Soccerates
Vital Youth Team
Cheers for the responses Pon, King and Soccerates.
So the general consensus is that we'll be fine as long as enough of our signings progress and therefore increase in value and we make a profit on them. I'd say this is a gamble, but a calculated one and I'd agree that the players appear (on paper) to have that potential, so excellent recruitment.
I guess my other concern is the same as AliLatics, are IEC here for the long haul. Obviously I've no idea, I hope they are, or at least if they aren't, that when they walk away they clear any outstanding debt first and leave us solvent.
I think the early evidence is from the types of staff the club have looked to hire - data analyst positions, scouting with an emphasis on lower league/non league, the decision to revamp the Soccerdome and various other commercial projects, even down to the big screen. I couldn't see IEC doing all that and then pulling the plug.
They do want promotion to the Premier League and while this current squad might be some way off that, all the foundations are in place to make that happen. I can't comment too much on our sponsors, as we don't know for sure how much they've offered us, but they're very significant players in the Asian gambling market, which is huge, so there must be quite a bit of cash coming in from that exposure.
I do think Jonathan Jackson deserves some credit for his work and that could be overlooked; the Dan Burn deal, Yanic Wildschut and Will Grigg's transfers should really be attributed to him. All three haven't had the success they had with us, that's for sure, yet at the time of sale were probably divisive, yet we aren't any worse off for not having them and that money (fingers crossed) looks to be money well spent.