Players going forward | Page 2 | Vital Football

Players going forward

TRUE BELIEVER said:
We need to get real. The reality is that we are more than likely going to be a league one side barring a miracle, which I accept do happen, however our income streams are going to be significantly lower than the previous years. TV money alone will drop us at least 5million, reduced ticket sales, fewer away supporters will all mean that our budget will be meagre to say the least. We lost 10 million last year and that was with the significantly higher TV money so this year there will have to be significant reductions on the wage bill.

We have lost the overseas Directors who were taking a large chunk out of the wage bill but we still have a lot of players on substantial wages and whether they want to move on or not I would assume the new owners would want to get them off the wage bill. In real terms we will be down to the bare bones of a squad made up of one or two of the older pro's at the end of their playing careers who might be prepared to take a drop in wages. Youth and development team players, similar to how Bolton survived, and free loans from clubs looking to get first team experience for their upcoming talent.

I think the squad could look something like this:

GK's Jamie Jones, Owen Evans.

Defenders. Fox, Obi, Pearce, Golden,

Midfield. Macleod, Pilkington, Evans, Massey, Jacobs, Roberts, Merry

Forwards. Garner, Lang, Jolley,

Other than those above I think we will use a full compliment of loan signings to bolster the areas we are weakest in and I fully expect everybody else to be sold off to reduce the wage bill to manageable levels.

I know this will cause some to be upset and angry but it is my own personal assessment of what we will be able to afford unless the new owners have deep pockets and are able to put significant finance into the club.
Click to expand...

We best get the recruitment team back in and working overtime working out who is free and affordable!
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
The thing is some of the lads may be happy to stay but it may just not be possible under the circumstances. Samy, Moore, Williams, Robinson etc may all be willing to give it another year even in L1 but as much as the new owner may want to keep them they may not be able to afford the expense. The club may even get to a position where we accept offers and tell a reluctant player to please move on for the overall good of the clubs finances. We may even get to a point we say to players they can leave on a free just to get them off the wage bill. I hope none of that is the case but we can't rule it out.

The current wage structure will obviously need to change drastically to fit into a new budget - depending on that budget we may even need our average earners to leave along with our highest earners.

I don't think we can predict anything about who will stay and go unfortunately. But i think realistically i think there will have to be a lot of players leaving judging by what the Administrators have said and the fact a preffered bidder is in place but players are still being sold on the cheap.
Click to expand...
Am l right in saying we have a 2 year transfer embargo ?
 
TRUE BELIEVER said:
Don't forget on top of all that turmoil we are probably going to be looking for a new manager as well.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's for certain but it's certainly possible.

If we stay up i'd want Wellens or Lowe as they both top upcoming managers and used to working under hard conditions. If we go down neither will likely fancy it so I'd look at Gary Bowyer. He's urently and used to managing clubs with off field issues. Even managed to get Blackpool promoted and Blackburn nearly into the play offs despite so much turmoil. I've always quite rated him anyway but in this scenario he's probably better suited than most.
 
TRUE BELIEVER said:
We need to get real. The reality is that we are more than likely going to be a league one side barring a miracle, which I accept do happen, however our income streams are going to be significantly lower than the previous years. TV money alone will drop us at least 5million, reduced ticket sales, fewer away supporters will all mean that our budget will be meagre to say the least. We lost 10 million last year and that was with the significantly higher TV money so this year there will have to be significant reductions on the wage bill.

We have lost the overseas Directors who were taking a large chunk out of the wage bill but we still have a lot of players on substantial wages and whether they want to move on or not I would assume the new owners would want to get them off the wage bill. In real terms we will be down to the bare bones of a squad made up of one or two of the older pro's at the end of their playing careers who might be prepared to take a drop in wages. Youth and development team players, similar to how Bolton survived, and free loans from clubs looking to get first team experience for their upcoming talent.

I think the squad could look something like this:

GK's Jamie Jones, Owen Evans.

Defenders. Fox, Obi, Pearce, Golden,

Midfield. Macleod, Pilkington, Evans, Massey, Jacobs, Roberts, Merry

Forwards. Garner, Lang, Jolley,

Other than those above I think we will use a full compliment of loan signings to bolster the areas we are weakest in and I fully expect everybody else to be sold off to reduce the wage bill to manageable levels.

I know this will cause some to be upset and angry but it is my own personal assessment of what we will be able to afford unless the new owners have deep pockets and are able to put significant finance into the club.
Click to expand...


Macleod, Pilkington, Jacobs, Roberts and Fox are out of contract i think. My worry is that the new season is only 8 ish weeks away i believe. If we are lucky we may only have 4-6 weeks knowing what league we are in. We need the new owners in ASAP. Make sure creditors are all paid up so we can make signings and then rush through pre-season
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
I don't think it's for certain but it's certainly possible.

If we stay up i'd want Wellens or Lowe as they both top upcoming managers and used to working under hard conditions. If we go down neither will likely fancy it so I'd look at Gary Bowyer. He's urently and used to managing clubs with off field issues. Even managed to get Blackpool promoted and Blackburn nearly into the play offs despite so much turmoil. I've always quite rated him anyway but in this scenario he's probably better suited than most.
Click to expand...

I think Cook would consider giving it another shot if we were to win the appeal but failing that I cant see him wanting to start from scratch a division lower.

Gary Bowyer has always attracted my attention, seems to know the lower leagues well and has the character to attract players at reasonable prices.

