Ollie Westbury discusses the Shrewsbury Town financial update

Shropshire Star

Jonny Drury sat down with Ollie Westbury to discuss his interview with Shrewsbury Town chief executive Liam Dooley and the club's financial position.

Transcript

00:00Hello Shrewsbury Town fans and welcome to ShropshireStart.com, my name is John O'Jury,

00:13I'm here on to let Oli Westbury flesh from recording our Shrewsbury Town end of season

00:17reviews.

00:18Just had a little bit of a break off, gonna have a little bit of a catch up on some recent

00:22headlines really.

00:23As you'll have seen, Oli and the other media sat down with Chief Executive Liam Dooley

00:28recently to discuss various issues, but obviously a lot of it was about the finances and budgetary

00:34restraints of the club going into next season, there's been an awful lot of talk about that,

00:38not just last week Oli, but obviously in the last few months in the financial situation

00:43surrounding the club, Shrewsbury now putting in sustainability plans and plans in place

00:47and they have been for quite a while now after that £3 million loss.

00:52How did you find that conversation?

00:54For me, the more the important people at the club come out and talk like that, it's

00:59probably better for the fans, they get a better understanding of what's going on.

01:03How did you find it?

01:04Yeah it was good, it was good to chat to her, it's always important to chat to her.

01:08When we last spoke to her, I think it was at the KM1 Shrewsbury's podcast, it was probably

01:12the last time we had the chance to interview her and ask questions.

01:15Asked her about the ownership, there were some rumours online flying around about her

01:19not being interested in the club, obviously the costs are kind of over the top pretty much.

01:23And said that yeah, still looking to sell the club, but nothing's closed at the moment.

01:30So, I suppose that was interesting.

01:32We asked about the budget and what was going to be competitive for League One next season

01:36and obviously it's difficult to turn around a club that's been struggling financially

01:45I mean there's that quote, the flick of the fingers is not going to turn around the damage

01:50the way it is.

01:52So, it's important that they put plans in place that's going to make it more financially

02:01viable for an extended period of time.

02:03So, it did say to me that he expects there still to be losses in the next year's accounts,

02:08unfortunately there's a time lag with the way the contracts work and commercial partnerships work.

02:14It doesn't just sort itself out overnight, it's going to be a process and I imagine

02:22it will probably see some of the impact of that on the field.

02:25It's not going to be a straightforward season, we spoke to Paul Hurst as well,

02:28he kind of intimated that too.

02:30So, there's going to be things discussed and things to come out of it.

02:35There's probably going to be a battle to be had next year and they are going to have a box club in the market.

02:39Having said that, I think Paul Hurst is the right man to take it forward and I assume he'll be back to do that.

02:45It's talked about how it takes time and turning it around and it probably is hard to put a time frame on this

02:51but did he give any indication of how long it's going to be to, I suppose, repair any damage that's been done?

03:00The figures that we see, they are pretty damning figures.

03:04They have been out there for a while but has he given any indication of how long it's going to take?

03:08Obviously, the problem is putting this club into a good financial position.

03:14I think you said obviously the envy of probably a lot of clubs in the league at one point

03:19but has he given any indication of how long it may take to turn the tide, turn it around?

03:25It's a difficult question, I suppose, to answer, isn't it really?

03:28Probably not this season. I'll be going to see him back on a fairly balanced bank sheet, I suppose.

03:35I'm not expecting to see it when the financial accounts come out of the season just gone.

03:39Obviously, a lot of the players that worked on high wages are still there.

03:45I think perhaps now Fresh Start's eight players here, nine I think now, now Malvern in sight.

03:55So, it's Fresh Start, isn't it?

03:56A club that's kind of box clever in the way that they can with the signs that they bring in,

04:03with the wages that they pay, with the way they structure deals.

04:06Can they sell young players? Can they sell talented players?

04:10Can they play a trade? Can they get good loans?

04:12Probably something like that.

04:13The loans probably weren't as good as they could have been.

04:16They were a bit of a disaster, really, weren't they?

04:18So, yeah, it's one of those things for town.

04:21It's not going to be a straightforward season on and off the field.

04:27It's not just going to turn itself around like that.

04:29We are going to have to.

04:30There is going to be some short-term suffering until they can get back on to work for a long-term.

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