SAY NOTHING

Last updated : 15 August 2005 By Ed

"We have looked at the numbers ourselves. Clearly there is a way of seeing how it works. It's not for me to comment on that.

"It's only for directors and owners of clubs to really assess that balance of risk. Nobody underestimates this - if you take football generally across the 92 professional clubs in this country, everything is a stretch.

"The fans were concerned by the lack of debt before the takeover and the level of debt there is now. But it's not out of ratio or sync with other clubs with that sort of turnover.

"The lack of success provides the biggest danger. If a team does not succeed then the financial numbers don't stack up as well as they might. At this level, the difference between success and failure is what happens on the pitch."