Club must save £4 million

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

It does show how crazy football has become. The Premiership has become a club killer. Any club looking to establish itself has to do so off the back off it's owners.

We need to find a compromise, a well run club, with an owner prepared to under right relativley small loses.

Sadly there is no other way. We can't wait for football to change. There is too much money to be made at the top level....

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

It's a clever way of getting a £4m bid for Sig.

Also lowers our expectations for next season.

Top marks to the RFC spin dept.

[Royal Lady]

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. Speculate to accumulate is the old saying isn't it? And we haven't done that for the last few years.

[TBM]

unfortunately it does not bode well for keeping on loan or signing permenantly high earners like Griffin, Krishinishvili and Bertrand

Depends if we were paying 100% of their wages or not

[andrew1957]

We have 39 squad players at the moment so I would not be surprised if the wage bill is too high but 12 are out of contract at the end of the season. Several others like Mooney are likely to be offloaded if we can arrange for someone else to take them on - even if we release on free transfers. But for us to let our star player go would be very foolish in the long run and make a PL return even harder to achieve. I don't expect us to buy anyone of note and we may well rely on loans again to fill the gaps in defence. I expect a smaller squad size next season and we will probably see Cummings or Kelly as first choice right back. It was interesting to see the club praising Cummings performances in the ressies recently and saying what a great professional he was - could not help thinking at the time that the ground was being laid for him returning as first choice next season. Perhaps Kelly will be left back as well as he has played there a lot in the past. If they don't cut it I expect more experienced loan signings to added.

Time will tell but we have never cashed in too early before apart from possibly Simon Cox - but in that case the player was desperate to go and deemed surplus to requirements at that time.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Reading it again what really stands out are Hammond's quotes.

Last summer everyone appeared to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Now this is clearly Hammond saying that while cuts should be made, they should not make the team weaker and we should build on the success of the last few months.

To be a fly on the wall in that board meeting....

[rhroyal]

Reading it again what really stands out are Hammond's quotes.

Last summer everyone appeared to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Now this is clearly Hammond saying that while cuts should be made, they should not make the team weaker and we should build on the success of the last few months.

To be a fly on the wall in that board meeting....

Agreed. I hope him and McDermott can make a strong case.

[John Peel]

Maybe just me, but this makes for pretty depressing reading. Just as the fans are on a high and hopeful for next season, we get this news (although I suppose we knew it was always coming). Let me guess, they want to make a decision as soon as possible but probably won't say anything until after us mugs have renewed our season tickets again.

What may seem like a good deal (£50 off) might seem pretty crap if we end up selling the family silver and have to start yet again. And it's not so much the players we'd lose (Gylfi would be hard to replace but could just about replace Fed), but the players we wouldn't be able to sign permanently i.e. 3/4 of our, now relatively solid, back four. On the plus side I have every confidence in manager, but we may end up being a mid-table/play-off possibility rather than a play-off cert.

[andrew1957]

Anyone who thinks we will retain all three of Bertrand, Khiz and Griffin is deluded.

There is virtually no chance of keeping Bertrand - unless Chelsea loan him to us again and I doubt we can afford the other two. At best we may keep one I think.

[Cpl Jones Dont panic]

Lets try and stay a bit positive.

Premiership teams may be more reluctant in buying unproven players from the Championship, with so many having failed to make the grade. Before any one says Siggy is unproven he has only had one season in the championship, how may of us knew his potential before this season? At any PL team he would not be a penalty taker or the main free kick taker, so his benefit to the team is different from ours.

With McCarthy seeming to like the Royals set up , maybe they would buy him and loan him back to us for a season?

Regarding Griff and Zorab, I would love them to stay but lets give BM credit for getting them in, who is to say that he cannot find us other loan signings of the same quality. PL teams evern more so next season will be looking at squad and cost reductions, so I would expect more and not less players to be in the market for loan deals next season.

Keep the faith

[TFF]

Reading it again what really stands out are Hammond's quotes.

Last summer everyone appeared to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Now this is clearly Hammond saying that while cuts should be made, they should not make the team weaker and we should build on the success of the last few months.

To be a fly on the wall in that board meeting....

Hammond has just signed a new contract.

I doubt he'd have done so if he thought the rug was going to get pulled out from underneath him the next month. He'll have had a very good idea about where the finances were/are at and what we'll be up to, squad wise, over the summer.

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

Get rid of Howe - that would save a fair % of whats required!

[Terminal Boardom]

Reading it again what really stands out are Hammond's quotes.

Last summer everyone appeared to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Now this is clearly Hammond saying that while cuts should be made, they should not make the team weaker and we should build on the success of the last few months.

To be a fly on the wall in that board meeting....

