Fiorini has been poor at Stockport. He's obviously not the same player he once was.
Our decision to loan him after an 18-month injury was braindead.
Stockport fans reviews sound like what we've been saying about Allan Campbell. Was totally baffling for us to sign him and sounds like he's done nothing at Stockport.
What level of investment are you expecting? At our current level of having one of the higher budgets in the league we are probably losing around £10m a year.
So you want millions of transfer fees on top of that, plus a higher wage bill. This ownership group just isn’t going to want to lose than kind of money, in fact no ownership group is going to. It’s just not realistic to demand it in our current state
But if you look at it another way, if they don't spend much to buy anyone decent then they're going to keep on losing 8-9m a year as we'll likely be stuck in this league with our attendances dwindling year on year.
Currently they're burning a lot of money to stand still.
The challenge is you spend money to get where, the Championship, where you have to spend even more money to if you are lucky, get to the Premier League, where in all likelihood you spend one season and get relegated again. Football just isn't a wise investment for anyone, especially as fans, understandably want more, it is in all honesty a fools errand, and a sure fire way to lose money, and annoy a lot of fans!
Does it ever occur to you that our owners will most likely read this forum, your post is to say the least very unhelpful. 🤨
Dear directors, what are the factors that might help us escape relegation this season?
I am seen as one of the most negative posters on here but even I will say that we wont get relegated this season. Not even a chance.
Edit.
But we wont get promoted or even close to the play offs. We will flatter to deceive & will have weeks being just a few points / a win away from the top 6 or 7, but will then put in a few performances of Rotherham & Crawley proportions & end up finishing 10th.
I disagree. I think it is a legitimate question to ask in order to see what the answers might be. For example a legitimate answer might be keep on as we are and we'll be safe. What I wouldn't want to hear would be an answer that oozed complacency, because that would suggest to me a certain lack of ambition and direction. We have 34 points right now, we are not safe yet, so to bring it up at this time seems appropriate.
Ok I'll bite.
You ask them "What are the factors that might help us escape relegation this season?" And all they'll say is "the fact we're currently in the top half of the table, and have full faith in Nathan Jones and the squad to maintain at least that standing and strive to push towards the playoffs"
And that's the end of it, you have managed to ask a meaningless question and they've given you a nothing answer.
In other words, a pointless waste of everyone's time, which is what the majority of your postings are anyway, at least you stay on brand in that respect
The whole event will be that unless they entertain and respond to any follow up questions to any questions.
It’s a PR exercise that is exceptionally unlikely to provide us with anything newsworthy.
That is unless they slip up and emotionally respond to a probing question or pointed criticism - and they will not.
Unless there is more investment from the owners we are stuck here for the foreseeable future. IMHO
Of course, but is January investment wise? I think in January you are better off looking at a couple of short term deals to cover gaps in your squad. If the right player is available then sure, but it is quite difficult to make good permanent signings in January (as we found last year)
We need to build on this season with investment but I think that investment should probably come in the summer
Yes, yes our summer transfer dealings are so spectacular over the last 3 years.....
out May, Dobson, in Godden, Ahadme, Doherty, Campbell, Berry
I'd argue our January dealings last year - Ramsey, Small etc were better than our Summer dealings !!!!!!
Very selective. Last January we also signed Ladapo, Fiorini, Bakinson, Gillesphey, REG and then Wickham and Ladapo. This summer we also signed Mitchell, Mannion, Edwards. I think all windows under the SMT have been mixed
I would say this shows that you shouldn't do LOANS in January ......or we shouldn't as we are fcuking terrible at them! Gillesphey is a regular starter and REG is an ok squad player - the loan players were shockingly bad choices!
Mitchell, Edwards and Mannion all good in my opinion.
Gillesphey being a regular starter is an issue though as he isn't good enough. Agree about REG
Neither Gillesphey nor REG have really convinced though, and both were given 2.5 year deals. At least the loan players went back at the end of the season.
That’s my main point. If you try and buy players permanently in January it quite often does you more damage long term than good.
As we have repeatedly shown, signing the right players is not easy. January is the hardest time to do it well. So a smart club will use January on lower risk or short term signings and do the bulk of their main business in the summer windows
We still have a huge squad for this level, and one of the highest wage bills. People expecting or demanding us to go out and spend big money this month are just not realistic
A 'smart' club you say? I would love to know what you have seen in last two seasons, that makes you think next season is going to be any different.
