Zhang Yuning

[Kit Kat Chunky]

Why?  His salary is apparently paid by Lai, not by the club, and is not part of our FFP calculation

The cost may be being covered by Lai (from a separate budget, as I recall), but it will definitely be part of our FFP calculation - otherwise people like the Seals would have similar arrangements for all of their over-paid stars.  That said, I don't think we will have an FFP calculation issue with the enhanced losses we can make, and our historic profitability.

This set of accounts will dictate what kind of issues we’ll have with FFP going forward IMO.

We’ll have surely made a hefty loss last year given we started the year with £40m in the bank and ended it needing an overdraft facilit... add to that our need for  short term credit facilities again this January and our two year FFP calculation going into next year looks tight.

I think we’ll be OK as we do have transfer income to add in,  but if we’ve made a £40m loss last year - which isn’t unfeasible - when you start writing down assets following the impact of relegation and our ever ageing squad and there’s a bit of a storm on the horizon.

The squad was written down well to start with, none of the level of write offs that JP used to perform to mitigate tax, when FFP didn't exist. We will have some losses from relegation, but don't forget that you have enhanced allowances as a relegated club. We can have cumulative losses of up to £83M this year, and we made a profit of £39M in Lai's first year, which also comes into the equation.

As long as we don't start spunking money in a Xia kind of way (highly unlikely with this regime) then we shouldn't trouble FFP, even with the inevitable losses the next couple of seasons will bring.

That’s a fair point; I was more thinking in 2 years time when we have the loss of last season as the first part of our three year calculation. 

I don’t think we’ll be overly troubled by them, but with Lai showing no interest of pumping in equity or expanding our commercial remit, anyone expecting any spending has to accept it’s unlikely without substantial sales, as FFP will always give Lai/Jenkins an excuse.

I agree 100%.

[Peachy]

Moving back to China. Have to laugh where it says valued at $1.7m.

Was he some sort of Chinese tax write off for Lai?

Zhang