On the face of it I'm very grateful as I assume that the player purchases and their subsequent salaries could not be afforded any other way.

However, the following can be found within the actual stock market statement and is missing from the above article: 'The Loans accrue interest from either the date of drawdown (in the case of the loan from Guild Ventures Limited) or 1 October 2008 (in the case of the loan from Friends of Preston North End Limited) to the date of repayment at a rate of LIBOR plus 3% and have a repayment date of January 2010. To date interest amounting to £290,326 has accrued.'

For those that are unsure about LIBOR it is the rate at which lenders lend to lenders and is about 5% at present. Therefore, the Friends of PNE and Guild Ventures are accruing approximately 8% interest. This isn't a criticism but adds a little balance to an article which chooses to ignore the charges paid by the Club to its lenders one of whom is a billionaire and supporter.

Wow!!!!! thats a lot of cash for a club of our size who are at this moment in time stuttering in mid table!!, i just hope the money spent is money well spent and the players repay the faith the club has spent on them.

That is a lot to take in post #1 but well put! It seems unreal that most of the loan has been spent so far,but it just goes to show,that we as fans only know a bit about the ins and outs of our football club, and when i read this article,my eyes nearly popped out of my head,due to the size of that loan to be paid back with interest!The notion that (sir) Trevor Hemmings has little involvement in the club has been outed so that is great and long may it continue,loan or no loan,it is still a big financial backing by his group. Without this backing,North end could have slid back into the abyss of the bottom divisions.

Hmmm, interim results in March had over £9m of interest payable loans and borrowings as end of December 2007. Since that time a loan of £9m has been taken out with Royal Bank of Scotland for financing of the stand then this additional £7m borrowing. That gives a total debt of over £25m !

I think Andy Garner might be close to the truth regarding a 15 points deduction staring North End in the face.

OH ER MISSUS. IN YOUR DREAMS.

brigpnefan, I doubt we would ever slip that far back, i just think the money spent by the club would have gone on players instead of the ground and we would have a c**p stadium like the lashers!!!!!!

OooAndyGarner..you are awful!! Is Carl Oyster pot going to put the 2 million quid into transfers like he was pressed on Soccer A M 2 weeks ago? I think not!Boy his ars@ went, when grilled by the host, so funny.

brigpnefan KO will put his usual sweet fa in like his family have done for the past decade and he did look a comlete ars@ on soccer am i agree and if you look at the gazette site he has now turned into a canibal!!, but saying that he must be doing something right as he has not only helped us into the championship with Grayson (the best manager in this country) but kept us there. up the pool cant wait for sunday, and as i work in prescum look forward to bragging on monday SEASIDE BARMY ARMY

i'm astounding that anyone in this day & age is unaware of the financial demands of football at this level; this article comes at no surprise at all except the money has been so badly spent. i am amazed and admire the support north enders are giving Irvine. he doesn't deserve it; may i live to eat my words.