We have 27 players according to our website. That includes Potts, Hylton, Asiimwe, and Dixon. That makes 23 players for the first team. By my count, out of those 27, 9 were not signed by the current regime and 7 of those 9 came from our academy or youth teams. That leaves 2 senior first team players not signed by the current management. Terry Taylor, who appears to have been frozen out and Chuks.
Bored of reading that our squad is too big and expensive like it was down to someone other than the current SMT.
What level of investment are you expecting? At our current level of having one of the higher budgets in the league we are probably losing around £10m a year.
So you want millions of transfer fees on top of that, plus a higher wage bill. This ownership group just isn’t going to want to lose than kind of money, in fact no ownership group is going to. It’s just not realistic to demand it in our current state
But if you look at it another way, if they don't spend much to buy anyone decent then they're going to keep on losing 8-9m a year as we'll likely be stuck in this league with our attendances dwindling year on year.
Currently they're burning a lot of money to stand still.
The challenge is you spend money to get where, the Championship, where you have to spend even more money to if you are lucky, get to the Premier League, where in all likelihood you spend one season and get relegated again. Football just isn't a wise investment for anyone, especially as fans, understandably want more, it is in all honesty a fools errand, and a sure fire way to lose money, and annoy a lot of fans!
Then why get involved in the first place ?
The major investors aren't like Nimer - they are clever people with experience in owning businesses. They must have done their homework on what it takes to get promoted out of League 1 ? Can't believe that they were taken in by salmon trousers & his Texan Brochure.
Tbh, I think we're a plaything for these owners, just like most American owners of EFL clubs currently. If they're stupid rich they buy a prem club, if they're "just" very rich they buy an EFL club.
But like all hobbies they'll have a certain amount they're willing to spend on it. Just like I'm not willing to spend £10k on a playstation, they're not willing to spend £100m to buy the assets and to give us the best chance of shooting up the leagues.
So I think they've listened to the SMTs pitch and thought "could be fun" and gone from there.
Sounds depressing, but most of the rest of the league are in the same position so I'm just hoping that whilst these investors are currently interested we can hobble together a season that gets us promoted.
Fingers crossed they've seen enough this season to peak their interest a bit more and buy a bit of quality in.
Unless there is more investment from the owners we are stuck here for the foreseeable future. IMHO
Of course, but is January investment wise? I think in January you are better off looking at a couple of short term deals to cover gaps in your squad. If the right player is available then sure, but it is quite difficult to make good permanent signings in January (as we found last year)
We need to build on this season with investment but I think that investment should probably come in the summer
Yes, yes our summer transfer dealings are so spectacular over the last 3 years.....
out May, Dobson, in Godden, Ahadme, Doherty, Campbell, Berry
I'd argue our January dealings last year - Ramsey, Small etc were better than our Summer dealings !!!!!!
Very selective. Last January we also signed Ladapo, Fiorini, Bakinson, Gillesphey, REG and then Wickham and Ladapo. This summer we also signed Mitchell, Mannion, Edwards. I think all windows under the SMT have been mixed
I would say this shows that you shouldn't do LOANS in January ......or we shouldn't as we are fcuking terrible at them! Gillesphey is a regular starter and REG is an ok squad player - the loan players were shockingly bad choices!
Mitchell, Edwards and Mannion all good in my opinion.
Gillesphey being a regular starter is an issue though as he isn't good enough. Agree about REG
Neither Gillesphey nor REG have really convinced though, and both were given 2.5 year deals. At least the loan players went back at the end of the season.
That’s my main point. If you try and buy players permanently in January it quite often does you more damage long term than good.
As we have repeatedly shown, signing the right players is not easy. January is the hardest time to do it well. So a smart club will use January on lower risk or short term signings and do the bulk of their main business in the summer windows
We still have a huge squad for this level, and one of the highest wage bills. People expecting or demanding us to go out and spend big money this month are just not realistic
A 'smart' club you say? I would love to know what you have seen in last two seasons, that makes you think next season is going to be any different.
We have 27 players according to our website. That includes Potts, Hylton, Asiimwe, and Dixon. That makes 23 players for the first team. By my count, out of those 27, 9 were not signed by the current regime and 7 of those 9 came from our academy or youth teams. That leaves 2 senior first team players not signed by the current management. Terry Taylor, who appears to have been frozen out and Chuks.
Bored of reading that our squad is too big and expensive like it was down to someone other than the current SMT.
