I await being shot down…

But if we sign another striker, i’m not too upset if we sell DKD provided we get a princely sum for him.
Cleary/Vickers/McGoldrick will cause havoc in League one this season, and Russell and Phillips will also chip in with hopefully double figures each.

Connell being captain may well keep him in the team because Kelly is sh*t hot and does a lot more than just break up the play and play short quick build up passes.

 

I'm shooting you down! I love DKD , he's dependable and we'd miss him if he left

 

I think Dunn will be the one to go. We’ve so many players who can play wide or as the attacking midfielder and we have to be closer to sustainability.

I don’t think Dunn is a 9 at all and I think we badly need that. McGoldrick is going to struggle to play high intensity football for 90 minutes of a full league one season.

 

I'd be pretty gutted, I'm struggling to remember the last time we had a striker scoring 1 in 2 for us.

 

He’s a great player at this level, but I think we can replace him for less than half the money we will get for him and get a CB as well.
It’s the system we are playing that makes him replaceable not his ability or effort.

 

I just think we have goals all over this team and if we can get 5 players getting double figures it will compensate for DKD leaving.

 

Still think Russell might be the one to go with him being in his last year. He looked a class above at times tonight but tried to be a bit too clever at times.

 

I won't shoot you down. I hope we retain him, personally. But I do get where you're coming from.

On Connell, I think it'll be interesting to see what Conor does as the season progresses because as you say, Kelly looks a real talent.

 

Bland looks a real prospect too

 

It’s a big ask to rely on McGoldrick, Vickers & Cleary.

McGoldrick for obvious age related reasons but if you look at Cleary & Vickers neither have them have ever played a full season of competitive football.

They both look massive talents but they will have poor games & might need to be rotated a bit.

 

As i said, i do think we need to sign another striker. But It needs to be a big strong number 9 for Cleary, Jalo, Vickers, McGoldrick to play off of.

 

I think he's wasted in every position Conor has played him in so far. I'd have a front three of Cleary on the left, McGoldrick in the middle and Vickers on the right. Then DKD between the midfield and the front three. That would cause any team in the division all sorts of problems.

You've then got to pick two midfielders from Connell, Bland, Phillips, Russell, Yoganathan and Kelly. That's a lot of talent and way too many midfielders for a club haemorrhaging money. Nice problem for the manager but disastrous for the accountant. I'd go with Bland and Phillips.

 

If we are in need of bringing big money in then Cole on loan could replace DKDs goals and hopefully give Conor a few quid to strengthen the defence.

 

I agree we’ve loads of attacking talent but I’d hate to see DKD go, he’s probably nailed on for 20 goals and the level he got to at the end of last season was outrageous. He’s seemingly robust as well, he’s been available for vast majority of games. On Kelly I’d like to see him playing with Luca and Phillips, he compliments what they’ve got really nicely. Our midfield options are really nicely balanced.

 

I think it's a tough one. Obviously in an ideal world I'd love us to keep him and I think we'll have a pretty good squad overall and should be pushing for playoffs at least.

It's a gamble though in the same way that spending big for a player to try and get promotion is a gamble. There's no guarantee we go up with him in the team and no guarantee we don't if he goes.

The money from his transfer could balance the books for 2-3 years potentially and get the club closer to being sustainable.

 

Our best chance of promotion is keeping hold of the best player in the league.

 

I don’t think Mäel is going anywhere…

 

Genuine question, would you be ok with the club spending lets say £8 million on a player to try and push for promotion?

If so, I hope you never criticised Wednesday for spending and gambling on promotion or for complaining that the club is running at a defecit.

If not, what is the realistic difference between that and turning down an £8 million bid? It's very similar really.

 

If the board have any ambition they'll keep all the good players and get a CH in at the very least. Yes its more funds required but theyre losing money anyway and at some point they will be able to sell one or two without weakening the team. Its long-term thinking based on trusting the manager for once. Selling DKD at the moment is the wrong option. Have said it all along - keep DKD. The board can still offload one or two peripheral players to make up the shortfall in funds and, longer term, release others. The team needs building not part-dismantling. It's not my money of course but if I was on the board and had already lost many millions I'd hold my nerve now...

 

Not really.

Let's say the club balances the budget. Season ticket money is in, they're conservative with estimates for match ticket sales, merch and cup runs, they know the income from commercial, etc. And they know the expenditure on wages, ground maintenance and the rest. A good season on the pitch with a glamour tie in the FA Cup and they may be up a few hundred grand. A poor season and they may be down a few hundred grand, but a good prediction is that by May they'll break even.

If they don't sell a player for £8 million they'll still break even.

If they buy a player for £8 million they'll make a loss of £8 million plus that player's wages.

I'd say that's a huge difference.