The exodus begins

[MikeSB]

LB has been here a very long time and he knows that we pay one of the lowest wages in the whole of professional football and so no way is any player wanting to stay here if other clubs will play a lot higher wages. So it was highly presumptious to think all the squad would want to stay here...Its not a silly question to ask how the heck can Gills pay a lot more than we can...Are all these clubs run by american millionaires?

There is no such word as 'loyalty' in any job including football when its people's natural choice to go where the money is..It would be interesting to know how much we pay the players compared with other clubs in the lower leagues and even non league..We surely cannot afford to pay for a Cat2 academy when its costing the club so much money that we cannot compete with other clubs our size. Of course its possible that it cost the club next to nothing and why the Chairman persists with it...but we are losing a lot of money in L2..Is it possible we would be signing players who spend more time injured, than playing? Its still crazy to have so many non footballers at a club our size when each one means lower wages for the players!

[Gobstopper]

LB has been here a very long time and he knows that we pay one of the lowest wages in the whole of professional football and so no way is any player wanting to stay here if other clubs will play a lot higher wages. So it was highly presumptious to think all the squad would want to stay here...Its not a silly question to ask how the heck can Gills pay a lot more than we can...Are all these clubs run by american millionaires?

There is no such word as 'loyalty' in any job including football when its people's natural choice to go where the money is..It would be interesting to know how much we pay the players compared with other clubs in the lower leagues and even non league..We surely cannot afford to pay for a Cat2 academy when its costing the club so much money that we cannot compete with other clubs our size. Of course its possible that it cost the club next to nothing and why the Chairman persists with it...but we are losing a lot of money in L2..Is it possible we would be signing players who spend more time injured, than playing? Its still crazy to have so many non footballers at a club our size when each one means lower wages for the players!

You do have to wonder how Gillingham can afford a lot more than we can, they are not a bigger club than us so they must have some financial backing. I don't believe its the academy that is the problem as long as it produces players that will play in the first team, but we probably do need to get a return on some of those players, not sure how you achieve that. However some of our better players over the years have come through the academy and some of the players we currently have who have come through our academy will have a pivotal part to play in the season to come. Tabiner, Williams, Billington, Pope, Holicek, Finney, Lunt, I would like to add Rio to that list , but there is a question mark over whether he will be here or not. I still believe the academy has positives which outweigh the costs.

I noted that Long has signed not a surprise given his injury record which fits in your narrative signing players who spend more time injured. I thought it was a risk signing him last year, did we get a return on that? no doubt people will have there own view on that. He has signed a new contract and is still a Crewe player so we need to give him our full support. We need some positive news relating to the other out of contract players, although I think we will lose Offord and Rio.