Not one core player sold.....

Don't call me Surely.

 

Across the whole of the football league only 24 transfers yesterday had a fee and all undisclosed. It may well be that there aren’t many clubs below the premier league parting with cash for players.

Unless the club are producing players ready for the premier league the likelihood of receiving substantial offers for players in a team at the bottom of the table looks pretty remote. It then becomes a real gamble as contracts tick down.

 

I think its the first time in my life I've seen a club go through a transfer window with what seems to be the sole intention of having a squad worse than when we started it. The philosophy of only bringing in players that are better than what we have is a normal pre-requisite position for clubs. We have released / loaned players that were better than what we have right now.

Having said that, this transfer window is irrelevant. We positioned in the summer for relegation, maybe not in the mind, but definitely our actions suggested that. We are therefore delivering on our aims. I gave up going despite being a ST holder in September (probably later than the owners). I have seen nothing since to encourage me back nor to renew.

 

Well you cannot see anything encouraging if you are not watching can you , I was encouraged on saturday with a couple of our youngsters, they were like a breath of fresh air .

 

Correct and you highlight my point. The more I and others don't go, the harder it is to be tempted back. After over 50 years of supporting first and receiving second (in terms of entertainment, value, enjoyment, belief etc) there comes a point where enough is enough. We lost 1-0 so I wasn't encouraged. My guess is i would be more encouraged to watch the kids in the U23s / U18s. But to be honest I go for entertainment and the competition and if I feel everyone involved in the club is at least trying to deliver that I would feel more committed.

 

Yes .. but nobody wanted em when they were doing ok. So they're deffinatly not going to want them now they're 5hit..right.
Plus we've managed to keep all the dead wood floating about.. hehe. may get shut of Obbie, fingers crossed. But not to worry when this lot finally do leave.. we've still got our scatter gun recruitment strategy to get more

 

So who is out of contract at the end of the season now? I can only remember Miller.

 

Styles has been absolutely dog **** all season. Collins has been poor really and helik well despite playing for Poland he looks like a league 1 player at best

 

If there was the option of selling Styles and bringing in an experienced CM, even if on loan, I would have taken it. Whether we play 4231 or 3412, the problem is still that midfield 2

 

Styles hasn't been anywhere near as good this season as he was last, I'll agree with that. But you don't become a bad player over night.

I can't agree with you over Collins and Helik. Collins has been good this season, barring the odd error which gets magnified as a goalkeeper. Helik has been dependable, mainly let down by the powder puff midfield in front of him. But come on ST, he's much better than league 1 standard, and will be playing above that level next season.

 

My main concern is definitely that we haven't strengthened in midfield. I'd have liked another Matty James type loan and to have kept hold of Styles personally.

 

Apologies in advance. It isn't a good thing they're all still here because they're shadows of the players they were last season. The position is perilous for the club now. We're relegated. The club will now start next season having sold some on the cheap or not at all with a deficit to somehow manage.

Unless the owners are going to put in some more investment it doesn't look good at all.

The only thing niggling away at me is the idea that the club is secretly being sold through the Conway portfolio thingymegumby.

 

Yes, that would’ve been ideal, but probably not possible given the likely finances of the club.

 

Helik IS better than league one but has been playing like a league 1 player. That's the problem.

 

If we are in such severe financial difficulties that despite getting rid of Kane, sibbick, Williams and God knows who else we can't bring in a midfielder short term then we are basically going under in a few months when we have about 8 million quid wiped out.

Remember we have had £750,000 taken from us that should be used to bring in a player

 

I think this window has been a disaster.

We had two choices. Prepare for League 1 and generate some cash now before player values dipped post relegation and with 6 months less contractually.

Or, wheel and deal, maybe sell one player and bring in 4 or 5 players to have a good go at staying up, if they thought it was possible over the last 19 games.

It doesn't look like we've done either.

 

Only 1 and a half coming in. The half being Domingos who yet again we may not have got over the line in time and he is based in the country. Plus agonizing over getting rid of the money draining tap oulare. Also notice no striker as such

 

I doubt those deals brought much money in at all. Probably a five figure fee for Williams at best. A low-mid six figure fee for Sibbick if we're lucky, but with some money owed to the player, who still had time to run on his contract (unless he put in a transfer request). The Kane deal would've just covered more of his wages, and we paid Frieser off.

We don't know what bids were turned down, but if any 1.5m+ bids came in earlier in the window, then you have to question the decision to reject them. We were left scratching around for scraps at the last minute, and didn't get a player in for the position we need, let alone with the experience we need.

 

Trouble is who do they sell to generate enough cash to bring in the players needed to have a good go?
Outside the Premier league the January transfer window generally doesn’t generate big sums between clubs, so in reality IMO the two options were as you say start to prepare or inject money.

 

Whoever a bid came in for frankly. The CEO said they'd turned down bids at his Q&A, and as he's an honest and transparent person, we can only take that at face value.

We're in a very real position where we might be placing overinflated and outdated values on our players (ironic given us accepting lesser amounts pre pandemic) just because of the amount we spent to get them (when hardly anyone else was spending on fees), the losses we're making on so many of our players and we're now in a transfer market that's highly suppressed at Championship level.

I know it wouldn't have been popular, but the obvious option this window was to prepare for the virtually inevitable. Bids would have come in if we'd put word out we were willing to consider offers.