Minority Report - Preston

This is my second go at this. I’m trying to think of something interesting to say, if only to keep up my record of commenting upon every game. But, basically, not very much of interest happened today. No body scored, there was a possible penalty each way not given, Davies pull one out of the top corner in the final minutes, Bradshaw hit a post and that is about it really. Oh and we missed Hourihane’s set piece delivery… very badly. Roll on summer.

 

The season is over, milord. More ruminations to follow ('bletherings', some might say).

 

Right then.

Known facts: We have received inwards something in the region of £12M since last Summer, with little paid out so far as we aware for players brought in. Little has been said about the fees received for Winnall and Hourihane, but we can deduce that the club is unhappy to reveal the exact amounts because that information would not be happily received by the supporters. Both players were contracted to us until the end of the current season, and could go nowhere without our agreement. Assurances were given before the season that the contracts would be allowed to run down and that we had no pressing need to sell. Both players could have been retained had we chosen. We did not need the comparatively small amounts their sales appear to have brought in to add to our cash pile of £12M. We could have insisted on their staying. If motivation was perceived to be an issue, we could have paid them more on an incentivised basis, to compensate them for the limited loss of opportunity involved in keeping them for the rest of the season. Our current cash-rich position would have allowed us to do this as a wholly exceptional and one-off measure. This would have allowed us to roll the dice so far as our remaining prospects this season were concerned, but more importantly, would have given us more time to identify their replacements.

The players brought in, whether permanent or on loan all look to have a degree of promise. But we are back to square one in terms of inculcating our methods and style of play into them, and they are not all fully fit. Hecky and Jamie C have both indicated this week that we are back to square one. We have therefore given up on this season. We have almost amassed enough points to ensure safety. On the evidence of the two games this week, the remaining 5-10 points required to guarantee that safety will be hard won, but we will get there. It is extremely likely that the entertainment value will be downgraded for this season’s remaining games.

There is a fine line between progressing as we have so magnificently done in the first half of this season, and returning to the sort of club we were during our last stay in the Championship. Rotherham should serve as a warning in this regard. If the team and the coaching staff are undermined, the asset-stripping which has brought this about will have largely been of our own making. It is in this context that the Minority Report should be read this evening, and Red Rain’s account is entirely accurate. The way in which we have played our hand this transfer window renders a more detailed analysis wholly redundant. A somewhat unedifying state of affairs, but many would say one that is entirely consistent with our history as a club.

 

Spot on sir!


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It's spot on mate and thank you for taking the time to write it but it's been said a thousand times befofore from other frustrated supporters. We are regularly put in our place by the ' we should be happy where we are brigade' . The plan is the plan and I get that but the glass ceiling is getting thicker and thicker.

 

'Cash rich' we may be, but it is nothing compared to other clubs, and if a player is offered a deal they cannot refuse by another club we can't do much to stop them leaving. We have replaced plenty of players from the promotion squad with players who have done well in the Championship. There is no reason we can't do that again. Hecky has also said 'we can't be happy with where we are. If we are happy, we'll go backwards'. Doesn't sound much like giving up on the season to me

 

Good post - agree with the vast majority of it. All this about "we had no choice" but to let players go is rubbish. We had a choice and we made it. The price is paid on the pitch.

 

Do you think today's team is good enough to get in the play offs?

 

"if a player is offered a deal they cannot refuse by another club we can't do much to stop them leaving."

Yes we can if they are under contract.

 

Today's team will do well to avoid relegation can't see were are next goal coming from. Let's hope defence will stay strong just to get the 8 points we need

 

You should take over the 'Minority Report' franchise. You get a lot more favourable responses than I do. We may have to agree a price first though. Opening bids?

Seriously, whilst I agree with you that our season is as good as done, I do not agree the rest. And furthermore you know that I do not agree with the rest. Any more of this hi-jacking of Minority Report and I will have to send you to the naughty corner. You know my feelings on this, because we have discussed it before. The fact is that we are not as good as we were before the recent sales, but I have asked for patience before, and I ask for patience again. As a long distance walker I know that sometimes you have to take a step backwards before you continue along the trail. This is without doubt a backward step, but let us not judge our progress until we are nearer the end of our trail. We will be busy between now and the summer, identifying and tying down new recruits on affordable wages. We will have a much better chance of securing their signatures then, than we did in the madness of the January transfer window. Stay positive, and above all, stay patient.

Speaking as a none betting man, I think the odds were very much against us going up anyway and the fact that we still have our stake in our pockets mean that we can place that bet another day.

 

We've got every chance, but we probably aren't consistent enough to get in. I honestly didn't think we'd get in even with Hourihane and Winnall etc. But there's still plenty to play for this season; finish as high as possible, no specific targets, and we will hopefully be able to look back on this season fondly

 

Good morning my Noble Lord!

I could never aspire to taking over the 'Minority Report! The original is the one that gets them talking!

I don't think this is the same debate we have had before. CH was already ours, and I am talking only about whether we should have insisted on him staying till season's end (with or without a 'loyalty bonus' - depending on your views about motivation). And there is some portion of £12M 'resting' in the club, so I'm not advocating spending Mr Cryne's money on this occasion.

