I know he's f**kin useless but surely this is where Murray has to step in and help Slade out in persuading the owner that unless he puts a decent squad together RD is going to lose a hell of a lot more money. Maybe he is, but I have my doubts.
This really made me laugh, are you really expecting skirt tails Murray to do anything other than agree with RD
Course I'm not expecting it, but it's exactly the sort of situation he should be getting involved, again the incompetence by the people at the top of our club is astonishing. Sadly Slade will figure it out and realise he's on a hiding to nothing just as Powell did. He doesn't stand a chance, no decent manager does.
Just wrote this in the post match but might be more appropriate here.
I said a couple of months ago that the one silver lining in being in essentially being relegated a few weeks (months?) before the season ended was that it gave us a head start over lots of rivals to go out and get the recruitment plan for this summer right. Now, with less than a fortnight to kick off our manager is saying we're miles away from being ready to compete, that is an absolute disgrace.
I've said it before but when the protests resume I think Murray must be the focus of them . After all this weasel is meant to be one of us. He must be targeted .
So we get "huge" money for Pope plus decent sums for Cousins and JBG but we can't afford to sign anyone hardly! How anyone even remotely can be talking about this lot another chance is beyond me!
So we get "huge" money for Pope plus decent sums for Cousins and JBG but we can't afford to sign anyone hardly! How anyone even remotely can be talking about this lot another chance is beyond me!
I thought he meant it was a "huge" opportunity for Pope rather than a huge bid (don't we know it's about £900k ?).
So we get "huge" money for Pope plus decent sums for Cousins and JBG but we can't afford to sign anyone hardly! How anyone even remotely can be talking about this lot another chance is beyond me!
I thought he meant it was a "huge" opportunity for Pope rather than a huge bid (don't we know it's about £900k ?).
That was my interpretation too: essentially Pope had the offer of being in a Premier League outfit compared to one in League One, which was a "huge offer" for the lad.
Let's be realistic, we are not going to sign 5 or 6 quality players in the next two weeks! Slade comes across as being very jovial and upbeat, a nice fellow. But if someone like Curbs found himself in this situation with such a thin squad and only two weeks to go, he would be apoplectic. This situation is totally unacceptable. As mentioned above, they have had months to sort things out. Instead we will be scrambling to pick up left overs at inflated prices to fill the gaps.
I fail to see why the finances seem so desperate , given that our wage bill has been reduced so significantly and we have raised around 5 millions in sales
I fail to see why the finances seem so desperate , given that our wage bill has been reduced so significantly and we have raised around 5 millions in sales
Because we were operating at a loss last year, and that was with 38m in debt going in to last year. I think the estimate from lost revenue for this year is around 3m from TV alone, not taking into account gates, or even the Premier League's paltry redistribution payments.
Top 6 budget is interesting, I was trying to find a list of ins and out for all clubs in league 1, but its not easy to find it all in one place. What I did notice is the majority of the signings in our division are free or undisclosed.
The fact we have paid out money to sign players probably does mean we have a top 6 budget - what it also shows is it is wholly inadequate when you cull a team so much.
Assuming all the players so far let go (apart from Pope) are the highest earners at the club, we have probably saved around 2.5m-3m in wages at least. If you add in transfer and loan fees (if any) less any top ups on loan salaries we should be 5-6m in savings.
If we spent even half of that we could at least put together a team to challenge for top6. But with this regime I cannot see it happening.
The regimes arguement will always be "don't worry there is still time ....why is everyone getting worried?". Fair enough, only on the basis that the season literally doesn't start tommorow.
Just like when Katy said we still had a lot of time to "get out of it" when we were bottom of the league in feb last season.
The whole point of recruiting early is so the players can start gel-ing quickly together and get used to each other as much as possible throughout the pre season games....because it is a needed requirement to do so, whether we win or lose those friendlies.
Pre season is so f*cking important!!!!!!
Once again, the owner has under-estimated the league. If we are putting it politely. Or he's just an arrogant c*nt.
The outgoings are fine...we all knew that a lot of players would be OUT the door, it's just the trouble is, we should have been busting a gut trying to get a (realistic within limits), promotion winning squad together since the day we got relegated...and I just don't think we have made enough of the required effort to do this at all. Evidence suggests this too. Also, judging from Slades latest moan in the SLP, he does not have enough control of this, otherwise he wouldn't be frustratedly moaning or highlighting this point, he would be working his tits off trying to get more players in.
Just f*cking anything would do at the moment. A human being, a goat, the neighbours cat....
We need players and sounds like the network isn't even helpful here now.
How have we not learnt from last season that quality is nothing without the needed quantity as players can get injured.
I can't see us signing the desired and necessary (loans or not ) extra 8 players minimum, even before the end of august.
Hope I'm wrong but I'm not confident at all about this.
I'm pretty suspicious of the entire "top 6 budget" claim. How have they arrived at such a figure?
The only available data are company accounts, but they will be more than a year old and probably will not distinguish between playing and non playing staff. I remember that RM was proud that SCP's champions had a budget 50% lower than Huddersfield's (4.5 vs 6.7). But he only seemed to know that because the Huddersfield chairman had chosen to tell him. He could not quote figures for the other top clubs.
