Summer transfers rumours, speculation, news | Page 80 | Vital Football

Summer transfers rumours, speculation, news

If that is all the ambition you have for a football club then maybe you would be better supporting a Walsall Crewe or Scunthorpe type of club. No offence

And if you only want a club that spends money hand over fist in a head on pursuit of glory then may I suggest that you would be better supporting a Man United, Man City, Liverpool or Chelsea type club. No offence ;)

I guess I should have added that I want Latics to be the best that they can be but by operating within our own means - as I said in my original statement I'm happy whether that's in Lge1 or the top flight (or for that matter anywhere in between or below). I just want to still have a Latics no matter what - there's ambition there but I don't want it to be to the detriment of the long term future of the club

On our rise up the leagues it was great but many Latics fans did mutter from time to time about what would happen when Whelan's gone. We also had debates on here & other Latics sites amongst ourselves between those who urged Whelan to "put his hand in his pocket" & others who were behind his bid to make the club more self reliant - both sides of the debate had ambition but there are those who realise just constantly throwing money at things isn't for the best long term
 
My issue with the statement is that I want Wigan Athletic around till I'm no more (& beyond) & I don't want to run the risk of going through what we've just been through ever again
Whilst I think undoubtedly there were things that could have been done differently under Whelan to increase our income streams, to go on that fantastic journey we had meant the club lost millions upon millions of £'s over that period & Whelan covered it
IEC continued to cover losses & the appeal over the points deduction was right in saying that this is what you run the risk of when a club is reliant on 1 person (or a company) to fund it's spending levels (regardless of how they screwed us over in the end)
We all know how much investment is required (unless you strike it very lucky) to get from Lge1 to the top flight in 5 years & whilst club's are always reliant on some extent to certain revenue streams I don't ever want to see us reliant again on 1 person or company to fund losses just to push us up the leagues - I want us to maximise income & only spend what we generate. If that means Latics spend the rest of eternity in Lge1 or has the odd promotion & relegation and cup runs I'm fine with that just as I'd be fine if a sensible & self financing plan gets us back in the top flight

That said, this interview is tempered by more realistic comments that I've seen both from the chairman & the likes of Brannigan so I'm hoping that he was just getting a bit giddy with it all

An unglamorous club like Burnley were sold not so long ago at 200m+ due to being in the Premier League. If anyone wants to buy a Prem club now your chances of making a return on investment is very tough as a business and if you want to buy a toy it's a huge initial outlay due to the initial buying price. But if you can buy a L1 or Championship club for 3.5m quid and you have the ambition and right people in place you can probably get to the Prem for a fraction of the cost of buying a club already there.

We made a profit insome of the Prem years under Whelan when the tv revenue was about a quarter of what it is now, so the argument in the game today is always if you are willing to speculate to accumulate there is the potential for a huge reward.

I'm not suggesting the rights or wrongs of any approach but i don't think that Phoenix or anyone else (outside fans who probably couldn't afford to run the club) would have bought us if they were happy to stay in L1.
 
An unglamorous club like Burnley were sold not so long ago at 200m+ due to being in the Premier League. If anyone wants to buy a Prem club now your chances of making a return on investment is very tough as a business and if you want to buy a toy it's a huge initial outlay due to the initial buying price. But if you can buy a L1 or Championship club for 3.5m quid and you have the ambition and right people in place you can probably get to the Prem for a fraction of the cost of buying a club already there.

We made a profit insome of the Prem years under Whelan when the tv revenue was about a quarter of what it is now, so the argument in the game today is always if you are willing to speculate to accumulate there is the potential for a huge reward.

I'm not suggesting the rights or wrongs of any approach but i don't think that Phoenix or anyone else (outside fans who probably couldn't afford to run the club) would have bought us if they were happy to stay in L1.

I agree with all of that (& it's worth pointing out that Burnley's takeover has saddled them with a huge debt at interest rates that haven't been made public).
I'd also agree that I doubt Phoenix would have bought us if they were happy to stay a Lge1 club

My point is that I hope whatever ambition they do have is done so with the ambition to stay within our means - I know they're looking at increasing revenue streams are are already bidding for concerts etc.. but I don't want us to get back in the same boat of an owner subbing the club £1mill a month to match those ambitions. It'll only end one way if that starts to happen again
 
Not been spoke about anywhere for a little while now, but Paul Mullin has dropped 2 divisions to join Wrexham.....now that is a move that can only be about money surely. No other explanation is there?

Saw that this morning & thought the same. That rumoured documentary deal the 2 actors are supposed to have sealed must be worth a few bob
 
I agree with all of that (& it's worth pointing out that Burnley's takeover has saddled them with a huge debt at interest rates that haven't been made public).
I'd also agree that I doubt Phoenix would have bought us if they were happy to stay a Lge1 club

My point is that I hope whatever ambition they do have is done so with the ambition to stay within our means - I know they're looking at increasing revenue streams are are already bidding for concerts etc.. but I don't want us to get back in the same boat of an owner subbing the club £1mill a month to match those ambitions. It'll only end one way if that starts to happen again

The issue is for a small club like ours to stay within our means would make it impossible to have any ambition - at least in the short term.

