The January Transfer Window

Yes we can - we need to structure contracts better in future to either allow longer term planning for the head coach or to realise more dosh when we sell


Sent from the darkest recesses of a poisoned mind.

 

Absolutely bang on you should post more often. We all know who the better players are and we should have signed them on longer contracts last summer in order to maximise their value on sale . Instead we stalled on contracts and gave Winnall and Bree away for peanuts . Its just amerturish.

 

Linton Brown was trusted to deal with the contract renewals and obviously didn't do as expected. Probably why he was sacked. Remember the statement a few weeks ago by Hourihane about not being offered a new contract.?

 

Well I beg to differ on this assessment.

Firstly, I did not suggest that every player be signed on a 5 year contract. It was the other poster who seemed to suggest that Roberts or McDonald would not have signed one.

Well they would have.

Secondly, I do not see how everybody would know before us that a player would "come good". If this was the case, why didn't the agent know their true worth earlier on and get them a move to a bigger club, and why didn't someone else sign them up?

Once they're with us we know more about them than anyone else.

We were in certain cases ahead of the curve in signing these players. We should stay ahead of the curve in maximising their worth as players and assets to bfc.

 

Yeah but Mansford is not here is he?

Have you an explanation as to why we don't have a CEO?

Plus your explanation regarding contracts is the classic mistake that it seems we're making - look at their contracts half way through - by which time they may be obviously established and valuable - instead of pre-empting this and perceiving the potential and nailing it down.

 

I don't understand. When do we pre-empt it? If not half way through then when? You either sign them on initial five year deals and get landed with players like Tuton, Jackson, Ash, White on long deals. Or you wait to see if they're settling in and going to be successful at which point they're reluctant to extend.
At what point should we have sat Hourihane down and offered him an extension? I would guess early to mid last season when he was making the transformation into the player he is now. Exactly the point where he'd have been thinking, hang on a minute if I keep playing like this I can make some big money at a bigger club.
Patrick Cryne has gone on record about how much he loves Hourihane. Do you think he wouldn't have done whatever was realistically possible and probably a bit more to keep him?

 

Last summer was when they refused to sign new contracts.

 

OK, look at it like this. I know that there's a certain company that pays far less in wages than other companies in the sector. It always has, and that's unlikely to change. Other companies doing the same thing often pay four or five times as much to their workers as this one does! But they offer me a job at minimum wage, and it's a company I'd quite like to join, so I go there.

A year later they come to me and say "Sestren, you've been great. We'd like to offer you another four years on the end of your contract and this very generous increase in salary." Great - it's a fantastic raise, I like working here.

But...

I know that this company pays less than almost any other in the sector. And they want me, to the extent that they're offering me this ridiculous increase. So, maybe, I think, that this huge raise will probably take me to a lower salary than I'd be on at one of their competitors. And I know that they often pay four or five times as much, so maybe I'll just give my recruitment agent a quick call to see if there's anything else out there... After all, why would they bother offering me that much more money if they weren't worried about there being competition? You don't secure people on long term contracts unless you absolutely have to.

 

In a sensible world we can compete with Wigan. We can outcompete them. Their sugar daddy has pulled out, parachute payments are finished or about to finish. They have a smaller fanbase and are en route back to the lower leagues which would have been their natural home before Whelan got involved.
However, they seemingly outbid us on Morsy's wages. As far as I can see that's with money they havent got. Or certainly won't have when next season rolls round.
And that's part of the problem. We're competing against bigger teams with big budgets, teams with parachute payments and also teams living beyond their means.

 

I didn't mention league position, I was making a comparison based entirely on the financial strength of clubs we're competing with.

 

A huge hairy bollock has been dropped.

Very easy for the club to sign players on a 2 year deal, with an option on good performance to extend to a 4 year deal with a higher wage.

We have ****ed up big time. Linton has walked. Let's hope Hecky stays. If I was him I'd be getting my coit.

 

Mason Holgate signed a 5 year deal at Everton in 2015 and they've already extended it by 12 months.

 

The higher wage we could have offered Conor after two years would have been a third of what he knew he could get elsewhere. Why would he tie himself down to us?

 

For crying out loud. Of course he signed a 5 year deal at Everton. They're in the top half of the premiership! He's securing his financial future at a stroke. It's a totally different situation.

 

Because they're paying stupid money anyway. Look, I reckon our maximum wage is c£350k a year, or something like that. It'll probably go up next year if we remain in the Championship. Wednesday can pay more like a million and a half without blinking. I'm not saying that £350k isn't a hell of a lot of money, because it is, but that kind of step up is life changing. Holgate's already going to be on a million a year upwards - why wouldn't you go for an extension on that? Particularly if you don't know for a fact that other clubs are paying far more money for players of a similar standard.

 

All that makes sense obviously.

And no situation is black or white.

But in a Roberts example, you're moving from minimum wage to something quite nice.

You've been languishing down there for quite some time - let's face it - we took stock of him about a year before we signed him - and you're not a Bree spring chicken.

We ought to have been able to quickly assess him - certainly before anyone else and before any agent could (let's face it, they're not experts on this) and offer him something that pleases him and the club, once we could see there was worth.

I know that sounds simplistic, but it's better than letting him improve immeasurably, get nearer to the end of his contract, and then have him go on the cheap.

Plus I do actually want these players to be on the pitch for us as long as possible!

 

When he signed the contract we were in a strong bargaining position.
Now we are up **** creek, without a paddle.
If he wanted to move on fine, but we would have some actual power to hang out for 8-10 million, his true value.

We have ****ed up.

Ah well. Back to the drawing board.

Get well Patrick, there's more important things, like your health.

 

That doesn't make sense.

We are competing with Wigan in our league.

If you are simply saying that they have more money than us, then we all know that.

 

We did, though - we gave him a three year contract. I maintain that we've been caught out a bit by getting promoted, and by these players unexpectedly being able to step right up. It's great - nobody's happier than me about that - but it ruins the system a bit.

For example, take MacDonald. When should we have offered him a new contract? Now? Norwich are already rumoured to be considering a £2.5m offer - why would he sign anything at all when that's a possibility for the future? We simply haven't had an opportunity to assess him and offer him better terms before everybody else has had their chance to have a look at how he performs at this level.

 

We all do. I'd love all the present team to be on long contracts but historically, with the exception of Glavin, we've never been able to hang on to a top player. Certainly since sky pushed the top echelon earning potential into the stratosphere.