It’s a long way from Zurich to Newcastle but the Swiss Ramble provides his usual forensic analysis of the club’s 2024/25 accounts. More depth and detail is available on his Substack page, but here are some highlights. This was Newcastle’s third full set of accounts under the ownership of the consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) after Mike Ashley’s long reign came to an end. In the period since that acquisition in October 2021, there has been much progress both on and off the pitch, as the club has benefited from significant investment from the new owners. Newcastle reported a £35m pre-tax profit, compared to an £11m loss the previous year, though this owed a great deal to a £133m gain on exceptional asset sales to other group companies, primarily their famous St James’ Park stadium. If these were excluded, the club would have posted a substantial £98m loss. Revenue rose £15m (5%) from £320m to a club record £335m, though this was more than offset b...
With a record crowd at the CBS Stadum yesterday Coventry City fail to gain an anticipated three points against bottom club Sheffield Wednesday, but it is just a matter of time before promotion to the Premier League is confirmed. I remember watching the 1987 cup final victory with my eldest who now lives just down the road from the Sky Blues training ground at Ryton. She celebrates her 60 th this year and my grandson is 20 this month. The fact that 1987 still figures so prominently in club folklore speaks volumes about the troubles Coventry have been through, especially since a 34-year stay in the top flight ended in relegation from the Premier League in 2001. Low points of the despised ownership by the hedge fund group Sisu included being forced to groundshare with Northampton in 2014, and Birmingham City from 2019-21, as the club teetered on the brink of oblivion. Relegation to the fourth tier in 2016-17 was the nadir. However, Mark Robins started the recovery, le...