Despite my fear that the topic may be hijacked, I wish to discuss how the club will be financed in future years.
Although there have been increased budgets over the last couple of years and the quality of recruitment has improved, the finances available seem to be at their maximum and have not been able to deepen the squad strength. This cannot go on as there is money swirling around at other clubs at our level and we may, eventually, cease to be competitive. There is a chance that some of these clubs are desperately chucking money at their situation hoping to gain instant rewards, which may, in the long term, rebound on them and cause financial ruin. It may also be possible that some of the 'sugar daddies' will realise the extent of long-term financial commitment necessary and pull out, leaving their clubs in real trouble.
However, this will not be true of all cases and with the economy being such a disaster and costs rising all the time, the general outlay just to remain stationery will continue to rise.
A few years ago, at the Alex, a potentially ruinous major shareholder was ousted. In an attempt to prevent any single person threatening the future of the club again, the structure of the management of the club was changed so that no single shareholder could hold more than a 12.5% share. This seemed (and still does) at the time very noble and preferable. However what this does is maintain the club at the level it currently is as it restricts the possibility of large influxes of cash that could be used to push the Alex forward.
Don't mistake what I've said as a condemnation of what we have. It is, as I said at the beginning, purely a desire to start a discussion. The chances are that I don't know the full picture or am looking at the situation at a slant.
It's just that the size of our squad seems to be limited by finances and this has been on my mind for a while. Last year and the current have seen a small number of scholars offered a contract. This is not necessarily due to the limited quality of talent among the scholars but has been decided by a financial imperative.
Add to all this the fact that Man City are now making counter moves against the Premier League in order the smash all financial sustainability regulations and the fact that with the announcement of a General Election, the progress of the football governance Bill has been halted, the economic future of football as we know it is under threat. How are a club the size of the Alex going to cope?