CEO Mark Ashton has revealed that the outgoing fees Town have spent since the takeover are matched by the sums brought in from player sales.

The Blues have added significant strength to their playing staff over the last two seasons but Ashton says that’s been done while still balancing the books in terms of fees paid and received.

“I think the interesting thing for me from the playing side is player trading, us buying and selling players at all age groups,” he said at last night’s Fans’ Forum.

“Since we’ve been here, you’ve seen us spend money on players. Harry Clarke from Arsenal, Nathan Broadhead from Everton, Leif Davis from Leeds, Conor Chaplin from Barnsley, Wes Burns from Fleetwood, George Edmundson from Rangers, the list goes on.

“We spend money in transfer fees and we’ve paid probably, bar none, the largest transfer fees outside of the Championship and we’ve paid transfer fees larger than I’d say the majority of the Championship clubs in the last few years.

“However, let me give you an example, what people don’t see is that we buy and sell, so we’ve sold some players on the way through as well.

“If you take a three-year period, take last year, this year and forecast out next year, you’ve got all the money that we’ve spent on those players and you’ll have read in the press that people have purported we’ve paid and they’re not far off, but we also brought money in.

“If you take the money that we’ve spend versus the money that we’ve brought in over that period, last year, this year and next year, the cash we’ve spent is literally zero. That’s player trading, that’s what we do.

“[Chief operating officer] Luke Werhun plays a big part in that, [club secretary] Stuart Hayton plays a big part in that, the recruitment team play a big part in that. Over the three-year period, the cash spend is almost zero on those players.

“I think you would have expected me to say it was far larger, but we trade. We’ve traded some of the younger players, we’ve traded likes of Dozzell and Co who wanted to move on, but we know what we’re doing in that arena and I think that’s a pretty good return.

“If you think of what we’ve spent, next to nothing cash-wise, but look at the value on the pitch - Clarke, Broadhead, Leif, Chaplin, Burns, Edmundson, it goes on.

“If we decided we wanted to trade or sell someone, we’d be a lot better off than zero. The value of the team for what we’ve spent on the team I think is really good and that will only continue to grow.

“It continues to grow as well because we have a manager who certainly knows how to develop those players and he’s absolutely instrumental in persuading and helping us to persuade the Premier League players in Broadhead, Clarke and Leif to leave Premier League clubs, join a League One club and come on the journey with us.

“That gives you a little bit of a flavour for when we talk about player trading and what we mean.”

Photo: ITFC

MickMillsTash added 11:00 - Apr 6 according to google :- Dozzell 1.1M£ Downes 1.7M£ + a Sell on clause for Downes when he joined West Ham (a % of 9-10Mill£) Also Gibbs, Simpson must got us some money Did Bishop fetch a price ? Not sure we got anything for Nolan, Edwards, Chambers, Judge, Sears, Dobra, Clements, Hawkins, Holy, Skuse, Drinan, Nsiala , Huws; Lankaster - crikey once thought we thought we might be going up with this lot numbers seem to add up.

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xrayspecs added 11:05 - Apr 6 I recall reading somewhere that Gibbs was around £1m and Simpson an initial £400k. May not be exactly right but in that ball park
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Lord_Mac added 12:14 - Apr 6 The other thing is that it's not just buy and sell fees, but player wages, so if we ship out a lot of players, even if for nothing, we get those wages off the slate, even if a smaller numbre of players coming in are paid more.
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pafcprogs added 12:29 - Apr 6 But does that mean there will have to be player sales in the next twelve months to either balance the books ( as claimed ) or to fund additional players. Not sure you can claim to have balanced the player sales books based on activity that hasn't happened yet. But as a business model I applaud it. I expect us top do the same when Cooper goes....reinvest and bring on the next ones... Otherwise sustainability is just a pipe dream.

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blues1 added 12:53 - Apr 6 Pafcprogs. When hesxtalking about next year he's going on about next year's accounts, which basically run until June of this year. Not about any signings we make for next season., which would come under the following year's accounts.
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CavendishBlue added 13:04 - Apr 6 MickMillsTash Skuse?!!!! Made me chuckle.
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FevsBCFC added 13:35 - Apr 6 Mick Mills Tash The transfer profit you made last season is in the accounts…it was £2.338m. You got fees of £2.669m, no more, no less. Assuming that is mainly / all from Downes and Dozzell. Of that figure, you had to take off £308k for a player(s) you previously signed for a fee, and a £23k sell-on fee. You may get sell-on for Downes in the accounts for this season (22-23)

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Len_Brennan added 15:26 - Apr 6 The reported fees for some players are probably inclusive of add-ons that haven't been activated as yet, & so will only become relevant to future accounting periods. Also we will have had to agree to some punitive sell-on terms, so perhaps we won't be able to bank the profit we'd expect when one of them moves on for £10m+. However, in the meantime, that strategy allows us to bring in Chaplin, Broadhead, Davis etc,. who, in the short term, put bums on seats, encourage merchandise sales & see us pushing for promotion to the more lucrative Championship & hopefully beyond, all of which brings in more money to finance the next set of well targeted signings.

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Positive_Vibes added 17:14 - Apr 6 If you take the money that we've spend versus the money that we've brought in over that period, last year, this year and “next year”, the cash we've spent is literally zero. That's player trading, that's what we do. Sorry I'm confused.. how can we include “next year” in this equation unless we are planning on selling players?
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bobbyramsey added 17:32 - Apr 6 Positive Vibes, I think he means “next” years accounts which will end in June of this year.
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number8 added 06:28 - Apr 7 Lot's talking about selling players. I'm sure that will happen that was the model at Bristol city when Ashton was there - bring in young prospects and sell them on to bring in more. He Talks about player trading and I'm guessing that's what will happen to increase the squad value and bring in profit.
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