Club must save £4 million

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

it is easy to look back at the finances and see what income we got each year from player sales.

Is this the same WR that was in the camp with Schards about bringing in new players when we got promoted, and moaning time after time when we did not invest, yet now says we were sensible?

[Sun Tzu]

it is easy to look back at the finances and see what income we got each year from player sales.

Only what we got in total in a financial year, not broken down by player or by what was upfront and what was add ons from previous deals.

[Dirk Gently]

Exactly right Mad Dog's Ghost - because if we're selling off our best players - there's not a hope in hell of us competing with other teams and getting into the Prem.

But that sums up exactly what's wrong with football today.

The teams we're competing with nearly all have some kind of unfair financial advantage.

Newcastle, West Brom & 'Boro, of course, have parachute payments. Cardiff is being run well over their means and are on the verge of financial catastrophe if this Malaysian saviour doesn't deliver. Leicester are being bankrolled by the same sugar-daddy who started off at Portsmouth. Forest are in the same situation with a rich sugar-daddy and so on.....

Until there's a level playing field financially, clubs which are run on a sustainable basis will never be able to compete with those who aren't - who have a sugar-daddy or who just steal from the taxman.

[Sun Tzu]

Cardiff is being run well over their means and are on the verge of financial catastrophe if this Malaysian saviour doesn't deliver.

I thought you told us a fortnight ago that the cheque was in the post ?

Still not arrived ?

[Southbank Old Boy]

Its never really been any different though has it Dirk

It might be a bit more extreme these days, but the clubs with the best facilities and could play the most money to players were always the ones who would attract the better players and be the more successful

[Dirk Gently]

Cardiff is being run well over their means and are on the verge of financial catastrophe if this Malaysian saviour doesn't deliver.

I thought you told us a fortnight ago that the cheque was in the post ?

Still not arrived ?

Not sure - it's certainly been promised. But that doesn't affect my argument, which is that they are utterly unsustainable without outside investment. (and that they spent the money before they got the investment assured.)

[Sun Tzu]

Its never really been any different though has it Dirk

It might be a bit more extreme these days, but the clubs with the best facilities and could play the most money to players were always the ones who would attract the better players and be the more successful

Goes right back to the start of the Football league, when the Southern clubs refused to pay players whilst the Northern ones imported 'professionals' from Scotland. Hence the northern bias in the make up of the original league....

[Dirk Gently]

Its never really been any different though has it Dirk

It might be a bit more extreme these days, but the clubs with the best facilities and could play the most money to players were always the ones who would attract the better players and be the more successful

Indeed, and that dates back to the birth of prefessionalism in 1885.

But in recent years the sums of money have increased exponentially so that the difference is so much greater - and the abolition of gate sharing has also increased this effect.

[Southbank Old Boy]

But essentially it isnt any major difference to at any other period in history so theres no point worrying about it

Its still possible for clubs to compete without running them into the ground financially, you just have to get the blend right

You only have to look at some of the clubs over recent years who have spent loads of money and not got the same success as others who havent

[Dirk Gently]

Yes, but for some reason (possibly the media) the demands for success - and success at any price - are greater now than they've ever been.

Which means that clubs try to compete with the mega-rich who get the bounty of TV money (another great chnage from the past), and that drags wages up for everyone - and so the risk of failure (relegation) is much greater and so clubs gamble more and more to try and stay up ...... and so on.

[Woodcote Royal]

it is easy to look back at the finances and see what income we got each year from player sales.

Is this the same WR that was in the camp with Schards about bringing in new players when we got promoted, and moaning time after time when we did not invest, yet now says we were sensible?

I've said on countless occasions that Coppell's refusal to spend his budget was a major factor in our relegation..........................where have I digressed from that view

Coppell blew our Premiership status and the club have subsequently done an excellent of off loading expensive, under performing assets we can no longer afford.

