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Having just read that our owners have put around 2.2 million pounds into the club and invested more than 943 thousand pounds during last season’s promotion push I wondered what people thought were his long term aims. I’ll be honest when CO took over I thought he wouldn’t invest much money but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Yet I still get the impression he’s not that interested in the football side.

What he puts in he will want back out

I would have thought that figure was on the low side, if you take the playing squad say of 22, managers staff another eight, ground staff, office staff say another 5 all with an average salary of conservatively £30 grand a year and already you are up to a million plus, add in travelling, overnight accommodation, youth squad costs, training centre costs, ground maintenance etc and take away revenue from home crowds and the paltry cup money we get, not that we try to bother the FA too much with that, then getting away with the figures mentioned is better than I thought.

CO has loaned the club that money, make no mistake that he will want it back which means we are stuck with him for the foreseeable future, anyone else looking to buy the club is going to need at least 4 or 5 million just to buy it, pay the debt and cover running costs for the first year.

PhilGull wrote: ↑31 Jan 2020, 11:41 CO has loaned the club that money, make no mistake that he will want it back which means we are stuck with him for the foreseeable future, anyone else looking to buy the club is going to need at least 4 or 5 million just to buy it, pay the debt and cover running costs for the first year.

Osborne has committed to covering loses up until the end of the 2020/21 season. After that is anyone's guess, but I can't for the life of me see someone paying £2 million plus for the club.

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑31 Jan 2020, 12:29
Osborne has committed to covering loses up until the end of the 2020/21 season. After that is anyone's guess, but I can't for the life of me see someone paying £2 million plus for the club.

The financial statement actually says: "....financial support will continue for the remainder of the 2019/20 and into the 2020/21 football season".

So no real commitment to keep funding the club any further than August.

I'm the first to question Uncle Clarkes intentions as people know but while I am still totally sceptical even I can say that I'm grateful we've come this far. By that I mean that we now appear a much more professionally run club than for some considerable time. What that eventually costs us is and always has been my only concern. People only seem to be focussed on criticising the best Manager we've had for donkeys years but I'm just grateful we have someone of his calibre managing our budget, whatever that is. My instincts tell me it's not a promotion budget but enough to allow him to have brought in some very good players. The fact we've had some cheaper squad fillers makes me suspect the budget is stretched but I don't know for sure. On that basis I don't see me blaming Osborne if he sells Reid or anyone else and pockets the money, that's totally his right to do so. I'm only concerned with how he affects the future of the club, mainly that we have one.

OMG. Southampton Gull not criticising uncle Clarke, myself changing my mind about Gary Johnson. I wonder if this has something to do with the Coronavirus thats spreading throughout china and the rest of the world.

No. The coronavirus is as a result of cruelty. Keeping live animals in appalling, unsuitable conditions in indoor markets where hundreds of thousands of people visit. The rest of the world now have to deal with it. Disgusts me as much as Uncle Clark and his small penis.

He may want the money back but no one is going to pay £2 million plus to buy a club like Torquay.
His choices will be to liquidate the club or cut his losses and sell at a realistic price.
As the assets are not much more than the value of the players the most likely scenario (I hope) is that he agrees to sell at a reasonbale price (ideally to TUST) and writes off most of his losses - it's not as if he can't afford to.

Several things about the last post, He will never sell to the TUST and god help us if he did, they have £40,000 in the bank which in reality means we would survive for one week if we are lucky, and with no other assets to use as collateral I do not see any banks giving us money and anyway we have had our fill of well intentioned genuine supporters running things into the wall, so that's a non starter. While us PAYE slaves may sometimes struggle to understand the world of high finance, he can offset losses each season against his tax liabilities elsewhere within his empire, so while his figures may seem large his personal losses are far less. He gains nothing from liquidating the club other than cutting those losses, our club then is worthless, the Inland revenue who will be undoubtedly be owed Tax and VAT would hold charges over the name, leasehold and all other assets such as they do with Bury and therefore he cannot even have a fire sale.

culmstockgull wrote: ↑01 Feb 2020, 11:41 Several things about the last post, He will never sell to the TUST and god help us if he did, they have £40,000 in the bank which in reality means we would survive for one week if we are lucky, and with no other assets to use as collateral I do not see any banks giving us money and anyway we have had our fill of well intentioned genuine supporters running things into the wall, so that's a non starter. While us PAYE slaves may sometimes struggle to understand the world of high finance, he can offset losses each season against his tax liabilities elsewhere within his empire, so while his figures may seem large his personal losses are far less. He gains nothing from liquidating the club other than cutting those losses, our club then is worthless, the Inland revenue who will be undoubtedly be owed Tax and VAT would hold charges over the name, leasehold and all other assets such as they do with Bury and therefore he cannot even have a fire sale.

culmstockgull wrote: ↑01 Feb 2020, 11:41 Several things about the last post, He will never sell to the TUST and god help us if he did, they have £40,000 in the bank which in reality means we would survive for one week if we are lucky, and with no other assets to use as collateral I do not see any banks giving us money and anyway we have had our fill of well intentioned genuine supporters running things into the wall, so that's a non starter. While us PAYE slaves may sometimes struggle to understand the world of high finance, he can offset losses each season against his tax liabilities elsewhere within his empire, so while his figures may seem large his personal losses are far less. He gains nothing from liquidating the club other than cutting those losses, our club then is worthless, the Inland revenue who will be undoubtedly be owed Tax and VAT would hold charges over the name, leasehold and all other assets such as they do with Bury and therefore he cannot even have a fire sale.

That may be true, although I believe offsetting losses can only be done for 5 years of losses?

Cruisinho wrote: ↑01 Feb 2020, 17:27 That may be true, although I believe offsetting losses can only be done for 5 years of losses?

This reminds me of when we kept hearing about a 5 year plan. Was around the same time as ‘fans forum any minute now’ and the like.

Osborne will sell at some point and will have to settle for a lot less than he's put in.
Unless the club is bought by a rich benefactor it will need to make savings on expenditure to balance the books.
Clubs survive with much smaller gates than Torquay but those who build up big losses, or who enjoy short term success, tend to fail at some point.

TUST is an option. Obviously they would need for than £40,000 but it is realised that this is just a starting point and further funds would come in if a purchase was possible.
Other clubs have been successfully bought and run by Trusts.