Confrimed - Abbey and Holmes going

[Stranded]

Well it certainly could have been a worse end to the window, at least we managed to keep hold of our best players at the very least maybe bar Abbey. The team posted above should have enough for us to stay up barring any other points deductions, it's now back to worrying about updates on any potential sale of the club.

If someone had said to all of us that by the end of the window - you will only have lost 1 player from the strongest XI (albeit with 1 back on loan) and really only 2 others who would regularly be part of the 18, whilst bringing in one player who plays in the area where most sales have been - in the current situation, I don't think anyone would have been massively unhappy.

Be interesting to see how this week has impacted the focus for Saturday - there may well be some players still here who didn't want to be and they may not be as prepped as possible.

In many ways though, the fact that Feb now has a game pretty much every 3 or 4 days, is probably a good thing and lets everyone focus on getting out of the bottom 4 for more than 3 days.

[WestYorksRoyal]

After the relief of keeping him, what odds Azeez gets a season ending injury tomorrow?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Well it certainly could have been a worse end to the window, at least we managed to keep hold of our best players at the very least maybe bar Abbey. The team posted above should have enough for us to stay up barring any other points deductions, it's now back to worrying about updates on any potential sale of the club.

If someone had said to all of us that by the end of the window - you will only have lost 1 player from the strongest XI (albeit with 1 back on loan) and really only 2 others who would regularly be part of the 18, whilst bringing in one player who plays in the area where most sales have been - in the current situation, I don't think anyone would have been massively unhappy.

Be interesting to see how this week has impacted the focus for Saturday - there may well be some players still here who didn't want to be and they may not be as prepped as possible.

In many ways though, the fact that Feb now has a game pretty much every 3 or 4 days, is probably a good thing and lets everyone focus on getting out of the bottom 4 for more than 3 days.

Yeah agree with that, sheer number of games there will also be a lot more focus on our league position as well. Our home games this month are absolutely crucial. Charlton, Port Vale and Shrewsbury we've got to be targeting maximum points in those fixtures. If we can pick up 3 points at Fleetwood as well I'd consider that a good month.

[Hound]

I find it utterly depressing we’ve sold 3 of our best prospects just to pay the bills tbh. If they genuinely do have sell ons then it softens the blow but guess we won’t find out for a while yet and we’ve put ourselves in no position to negotiate that

We’ve managed to keep the basis of the first team but again just highlights what a mess the club is in. As been stated many times if we’re not sold by the summer there won’t be a team left for August

[WestYorksRoyal]

What I will say is actions in this transfer window, and cost cutting before it, do suggest a plan. I have no idea what Dai is thinking. But if you had a plan to cut costs and bring in funds to keep the club afloat for a few months while you find a buyer, without harming your prospects on the pitch and therefore the value of the club too much, it would look like what we have just seen.

[Hound]

Well clearly points to Dai wanting to fund it as little as possible any more. Damaging the value of the club by selling its best youngsters to save himself funding the club properly

Is it 2 weeks since that Howe interview?

[Stranded]

Well clearly points to Dai wanting to fund it as little as possible any more. Damaging the value of the club by selling its best youngsters to save himself funding the club properly

Is it 2 weeks since that Howe interview?

Selling your best youngsters is what a club in L1 should be doing in order to pay its way. Its an absolutely tragedy that it has taken us being in total crisis for the club (and mainly the owner) to make the kind of sales that we should always have been looking to make.

Even the sales of Holmes and McIntyre should probably have happened in the summer but due to the mess of not paying tax and embargos etc it meant we weren't really in a position to do so - given how little both played in the first half of the season, we certainly couldn't argue that selling them then would have harmed our position and may even if allowed us to keep Abbey - as the fees in the summer would have been markedly bigger than now.

Of course, clubs would have had to want them in the summer and there was no sign of that.

Mentioned on another thread, Howe has delayed a meeting with STAR until early next week, this either means things have moved on a deal is close to moving to exclusivity etc, or he's delaying as naff all has happened.

[Snowflake Royal]

Well it certainly could have been a worse end to the window, at least we managed to keep hold of our best players at the very least maybe bar Abbey. The team posted above should have enough for us to stay up barring any other points deductions, it's now back to worrying about updates on any potential sale of the club.

And injuries or loss of form to any one of Smith, Knibbs or Azeez.

[Sutekh]

What I will say is actions in this transfer window, and cost cutting before it, do suggest a plan. I have no idea what Dai is thinking. But if you had a plan to cut costs and bring in funds to keep the club afloat for a few months while you find a buyer, without harming your prospects on the pitch and therefore the value of the club too much, it would look like what we have just seen.

