How much is he putting into Walsall every year? Judging by their gates it must be a couple of mill easy. I imagine it must be the same at Burton and Gillingham as there is no way they could live within their means and be competitive. Is there?
LJ reckons both clubs have had long term managers, who've built squads that have been together a few years. I remember him saying that before we turned Gillingham over, and before we lost to Walsall. I do get that point. However, I don't know how true it is.
I understand that with Walsall, they've kept the majority of their squad for a fair amount of time. Although I'm pretty sure Justin Edinburgh was appointed at Gillingham at a similar time to Johnson being appointed here.
That Lalkovic bloke is a new signing for Walsall. Him who scored one and set one up against us. Then scored in the following game as they drew 4-4 at Colchester. Then scored again in the next game as they beat Gillingham 3-2. Be nice if we could sign someone like him.
I'm not referring so much to the fact they are better teams than us. That's for any club who has Johnno as manager. I voted for Cryne to stay but he has a lot of work to do. What I can't understand, however, who are so convinced the club would fold without him. So is Jeff Bonser pumping more money into Walsall than Cryne is into BFC, or are they just managing their (lower) turnover better than we are?
If Johnson had kept our team from last season, got rid of a couple and brought a couple in, I think we would be in the top six. However as Oldham fans said shortly after he signed for us, was that he couldn't resist fiddling with the team.
Walsall signed him, and two others this summer. They gave free transfers to four players. They have one loanee, think he scored against us. Smith has been in charge for five years (in January). They average about 4,500 in terms of gates. They've spent **** all in years. They only just stayed up last season, closest they've come to promotion was 9th a couple of years ago, but they did reach a JPT final last season, and lost. Smith has a 29.86% win ratio. Frightening how they're 18 points ahead of us. Gillingham appointed Edinburgh a week before we set LJ on. They signed six players this summer, and five on loan since. They average about 5,000 in attendances. Their owner hasn't a penny to scratch his arse with. They've been yo-yo'ing from this division and the one below for much of the last ten years, never been close to the Championship in that time. Not the most in-depth of research admittedly, but I don't see them as examples of anything I'd like us to be. Fair enough, they're doing okay at present on the pitch (it won't last) but nothing else there for us to copy or see as an example. In my opinion. Lalkovic topped practically every pre-season fitness test, according to a video BFC put out in the summer on Player, that whilst being available for transfer. I can only assume he was on a fortune, because why else would we release him, to then piss about recruiting loanees like Harris, Crowley, Isgrove, Smith, Toney, Wilkinson etc? But then, he can't have been on a fortune can he, if Walsall can afford him? Ah **** it. Bed time. You Reds.
Walsall make a profit every year , I'd expect Bonser makes a bit of money out of them rather than putting money in.
Our wage bill season we went down from memory was £7m give or take some change. Only bree digby and tangs remain from that squad. Weve given away, released, sold steele, crainie, cog, melis, jennings all 'high earners'. Two of which last season swallowed majority of the wage. Weve maintained a similar sized seasonbticket base for the last few years. So the initial kitty plus other revenue ie tv sponsership will remain constant this andnlast season. Something isnt adding up somewhere.
