Ker-ching. Hopefully we can loan a few bairns from Premiership clubs and do them a favour by developing them on their behalf.
It's working pretty damn well!! We're 4 points off the playoffs. And I would bet if we beat Rotherham and Wolves we will be in the playoffs. I'll trust those in charge that have got us here.
To go with the £6 million Mawson, £6.8 Stones, £30 - £36 a ticket 17,000-18,000 crowds. New lawnmower for the Academy.
The clubs making more money than ever and we're 8th in the Championship, **** me things are going terribly.
Hope there's a sell-on clause like for Stones. I have to say that I'm a little mystified by this, Bree's a decent player alright, but doesn't stand out in the way that Stones did, yet we got more for him even thought he's almost out of contract. It suggests to me that our reputation for producing quality young lads is influencing the money that clubs are prepared to pay us, if so then well done to the club.
But the team that got us to that position is being sold off all at once - that's why people are concerned.
I don't think it is as we can have millions to spend on transfer fees but cannot pay the wages relevant to said transfer fees. The money is there is secure the long term future of the football club. That's not a criticism for those looking in.
There's no problem in buying players, improving them and selling them for a big profit. What you do need is a great network of scouts and have a list of good replacements ready to go for players who are likely to go elsewhere. The better the team gets, the harder this becomes because the number of players you can snatch from relative obscurity and hit the ground running to play top half of the table Championship football is going to be fairly limited. Of course sometimes you just get lucky and find a half a dozen players who work out really well. We might not be so lucky in the future, in which case taking the money is the right thing to do, even though there might be an argument for keeping them or saying that we should have given them another contract last summer. Fair to say we're also a victim of our own success and the club probably didn't think we'd be where we are and that some players would be as good as they have been and thus attract quite so much attention. Had the team struggled a bit more and been bottom half of the table and Hourihane only chipped in a few goals, I doubt Villa would be even looking at him. Will be interesting to see who they target as replacements. I'm guessing they still want to work the idea of loans with a view to permanent transfers. Although this hasn't worked quite so well long term, we have made some good loan signings and we do generally have a better bargaining position being in the Championship. There's always the risk that the loaning clubs see us as a means to bring on their players and then take them back much improved with experience. On the upside many Premier clubs are loaded to the rafters with young lads who aren't going to get a game and will jump at the chance to have Championship football. We just need to find the right ones....
Hourihane was never going to stay forever was he. The club goes on no matter what and we find another player.
If it's just about surviving with cash in the bank and ambition out of the window, think I'd rather find something else to do on a Saturday. If we don't have hope and dreams what do we have?
We're 4 points off the play offs because of the quality of player we have at the moment . If we sell most of our better players , common sense would suggest we will drop down the league . Am I missing Something ?
As we all know the big issue with getting these young loans is if they do well, and we will need them to do well, our chances of signing them goes down to slightly above **** all.