Brentford FC could be forced to offload their star striker to ease financial worries despite their tough stance on a £15m asking fee.
The Bee’s financial losses have almost doubled since being promoted to the Championship and they would be at serious risk of potential Championship Financial Fair Play (FFP) penalties unless their ongoing losses can be bought under control.
In company accounts published in 2016 for 2015 they show they lost £14.6m in a season up from a £7.6m in 2014. Their turnover is just £9.9m per year while their wage bill is a massive £17.7m. They paid over £4.4m in loan interest in 2015 and their owner has lent them £43.4m in shareholder loans to inject further cash.
They are also trying to build and finance a new 20,000 seater stadium which will cost them an estimated £70m.
Brentford’s part owner is Matthew Benham, he is said have invested as much £90m into Brentford so far. He made his money as a hedge Fund manager in the city before he became a successful professional gambler but but he is by no means is a billionaire with unlimited funds at his disposal. A notoriously private man, Benham is the owner of FC Midtjylland in addition to owning 35% of Brentford. Nowadays along with his football clubs, Mathew Benham owns two companies in the betting industry; Smartodds and Matchbook. Smartodds is a company that provides in-depth statistical analysis to professional gamblers. Matchbook meanwhile is a sports betting exchange.
The controlling stake Brentford is owned by the fans through Bees United which is the Brentford Supporters’ Trust. However the Trust has a turnover of just £60,000 per year from members fees and completely reliant on Benham’s loans to the club.
Benham appears he is playing a massive game of No limits Texas Hold’em poker with David Sullivan and we shall which side tries to bluff the other one first. West Ham say they won’t be bullied as buying Hogan would also be a big gamble, they are happy to fold their hand early rather than go all in to use a poker term.
For me he would probably be too much of a gamble. Not all non-league to league to championship players can make the the leap to to the Prem like Vardy. He has also recovered from a very serious injury. I know he’s banging them in for Brentford, but £15m is silly money.
Sakho will be back soon as will Ayew, and Antonio has always played well when asked to play up front.
However, I suppose that unless we add one more striker, we run the risk of being light in attack, if Carroll has any further injury issues.
dont go above 10 as an initial fee and with add ons (europe qualy, fa cup semi, 50 goals, 100 appears, etc) happy for the fee to go up another 5. if we (the club and him) achieve those things he’ll have been worth it.
£10m plus add ons of £25k per goal and £10k per apperance plus a 20% sell on clause
All very nice , but we don’t need him anyway ( Hogen ) . Reckon we’ve done enough in this January window . What we need is to get rid of that French thing out of our training ground and onto a one way flight to Paris . Then have a good look at things in the summer without the hinderence Of An unwelcomed , lazy , toe rag like him . It’s hard to quantify how many games we lost due to his uninterested performance’s . Maybe we could have been a few places higher in the league if it played with more passion . There are lessons to be learnt by trying to build a team around a selfish , greedy , non-committed phiss taker . Snodgrasd may not be the best player in the world but , when I’ve seen him play he causes problems with his commitment .
What a start to life in our new home ; you couldn’t invent it .
Hogan will go for £11.5 mill if the offer is made on deadline day .My top source in West London told me.Ronnie the Sparks, anything to do with Brentford you can hang your hat on his word 😉