Sack the board

The owners have made lots of mistakes, some of them crazy.

The most positive aspect comparing now with a year + ago is that the poor signings have been gotten rid of, and there is much more experience in the side. Last night the commentator on the red button was saying our average age was around 24. At the beginning of last season it was around 21. Thats around 33 years of football experience in the 11 on the pitch. Thats a huge difference and its showing now that players in their mid 20s and have played 50-100 games of football.

The other positive is how recruitment has almost reverted back to what it was under Patricks stewardship towards the end. Players from the UK doing well. Brittain and Morris have been excellent signings. And brexit seems to have put paid to the speculative Austrian signing which largely has been a costly failure. So well done to James Cryne for having the formula to find these players, and even more for translating that system to coaches.

We've also been immensely lucky, and we shouldn't forget that. Last season, we should have been relegated, and I can't imagine what state we'd be in now with a relegation and attempted firesale without a market to sell into. We're also lucky having stayed up by the skin of our teeth and an administration that the covid crisis meant we could hold onto our players much easier.

There are still lots of question marks about the ownership, a few wins shouldn't cause amnesia, and my personal view is things are much better when they are invisible and less involved.

What is vital though is that these owners make peace with the Crynes and sort out their differences. It aides nobody threatening to up sticks and leave our home. Neither does the bombastic litigious nature of threatening all and sundry through national press while failing to communicate with the clubs fans directly.

 

Great post.

As i mentioned earlier, i just dont see the need for certain posters to have a crack at others for having some concern about what was happening back then, especially when things have changed. This is the second thread I've seen like that.

If we'd gone down last season then Id feel the same about any "i told you so" threads from the critics too. We all want the best for the club. No need to trawl through posts 18 months ago to stir the pot.

A lot of people have given them credit and accepted they were- or may be wrong- I think that's fair enough isn't it? On the other side of the spectrum, you have 2 or 3 posters who will not criticise the owners at any cost and go very quiet when something unsavoury happens.

 

The players have aged by a year, Sollbauer's age pumps up the average - they are still a very young side.

I don't think recruitment's reverted back to anything like Cryne's. We went down the route of Brittain and Morris because the recruitment methods identify these players, we may have tightened our net due to brexit.

And finally, you make your own luck in football. Covid affects us as well, we should have flogged Mowatt and Woodrow with the offers we got and the shortage of funds but we didn't so credit for that.

 

What offers did we actually have for Mowatt and Woodrow?

 

Sollbauer wasn't playing last night.

If you make your own luck, fair play we created a global pandemic and and an administration, thats some powerful luck making!

Its easy and right to turn down such minimal offers. Credit for them doing so, but it wasn't a difficult decision at all.

 

Over a million pound for each one, Millwall and Cardiff wasn't it?

 

I thought just over £1m was our valuation of Mowatt, but they were unwilling to pay that amount. Woodrow was slightly over £1m supposedly which was an absolute no brainer to turn down. And when you consider possible bonus or percentage sell ons to the clubs we bought from, anyone who accepted those terms should have been sectioned.

 

Cardiff bid £1.5m for Woodrow and on top of the Mowatt fee, we should have snapped their hands of in the current climate but we didn't. So credit for that.

 

Luck that Wigan bought players they couldn't afford? We were all wondering where the money from their big spending was coming from.

I didn't expect you to buy the Chien fanzine, you were his harshest critic on here. Its funny reading all those posters now put it all down to luck, Cryne, pandemic and whatever else they can think of.

 

I wonder if clubs were being a bit cheeky due to COVID because they seem quite a bit undervalue. Great we have kept hold of them though and that Cauley has signed a new contract.

 

We got £4+ million for Struber and Brown. There was no need to sell. I thought it was mentioned there was a sizeable sell on clause for Woodrow too? So we sell for £1.2ish m, make a few pence profit, and then have to find some coin for a 15-20 goal a season championship striker. Sounds puddled. Thankfully the easy decision was made.

 

2 years ago l think Cauley would have forced that type of move rather than sign a contract. Lets hope Alex does in the summer.

 

Do you think we got the full Brown money? No installments like most transfers? And you think that will cover a championship season with reduced STs and sales? You'll be in for a shock when the accounts are published

 

All I've done is ask questions that still haven't been answered. Like I'd expect anyone to do.

James Cryne is the architect of the system for recruitment, yes?

And Wigan could have gone into admin at any time. The year we got promoted. This season instead of last just by hanging on a few weeks and not pushing through a highly dubious sale before then going into admin.

Of course, you might not think a lengthy break benefitted the players. You might not think empty grounds benefitted our younger players. Or that we were just downright fortunate to score 2 last minute winners in back to back games while other teams didn't get the points they needed.

That is luck.

 

Why would I be in for a shock? Fees are generally paid (but not always) over the course of their term. So all the millions we've spent on fees is still being paid in installments, as are fees coming in. And clearly the cashflow is manageable or we wouldnt have paid loans and fees for Dike and James, given a payrise to Woodrow, be offering better terms to Mowatt and bought Brittain and Morris post covid.

 

We bought Struber's mates back then and said it was the best window ever, or whatever the quote was.

Now, we've reverted back to the model that Patrick used - buying young, hungry talent who are already acclimatised to the English game.

The board can be absolutely praised for their work in recent months, just like they should be criticised for their previous poor decision making.

They've learned from their mistakes, which is brilliant.

 

What if they want to sell some players up to free funds to buy the next generation of players?
You won’t know that at point of sale, it’s too binary to say that

 

Danes mentioned on plenty of occasions that the recruitment module by James is excellent but needed advancing to the next stage, with Beane on board he's now getting that help - its at the next level.

Football is played for 90 mins, Fergies Man Utd team most have been the luckiest in the history of English football. Like l said nothing lucky about our wins at the end of last season.

Enjoy the journey mate.

 

Agreed with what you are saying but l dont think anythings reverted back, Struber recommended some players, as did Stendel. The owners trusted the managers to bring in their own players

 

Also true.

Stendel, as much as I loved him, gave us Radlinger and Bahre.

Either way, the current crop look to be outstanding - so well done to whoever is in charge of the spreadsheet.