As i said, I don't advocate that approach. But they have it at their disposal if they wished. Cryne had tens of millions of wealth and still wrote off a sizeable amount he'd loaned to the club during his tenure to leave the balance sheet solvent for these owners. And agree we need to build gradually. But consider where we were when they joined to where we are now? Can you say we've progressed? Having sold players like Pinnock, Lindsay, Moore, Potts, Brown and Bradshaw? Are we better for it?
Probably not in a much better place squad wise. But financially yeah and given the current climate it is certainly for the best we have been run as we have been. Most you mention there were sold not through choice but because the players refused to re sign as we couldn't match the wages on offer (Pinnock, Lindsay and Moore), plus we sold Potts and he was replaced in the side with Brown who IMO did better than Potts did in L1 (though having both would have been better). Plus we sold Bradshaw and used the money to get Woodrow who was better for us than Bradshaw was and is now worth more in the market so in that respect we are in a better place. Spending good money doesn't always get results too, lots of good players around on small fees if you can find them and generally our board do well at finding these. For example we still haven't got Whiteman yet due to not being able to agree a fee. They may well want 3 million for him, we could spend that and he could be worth every penny and be ace. But he could also be a flop and a waste of decent money. They do appear to be very tight with money but most of the time they do get it right with signings. I would say we have more hits than misses when it comes to good signings and bad ones. That isn't to say we have made some stinkers recently though.
But progress is getting better fees, yes? We got a similar amount for Brown as we did Potts. And Brown was younger and better with more potential with 2 years of contract. Thats the first obvious example of a players replacement then being sold. And as has been said many times before, a player can want away, it doesn't mean he does so on their terms, and it doesn't mean we have to crash the fee to do so. I agree Woodrow was a fantastic signing. Not that difficult to spot either. But I can't see us getting the going rate for a proper championship striker given his complete mismanagement and his resulting lack of goals. For me, we're in the same position as what the owners took on. A very young large squad that has more potential than current quality that we won't see manifest in a Barnsley shirt and will be sold for less than their worth. While being overseen by the latest coach that is burning goodwill quickly as he can't get what is needed to progress the team. Its a constant treadmill. I don't see how these owners will ever break that cycle.
They need to work on getting better fees. The brown deal is a very bad one for sure. Players have the power unfortunately when they have 12 months left but in Browns case that was just a bad deal (unless we somehow get someone good in the last few weeks of the window). We have some amazing talent in the side currently that could and should sell for 6 million plus and they are on very long term deals. They need to improve on getting higher fees like what Posh do etc. but I would say we are in a better place contract wise than before as we have lots of players in the side on long term deals.
Who would you say (apart from Woodrow and Styles) could we get a sizeable fee for? The caveat I would add, is that in the covid era and the stress that championship clubs face, and certainly that fees being paid to offload to lower divisions is pretty much dead now, its a higher risk strategy to be signing 10-15 players in a window on 4-5 year deals in the hope some come off. I don't envy any club at this time.
Currently I would agree only Woodrow and Styles are the ones worth 6 million plus. But, I would say given a season or 18 months, Simoes, Oduor and maybe at a push Thomas (if he kicks on) could be worth good money. Especially Simoes and I really think he has huge potential.
One of the problems I have is how we get players with ability and may have possible sell on value (in 2-3 years time), but who aren't ready, into a team without damaging the quality of that team and subsequent results at that time. And for Oduor to be worth any money, we might have to actually play him. And the way Woodrows career is being ruined, I'm not sure we'll get much for him either. Tragic. It would be interesting to see (and needs more time really) the net difference in purchase and sale of our players, compared to the purchase cost lost of players we've allowed to leave, pushed out, or subsidised to go. I feel when you take that into account, the odd £2-3m for a player every now and then soon gets swallowed up by the fees and write off of failures.