Brentford and Peterborough were able to successfully transition into self sustainability through effective player trading and the owners have said they aim to try and do that eventually. Initially there was a small amount of speculate to accumulate at those clubs and then it took probably a decade to gradually build to that. I think our owners approach is more of a 'big bang approach' to try and speed up the process with a larger initial investment to repopulate the squad.

To be fair to IEC they were doing something similar and it was working, they probably spent about 8m on fees to accumulate 40m+ worth of talent, but they bailed before their investment could show a return and that 40m would of talent was sold for about a quarter of it's true worth in a fire sale. If IEC would've stayed the course they would've been in a good position to sell a couple of players for big money to balance the books and continue to build towards a Brentford type situation.

The other thing is if you have the money there has never been a better time in football to invest due to most clubs financially struggling due to a year of lockdown - you'll get more value for money. In years gone by a host of Championship clubs would've happily thrown way more than the 8-10k at a 30+ goal free transfer striker that we got Wyke for. Rochdale probably would've been fighting off million pound bids for Humphrys from the Champ but we got him for probably less than half of that. I'm not expecting our rate of spending to continue to spike every window, i think this is the effective seed money to get the new business on it's feet and while there will probably still be signings in the future, i don't think we'll maintain this level of investment.

I think in football you have to speculate to accumulate to a degree if you want any success but it's about managing that speculation sensibly and balancing it out over time. Player trading is the key to sustainability but you have to get in those good players initially to develop and then sell at profit to start the process.
 
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Not been spoke about anywhere for a little while now, but Paul Mullin has dropped 2 divisions to join Wrexham.....now that is a move that can only be about money surely. No other explanation is there?

I imagine Wrexham simply offered the best contract, but i'm not sure they'd have had to push the boat out crazy far to land him.

If you look at the lads career prior to last season he's 26 and been a 1 in 5 striker in L2. He had the season of his life but I wonder if most clubs in L1 and the Champ just weren't willing to offer a long contract on good money fearing that it was a good blip rather than something that he'd likely continue at a higher level. Personally i wouldn't have fancied Mullan he's got Connor Sammon / Caleb Folan written all over him - strikers will poor career strike rates who had an uncharacteristic good spell that fooled us into thinking they were decent players. I think a lot of clubs may have felt similar and made offers that reflected how much of a gamble he was.
 
Saw that this morning & thought the same. That rumoured documentary deal the 2 actors are supposed to have sealed must be worth a few bob
Not to mention their shirt sponsorship deal with Tik Tok. Watch out for Wrexham, they'll rise up the leagues quickly if they can ever get out of the conference.
 
Only 5,550 on the DW tonight for the Warriors game. Looks like some people are still afraid to join a crowd. Wonder how much it will affect us
 
Only 5,550 on the DW tonight for the Warriors game. Looks like some people are still afraid to join a crowd. Wonder how much it will affect us
I suspect it's more a Rugby League problem than a Covid 19 problem. If people are worried about Covid then there's plenty of room around the DW to socially distance if you're don't feel safe. I for one am planning to possibly go in the South Stand for the first few games should case numbers grow out of control.

It is helpful though that we only have one home game before the self isolation restrictions are relaxed as I suspect that will force a fair few fans not to go without them having a choice in the matter.
 
Just noticed about McGrath that 11 of his 17 goals were penalties last season.

He is a very good penalty taker who waits for the keeper to move and goes the other way. Pretty much like Ellington used to do.

While it's always good to have a penalty expert it does mean he only got 6 goals in open play which does make his 17 goals sound a little less impressive in context.

Looking at highlights he does show flashes of class but he doesn't seem overly creative or one of those playmaker types who is involved in absolutely everything.

I've not watched him play other than St Mirren highlights so I can't judge fairly but if you take out his pens he hasn't really stood out. That's not to say he's not a good player worth signing - but he looks more like a standard central midfielder rather than a creative no10 type who sits behind the striker pulling the strings from what little I've seen.
 
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Just noticed about McGrath that 11 of his 17 goals were penalties last season.

He is a very good penalty taker who waits for the keeper to move and goes the other way. Pretty much like Ellington used to do.

While it's always good to have a penalty expert it does mean he only got 6 goals in open play which does make his 17 goals sound a little less impressive in context.

Looking at highlights he does show flashes of class but he doesn't seem overly creative or one of those playmaker types who is involved in absolutely everything.

I've not watched him play other than St Mirren highlights so I can't judge fairly but if you take out his pens he hasn't really stood out. That's not to say he's not a good player worth signing - but he looks more like a standard central midfielder rather than a creative no10 type who sits behind the striker pulling the strings from what little I've seen.
Yeah, saw that stat as well but thought you already knew when you posted about his high tally, sorry. Top pen scorer in the league, got 7/8 in.

From what I've seen he's a quite well rounded player for the midfield. Not really following Fraser's profile, but more of a creative MC.
 
Not been spoke about anywhere for a little while now, but Paul Mullin has dropped 2 divisions to join Wrexham.....now that is a move that can only be about money surely. No other explanation is there?
If we weren’t in for him and he was likely to join another league one side this is a small victory for Wigan and many other clubs. Now the market is even less saturated for a solid goal scorer in this division, teams will likely spend over the odds come August and we could probably do without Mullin bagging 20 for another club.