Conor hourihane

Last summer Cryne also said deals had been offered to Hourihane and Winnall but were rejected

 

You missed a bit. The bit where Cryne stated that both Hourihane and Winnall would not sign new contracts, preferring to run them down and see how the market reacted to their availability.

 

Nobodys disputing that. Its a matter of timing ie if we had offered him one earlier in the summer before birmingham came knocking he would of most likely have signed. Same with houriane et al. At the end of the day he was our captain and one of if not the best player we had, therefore should of been one of the highest earners anyway. However he was still on the same contract given to him when we were in league 1 and signed from the non league. Noone can blame Marc for going but the club had played yet another big part in yet another player leaving.

 

When was the last time we spent a million (reported) on a player?

Pinnock - 1 mil (reported)
McGeeghan - 600/700k (reported)

Think its obvious that the new players we are bringing in are more expensive than signings from 18 months/ 2 years ago. Granted this could just be the inflated transfer market. However, at the same time, people have heard about these players and other clubs have also been interested in them.

I'd definitely argue there is more hype/potential in our new signings than there was 18 months/2 years ago.

 

I'm assuming (and hoping) that we are now about to move onto phase two of The Plan, which will allow us to keep the next team together for the best part of three seasons. Of course, the only spanner in the works would be relegation at the end of this season, which would quite honestly be a disaster. Not that we wouldn't come back up, of course we would. But with then we'd be in the same position with contracts as we were at the start of this season.

 

I don't think The Plan includes for keeping a team together. It's aim is singular; but cheap, improve, sell for a profit

Owt else is wishful thinking

 

From a business point of view it has to. If we've already decided that we've reached our ceiling, and we're not even going to attempt to make it to the Premier League, that is folly of the highest order, both due to the riches on offer there, and the fact that we would eventually hit it unlucky and get relegated to League 1.

 

No he didn't. People assumed that's what he meant but he never said that

 

He never said we had bothered to offer them one though, his comment could have been based on a gut feeling for all we know

 

Perhaps the club considers The Championship as ITS Premier League

 

Come on who is to blame. Name some names. Im not accepting anything in this thread unless we stick to type and find someone to blame. Who's fault is it?

 

Thinking about this philosophical, 20 years ago we were playing Grimsby and Carlisle in the championship level and teams like Coventry were in the premier league. We should enjoy it while it lasts at this level because realistically we're solid league one on income and size.

 

I don't understand the thinking that we haven't offered new deals. What would the benefit be to the club?

Last summer Cryne said that Winnall and Hourihane didn't want to discuss new deals, and they wanted to evaluate their options at the end of this season. Hourihane left for Aston Villa, but earning an amount of money our club could only dream to offer. He left for a fee, that we all know was less than what he was actually worth, and if he was so willing to stay why did the club not tie him down and give us the opportunity to sell him for a more substantial fee? Roberts has just left his hometown club, and signed a five-year deal with a club owned by Asian billionaires. He's been linked with a move to a Premier League club, for a year. I highly doubt he'd tie himself down to a club like ours when the likes of West Brom are being mentioned. Scowen has just signed a three-year deal with QPR. He was rumoured to want a move back down south, over six months ago. He was a consistent performer for us, and we've got nothing for him.

I think some folk are being a bit naive thinking we could've kept hold of them because their parents are making comments on twitter. It's funny how the one player that had already burnt his bridges when he moved, never complained about apparently not being offered a new contract.

 

Did the club get back to you about your refund?

 

It is common knowledge that PC and Connor had a very good relationship, so I don't think gut feelings come into it. I would say that, as with Roberts, all the players were told how much the club could afford to pay. The players' agents realised they could get more and told the club to up the offer or they would look elsewhere. Therefore what would have been the point in offering contracts they weren't going to sign anyway?

 

You're right there are absolutely things we need to do better such as offer a new deal when there are 2 years left on players' contracts.

No-one can deny that the plan has been incredibly successful so far, it just needs tweaking to remain so