Debt down?

The newspaper speculation continues now, but the focus has shifted from the playing side to the financial side of life at St James' Park this time.

The News of the World (who appear to be having a pro-NUFC day today) claim that the debt level at Newcastle has been reduced dramatically and is now one of the lowest in the Premier League. They claim that United are only in debt to the tune of £17 million, which is quite frankly laughable if I'm being honest. Mind you, if it is down to £17 million that is some repayment plan!

I just can't see it myself to be honest. To reduce debt by roughly £100 million in less than a year is a bit of a stretch to say the least. That is of course unless they are talking about the club overdraft or some such instead? Who knows?

That's part of the problem though as the only people who really know are the ones who deal with that side of things at NUFC. This isn't a real issue as we are football fans first and foremost, but with accountancy being linked with the fortunes of the club it's perhaps understandable that many fans will also want to keep an eye on how the club is being run financially.

Another part of the problem is that we don't have any recent figures to go off which leads to a lot of speculation with regard to the figures involved. The last set of accounts that are available are from the season in which we ended up relegated which shows just how out of date they are.

The next set of accounts, which will cover our stint in The Championship, are due out any time now, but they won't make for good reading in my opinion. I will of course break them down and analyse them as and when they become available.

So you see, even with the release of the next accounts we won't be able to validate these claims. Common sense would dictate that reducing the debt by so much in such a short space of time is unlikely to happen, but at NUFC common sense is a rarity. The only hint that we may get with regard to the current financial situation will be if there are any notes added to the accounts.

Financially we are still in a mess and we still need Ashley's money. It will take a while to sort out, a long wile in fact, but once it is sorted it will only benefit the club. It's pretty gloomy to be honest so I won't go on too much about it.

Ah well...