Meeting toneet at Oakwell. With our US CEO.

Which confirms that the club are on a maintain and repair lease. Which looking at Oakwell will not be cheap. No wonder they’ve not bothered with an outright purchase yet!

 

I got the impression Bahre was a bit of a bargain at the time so seems pointless to switch him.

 

Then again if that's the case (95% budget gone) then you have to again question why we cant get effective fees for all our players....like other clubs seem to do.

 

Just to dig further on the "promotion kitty"... which has widely been accepted to be £6-£7m.

We are spending £6m (lets use the lower for prudence) on additional maintenance, additional pitch work, additional academy costs and additional "bills"???

Could this be elaborated upon please?

 

Poor business too. Would have been cheaper to keep hold of the 3 until January and have kept that promotion momentum going. 5% will buy us bugger all in January'!

 

Just thinking back to the last transfer window closing.... was it mentioned by anyone at the club that we had surplus to sign more players in January? Or was that an assumption we made as fans?

If the former, the tune seems to have changed all of a sudden.

 

God help us if we've pissed away 95% of the money we brought in over the summer putting this squad together.

 

Can I ask those that attended the meeting... how did you feel afterwards? Did you feel the answers were genuinely answered? Did you feel content? Angry? Disillusioned? Understanding? Apathetic?

Just wondering aside from the words, what the mood was of those there.

 

Something else nobody has picked up on, maybe, just maybe, it is 95% with creative accounting ie adding in the yearly salaries of the signed players and not including the reduction in the wage bill from those that have left. This still leaves the £6m from promotion to this division unaccounted for. We’re being taken for a ride.

 

Its why I asked for elaboration on the "bills".

I'd expect that players who had been with us who had salary reductions on relegation, had those wages reinstated.

And interesting of players who were relegated with us, most have left. So we would have only had to uplift the salaries of Mowatt, McGeehan, Cavare, Thiam and Pinillos. Though I think Mowatt and McGeehan signed 1 year extensions, Cavare had a 1 year automatic extension activated, so some of that natural uplift has been managed out anyway.

When you consider we saved on the wages (and uplifts from past relegation) of Davies, Isgrove, Hedges, Pinnock, Lindsay, Jackson, Fryers and Moore. (And you could always suggest Moncur and Potts too as they were disposed of during last season with very modest incoming transfers last January). We've saved a lot of money there, 8 outgoing players. So we've really only added 4 net players overall.

Though we do have a first team squad (players who have played at some stage) of 30 players. Plus Oduor. That is a massive squad considering you can only select 11 to start any game, plus your subs. Its just a squad that doesn't suit, especially now we've changed formation wasting all the wingers. Its like our last relegation when Heckingbottom had 8 number 10s and couldnt pick any as they didnt sut his system.

Another for the crazy list!

 

So how much influence does Dane Murphy have, exactly?

 

Should Thiam and Pinillos being out of contract in the summer be a factor in whether they're in the team? Given our league position surely you'd want every player to be available for selection. My suggestion is that Adam Murray is being told not to play them so that selling them is easier to justify to the fans in January.

 

Sarcastic yes but borne as a dog at some of the more extreme of view re the experience!

 

Whatever you post Gaz others won't like it.

 

Has McGeehan been in the starting eleven of late?

Surely he along with Mowatt and Woodrow are among our "heavy contracts"?

 

This is the most alarming thing I've read regarding the situation. No way would I have expected us to have blown 95% of the income on this squad. It feels like we've fallen into the exact same trap of quantity over quality that happened after the 2000 play-off final defeat.

I'd assumed that we'd kept a lot of funds in reserve to be used in the January window, but we've essentially blown the lot on this squad. Some of them show promise, but it's essentially a scattergun approach, and an expensive one at that.

The 'heavy contracts' quote intrigued me too, as I thought the whole premise of our recruitment was that we were essentially uncompetitive in terms of Championship player earnings, so there were basically no 'heavy contracts' of any significance. However, there's clearly some kind of distinction within the squad, beyond what I'd have expected, and which are not necessarily reflective of who's performing on the pitch. I'm fully expecting to see Mowatt and Woodrow sold in January, but these don't fit the criteria of not being 'in the picture'.

 

Another part not mentioned was those figures and incomings are not all paid at point of sale. Transfer fees paid over 4 years. Sky money paid at periods throughout the season. Remember the last time the club anticipated incomings that fell through. We can not be sustainable on gate money alone. The true reflection will show up in accounts. I for one cannot envisage those accounts.
Players wages. Staff wages. Rent. Rates. Maintenance. Running the academy. Policing. Stewarding. Energy. Taxes. Agents fees. Transfer incomings. Sure there are others I’ve missed out. There are better people out there with business acumen far beyond my knowledge. If someone self employed charges £40 per hour for work some say kin hell I only get paid x amount. Why so much. His/her pension. holidays. Travel time. sickness cover if any. Van. petrol. accountant fees. and more overheads. A good accountant will reduce his overheads. So i don’t pretend to ascertain the costs of running a football club.

 

He hasn't but then he has longer on his contract so the urgency to sell won't be as great. Having said that, if we get a decent offer for him in January I'd expect us to sell as I would with any of the player. Decent being the key word.

 

Didnt red rain inform us we needed to sell one player or players worth £ 1 million to break even?
If so these statements from the ceo make less sense.

 

Given they've undermined their own words of only selling in the last year of contract, I'm not sure it matters McGeehan has 2 years left.

There must be a bit of panic in the corridors of power... Pinillos is now 27, as is Radlinger. McGeehan, Woodrow, Mowatt, Bahre, Thiam and Cavare all 24. If we aren't careful, we might end up having an average squad age over 22 before long!