Most liked posts in thread: Transfers (also ambition/investment/ground & lots more.....)

Show me a photo of a squad from the 60's and I could probably name most, if not all, of them without hesitation. Show me a picture of the current squad and I would probably struggle with half of them. Why is that I wonder?

 

Christ this thread has turned monotonous.

 

So have I but behind closed doors?, if so we might as well have played out the season but with the EFL nothing surprises me. In reality we have to have fans in stadiums for the revenue. As has been said elsewhere, despite what we may say about our club it is undeniable that we provide a big pay day to many clubs when we visit with our following. Just like Sunderland, Plymouth and others. If I were a club owner I would not fancy seeing a fixture list with City at my ground behind closed doors.
Then there is the question of testing costs. Then the question of taking players off furlough for pre-season training, when?. Then there is the question of new signings/contracts and a likely salary cap which from my other post I am fearing won't be high enough to feed the club cat.

I really am fearing today and if I'm right with my fear, I fear the future of L1 & 2 football by the actions of an authority which has shown no track record of pragmatic leadership over recent months, in my personal opinion.

 

We’re probably offering pennies compared to rivals and going cheap because we get bigger crowds and are a bigger club etc... that’s how naive I think Stuart and Rhodes are, that players will go for it.
Lower league players, in the vast majority will go where there’s most money and security, I don’t believe for a second they care about the size of the club or home crowds. If Barrow offered me £200 more a week than Bolton I know where I’d be going. Football isn’t nearly as “romantic” as it’s made out to be - you only have to look at Eoin Doyle, fed Swindon with a pile about how he loved it there and checked their results after playing for us - now signing for Bolton in the league below Swindon.

 

If this is in fact true and Clarke signs I'll be gobsmacked. Screams of nothing more than short sightedness and incredibly lazy recruitment. Old boys club living on past glories, when it's a buyers market and real talent to be had for knock down prices. If that's the best we can do then we can expect an utterly dreadful season ahead folks...

 

When Cooke first arrived and was playing in his favoured attacking midfield role, he looked a good player to me, one of our better players in that Autumn spell when we were doing well. However, Bowyer then thought it best to play him in a more defensive role, and he didn't look the same player.

I would welcome him back with open arms, and if he does return, hopefully McCall sees fit to play him in an attacking midfield role, with perhaps the Wolves lad Watt coming in for the defensive midfield role?

 

How folk still take those EFL rumour accounts seriously is beyond me. It’s the equivalent of getting a dodgy ad on your phone and believing the local Milf living 2 streets away for you wants to f**k. Stop being so gullible. A spotty nerd sitting behind his computer desk does not have the inside track of 92 football clubs.

Anything they get right is either through chance or is Information that is already out there and easily accessible.

 

I love McCall but his signings from his previous spells are more like one good one in ten. Rather than the one in 2 or 3 we will need if we have a wage cap. Add Rhodes into that mix and i fear for our ability to build a squad

 

Isn't that supposed to be our tag line

 

I’d put them up to £230 - tenner a game, people have missed footy a lot, especially Saturday as a whole - few pints with your mates etc. They have to go up eventually, it’s simple economics. 99% of my mates and myself included have actually come out of this pandemic better off financially due to the fact we can’t physically spend our money on holidays, nights out etc. £230 isn’t even a lot in the grand scheme of season ticket prices, couldn’t see us losing many, if any, with a raise to this. An extra £80 from 10,000 adults is £800,000, that’s a huge injection in this division.

 

Bolton seem to mean business. New management team with 200k outlay to get them. Doyle on a 3 year deal on good money.

Whereas we seem scared of a non-existent wage cap and are looking to sign a player who wasn’t really that good in the previous two spells for us. It’s going to be a long old season

 

Good English on that account....

 

Typical Rhodes. Get rid of a player with ability to save some cash and replace them with shite on peanuts. If Stuart wants to keep him he needs to put his foot down because replacing vaughan with anyone willing to play on 1k a week will be a shambles.

 

It's beyond silly.Supporters won't stand for this carry on.
They will not renew season tickets to watch Deja vu FC.
I sincerely hope it's a load of garbage.

 

Bolton's first signing Doyle
Salford sign Tom Clarke
Mansfield sign Ollie Clarke

Bradford City sign Levi Bloody Sutton and linked to Billy Caravan Clarke

It's going to be a long, long season for us...

 

Good post. As with any football club or business, the strategy and the vision have to come from the top down. We have no plan whatsoever. Nothing tangible to grow the club, no real identity. You don't even have to look at anything as material as the ground ownership situation - just look at our transfer business last season. We sign Vaughan - a proven goalscorer - then we play defensive football and loan him out in the January. Now we're hawking him around because we 'can't afford his wages'. Pathetic. We're a shambles of an outfit and as a club, we're right we're we deserve to be - 4th division plodders.