I’m not saying we have been smart, far from it. But other successful clubs are teams that do the bulk of their business in the summer, and add a little bit in January to cover gaps or add a bit of extra quality. We should be trying to be like other smart and successful clubs that get promotions
It is the current SMT’s fault that our squad is like this, but that doesn’t change the fact our squad is way too big so we need to trim it if we are going to add players
The way I say this current ownership is they bought us with the knowledge of how successful the academy is. They got fed the line that with a little bit of investment it will support the academy players we have in the squad and that we will strike lucky and gain promotion. A fundamental flaw with that though is the quality of that investment and recruitment has been very poor.
They’d say it’s unusual for teams like Birmingham to be in this league and spending the money they have and it distorts the competition, they’d say the issues under the bonnet were bigger than they’d imagined and whatever else they want to spin to make it seem like they’ve had it extremely tough and we are not being realistic as a fanbase. They’re also not afraid to insult us and our intelligence by once in a while wheeling out that we still believe we should be or are a Premier League side because we were 20 years ago. Not that we have spent however long in this awful league and the reason why some people have an attitude is because we are fed of seeing the same thing every year. There is nothing entitled about it.
I think the idea is to bring as many young players into the first team, as long as they’re just about good enough for the level, to strike lucky and to sell a number of them for a profit. Even better if we were to somehow gain promotion as they’d be able to sell them for more.
We are not going to have this ownership spend the money required to get out of this league, and they’re absolutely over the moon with the new rules coming into play in the summer. They’re going to think that as clubs can’t pump money in like Birmingham and Wrexham, squads will be smaller (streamlining the squad this window is the start) and more reliance is going to be placed on academy players and spending lower sums on transfers. Which could happen.
What could also happen is that because money becomes like gold dust, costs, transfer fees and wages become premium for the better players. More clubs will miss out on targets who are happy to be squad players at Championship level instead of playing at League One, more clubs have to rely on good and clever loans, which we just do not do or want to do or are willing to do. Why? Because there is a belief that we have players in the academy who are better than what we can bring in, which in the main is not true, but there will be some infrequent exceptions.
All of this is why Jones is the perfect man for the job for them. He’s worked with young players before and is happy to do that. He’s worked at a club with a smaller budget and gained promotion. He’s all about building a project and doing something longer term as long as he can see something tangible improving, even if most fans can’t because we just want results on the pitch to improve and to have something to get behind. He has constantly given mixed messages, “it’s bold to say we should be top 6” or whatever it was, to then recently say we have a Championship standard team, who then promptly got turned over by Rotherham, a team who have been very average this season. There isn’t a clear message to say what he is happy with and what he wants, saying all of this though and I quite like him.
I know none of this is rumours, but let’s face it, we have had almost 70 pages of no rumours. This is how I see the situation and unless something somewhere, somehow, changes then I don’t know how we can ever expect to be pushing at the very top of this league, be it this season or next, or the one after that.
What level of investment are you expecting? At our current level of having one of the higher budgets in the league we are probably losing around £10m a year.
So you want millions of transfer fees on top of that, plus a higher wage bill. This ownership group just isn’t going to want to lose than kind of money, in fact no ownership group is going to. It’s just not realistic to demand it in our current state
But if you look at it another way, if they don't spend much to buy anyone decent then they're going to keep on losing 8-9m a year as we'll likely be stuck in this league with our attendances dwindling year on year.
Currently they're burning a lot of money to stand still.
The challenge is you spend money to get where, the Championship, where you have to spend even more money to if you are lucky, get to the Premier League, where in all likelihood you spend one season and get relegated again. Football just isn't a wise investment for anyone, especially as fans, understandably want more, it is in all honesty a fools errand, and a sure fire way to lose money, and annoy a lot of fans!
Then why get involved in the first place ?
The major investors aren't like Nimer - they are clever people with experience in owning businesses. They must have done their homework on what it takes to get promoted out of League 1 ? Can't believe that they were taken in by salmon trousers & his Texan Brochure.
Tbh, I think we're a plaything for these owners, just like most American owners of EFL clubs currently. If they're stupid rich they buy a prem club, if they're "just" very rich they buy an EFL club.
But like all hobbies they'll have a certain amount they're willing to spend on it. Just like I'm not willing to spend £10k on a playstation, they're not willing to spend £100m to buy the assets and to give us the best chance of shooting up the leagues.
