TrueBlue1905

That's a good point. When you compare our position in the league after 25 games to the 10/11 season, we are only 1 point worse off this year so in that respect it isn't such a dramatic decline however, besides the 3-0 defeat against Sunderland last season I can't remember us being so vulnerable at home as we have been this season. A classic example are the two Villa matches where we lost 3-2 to a last minute goal in 10/11 but were soundly beaten this year having taking the lead.

Exactly, 4th place or bust

Hi everyone, So glad I stumbled upon this site. Looking forward to chatting with like-minded fans of the mighty blues. I am a season ticket holder in the Shed Upper and have been coming to games for nearly 20 years.

Given that this season has been our worst in the league since Abramovich's arrival, I think it's telling that there hasn't been a media frenzy surrounding AVB's imminent sacking. According to the Guardian Football Weekly podcast this is because journalists are briefed by Chelsea prior to press conferences that there is no point in asking questions about AVB's future because he has Chelsea's full backing. Contrast that to last year when Chelsea simply refused to give their backing to Carlo following our slump in form. I really don't think Roman would be daft enough to spend £28m on sacking Ancelotti and bringing in AVB only to get rid of him after only one season. Failure to qualify for the champions league would cause serious problems financially but fortunately for us Arsenal and Liverpool have underperformed this season.

One problem with getting rid of him ASAP would be that we would have to recognise upfront, a very big loss on the sale as his current market value is way below the £50m we paid for him. Right now, his book value should be at around £41m (£50m fee less one year's amortisation). Let's say we can recoup £20m by selling him now, which I realise is unlikely but Liverpool paid £35 for Andy Carroll so is not beyond the realms of possibility. We would have to recognise a loss of £21m immediately! On the other hand, we would save ourselves £8m per year in wages for the next 4.5 years.

The latest reported loss won't include the full transfer fee paid for Fernando Torres because player transfers are capitalised onto the balance sheet and amortised over the remainder of the contract. So, in Torres' case, his annual amortisation, which is shown as a cost in the profit & loss account will be £50m spread over the 5.5 years of his deal = £9m per year The true cost of Torres per year will also include his wages which at what is estimated to be £150k per week, works out at a cost of £8m per year. Therefore the total annual cost of having Torres on the book is £17m per year until midway through 2015 (assuming we don't offer him a contract extension) or unless he is sold.