Thanks for digging that out. I posted something similar ages ago but couldn't find it the last time someone cited Exeter as a financial success story. I seem to remember they had been in the black for a few years but when you looked at the numbers they were still losing a good chunk of cash each year but it was being offset by dipping into the funds they received from selling a player for some serious money.
I'm not knocking them, fair play to them, they've clearly done well in the transfer market but you can't base your operating model around selling a really good player every few years. Yes, of course you can invest in upcoming players and tie them up to long term deals hoping they come good (a la Chesterfield with Tshimanga) and if it pays off everyone pats you on the back and applauds a superb bit of business, but if they do their ACL three games in and never play for you again you look an absolute mug and are financially screwed. There's a massive element of luck involved in that sort of thing, especially at our sort of level.
so is a model of loan players, sacking managers and their staff every year a better strategy then?
Luck? well it's a case of.. the harder you work, the luckier you become. Obviously player investment is a risk at every level. Personally I would be happy to see a massive investment into the youth / younger player set up and play them in games, even if it meant we would be not getting promoted immediately. I know that the player pathway thing (sorry forgot it's name) is a major headache in developing players at our level but something has to change if we are ever to be established in L1.