Last summer's transfer window

Thanks for the heads-up. I just saw the Forest Green game is on ESPN+, so I'll give our future top scorer a once-over.

 

Did we ever find out whether Conway was lying about the visas or fitness of Oulare and Iseka?

Which of the two was it that was the delay?

 

I’d like to see what he can do for us too. He’s only got 12 months on his contract though, so depending on his age in 12 months, we could again be losing a player for free.

 

A nice little shot from outside the box in the 6th minute that looped up off the crossbar. Unlucky.

We will have to have a word with him when he comes back about shooting; it is not encouraged, especially from long range.

 

I think you will find that he is under 24 & therefore if we offer him a new contract & he turns it down we would be in line for compensation

 

I actually agree with the Mowatt thing.

Keeping him and having a good go at the playoffs was the correct move. If we'd have sold him a la Conor in January 17, then there would have been hell on.

The issue is how we've replaced him.

 

Yes, that was what I was angling at with my comment as I was being lazy and couldn’t be bothered to check.

Though don’t we have to offer a wage increase to his previous terms for that to apply?

 

Agreed

 

I believe that the offer has to be no less than his current salary , but I could be wrong , regarding his age , he has just turned 22 earlier this month so if we offered the required contract then we would be entitled to a fee, but in my eyes we have a real player here & now that we have developed him we need him competing in the first team squad

 

Absolutely, that's got to be the whole point of buying a young player and "developing them" here or sending them on loan. To get some value from them at first team level. And hopefully we can get some of that from Kane and Aitchison next season.

I'm not as hopeful of Schmidt and Thomas doing similar given the lack of game time they are getting.

 

You could argue that keeping Mowatt was more evidence of the broken clock theory.

 

I'd like to see Aitchison here next season as well. Wouldn't surprise me if we end up reaching an agreement with Thomas and Schmidt to release them next season. Odour might do a decent enough job in League 1, if we can find the right position for him.

 

Am I the only one who remembers oduor putting in man of the match performances regularly at one point and it was only after struber (I think) started using him as a scapegoat and hauling him off early that he went downhill?

 

There is a subtle point around Alex Mowatt and any player who is nearing the end of their contract. For the club to be able to sell a player he has to agree to terms as well as the clubs agreeing a transfer fee. The club may well have said he is not for sale but equally with a year left on contract Alex is well within his rights to rebuff offers knowing that he is a free agent at the end 12 months. By running his contract down he is possibly increasing his own share of what would have been a percentage of a transfer fee. Against that he has to weigh the unknown of who may want to sign him at the end of his contract and the potential loss of earnings over the final 12 months compared to the new terms on offer.

The decision on whether a player moves on or not is not entirely down to the club anymore. There is a fine balance for both the club and a player when the contract moves in to its last year.

 

Precisely this.

Indeed, one of the initially lauded practices of the owners was to sign players on longer contracts to try and give more scope to leverage a fee with 2-3 years left believing that would uplift transfer fees and minimise the chance of players walking on a free.

Sadly, we've acquired numerous players who just haven't been worth much of a fee at all and we're having to loan them to subsidise their costs to us, knowing likely there is limited potential to get our initial outlay back let alone a profit. It's those sort of deals that have really hurt us. Not least, that there are several of them.

The other downside is because of the market, and potentially our own fee requirements, we've not been able to turn players over at the peak time of their contracts.

 

I agree with you but probably they are not getting the game time because they are regularly disappointing , I had high hopes myself of Schmidt but I am afraid Thomas does not cut it all for me & its a million pound down the drain in my eyes .