At best, such a figure will be an estimate, and largely built up on intelligence, probably largely gathered by a well-connected CEO who understands the game. You can see the problem there....
This is thoroughly predictable. I would guess that we do have a top six budget but that was never going to be enough. In that budget we would be including players we have loaned out. We've sold some of our best players but kept many that are not up to the job (Johnson). Obviously their wages are still on the books. We are in league 1 or lower until this regime has gone.
A couple of observations. Positively, re-assuring to see a realistic assessment from the manager. It is clear that he knows what he is doing. Negatively, with two weeks before the season starts, I would rather read that we are busy working on 5 or 6 additions rather than we need them from the boss!
When we got the message that mistakes were made and lessons learned, I was always worried and cynical because I didn't think they really understood their mistakes. If Luzon was backed, we would have been fine last season. Yes, mistakes were made around the appointment of KF and in other areas, but the lesson that really needed learning about the squad seems to have whooshed over the owner and CEO's heads. I would be surprised if KM had any insight on how Powell went about things on our League One promotion season. That showed how a club like ours can be built up into a competetive force without silly money being spent. I'm sure Slade has the ability to do similar, but he doesn't seem to have the backing.
I'm pretty suspicious of the entire "top 6 budget" claim. How have they arrived at such a figure?
The only available data are company accounts, but they will be more than a year old and probably will not distinguish between playing and non playing staff. I remember that RM was proud that SCP's champions had a budget 50% lower than Huddersfield's (4.5 vs 6.7). But he only seemed to know that because the Huddersfield chairman had chosen to tell him. He could not quote figures for the other top clubs.
At best, such a figure will be an estimate, and largely built up on intelligence, probably largely gathered by a well-connected CEO who understands the game. You can see the problem there....
I agree, but that said you can dismiss most clubs in League One from the equation at the outset, simply because of their size.
Comments
A Mid-table finish for us at the very best - and Slade knows it already.
I said a couple of months ago that the one silver lining in being in essentially being relegated a few weeks (months?) before the season ended was that it gave us a head start over lots of rivals to go out and get the recruitment plan for this summer right. Now, with less than a fortnight to kick off our manager is saying we're miles away from being ready to compete, that is an absolute disgrace.
He must be targeted .
How anyone even remotely can be talking about this lot another chance is beyond me!
The fact we have paid out money to sign players probably does mean we have a top 6 budget - what it also shows is it is wholly inadequate when you cull a team so much.
Assuming all the players so far let go (apart from Pope) are the highest earners at the club, we have probably saved around 2.5m-3m in wages at least. If you add in transfer and loan fees (if any) less any top ups on loan salaries we should be 5-6m in savings.
If we spent even half of that we could at least put together a team to challenge for top6. But with this regime I cannot see it happening.
Just like when Katy said we still had a lot of time to "get out of it" when we were bottom of the league in feb last season.
The whole point of recruiting early is so the players can start gel-ing quickly together and get used to each other as much as possible throughout the pre season games....because it is a needed requirement to do so, whether we win or lose those friendlies.
Pre season is so f*cking important!!!!!!
Once again, the owner has under-estimated the league. If we are putting it politely. Or he's just an arrogant c*nt.
The outgoings are fine...we all knew that a lot of players would be OUT the door, it's just the trouble is, we should have been busting a gut trying to get a (realistic within limits), promotion winning squad together since the day we got relegated...and I just don't think we have made enough of the required effort to do this at all.
Evidence suggests this too.
Also, judging from Slades latest moan in the SLP, he does not have enough control of this, otherwise he wouldn't be frustratedly moaning or highlighting this point, he would be working his tits off trying to get more players in.
Just f*cking anything would do at the moment. A human being, a goat, the neighbours cat....
We need players and sounds like the network isn't even helpful here now.
How have we not learnt from last season that quality is nothing without the needed quantity as players can get injured.
I can't see us signing the desired and necessary (loans or not ) extra 8 players minimum, even before the end of august.
Hope I'm wrong but I'm not confident at all about this.
Why bother.
The only available data are company accounts, but they will be more than a year old and probably will not distinguish between playing and non playing staff. I remember that RM was proud that SCP's champions had a budget 50% lower than Huddersfield's (4.5 vs 6.7). But he only seemed to know that because the Huddersfield chairman had chosen to tell him. He could not quote figures for the other top clubs.
At best, such a figure will be an estimate, and largely built up on intelligence, probably largely gathered by a well-connected CEO who understands the game. You can see the problem there....
In that budget we would be including players we have loaned out.
We've sold some of our best players but kept many that are not up to the job (Johnson). Obviously their wages are still on the books.
We are in league 1 or lower until this regime has gone.
When we got the message that mistakes were made and lessons learned, I was always worried and cynical because I didn't think they really understood their mistakes. If Luzon was backed, we would have been fine last season. Yes, mistakes were made around the appointment of KF and in other areas, but the lesson that really needed learning about the squad seems to have whooshed over the owner and CEO's heads. I would be surprised if KM had any insight on how Powell went about things on our League One promotion season. That showed how a club like ours can be built up into a competetive force without silly money being spent. I'm sure Slade has the ability to do similar, but he doesn't seem to have the backing.
Deja vu - incompetence can't be cured!
I honestly thought when we signed Ajose that the owners had learnt their lesson but clearly I have been naive yet again.