Hammond has just signed a new contract.

I doubt he'd have done so if he thought the rug was going to get pulled out from underneath him the next month. He'll have had a very good idea about where the finances were/are at and what we'll be up to, squad wise, over the summer.

Which equates to Hammond effectively saying "I'm alright Jack!" I can't see the fuss. £4m cost reduction is quite straight forward which wil be mainly offset by those out of contract and not being renewed. Plus the reductions that will be on offer to others who are out of contract but are offered a new one. Expect car parking and bus costs to increase. Expect an increase in the cost of the match day programme as well as in the catering outlets. Pay on the day may well go up as will match day ticket prices for non ST holders.

Next question?

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Reading it again what really stands out are Hammond's quotes.

Last summer everyone appeared to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Now this is clearly Hammond saying that while cuts should be made, they should not make the team weaker and we should build on the success of the last few months.

To be a fly on the wall in that board meeting....

Hammond has just signed a new contract.

I doubt he'd have done so if he thought the rug was going to get pulled out from underneath him the next month. He'll have had a very good idea about where the finances were/are at and what we'll be up to, squad wise, over the summer.

I get the feeling JM's plans change day to day.

[Duke the Dog]

Reading it again what really stands out are Hammond's quotes.

Last summer everyone appeared to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Now this is clearly Hammond saying that while cuts should be made, they should not make the team weaker and we should build on the success of the last few months.

To be a fly on the wall in that board meeting....

Hammond has just signed a new contract.

I doubt he'd have done so if he thought the rug was going to get pulled out from underneath him the next month. He'll have had a very good idea about where the finances were/are at and what we'll be up to, squad wise, over the summer.

You could have argued that about Rodgers, but that's another topic altogether!

Who knows how much of this is true, and how much is simply a bargaining stance from the board before McD and Mr Nick come in asking for £20million for new players

[rhroyal]

Maybe just me, but this makes for pretty depressing reading. Just as the fans are on a high and hopeful for next season, we get this news (although I suppose we knew it was always coming). Let me guess, they want to make a decision as soon as possible but probably won't say anything until after us mugs have renewed our season tickets again.

What may seem like a good deal (£50 off) might seem pretty crap if we end up selling the family silver and have to start yet again. And it's not so much the players we'd lose (Gylfi would be hard to replace but could just about replace Fed), but the players we wouldn't be able to sign permanently i.e. 3/4 of our, now relatively solid, back four. On the plus side I have every confidence in manager, but we may end up being a mid-table/play-off possibility rather than a play-off cert.

I don't think it equates into selling the family silver. Wycombe Royal explained it well

The was I see is that we need to cut COSTS by £4m, it does not mean we need £4m extra income in one off transfer fees. This is about the day to day running of the club and that means reducing the cost base. So yes selling someone like Sigurdsson will bring in a fair bit of money as a one-off amount (well not technically as payments are staged) but he is not one of the higher earners at the moment and therefore it would not reduce the cost base by much.

So I don't this this news as a threat to our star players being sold, but more about shifting those higher earners who don't feature much (Matejovsky, Cisse, Mooney, Cummings, even Rasiak, as well as Ingi).

Selling off Gylfi or anybody else who people may be interested in will only put off the problem for a season, especially seeing as the newer faces in our squad will be on lower wages. Instead we need to look into cutting costs long term. It wouldn't make sense to accept a £1mill or so bid for Siggy.

[Muskrat]

Not an issue. With Marek and Cisse gone we'll save a large chunk of the £4m. Expect Brian to trim the squad down to further reduce expenditure on wages and other parts of the business will also be asked to make savings not just the playing side.

Saleable assets - The Sig? No way he'll leave. He will be top of Brian's wish list to keep. Fed? - possibly and I don't think Brian would stand in his way if a Prem club came in for him, with promising younsters like Hamer, McCarthy and Anderson around.

Agree that Cummings and Kelly will be asked to step up the plate next season and we'll all have to reserve judgement on that. But there will be hundreds of players released in the summer and I've got confidence that Brian with his scouting knowledge will be able to find a couple of decent full backs and a centre half..

PS don't rule out Karacan being asked to convert to a full back to get first team football...

[floyd__streete]

As stated on another thread, I expect very little incoming transfers this summer and potentially a few departures if the price is right; Mills, Sigurdsson, hopefully Federici! The target again next season mst be mere survival.

[TFF]

As stated on another thread, I expect very little incoming transfers this summer and potentially a few departures if the price is right; Mills, Sigurdsson, hopefully Federici! The target again next season mst be mere survival.

Your toast still falling butter side down then Floyd?

[Jack Celliers]

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. Speculate to accumulate is the old saying isn't it? And we haven't done that for the last few years.

Hull