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You couldn’t imagine how desperate I am for Villa to ****-up in the play-offs.

Okay. On a train so limited battery but to summarise. EFL FFP regs have submitted accounts in order to enable in-season punishment. Birmingham were punished for the 3 seasons to LAST season. The period covering 2015/16-2017/18. The whole point of clubs submitting projected accounts in March is so they can be assessed live and in-season. By rights Birmingham should've been docked points LAST season with Burton or Barnsley staying up. When it affects the top with financial stakes it is worse still. You surely are in breach. Sheffield Wednesday well it's highly likely they are and Derby may very well be though that's the hardest to unpick. The reason I'm particularly angry is that we sold Flint, Bryan and Reid last summer..squad players in Magnússon and Djuric also departed helping with cost reduction. We've done fine, absolutely but it's beside the point. Birmingham should've sold Adams, you should've sold Grealish already IMO or others to raise £20-25m in offsetting losses. Derby tbh have already sold quite a few but are right up to the limit. Sheffield Wednesday? Should surely have sold any of Bannan, Forestieri but especially Reach. Signing Onomah and Hector season long loan plus in January Lazaar, Aarons and on loan is that sticking to the regs?? Plus Iorfa permantly. Middlesbrough sold Gibson, Traore, Bamford and loaned Braithwaite- though with Pulis in charge they wouldn't have got best out of them anyway. The alternative to bringing it in line through sales should be hard embargoes and points deductions fairly quickly implemented. Oh yeah. Also firmly believe our necessary restructing and cutbacks contributed to the slow start.

I agree £57m losses is shocking. I wasn't too clear- it wasn't that Wolves last season were financially responsible- they backloaded the losses. £80m-£39m. That's breaking the 3 year losses by £41m. SUBTRACT £20m for promotion bonuses etc. That's an overspend of £21m. Because promotion bonuses don't count as expenditure under FFP. Rightly or wrongly? SUBTRACT about £8m of their profit in Steve Morgan's final season. Mix of parachute payments and player sales. Overspend down to £13m. Allowable costs. Think there's been good infrastructure investment, academy, depreciation etc. Think £4-5m per year for a typical Championship club not unreasonable. These don't count towards FFP expenditure as it's seen as 'good investment'. Reckon their 3 year FFP losses were £37-39m. Maybe at a push, £40m. Think SL could do a few things and all by the book at that. We can spend reasonably this summer IMO. Or be under no pressure to sell if we don't wish to, FFP wise.

Mad though it sounds, I believe Wolves complied- just. You add profit onto allowable losses. Maybe £8m profit in 2015/16. Then a purported £20m in bonuses and fees due on promotion...if no promotion, nothing paid. Then deductible costs- youth, infrastructure, depreciation and amortisation of non-footballing assets, Community. Say £4-5m per season. For sure they would've needed some good sales had they lost in the playoffs..in Neves, Cavaleiro and Costa to name 3 though they were some good ones to sell. Could've turned a profit on Ruddy, Bennett and Douglas too if necessary. No fairytale though, that's for sure. Mix of capitalising on 15/16 profit, utilising Mendes- and his manager with a La Liga and CL based CV- and by the looks of it moderate to big wages with large bonuses and yes gambling. Albeit with easily saleable assets as an insurance policy.

I take your point, and it's always the non-football staff who take the hit. I don't suppose any of the club hierarchy lost much sleep over that. It didn't stop Bruce signing ever more expensive players then complaining he wasn't given enough to spend. How many staff could have been paid from the wages wasted on Bolasie and Hogan alone? Let alone Terry! Absolutely agree on the American model though. It's ironic that the home of capitalism red in tooth and claw has better financial controls.

Thanks- bit of a hobbyhorse of mine. ? Purslow seems to have gone from confident of compliance to admitting it's a challenge... Bit of both IMO. Different debate. For the record though. Reid and Bryan? Academy boys. So was Gibson at Middlesbrough. Taylor at Leeds and Vieira. Believe Christie, Hendrick and Hughes at Derby all were. Burke and Brereton at Nottingham Forest. Murphy at Norwich. Evading FFP? To me, it's cheating- pure and simple.

Hoping west brom go up out of the play offs as I really want to see big time Charlie's Leeds, villa and Derby fail with a couple of them being questionable over finances. I think Derby would be in trouble and villa will be without parachute so would seriously have to sell or would be in trouble I think. I just want Leeds to fail as they feel they have a right to promotion.

If the ruled with projected accounts as submitted by the club were enforced correctly, you likely would have been out by £25m. For the 3 years to THIS season. That'd be a 12 point deduction, 3 points for aggravated breach and one off for admitting it probably.

Or even Warboys!!!! ????? (....no need to thank me) - only joshing!!

No. I think you’ll find the official* away attendance was 3,489. *gaschat

It’s a good job they are playing away today..!