At the same time, a number of young players and those bought merely as cover for undroppable favourites have stepped into the breach to such great effect that the cheap side we have now would probably stuff it's expensive counter part of just 12 months ago.........................all of which surely says more about what a sh*t job Coppell was doing by the time he left than any imaginary claims of hypocrisy on my part.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

The side playing at the moment has done well to escape relegation after such a torrid time under BR. However I think this team is a way from taking the league by storm next season, and there have been some monumentaly poor performances under BM, from the BFG thread Watford was one, where the players were accused by fans of not caring. Same accusations that were thrown about at the end of last season to some players who had deals that meant they could go regardless of whether we got promoted or not.

Could be worse, we could be Watford, whjo are in a similar position. http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/ ... shortfall/


£550-000 down payment for BR, don't suppose they will get any add ons now!!!

What we need now is for BR to get a job in this league and take away a few of his signings. Rasiak,Howard, Cummings to start with.

[Dirk Gently]

I've said on countless occasions that Coppell's refusal to spend his budget was a major factor in our relegation..........................where have I digressed from that view

Coppell blew our Premiership status and the club have subsequently done an excellent of off loading expensive, under performing assets we can no longer afford.

At the same time, a number of young players and those bought merely as cover for undroppable favourites have stepped into the breach to such great effect that the cheap side we have now would probably stuff it's expensive counter part of just 12 months ago.........................all of which surely says more about what a sh*t job Coppell was doing by the time he left than any imaginary claims of hypocrisy on my part.

That's a pretty succinct summing up of the realities of the situation.

[readingbedding]

If it wasn't for Coppell, these players would not have been sold for the price they were sold for.

How much was Doyle or Hunt when they joined our side?
Under what manager did they gain their value I wonder...
The best manager RFC has ever had I wonder?

[Dirk Gently]

If it wasn't for Coppell, these players would not have been sold for the price they were sold for.

How much was Doyle or Hunt when they joined our side?
Under what manager did they gain their value I wonder...
The best manager RFC has ever had I wonder?

That's true, an no-one's disputing that (except to ask who discovered those players? Wasn't it the Chief Scout?).

But the inactivity in the summer after we finished 8th, and also the following January, when SC refused to refresh the team despite having funds to do so, is what ultimately caused the relegation.

Without that we'd not have had to sell those players.

[readingbedding]

So we didn't approach anyone?
You sure of that?

We all know that's bollocks.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

we lost a good deal of money in the Prem didnt we, according to the accounts and JM.
Some of our players became targets, especially Hunt and Doyle, who both had massive new contracts to stop them going, even in the relegation season there were few who would have changed the side. Then again we did not know how moral was dropping through the squad.

Any money Coppell spent would have been by increased debt, and who are these magical players that would have come to a club that is as small as ours?

“ If I had chosen Reading I would probably be fighting a relegation battle next season and then maybe disappearing into the Championship. In two years' time people would have been saying, 'Remember that lad Scott Brown – whatever happened to him?'

We are a small club, we will not gamble the future on short term success, most say rightly so.

[readingbedding]

Of course, but to some, approaching the likes of Brown means he refused to spend his budget.
A few revisionists here for sure...

[under the tin]

we lost a good deal of money in the Prem didnt we, according to the accounts and JM.
Some of our players became targets, especially Hunt and Doyle, who both had massive new contracts to stop them going, even in the relegation season there were few who would have changed the side. Then again we did not know how moral was dropping through the squad.

Any money Coppell spent would have been by increased debt, and who are these magical players that would have come to a club that is as small as ours?
“ If I had chosen Reading I would probably be fighting a relegation battle next season and then maybe disappearing into the Championship. In two years' time people would have been saying, 'Remember that lad Scott Brown – whatever happened to him?'

We are a small club, we will not gamble the future on short term success, most say rightly so.

Exactly. We are who we are.

[readingbedding]

Does anyone think or know that once we were promoted, we could have offered Sidwell what he wanted.
It was about 25 grand a week wasn't it?