Would also be favourable of giving Graeme Jones a chance, he is a former player and knows the club, as did Cook.
 
wafc4ever30 said:
Macleod, Pilkington, Jacobs, Roberts and Fox are out of contract i think. My worry is that the new season is only 8 ish weeks away i believe. If we are lucky we may only have 4-6 weeks knowing what league we are in. We need the new owners in ASAP. Make sure creditors are all paid up so we can make signings and then rush through pre-season
Click to expand...

Once the new owners have agreed terms and placed their deposit of £100,000 I suspect they will be contacting those players they wish to extend contracts with and offering them a pre contract subject to the buy out being signed off.
 
rumjocky said:
Am l right in saying we have a 2 year transfer embargo ?
Click to expand...

The administrator said it was a 2 year transfer ban, i think there is a difference between the two although they sound the same thing. My understanding is the embargo can be exited if you meet certain criteria set by the EFL, while a ban is fixed term penalty that must be served.

Chelsea got the same punishment but took the matter to the court of arbitration and had it reduced to 1 year. So when Admin said we aren't appealing that yesterday i assume we are focusing on our main appeal and will deal with this later, as if we win our appeal against the 12 points arguing the transfer ban that came with it likely becomes much easier.

The ban will mean we can't buy players, pay an agent or a loan fee. The squad can only be 20 players and while you can transfer players out easily enough I think you can sign players who are free with the EFLs permission as replacements as their wages is less than 30% of the departing player.

I may be wrong but that is what i think it means from bits and pieces i've seen.
 
TRUE BELIEVER said:
I think Cook would consider giving it another shot if we were to win the appeal but failing that I cant see him wanting to start from scratch a division lower.

Gary Bowyer has always attracted my attention, seems to know the lower leagues well and has the character to attract players at reasonable prices.

Would also be favourable of giving Graeme Jones a chance, he is a former player and knows the club, as did Cook.
Click to expand...

If you look around at the clubs sniffing around for a new manager he isn't top of the list for anyone according to the bookies. That could obviously change in the upcoming days and weeks but it is possible he doesn't have an option of going elsewhere and in that circumstance i can't see him resigning to sit at home and wait for another job.

The Luton fans really didn't rate Jones and that puts me off a bit.
 
TRUE BELIEVER said:
We need to get real. The reality is that we are more than likely going to be a league one side barring a miracle, which I accept do happen, however our income streams are going to be significantly lower than the previous years. TV money alone will drop us at least 5million, reduced ticket sales, fewer away supporters will all mean that our budget will be meagre to say the least. We lost 10 million last year and that was with the significantly higher TV money so this year there will have to be significant reductions on the wage bill.

We have lost the overseas Directors who were taking a large chunk out of the wage bill but we still have a lot of players on substantial wages and whether they want to move on or not I would assume the new owners would want to get them off the wage bill. In real terms we will be down to the bare bones of a squad made up of one or two of the older pro's at the end of their playing careers who might be prepared to take a drop in wages. Youth and development team players, similar to how Bolton survived, and free loans from clubs looking to get first team experience for their upcoming talent.

I think the squad could look something like this:

GK's Jamie Jones, Owen Evans.

Defenders. Fox, Obi, Pearce, Golden,

Midfield. Macleod, Pilkington, Evans, Massey, Jacobs, Roberts, Merry

Forwards. Garner, Lang, Jolley,

Other than those above I think we will use a full compliment of loan signings to bolster the areas we are weakest in and I fully expect everybody else to be sold off to reduce the wage bill to manageable levels.

I know this will cause some to be upset and angry but it is my own personal assessment of what we will be able to afford unless the new owners have deep pockets and are able to put significant finance into the club.
Click to expand...

Disagree on the miracle bit as I think we’ve a better than evens chance of retaining our Championship place, but agree with your assessment on the rest. I think the market will change considerably and lots more players will be seeing out contracts and becoming frees. Salaries in the medium term are going to reduce and players will be better off remaining on the favourable terms they find themselves on at present. Won’t apply to all and if you can pick up a bargain - which most of ours will be sold as given our situation - there will still be movement but for the more modest player they’ll find their salaries reducing. As such i think the free market will be bigger.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
If you look around at the clubs sniffing around for a new manager he isn't top of the list for anyone according to the bookies. That could obviously change in the upcoming days and weeks but it is possible he doesn't have an option of going elsewhere and in that circumstance i can't see him resigning to sit at home and wait for another job.

The Luton fans really didn't rate Jones and that puts me off a bit.
Click to expand...

Different club, different fans.

He knows our club well and the fans see him as one of ours, so that might make a difference.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
If you look around at the clubs sniffing around for a new manager he isn't top of the list for anyone according to the bookies. That could obviously change in the upcoming days and weeks but it is possible he doesn't have an option of going elsewhere and in that circumstance i can't see him resigning to sit at home and wait for another job.

The Luton fans really didn't rate Jones and that puts me off a bit.
Click to expand...

If you look at our most successful managers of recent decades they are all ex players - Jewell, Martinez and Cook. I wouldn’t discount Jones - he understands the club, has an affinity to it and would be someone the fans could get behind and relate to. Given what’s going on that could be important - though accept its only really on field matters that determine popularity.
 
moonay said:
I think you need to refresh your understanding of the word "ambition".

That was what he did .................. it wasn't his ambition.
Click to expand...

To be honest Moonay, I think it was his ‘ambition‘ ....what he planned to do from the off ....his express intent at any rate.

I myself am planning on raiding my pension pot to avail myself of a 40 grand BMW ....but I’m going to scrap the bastard the week after delivery.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.