Ehmer gone | Page 2 | Vital Football

Ehmer gone

It's hard to pay wages when there are no crowds at matches to fund them. At this point no one knows for sure when that will happen.

The club is right to be cautious.
Exactly, I’m seeing very negative comments on twitter which comes at no surprise but we mustn’t lose sight of the huge implications and dangers that will inevitably come if we don’t tread carefully. This pre season is unlike anything we have ever seen and Ehmer leaving is a shame but by no means a disaster.
 
The other way to look at this is:

Nobody knew the virus would happen but everyone knew max would be out of contract.

Based on that why did we not give him a new contract one or two seasons ago? Is there a pattern?
 
A new contract would come at a cost. Possibly even an increased wage. And this is aside also from the point that max may not have wanted to discuss it earlier.

When offering new contracts to secure players who are running to the end of contracts, then you have to weigh up a few things:

Of course one risk of not signing up early is that youll lose a good player and then not be able to replace him. The cost of this is possibly an increased wage you simply cant afford.

Whereas the risk of signing up early is that the player gets a serious injury, or goes out of form, falls out with the manager, or just isnt preferred by the manager. The cost is that you then are spunking a load of money on a player you cant use or dont want.

The balance is hard to get. Byrne, hes now out of contract but potentially going to take a while to get back from injury. So its probably a good thing he wasnt signed up a year ago. So thats a positive decision. The ehmer one, well he is a good player, and one we all probably feel is a loss, so maybe the balance wasnt found there, but then no one knows what we might have had to forego budgetwise if we had signed him up. We just signed tucker on a longer term deal. Maybe it was one or the other. I know who id rather have.
 
The other way to look at this is:

Nobody knew the virus would happen but everyone knew max would be out of contract.

Based on that why did we not give him a new contract one or two seasons ago? Is there a pattern?
Had that been the case with Ehmer and perhaps a few others we might no longer have a club by the time football starts again. We should be thankful we only have nine players right now of which at least two are saleable assets.
 
Our captain and longest serving player. He would have expected an increased salary to stay and was probably one of our better paid players anyway. Factor in the uncertainty and he was always vulnerable to an immediate offer from a club with funds. Good player for us and will be missed.
 
PS says that the club had indicated to Max that they would likely be offering him some contract news by the end of July. I think that`s sensible from PS - don`t think it would be very wise to commit to a player contract when he, PS, doesn`t even know whether there`ll be any football this year.

Good luck to Max, he has a family to think about and has made a decision that rightfully takes that into account. Wish him well at Bristol Rovers.
 
I liked Max but he is replaceable. My worry is that if we lose Tucker and Ogilve then we will have a brand new defence. The defence was our foundation for a better season last year. Rebuilding that from scratch might set us back a few months and leave too high a mountain to climb.

However I have more confidence in Evans than his predecessors to do that.

My bigger worry is that if we aren't able to offer real deals then we will lose the targets Evans has. One has already opted for Lincoln.

At what point does Evans get frustrated.

Scally runs a frugal ship in all but one area. Scally is what we need to guide the ship through uncertain waters. I do wonder whether that might frustrate Evans and he may get tempted to a club with real ambition (and the ability to deliver that ambition).

We don't have ambition, we can't afford it. Many will be happy with simply surviving, and possibly that's rightly so. I suspect Evans craves ambition though. Simply surviving might not be enough for him
 
He was the highest paid player on £2.5k a week until Akinde joined. As such he was always the most likely to leave in the current circumstances of us not being able to offer anything in writing until we know more about how next season will work.
Can’t blame Max for not wanting to hang on until August some time, he had his family to look after and I expect Bristol could offer him a wage increase too, which I doubt we’d have been able to do.
 
Disappointed to see Max go but the longer it went on the more likely he was to get himself sorted with something elsewhere which you'd expect anyone to do. He has to look after himself and his family first and foremost. On the football side he's been a reliable servant to the club over his time here, very rarely injured and been fairly consistent in his performances, especially over the last couple of years.

In the current climate we clearly are in no position to offer deals but the bigger worry is how many more will lose/have to sell before we're in a position to bring people in. Probably a bigger worry IMO is how much SE wanted Max to stay, the more players he loses the harder and bigger his challenge becomes.

In our current situation i'd be far more concerned if SE was to leave than any individual player. In the current tough climate his experience and connections are going to be key (never thought I'd ever type that!) to our relative success/survival on the pitch.
 
The other way to look at this is:

Nobody knew the virus would happen but everyone knew max would be out of contract.

Based on that why did we not give him a new contract one or two seasons ago? Is there a pattern?

I see your point Jerry but that’s not sustainable at a club of our size.
Blackburn signed up Dack to a long term deal and he then did his ACL.
He may be back for the start of next season but may not and might never be the same player again.
It’s all about risk.
 
Wish him well. Guy made a decision for him and his family and nobody can fault him for that. Decent servant, a replacement needed for sure, but due respect, it's not Fabio Cannavaro we're talking about here...

Likewise, Gills absolutely right in not committing until they have to.
A) these plans for a return are all well and good but if there's a set back and fans don't come back when aimed for, the club's lifeline has gone again.
B) Buyer's market ahead this summer, imo. Clubs will want to go leaner and younger to cost-save. The club I work for definitely will be, and I think a bunch more people will find thinner options (out of contract) than might otherwise have been. The key is Steve Evans - his star is high right now and will be a good draw.

I'm really not losing any sleep over it.
 
Shame, I really liked him but fully understand his and the clubs position.

I for one am much happier to have Scally doing what he's doing than have the owners of Bristol Rovers. These big spending attempts only seem to end one way. It may not be quick but at some point it will go to shit.
 
All the best to Max; he gave us 5+ good years, and had no choice but to take a good contract offer, with no certainty of any offer from Gills or one with a pay cut.

He will be a great loss to the fans

And he prob realised Evans really prefers his 'boys'; the 5 pre-Evans Gills who he should have built the team around (Max, Fuller, Byrne, Hanlon and RCC) are now unlikely to start this year; I suspect Hanlon will see how its going and will take an offer even if a lower league.
 
Can’t see any of those who’ve been provisionally offered a deal staying if they’ve been offered firm terms elsewhere.
 
Shame as he was a steady performer over the years ..... but not surprised at dear chairman’s reticence over a new contract.... who knows when the season will start.

SE has shown a good level of attracting good quality signings IMO so we will be ok.
 
Some interesting comments by Mr Scally .

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport...gillingham-chairman-paul-scally-takes-4349595

I was wondering if any other sides are using Scally's cautious approach to signing players?

Personally I think he is right to be cautious.i doubt very much we will see anything like a normal season. Scally talks openly about the possibility of no football this year.If that turns out true then signing say four players on new deals and two new signings over say four months.Would be equivalent of two years pay for one player.That could make the difference of having a extra two or more players when the season starts. Or one if it was to start in October for example. I generally don't have a lot of time for Scally but on this I do agree we have to wait regardless of how many of the existing players walk away .If sides make acceptable bids for our players or manager then let them go .I have said before this is about survival not winning titles .That's something we have to focus on as soon as we are sure that the club survival is secure.
Acceptable bids means it meets the clubs valuations.
 
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So i understand this correctly:

Gillingham wanted him to stay but would not offer a contract until a new start date was given by the EFL.

So in short:

Gillingham did not want to pay him a wage for the time between offering a contract and a training start date date? Roughly 4 weeks wages?

We lost a player for around 6-8k wages?
Who has said we're not paying them now? All that has been said is they haven't yet been offered new contracts. Doesn't say we're not paying them even though they are out of contract.