out that he has just spent four years selling off our golden generation of youth players and replacing them with the same kind of overpaid players he complained about when he arrived.

Posted By: Mecagoenti on October 26th 2021 at 21:03:55

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