But just highlights more why on earth the idiot couldn't have sold the likes of Moore and Swift when the chances arose instead of offering them £££££ extra in new contracts.

[Sutekh]

Well clearly points to Dai wanting to fund it as little as possible any more. Damaging the value of the club by selling its best youngsters to save himself funding the club properly

Is it 2 weeks since that Howe interview?

Selling your best youngsters is what a club in L1 should be doing in order to pay its way. Its an absolutely tragedy that it has taken us being in total crisis for the club (and mainly the owner) to make the kind of sales that we should always have been looking to make.

Even the sales of Holmes and McIntyre should probably have happened in the summer but due to the mess of not paying tax and embargos etc it meant we weren't really in a position to do so - given how little both played in the first half of the season, we certainly couldn't argue that selling them then would have harmed our position and may even if allowed us to keep Abbey - as the fees in the summer would have been markedly bigger than now.

Of course, clubs would have had to want them in the summer and there was no sign of that.

Mentioned on another thread, Howe has delayed a meeting with STAR until early next week, this either means things have moved on a deal is close to moving to exclusivity etc, or he's delaying as naff all has happened.

Exactly, but just not quite in this manner. The club should be in a position where it sells "reluctantly" and can negotiate decent fees and sell on clauses, not having to accept values akin to "20p and a bag of nuts".

[Snowflake Royal]

Panic selling for cheap your young prospects isn’t a plan. It's what you have to do as a reaction when you've failed to have any plan for six years.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Panic selling for cheap your young prospects isn’t a plan. It's what you have to do as a reaction when you've failed to have any plan for six years.

We all know we're in the shit. It shows more thinking than simply selling the players who command the highest fee, who would have been Smith, Knibbs and Wing given their contracts.

[Hound]

Exactly that on the two posts above

No issue at all with us selling prospects from the academy. Its doing it as a last minute fire sale from no sort of negotiating position to try to get through the season as Dai has decided to no longer uphold his commitments he has made as owner

As also mentioned it’s made the club less attractive and no doubts he hasn’t dropped his asking price

[Snowflake Royal]

Panic selling for cheap your young prospects isn’t a plan. It's what you have to do as a reaction when you've failed to have any plan for six years.

We all know we're in the shit. It shows more thinking than simply selling the players who command the highest fee, who would have been Smith, Knibbs and Wing given their contracts.

None of those players actually command a serious fee though.

They're good L1 players who might get some attention from struggling Championship clubs. They're not hot young prospects.

[Hound]

Panic selling for cheap your young prospects isn’t a plan. It's what you have to do as a reaction when you've failed to have any plan for six years.

We all know we're in the shit. It shows more thinking than simply selling the players who command the highest fee, who would have been Smith, Knibbs and Wing given their contracts.

Not necessarily. Wing is late twenties. Vickers and Abbeys ceiling is far higher than all 3

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Panic selling for cheap your young prospects isn’t a plan. It's what you have to do as a reaction when you've failed to have any plan for six years.

We all know we're in the shit. It shows more thinking than simply selling the players who command the highest fee, who would have been Smith, Knibbs and Wing given their contracts.

None of those players actually command a serious fee though.

They're good L1 players who might get some attention from struggling Championship clubs. They're not hot young prospects.

Maybe more so than a young player. A player like Vickers may pocket us more in the long-term if he moved for a good fee and we had a decent sell on clause, whereas someone like Smith or Wing would probably command a greater up front fee.

[traff]

We all know we're in the shit. It shows more thinking than simply selling the players who command the highest fee, who would have been Smith, Knibbs and Wing given their contracts.

None of those players actually command a serious fee though.

They're good L1 players who might get some attention from struggling Championship clubs. They're not hot young prospects.

Maybe more so than a young player. A player like Vickers may pocket us more in the long-term if he moved for a good fee and we had a decent sell on clause, whereas someone like Smith or Wing would probably command a greater up front fee.

True, but kind of academic unless we are sure the proceeds are to be used to pay the bills, not to go on the roulette table.

[rabidbee]

Has Dai actually ever taken any money out of the club?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

None of those players actually command a serious fee though.

They're good L1 players who might get some attention from struggling Championship clubs. They're not hot young prospects.

Maybe more so than a young player. A player like Vickers may pocket us more in the long-term if he moved for a good fee and we had a decent sell on clause, whereas someone like Smith or Wing would probably command a greater up front fee.

True, but kind of academic unless we are sure the proceeds are to be used to pay the bills, not to go on the roulette table.

I was going to add that's all trivial given our situation at the moment. The above scenario is what even a half decent run club would do, obviously we don't have that "luxury" as it is now.

[Hound]

Has Dai actually ever taken any money out of the club?

No just it’s soul and all sense of optimism and hope