So I think they've listened to the SMTs pitch and thought "could be fun" and gone from there.
Sounds depressing, but most of the rest of the league are in the same position so I'm just hoping that whilst these investors are currently interested we can hobble together a season that gets us promoted.
Fingers crossed they've seen enough this season to peak their interest a bit more and buy a bit of quality in.
They probably just compared the cost of acquiring Charlton with the ridiculous figures currently being paid for US teams, saw that there was a senior management team in place and thought it was worth a punt - private equity investors in the US expect 2 to 3 failures for every success.
What level of investment are you expecting? At our current level of having one of the higher budgets in the league we are probably losing around £10m a year.
So you want millions of transfer fees on top of that, plus a higher wage bill. This ownership group just isn’t going to want to lose than kind of money, in fact no ownership group is going to. It’s just not realistic to demand it in our current state
But if you look at it another way, if they don't spend much to buy anyone decent then they're going to keep on losing 8-9m a year as we'll likely be stuck in this league with our attendances dwindling year on year.
Currently they're burning a lot of money to stand still.
The challenge is you spend money to get where, the Championship, where you have to spend even more money to if you are lucky, get to the Premier League, where in all likelihood you spend one season and get relegated again. Football just isn't a wise investment for anyone, especially as fans, understandably want more, it is in all honesty a fools errand, and a sure fire way to lose money, and annoy a lot of fans!
Does it ever occur to you that our owners will most likely read this forum, your post is to say the least very unhelpful. 🤨
I doubt our owners could even tell you our last 10 results, or even our matchday XI. I find it unlikely that they're reading the transfer rumours thread on a Charlton forum.
On the off chance they do read however, sign some players fuckers.
What level of investment are you expecting? At our current level of having one of the higher budgets in the league we are probably losing around £10m a year.
So you want millions of transfer fees on top of that, plus a higher wage bill. This ownership group just isn’t going to want to lose than kind of money, in fact no ownership group is going to. It’s just not realistic to demand it in our current state
But if you look at it another way, if they don't spend much to buy anyone decent then they're going to keep on losing 8-9m a year as we'll likely be stuck in this league with our attendances dwindling year on year.
Currently they're burning a lot of money to stand still.
The challenge is you spend money to get where, the Championship, where you have to spend even more money to if you are lucky, get to the Premier League, where in all likelihood you spend one season and get relegated again. Football just isn't a wise investment for anyone, especially as fans, understandably want more, it is in all honesty a fools errand, and a sure fire way to lose money, and annoy a lot of fans!
Does it ever occur to you that our owners will most likely read this forum, your post is to say the least very unhelpful. 🤨
I doubt our owners could even tell you our last 10 results, or even our matchday XI. I find it unlikely that they're reading the transfer rumours thread on a Charlton forum.
On the off chance they do read however, sign some players fuckers.
I think CM probably casts his eye from time to time but not as much as others seem to think. Purely a hunch though
What level of investment are you expecting? At our current level of having one of the higher budgets in the league we are probably losing around £10m a year.
So you want millions of transfer fees on top of that, plus a higher wage bill. This ownership group just isn’t going to want to lose than kind of money, in fact no ownership group is going to. It’s just not realistic to demand it in our current state
But if you look at it another way, if they don't spend much to buy anyone decent then they're going to keep on losing 8-9m a year as we'll likely be stuck in this league with our attendances dwindling year on year.
Currently they're burning a lot of money to stand still.
The challenge is you spend money to get where, the Championship, where you have to spend even more money to if you are lucky, get to the Premier League, where in all likelihood you spend one season and get relegated again. Football just isn't a wise investment for anyone, especially as fans, understandably want more, it is in all honesty a fools errand, and a sure fire way to lose money, and annoy a lot of fans!
Does it ever occur to you that our owners will most likely read this forum, your post is to say the least very unhelpful. 🤨
I doubt our owners could even tell you our last 10 results, or even our matchday XI. I find it unlikely that they're reading the transfer rumours thread on a Charlton forum.
On the off chance they do read however, sign some players fuckers.
I think CM probably casts his eye from time to time but not as much as others seem to think. Purely a hunch though
No idea if he reads the forums, but it is clear someone from the SMT drops info to useful idiots to try and get their message across on the forums
Fiorini has been poor at Stockport. He's obviously not the same player he once was.
Our decision to loan him after an 18-month injury was braindead.
