Club for sale etc.

It depends on the scale of investment. Measured risk can be taken, e.g. pump a little extra in which does not jeopardise the clubs future but gives them a slight advantage in the market. If it fails to secure the promotion it intended to fund you can sit on the loss for a while and hope the extra investment at least laid a strong foundation for a promotion push the following season.

Perhaps not the true definition of a sustainable business model, but certainly not high risk.

P.S. I also personally think there us nothing wrong with the clubs budget as it is by the way. It's very competitive for League 2 and sufficient to build a promotion winning team. How it has been spent on the other hand is another matter.

 

Fordy has moaned about everyone at City for years. He was desperate to get Mason out years ago.

 

Exactly. It's always an advantage to have a bigger budget than others, generally the correlation between a better budget and success is a positive. But i'd guess apart from the likes of Wrexham that the gap between the majority of clubs budgets in this division isn't that big as to make that much difference to the quality of your playing squad. Its more about players being brought in to fit a managers needs. This phrase ' competitve budget' doesn't really mean anything, just hot air.

 

God bless.

 

By definition “ Competitive” in the sense being used means absolutely nothing. Meaningless spin. Compared to who, what, how?

 

He’s not happy unless he’s moaning, mostly fact free moaning. Over 20 years you are bound to get something right, however, the message is clear.

Top of the league with little investment Fordys message wouldn’t change because instead of being 3 points clear “ we should be 15 points clear but because Rupp is a tight arse and Sparks is 12 years old we are a failing club”

Read him like a tattered book!

 

All fans should read this. It is funny because last season a couple of months in, I actually thought, well we haven’t pushed the boat out, despite quotes that our budget was top wack. The players we had didn’t quite seem up to it. However, recruitment is key, and maybe if we had ploughed money into the recruiter rather than all going into players we would have done better. Then the manager was not used to players at this level.

 

Just add “competitive budget” to all the other meaningless guff that comes out of the club.
“Not accepting mediocrity”
“Leaner and meaner squad”
“Players with the right character”

I know it’s just generic management speak but don’t be surprised if the fans use it to ridicule you when it’s shown up to be absolute nonsense.

Stuff like that has a habit of coming back to bite you on the arse.

 

I agree, we can’t let Mark Hughes off the hook. I still think his type of football was not easy this low down the pecking order. Finding players we could afford must have been a nightmare. Let alone finding players who could either adapt or were skilled enough to play this style with ease. It left us short in many key areas. He was stubborn and wanted his own way. He would have been better adapting to a 442 or a hybrid of that system he would have found plenty of players, we also might have had good strikers now if he had.

 

Thanks for wording it better than i could have Dennis, that describes my points down to a tee. At lower levels the scale of economics mean a better budget in league 2 equates to effectively a few hundred quid on each wage packet. Not enough to make as much of a difference than a club with a lower budget but with a better run organisation. Especially taking into account living in different areas of the country or being nearer family etc.

 

Hughes blew the budget. It’s not all about budget at this level but it does take something remarkable higher up the leagues to break the correlation. Luton Town was a fantastic example of that last season getting out of the Championship with the third(?) lowest budget in their league.

 

Don't forget the classic after Adams was announced as manager, 'anything less than promotion will be seen as failure'. Three seasons later and here we still are.

 

It seems Gents stock goes up or down dependant on whether we have won or lost at the weekend. I'm not Sparks biggest fan, he talks too much like David Brent, but he can't be blamed for Hughes and Gent not singing off the same hymn sheet. Ultimately the blame of failure with the playing squad rests with the manager.

 

Well he can. Sparks should‘ve got them on the same page.

On football matters Sparks is failing and that’s clear. Here we go again, trying to trust a man that has got it wrong, over and over again.

 

You're right, Hughes shouldn't be let off the hook but neither should the person signing these deals off.

 

And I’m sure other posters can think of a few more.

 

Its like you employing folk for your 'car wash' then having to teach them how to clean cars.

 

If you think back to when we appointed MH among the ramataz there was genuine worry from “just fans” that his knowledge of lower league football was non existent. So employed a side kick who had experience of lower leagues and apparently set piece specialist “cough” however we had no knowledge of his stuburness where his word was law. Or his social skills, ie unable to find a way to talk to players and I still confidence, or just a spoonful of Stuart’s ease with players.