Regarding your last sentence, I was asked by a former club insider (a serious one) yesterday whether, at the start of the window I'd have gambled £1M on assisting our potential playoff push, given that the rewards for an unsuccessful Premiership campaign are said to be well in excess of £100M. The answer to that could only have been yes, given that we were only 33/1 with the bookies at the time! (And the £1M would have been used to retain CH and Winnowl).

 

Complete utter pool of bilge sir!

 

I look around the championship and think what a mess it is, Sheffield Wednesday paying 18k a week for a 5th choice striker, villa will pay conor over £4 million in wages over 3 years, the parachute payments for doing nothing that currently 9 teams have got that is being wasted on the gamble of promotion to the Premier League. I could go on, we on the other hand are building a club that is self sufficient and stable, I am happy with this and where we are is incredible. What our owner is going through is more important than football, our loyal fan base is around 9k which is not big enough to make an impression financially in this league.
Unless PC sells to a foreign billionaire and we want to put our club at risk than I am happy as we are and I would stick with the plan, the club, no need to gamble and would like to hear an end to all the moaning and get a bit of atmosphere back in Oakhill.

 

This. Wi' a shitload o' them brass knob things on. Nailed it, fella.

 

Not being a betting man, 33/1 seems very long odds to me. Those bookies know what they are up to don't they. Surely, our stake money is not just the incentive payment that you are proposing to make to Hourihane, it is also the transfer fees that would be lost come the summer. Now I am probably not as committed as you are about Hourihane. I know that some count him as the best mid-field player in their lifetime. I have had a longer life than many of those, and although he was very good at set piece delivery, other aspects of his game are not of that quality. He was very one sided, he was not desperately quick, he played too deep at times in order to cover for his lack of pace. Taking everything into consideration, I would not rate him in my top 3 in a 4-4-2 system of past players, and if we include players who played in midfield in other systems, he barely makes the top 10. Now I know that opinion is everything in football, and everyone has one of those. I know that my opinion is no better than the next man's and I know that from opinion stems an emotional relationship, and hence a deep regret that he is gone. Personally, I was more emotionally affected by the departures of Neil Redfern, Craig Hignett, even Steve Agnew and I know that emotion can affect judgement, but there is no way that I would spend those fees chasing those odds.

You mention the riches that awaited us if we had been promoted, and that is true on paper. But that money is not profit, it will not be sitting in the clubs bank account at the end of a season in the Premier League. The clubs merely act as a conduit to redirect the Sky riches into the pockets of millionaire footballers. The fans are the unwitting accomplices in the process, because it is their pressure on the clubs that forces them to spend the money unwisely on huge transfer fees, spectacular wages and long contracts. It is only a trip to an Administrators offices that restores sanity following a bout of over-spending. And so it was with us. No matter how the story of my club's visit to the Administrator is spun towards the demise of ITV Digital, I will always believe that we were taken there on the back of Mike Sheron and his 4 year contract. That visit taught me that nothing is worth risking everything for, and that decisions must be made with a cool head and sound financial judgement. That is why much of my stuff emphasises financial probity above all.

Hopefully, things will look much better after the summer. I have been a fan for a long time and I tend to look at things BFC over that timescale. If I am spared, I will once again be knocking on their door in August, anxious to begin another season, with all the old hopes and yearnings and looking forward to getting my first view of the new crop of young men in the red shirt. Turnover of players is a continual process, and always will be and every new season brings with it renewed hope and dreams of the Premier League.

 

Seems everyone's had a good night's sleep....there's some outstanding posts on here this morning. Well played.

 

And you've based that opinion on what
Four games since these players went?
Did you turn to despair when these same players were bottom of pub league, look how that turned out.
Criticism is so easy when we've had a couple of off games

 

personally I think we were largely a victim of our (meteoric) rise and some naivety by whoever was in charge of contracts.
When we went up nearly everybody said that this was going to be a season of consolidation and they would be happy mid table but we kicked on from last season and took (I think) even ourselves by surprise by the performances of both the team and individuals.
I can in a way see how they might have let the contract thing drag a little bit in general, but given the influence CH obviously had they should have bust a gut to get him signed up, he was obviously worth an enhanced deal and would it have been difficult to get him to sign a contract that gave him the option of release if a bigger club made an offer of £x, similarly with Bree if 'the plan' was to develop youngsters who thought it was a good idea to let his contract run down!! Winnall I think was a lost cause, no real affection for the club and a typical mercenary who was perhaps aware of his shortcomings and was looking to snag the money.
Hopefully we have now learned our lesson, but I don't get this our season is over ****, the play offs were always going to be a long shot this season, you only have to look at the other more established sides above us to see that, what happened to its great to be back at another level?
Having been caught out the club have acted to plug the gaps but moaning at the new lads before they have had chance to settle and get match fit and adjust is madness.
I think we all agree Hecky knows what he is doing , so lets let him get on with it, the January window is, besides being stupid is always the hardest, lets see who we have identified for the summer and spend the money wisely rather than in a desperate search for something that was always a long shot