Stockport fans reviews sound like what we've been saying about Allan Campbell. Was totally baffling for us to sign him and sounds like he's done nothing at Stockport.
Even more baffling was some of our own who wanted us to sign him based on one free kick at Wycombe
What level of investment are you expecting? At our current level of having one of the higher budgets in the league we are probably losing around £10m a year.
So you want millions of transfer fees on top of that, plus a higher wage bill. This ownership group just isn’t going to want to lose than kind of money, in fact no ownership group is going to. It’s just not realistic to demand it in our current state
But if you look at it another way, if they don't spend much to buy anyone decent then they're going to keep on losing 8-9m a year as we'll likely be stuck in this league with our attendances dwindling year on year.
Currently they're burning a lot of money to stand still.
The challenge is you spend money to get where, the Championship, where you have to spend even more money to if you are lucky, get to the Premier League, where in all likelihood you spend one season and get relegated again. Football just isn't a wise investment for anyone, especially as fans, understandably want more, it is in all honesty a fools errand, and a sure fire way to lose money, and annoy a lot of fans!
Does it ever occur to you that our owners will most likely read this forum, your post is to say the least very unhelpful. 🤨
I doubt our owners could even tell you our last 10 results, or even our matchday XI. I find it unlikely that they're reading the transfer rumours thread on a Charlton forum.
On the off chance they do read however, sign some players fuckers.
I think CM probably casts his eye from time to time but not as much as others seem to think. Purely a hunch though
No idea if he reads the forums, but it is clear someone from the SMT drops info to useful idiots to try and get their message across on the forums
The way I say this current ownership is they bought us with the knowledge of how successful the academy is. They got fed the line that with a little bit of investment it will support the academy players we have in the squad and that we will strike lucky and gain promotion. A fundamental flaw with that though is the quality of that investment and recruitment has been very poor.
They’d say it’s unusual for teams like Birmingham to be in this league and spending the money they have and it distorts the competition, they’d say the issues under the bonnet were bigger than they’d imagined and whatever else they want to spin to make it seem like they’ve had it extremely tough and we are not being realistic as a fanbase. They’re also not afraid to insult us and our intelligence by once in a while wheeling out that we still believe we should be or are a Premier League side because we were 20 years ago. Not that we have spent however long in this awful league and the reason why some people have an attitude is because we are fed of seeing the same thing every year. There is nothing entitled about it.
I think the idea is to bring as many young players into the first team, as long as they’re just about good enough for the level, to strike lucky and to sell a number of them for a profit. Even better if we were to somehow gain promotion as they’d be able to sell them for more.
We are not going to have this ownership spend the money required to get out of this league, and they’re absolutely over the moon with the new rules coming into play in the summer. They’re going to think that as clubs can’t pump money in like Birmingham and Wrexham, squads will be smaller (streamlining the squad this window is the start) and more reliance is going to be placed on academy players and spending lower sums on transfers. Which could happen.
What could also happen is that because money becomes like gold dust, costs, transfer fees and wages become premium for the better players. More clubs will miss out on targets who are happy to be squad players at Championship level instead of playing at League One, more clubs have to rely on good and clever loans, which we just do not do or want to do or are willing to do. Why? Because there is a belief that we have players in the academy who are better than what we can bring in, which in the main is not true, but there will be some infrequent exceptions.
All of this is why Jones is the perfect man for the job for them. He’s worked with young players before and is happy to do that. He’s worked at a club with a smaller budget and gained promotion. He’s all about building a project and doing something longer term as long as he can see something tangible improving, even if most fans can’t because we just want results on the pitch to improve and to have something to get behind. He has constantly given mixed messages, “it’s bold to say we should be top 6” or whatever it was, to then recently say we have a Championship standard team, who then promptly got turned over by Rotherham, a team who have been very average this season. There isn’t a clear message to say what he is happy with and what he wants, saying all of this though and I quite like him.
I know none of this is rumours, but let’s face it, we have had almost 70 pages of no rumours. This is how I see the situation and unless something somewhere, somehow, changes then I don’t know how we can ever expect to be pushing at the very top of this league, be it this season or next, or the one after that.
Nothing to add, but you’ve articulated my thoughts better than I could. Bang on the money.
What level of investment are you expecting? At our current level of having one of the higher budgets in the league we are probably losing around £10m a year.
