I think this may have been discussed before and I was going to write this on the “Well done Stendel” thread but thought it possibly requires its own thread! Brentford have a very similar business model to us but the difference is they don’t buy 18yo kids who may have potential, they spend that little bit extra and seek those players out from teams like us after he’s proven his potential. That reduces the chances of a failure and lessens the scatter gun effect, like we’ve had with Miller, Green and Adeboyejo etc. They also don’t sell these players in twos, threes and fours. They replace as they go along, for example. Neal Maupay, Cost 1.8m, Sold for 19.8m Florian Jozefzoon, Cost 450k, Sold for 2.79m Romaine Sawyers, Cost Free, Sold for 2.79m John Egan, Cost Free,?Sold for 4m Jota, Cost 1.35m,Sold for 5.85m This is a small sample of their deals and all the players were replaced with cheaper players who have (like Pinnock replacing Mapham) gone on to be ample replacements until it’s their time to be cashed in. it also gives them the opportunity to sign players with a bit of extra experience to help the younger players along. What’s the difference from us? Well obviously they pay more initially and obviously pay more in wages. They are traditionally a smaller club than us, playing in a smaller stadium but with larger overheads due to being in the capital. You can only suggest they have better sponsorship and investment. I’ve not looked into this but I’m pretty sure their owner has pumped in a fair amount, unlike ours. You could also suggest when in player negotiations being based in London rather than South Yorkshire does help when you’ve trying to sign a lad from Nice or Celta Vigo!
I asked on Saturday: are Brentford a bigger club than us? I think not. The key difference - as you highlight - is that they invest to make it happen. They are fifth in the Championship and they move into a new stadium next season.
Over 100 million put in by their owner. They didn’t start off buying players in millions and selling on for huge money, started a lot lower and have gradually increased. Aren’t limited by age. Others have said before that they are further down the road than us on this model, which links to the point of bigger purchases etc but there is also the fact they were one of the first doing it they had a bigger pool of players to pick from, we were doing sooner than most, but for various reasons have not moved up the path and have been caught by others also doing it, meaning we now struggle to compete in that pool.
19/20 Transfers Out - £36.3m* Transfers In - £28.5m 18/19 Transfers Out - £30.5m Transfers In - £5.9m 17/18 Transfers Out - £13.6m Transfers In - £5.4m 16/17 Transfers Out - £12.76m Transfers In - £4.6m Totals Transfers Out - £93.16m Transfers In - £44.4m *Maupay and Konza sold to Brighton and Villa for £31.7m
You've got to give it to them, they can spot a player alright. Fantastic model - hope we can start to replicate in the near future
If they have maybe it's worth following. If were half as successful as theyve been wed still be in a lot more profit. Need to spend money to make money
The difference is they've grown in to being able to pay more initially. It wasn't always like that. We're still massively in the infancy of adopting a similar strategy which is probably why the owners said something about a five year plan or long terms plan when they first took over. There is an argument we should have invested our budget in less players this Summer, but better players, but even then we wouldn't have been able to mirror the Brentford approach. As mentioned above, they had £100 million of investment from the owner and have spent £44m in four years on transfers - light years ahead of us but I genuinely think that's where the owners want to get us to.
And they average 11.500 home crowds this season and us nearly 14000 and yet we are miles behind them on the pitch.
Unfai. So do we. We’ve got Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Lenny Peters (one for you older lads there). Welcome Home boys.
Would make sense, recruitment is key to their success..... We dont know who our recruitment team are so its hard to judge how much we put into it, all we know is its failing miserably.
We might not know exactly who they are but we were all pretty positive about this feature last season. https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/whats-it-scout-a-league-one-club
It helps when your owner is a life long fan too and not chancers who don't give a hoot about the club or it's fans
For all the comparisons with Brentford and Barnsley the key difference is the contribution by the owners. Based on Brentford's 2018 accounts the owner has put in £113.9m, this equates to around a further 40,000 attendees at each home fixture, over a five year period. Of the owner's contribution £33.6m is in respect of the new stadium. Our current owners, based on the last set of accounts, have not put any investment in to club. It really illustrates how attendances are dwarfed by certain owner's contributions or indeed the £100m of premier league distribution. As an aside Brentford had 5,828 season ticket holders disclosed in their last filed accounts.
It’s not just transfers fees though. They’re losing a fortune in wages, not only did they offer Pinnock wages we couldn’t get near they also took Janson from Leeds, put it this way he’s not took a pay cut to leave Leeds
I sometimes think wage demands of Championship players, combined with our own limitations on what we can afford, gets forgotten. We sold Marc Roberts, one good season in the Championship and only two seasons out of non-league football, and he left to earn £20k a week for five years. Our League One Team of the Year goalie went to Stoke to play third fiddle for a rumoured £15k a week. James Bree had less than a full season of Championship games, £18k a week. Winnall is rumoured to be picking up anything from £18k to £22k. Ethan Pinnock only had something like 12 Championship games but left on a four year deal for £18k a week. We've made mistakes with transfers no doubt, but this is a brutal league to compete in. The experience we badly crave isn't difficult to find, but it is difficult to afford.
