Rebuilding in the summer - let's be positive!!

Come on, lads. it's not all gloom and doom. We are established at least for this and (hopefully) next season as a championship club. We have capital, but cannot afford top dollar in wages for players, so we will continue to recruit from lower leagues and mostly players who fit our age profile. I would imagine that a reasonable chunk of the incoming transfer cash would be available for transfer fees and we might find our best option to look for players who are currently under contract, but available for a decent fee and whose wages are within our limit. We are being linked with the right players in Cameron McGeehan and Olly Watkins and I would think that around £1 million for either/both would represent a good deal. I was particularly looking also at strike partners for Tom Bradshaw and came up with one/two of these: James Cummings (Hibs) aged 21 and scorer of 16 goals already this season; Jamie Walker (Hearts) aged 23 and scorer of 12 goals this season. I also like Steve Mallan (age 20) of St. Mirren, who is clearly making an impact as a goals-coring midfielder with a bright future. He has already over-achieved for his age. We are being connected with Lee Gregory (Millwall), so I would think that there is some truth in that. We were being connected before he left Halifax. He is 28, which is not in our profile range, but it might be a question of needs must. I would think Derby will be offering more than we could and he will be thinking that this will be the last chance he has of earning a high wage. We would also need to look at the defensive side and I am less knowledgeable in that respect. Up to £1 million for any of these players would represent good business and we need to rebuild well enough to continue to compete at this level. Just starting a debate. any thoughts?

 

Let's get the Wednesday game over,

That's pretty much the end of the season for me I reckon. Hopefully finish that on a high.
Rest of games will be virtually meaningless.

Who we end up going to watch next season players / coaching / board wise at the club is pure speculation.
Fact is most of us will be there, with our hard earned money. Let's hope we can continue as we have done, but will
be a tall order.

 

What i don't understand is this.
If you have £1m in the bank why is it considered acceptable by the majority to pay that £1m to sign an unproven player who may or may not make the grade but totally ludicrous to spend the same money in wages to the captain of your club?

Connor hourihane: 29 goals in 112 games for us (1 in 3.86). Captain of the club and a fan favourite.
Steve mallon: 18 in 86 (1 in 4.78). Untested at a high level.
But the suggestion is that spending £1m plus wages of i would say a highly unlikely low minimum of 150000 a year (less than £3k a week) is better than simply spending £1m to give the captain £20k a week.

 

I do not think that 'Positive thinking' is allowed on here Thomasevans. Stop it right now

 

OK, I will do this just one more time and then no more.

We are a club that loses money in a normal year. We lose money because we do not have enough revenue to sustain a team in the Championship, even though we trim overheads to the bone. Because of that, we have to have a different business plan to supplement our profit. That business plan is that we acquire players cheap (via well researched transfer dealings or from our academy), we improve them through our coaching system, we play them in the first team, and at the right time, and dependent upon receiving a decent offer, we sell them. The process is unavoidable given our finances and it does not matter that we have already sold players because that chance might never come again.

The players are a tight bunch. They have to be because only by being a tight bunch can they compete by pulling together. Does it make sense to pay one player at 7 times the rate of his team mates given they are all meant to be putting the same effort into their performances. I fully accept that some players have more ability than others, but you have to question whether retaining these players and paying them 7 times more than a team-mate is a better strategy for team morale than selling that player to allow him to make his living in a team surrounded by others earning at his rate of pay.

 

I was replying to gambling £1m on untested players. You know i never mentioned cheap players.

Next?

 

I know perfectly well what you were replying to. I was debating the logic of paying a player £20k a week when his team mates are paid £3k (your figures), and retaining players we cannot afford when our business plan is to us cash in on them in order to supplement our profitability. If the gamble is on paying £1m for 1 untested player, I agree with you because we cannot afford his wages (see previous comment).

 

I still say the situation with Conor in January was a unique one. If we never have any flexibility - even in a year when we have 12M in the bank and have no need of another 3M - then what is the point of watching? Are we to be condemned to League One forever? Is that level of entertainment acceptable? Some serious questions to be answered in the summer.

 

It's football. Just football.

We're in the championship, and will be there again next season.

There are bigger clubs with more money that will always take our best players, they always have, just as we've picked the bones of smaller clubs than ourselves.

No one moaned that Halifax, Plymouth, Barnet, Wycombe and Torquay lacked ambition or could have offered their players more money when we took their players.

If I'd have chosen an acceptable level of entertainment when I first chose to watch Barnsley, I would have packed in years ago.

Football is cyclical, it won't always be great and it won't always be crap, but worrying about things that haven't yet happened is just plain pointless.



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Such spectacular missing of the point that I think you did it on purpose. People aren't mad players were sold people are mad that the hapless club let it get to the point that multiple key players hold all the card and stroll out of the club for a fraction of their value.

 

I wasn't replying to you.

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I wasn't replying to you, I was replying to the post I quoted, and the doom and gloom of "are we going to be a league one club? Is it going to be worth watching?"



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Why do you support such a hapless club. There are loads of others that are perfect and get everything right.


Oh hang on!

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Why don't we suspend this discussion for 12 months. I wrote recently that the transfers cycle is out of balance with the Financial Reporting cycle and also the football season. By April next year, we will know for certain whether the club was right or wrong in its January transfer activity, and we will be almost half way through the next transfers cycle. We can look back at all of these threads and say with more certainty who was right and who was wrong. Because until then, all that we are all doing is predict different futures. We all know the value of hindsight. Let us just call it a day until we can all use it. The bonus is that the more open minded of us will have learned something.

 

The games against Bristol, Blackburn, Wigan and Burton won't be meaningless for them. All could still be playing for safety.

Let's hope we plug into that and try and ruin some days.



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I don't think this summers rebuild will be any different to last season.We lost a lot of players who were part of a successful team.My thoughts at the time were are we going to be strong enough losing so many players at one time.The answer was yes we are/were strong enough.Looking forward to next seasons influx and continuing to establish our selves as a solid Championship club.

 

Until we understand if our losses are planned as the owner wants to spend on the academy at a level that our income levels cannot sustain we are only speculating on losses.

I don't disagree re paying one player miles more than the rest. It's just not practicable.

 

But surely we are allowed an opinion about our concerns regarding non contract negotiatons and players being sold under value . You're right that we can't see into the future but we can try and predict it and pass on our opinions. What else is this forum for ? I can't believe how blasé some people are about the situation . Maybe it's just easier to watch league 1 football and have no ambition to push on from where we are . Que sera que sera ,it drives me nuts .

 

I agree, but some people are taking being concerned to Olympic competition level.

Don't let it drive you nuts. Just take a deep breath and keep smiling.



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OK, so if someone, let's say Conor Hourihane, knows for certain that he is going to get a big BIG pay rise when he gets to the end of his contract, but his club come along when he has, what, 1 year left (going back further and we were a L1 club with the restrictions that brings), and says tell you what Conor, will you sign a extension and we will push the boat out and give you 8k a week. What would you say?. No thanks club, I am expecting to get 20k or more. Can you do 20k, or I am going?.

What should the hapless club do - threaten to break his neck unless he signs for 8k? Even with a year or more left, the player holds the cards when he knows his worth. The club cannot do anything about it. Well, that's not true - they can bankrupt themselves I suppose. Is that what you would prefer they did?