So you want millions of transfer fees on top of that, plus a higher wage bill. This ownership group just isn’t going to want to lose than kind of money, in fact no ownership group is going to. It’s just not realistic to demand it in our current state
But if you look at it another way, if they don't spend much to buy anyone decent then they're going to keep on losing 8-9m a year as we'll likely be stuck in this league with our attendances dwindling year on year.
Currently they're burning a lot of money to stand still.
The challenge is you spend money to get where, the Championship, where you have to spend even more money to if you are lucky, get to the Premier League, where in all likelihood you spend one season and get relegated again. Football just isn't a wise investment for anyone, especially as fans, understandably want more, it is in all honesty a fools errand, and a sure fire way to lose money, and annoy a lot of fans!
Does it ever occur to you that our owners will most likely read this forum, your post is to say the least very unhelpful. 🤨
I doubt our owners could even tell you our last 10 results, or even our matchday XI. I find it unlikely that they're reading the transfer rumours thread on a Charlton forum.
On the off chance they do read however, sign some players fuckers.
I think CM probably casts his eye from time to time but not as much as others seem to think. Purely a hunch though
No idea if he reads the forums, but it is clear someone from the SMT drops info to useful idiots to try and get their message across on the forums
This window is a good opportunity to get 1 or 2 players that are starting 11 quality ready for next season. Along the lines of Small, Ramsey & Coventry. As we are not going up loans are pointless now (although we definitely need some top quality loans next summer)
I’ve just been looking through our squad and these are the only players I feel are good enough to be involved next season if we want to get promoted:
Mannion or AMB (back up) Jones (might not be here next season) A Mitchell Edwards Small (won’t be here next season) Ramsay Coventry Berry (back up) T Campbell (back up) Chuks (crippled and won’t be renewed) Godden (back up) Leaburn (won’t be here next season)
Insane to not be trying to add some players this month - there is too much bilge to get rid of and too much quality needed for us to do it in one summer window.
I’ve just been looking through our squad and these are the only players I feel are good enough to be involved next season if we want to get promoted:
Mannion or AMB (back up) Jones (might not be here next season) A Mitchell Edwards Small (won’t be here next season) Ramsay Coventry Berry (back up) T Campbell (back up) Chuks (crippled and won’t be renewed) Godden (back up) Leaburn (won’t be here next season)
Insane to not be trying to add some players this month - there is too much bilge to get rid of and too much quality needed for us to do it in one summer window.
Looking at that makes you realise just how far away we are. Could be in a position where we need about 10 summer signings.
I’ve just been looking through our squad and these are the only players I feel are good enough to be involved next season if we want to get promoted:
Mannion or AMB (back up) Jones (might not be here next season) A Mitchell Edwards Small (won’t be here next season) Ramsay Coventry Berry (back up) T Campbell (back up) Chuks (crippled and won’t be renewed) Godden (back up) Leaburn (won’t be here next season)
Insane to not be trying to add some players this month - there is too much bilge to get rid of and too much quality needed for us to do it in one summer window.
Looking at that makes you realise just how far away we are. Could be in a position where we need about 10 summer signings.
I’ve just been looking through our squad and these are the only players I feel are good enough to be involved next season if we want to get promoted:
Mannion or AMB (back up) Jones (might not be here next season) A Mitchell Edwards Small (won’t be here next season) Ramsay Coventry Berry (back up) T Campbell (back up) Chuks (crippled and won’t be renewed) Godden (back up) Leaburn (won’t be here next season)
Insane to not be trying to add some players this month - there is too much bilge to get rid of and too much quality needed for us to do it in one summer window.
Looking at that makes you realise just how far away we are. Could be in a position where we need about 10 summer signings.
Groundhog Day. Another summer overhaul needed because we got the recruitment wrong this season.
Hopefully it's with someone different leading it because Andy Scott has failed again.
I’ve just been looking through our squad and these are the only players I feel are good enough to be involved next season if we want to get promoted:
Mannion or AMB (back up) Jones (might not be here next season) A Mitchell Edwards Small (won’t be here next season) Ramsay Coventry Berry (back up) T Campbell (back up) Chuks (crippled and won’t be renewed) Godden (back up) Leaburn (won’t be here next season)
Insane to not be trying to add some players this month - there is too much bilge to get rid of and too much quality needed for us to do it in one summer window.
Looking at that makes you realise just how far away we are. Could be in a position where we need about 10 summer signings.
