Ollie Westbury on Shrewsbury's huge loss in club accounts

Express & Star

Transcript

00:00 Well, hello, I'm Nathan Judah. I'm delighted to be joined by Shrewsbury Town reporter,

00:05 Mr Ollie Westbury. Ollie, how's it going, my friend?

00:09 Not too bad, thanks, Nathan. Not too bad. How are you?

00:13 Good, mate. Good. Good to see your fresh face. I wish it was talking about slightly better

00:19 news. However, if you haven't already seen, well, where have you been all day? But Shrewsbury

00:25 have released their account now. You were brief last week to say that there will be

00:31 losses. But goodness me, there's losses and there is losses. Ollie Westbury, Shrewsbury

00:36 Town reporter, please tell us more. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this kind of situation

00:40 has been ongoing over the last year, pretty much. It's been bubbling away ever since.

00:46 I can't remember when it first happened, but ever since Brian Caldwell, one day, suddenly

00:50 one day he was he was kind of CEO and the next minute he wasn't. So it's been bubbling

00:55 away pretty much since that that point, as if because it was a bit kind of a bit strange

01:01 and chairman announced a restructure. And obviously, I don't think Steve Cottrell, who

01:07 was the then manager, had been made aware of it. So it's all kind of started around

01:12 around that point. Steve Cottrell then left and everybody was very much kind of in the

01:18 dark. There are a few cryptic statements released by the chairman about finances. And I think

01:23 he said that the complete or the full extent of the circumstances will be revealed in due

01:28 course. And it kind of feels as though this perhaps might be that time, you know, the

01:33 due course that he was kind of perhaps talking about. Obviously, he came out and was the

01:41 first person to talk about an overspend. And that's kind of been used. And it's been fairly

01:47 baseless. It's kind of one. It's somebody saying something and there's kind of nothing

01:51 to back it up. But, you know, these accounts here are pretty much in black and white, aren't

01:55 they? They're there. Yeah, yeah. They're damning, aren't they? They're they're indisputable.

02:02 So yeah, we've had the full extent of the damages today. Three million pounds. I mean,

02:08 clubs are losing money in League One. It's not particularly uncommon. We've seen today

02:13 that Portsmouth have released their accounts and they've lost three million pounds as well.

02:18 I mean, the size of their club and the turnover and the money that kind of they brought in,

02:22 you can see they spent quite a lot of money on infrastructure. I was just looking at theirs

02:26 before, but they spent a lot of money on infrastructure and and investing in in in their equipment

02:33 and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, it's pretty damning. You know, some fairly harrowing,

02:40 you know, things. The fact that Shrewsbury had one point five million in the bank in

02:45 the summer of twenty twenty two and then when it gets to to kind of the summer of twenty

02:51 twenty three, they've got eighty one eighty one K in the bank, which is, you know, you

02:55 can perhaps understand some of the panic that was caused. There's other things in there

03:02 as well. Obviously, one of the things that we've noticed is the wage bill. The wage bill

03:07 has gone up by eight hundred thousand over the course of a season, which I would say

03:12 is a considerable rise. And perhaps that's where this overspend term is coming from.

03:20 I mean, I'm surmising here. I've not no one said it to me. The club who have been keen

03:26 to communicate over the last kind of few months of not not commenting on this now, which is

03:35 perhaps slightly strange, you know, they've been keen to communicate and perhaps now is

03:38 the time that you really need to hear from them. And they've kind of they're going quiet.

03:44 But, you know, that's their prerogative. That's their choice. So, yeah, I mean, that's the

03:49 situation that we find ourselves in at the moment. Shrewsbury, you know, three million

03:53 pound in losses. You know, it's pretty it's a pretty it's a pretty stark, pretty stark

04:00 and a fairly bad day, I suppose, for for everybody concerned. And you can see the plane kind

04:06 of flying around everywhere on social media as everyone's trying to pick out.

04:11 I'm sure more stories and more news will come out. But what does it mean for Shrewsbury

04:19 in the short term and what does it mean in the longer term going into next season and

04:24 spending and so forth?

04:26 Yeah, I mean, the truth is, we don't actually know what it means in the short term. We're

04:34 under the impression or we're told that the chairman is currently putting money into the

04:38 club out of his own pocket to kind of help with the day to day running costs. Obviously,

04:43 what you have to take into consideration is that figure of eighty one thousand is of the

04:46 summer of twenty twenty three. So we're almost close to a year on from that. And, you know,

04:51 the club is still in business, still working. So I don't know. Are we expecting to see that

04:57 that wage and salary bill has been reduced this season? I mean, the problem is, is that

05:02 players are brought in on contracts, aren't they? You know, you've got the likes of the

05:05 players that were brought in on on contracts and they're still there. So they're still

05:09 going to be paid those wages. So, you know, I don't know. It's an intriguing one. And

05:13 I suppose the uncomfortableness of the situation is the relative unknown. Yes, they can reduce

05:18 costs, but and they can reduce what they spend their money on and they can get the club back

05:23 into a financially stable and sustainable position. But, you know, once you get into

05:28 this position, it's like, well, what cost is that then for the football team and the

05:32 on field performance? And that's kind of it feels as though Paul Hearst has perhaps come

05:37 in and stabilize this team and done a done a pretty good job on the field. And you don't

05:41 really want that to be one of the reasons that they struggle. So it's a really difficult

05:49 situation that they now find themselves in. And I suppose we're just going to have to

05:53 wait and see of what happens over the next few months, really. You know, I'm sure we'll

05:58 have conversations with the chief executive, Liam Dooley. I'm sure we'll have conversations

06:02 with the director of football, Mickey Moore. You know, I'm hoping that the club will speak

06:06 a bit more after this AGM that they're waiting for on the 18th of April and we can have a

06:11 little bit more clarity as to how bad is the damage? How much have they managed to recover

06:18 in the nine months since this kind of accounting period as whole two? Because otherwise, you

06:23 know, you've got to wait till this time next year when you get the next set of accounts,

06:26 aren't you? And what kind of impact is this going to have? These are all questions that

06:31 you want to know. Like, you know, we talk about there's an interest in the club. You

06:34 know, where's that at? You know, so there's lots of questions that we've got and the burning

06:38 questions that we kind of want to know the answers to right now and what is a troubling

06:42 day.

06:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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