On Saturday we were at London's oldest football club. On Sunday, we were at our first women's match of the season.

Saturday took us to Cray Wanderers, founded in 1860, and Flamingo Park. A day later we were at Fulham's training ground for Fulham Women against Exeter City Women, with Exeter taking the points.

Two very different grounds, two different parts of the pyramid, and a good reminder of why we started doing this: to follow football all the way down rather than observe it from the top.

This week takes us from a funding crisis at Gateshead to the £920m finding against Manchester City, from Swansea's plans to own their stadium and training ground to a new owner with EFL ambitions at Plymouth Parkway. We've also added Hanwell Town as our fourth partner club — and found out what £16.50 buys you on a Saturday afternoon at Racing Club Warwick.

First, Gateshead — where the question is no longer what the club is worth, but how much money it needs simply to keep going.

Gateshead's Rescue Bill Is Growing: Unpaid Wages, an Embargo and a Manager Contracted Until 2028

Gateshead went into this crisis with £373,350 due within a year against £27,286 of cash. Then the shareholder who had been funding it stopped. September wages went unpaid, the National League imposed a transfer embargo, and on Saturday the club terminated a manager appointed less than four months earlier on a two-year deal.

A confirmation statement filed on 2 October records Mark Nellist with zero shares and Stephen Paylor with 4,150,530 — while the club says the transfer still needs regulatory approval and Paylor cannot fund it alone.

The shares may be gifted. The football club still has to be funded.

Manchester City's £920m Finding: Why Football Accounts Matter

The Premier League published the Commission's decision on 29 September. The Commission found more than £830m of income had been overstated, with sums recorded as revenue that it concluded should have been treated as equity contributions from the club's owner. It also found the accounts did not give a true and fair view.

City deny the findings and have until Friday to appeal.

Swansea City Want to Own Their Stadium and Training Ground. What Are Their Investors Building?

Swansea have agreed Heads of Terms to buy the Swansea.com Stadium and want Fairwood too.

Behind Luka Modrić, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart sits a more conventional strategy — but the owners put in £21m of equity in a year the club lost £21.6m, and how two freeholds get financed matters more than who has joined the cap table.

Plymouth Parkway Takeover: Who Is New Owner Muizz Mirza and MEC Study Group?

Mirza promises a full-time club within 18 months and the EFL within ten years.

The accounts show the starting point: £404,880 due within a year, £213,917 of bank loans and overdrafts, and a ground carried as short leasehold rather than freehold.

The Pyramid Partners With Hanwell Town

Our fourth partner club, and our first at tier seven.

Hanwell join Peterborough United at tier three, Boreham Wood at tier five and Corinthian-Casuals at tier nine, with the ambition of a partner at every level from tier two to tier ten.

As with all our partnerships, sponsorship gives the club no say over what we publish — and whenever we write about a club we sponsor, the piece says so.

Racing Club Warwick — 7.3/10

£16.50 for the whole afternoon at Townsend Meadow, where the locally brewed pint is a pound cheaper than the mainstream lagers — and the brewery making it also pays to put its name on the ground.

The burger looked better than it tasted. The club is a members' association that files no accounts at all, playing on a council-owned ground and with a £20,000 council grant towards new changing rooms.

7.3/10. Mid-table.

That's the roundup for this week.

If you've got a club whose numbers don't add up, a takeover clause worth unpacking, or a non-league burger that needs investigating, hit reply and let me know.

Arthur Lewis
The Pyramid