This is where I see it. So probably needing between 7 and 9 signings by next September, depending on what players we lose. Would be nice to get a couple sorted this month,
If we keep Leaburn and/or Small then that is 2 sorted. If Asiimwe develops well at Walsall and in pre-season then that could also avoid the need to sign another right wing back
I also think it is unlikely that we sign 3 strikers in 1 window, so if Leaburn leaves then I would imagine Ahadme will be kept as the backup
Comments
But like all hobbies they'll have a certain amount they're willing to spend on it. Just like I'm not willing to spend £10k on a playstation, they're not willing to spend £100m to buy the assets and to give us the best chance of shooting up the leagues.
So I think they've listened to the SMTs pitch and thought "could be fun" and gone from there.
Sounds depressing, but most of the rest of the league are in the same position so I'm just hoping that whilst these investors are currently interested we can hobble together a season that gets us promoted.
Fingers crossed they've seen enough this season to peak their interest a bit more and buy a bit of quality in.
It is the current SMT’s fault that our squad is like this, but that doesn’t change the fact our squad is way too big so we need to trim it if we are going to add players
They’d say it’s unusual for teams like Birmingham to be in this league and spending the money they have and it distorts the competition, they’d say the issues under the bonnet were bigger than they’d imagined and whatever else they want to spin to make it seem like they’ve had it extremely tough and we are not being realistic as a fanbase. They’re also not afraid to insult us and our intelligence by once in a while wheeling out that we still believe we should be or are a Premier League side because we were 20 years ago. Not that we have spent however long in this awful league and the reason why some people have an attitude is because we are fed of seeing the same thing every year. There is nothing entitled about it.
I think the idea is to bring as many young players into the first team, as long as they’re just about good enough for the level, to strike lucky and to sell a number of them for a profit. Even better if we were to somehow gain promotion as they’d be able to sell them for more.
We are not going to have this ownership spend the money required to get out of this league, and they’re absolutely over the moon with the new rules coming into play in the summer. They’re going to think that as clubs can’t pump money in like Birmingham and Wrexham, squads will be smaller (streamlining the squad this window is the start) and more reliance is going to be placed on academy players and spending lower sums on transfers. Which could happen.
What could also happen is that because money becomes like gold dust, costs, transfer fees and wages become premium for the better players. More clubs will miss out on targets who are happy to be squad players at Championship level instead of playing at League One, more clubs have to rely on good and clever loans, which we just do not do or want to do or are willing to do. Why? Because there is a belief that we have players in the academy who are better than what we can bring in, which in the main is not true, but there will be some infrequent exceptions.
All of this is why Jones is the perfect man for the job for them. He’s worked with young players before and is happy to do that. He’s worked at a club with a smaller budget and gained promotion. He’s all about building a project and doing something longer term as long as he can see something tangible improving, even if most fans can’t because we just want results on the pitch to improve and to have something to get behind. He has constantly given mixed messages, “it’s bold to say we should be top 6” or whatever it was, to then recently say we have a Championship standard team, who then promptly got turned over by Rotherham, a team who have been very average this season. There isn’t a clear message to say what he is happy with and what he wants, saying all of this though and I quite like him.
I know none of this is rumours, but let’s face it, we have had almost 70 pages of no rumours. This is how I see the situation and unless something somewhere, somehow, changes then I don’t know how we can ever expect to be pushing at the very top of this league, be it this season or next, or the one after that.
On the off chance they do read however, sign some players fuckers.
They asked us to judge them on results.
Last season we finished in 16th position in league one.
That was our lowest position for 98 years.
This season we are currently in 12th position and the chances are another season in league one beckons.
How do they think we should judge them ?
Wrexham are always an easy name to throw in for any rumours. Am surprised they haven't done much yet.
Mannion or AMB (back up)
Jones (might not be here next season)
A Mitchell
Edwards
Small (won’t be here next season)
Ramsay
Coventry
Berry (back up)
T Campbell (back up)
Chuks (crippled and won’t be renewed)
Godden (back up)
Leaburn (won’t be here next season)
Insane to not be trying to add some players this month - there is too much bilge to get rid of and too much quality needed for us to do it in one summer window.
Groundhog Day. Another summer overhaul needed because we got the recruitment wrong this season.
Hopefully it's with someone different leading it because Andy Scott has failed again.
I also think it is unlikely that we sign 3 strikers in 1 window, so if Leaburn leaves then I would imagine Ahadme will be kept as the backup