After qualification bonuses and subsequent appearance bonuses and ancillary expenses, a CL group stage campaign would net us approx £20-25m(*) which is payable at the end of that season. Obviously qualification for futher rounds increases this, but CL is not the immediate mega-cash injection it gets portrayed as being.
(*This figure was previously crunched based on 20/21 figures last summer.)
OK.... Accepting that we're now in the realms of Joe Lewis putting his hand in his actual pocket, how does one apply a cash value to that?
I'd pressumed this trf kitty was based on trf fees only..... Are you saying that wages need to come out of this pot too?
Again, I'm not saying it's wrong or unreasonable..... Ordinarily people that are vocally critical of our spending are extremely coy about putting a figure on their expectations, so fair play for being 'brave' enough to do so.
Personally, my starting point would be that in recent years we've done about £60/70m net.... Add in an up-front investment speculatively based on a CL run and another 20m boosted by net stadium revenue (i.e. after loan repayments etc.) and I'm hoping for a minimum £100-120m + sales.
...Anything below that and I'll be dissapointed.