Oxford

[MikeSB]

Thank you Terry Harkin...Now there a user name for you from yesteryear and maybe its actually TH himself or at least who saw him play as I did in the 1964/5 season when he scored 35 goals for us which was a record for the club at the time. I was about 20 years of age at the time and saw him play every home game and a few away too. Just looking at Wiki reminded me he signed from Port Vale for 2000 pounds at the time which showed we had some ambition even then lol..

Someone posted that saving 760K from the academy would not make much difference but that would depend on how much we pay our players which always has been a secret here for some reason. Maybe its because its so low, its embarrasing? But lets say we pay a 1000 pounds a week now for a senior player...could be way out as I don't know, does anyone else? So that would explain why we can't sign anyone and if we could increase that to say 2000 pounds a week then how many players could we sign for that sum? You work it out and even that may not be enough but in my example we are doubling the wages for X number of players with X being the real question but 760K from the academy equals 15 players getting the extra 1K a week? And we would still have some younger players from an academy based at Shavington like Dario did in the old days...who would be on less...

My figures may we way out but the point is the money saved from the 760K would help to pay better wages and possibly enable us to sign players like Accrington do....

Just to add it has never made sense to have an asssistant manager when you have a manager sitting in the Stand etc. He surely has enough time to see them train during the week? Then add the under 23 manager, and his assistant, then the under 18 manager and assistant, then an academy manager, physchologist, goalkeepr coach what a laugh that is....well you get the drift as what's wrong with a club our size!! I would think a new Chairman and BoD would suss all this out?

I was wondering when David Platt signed for us and that was about 1984...was that before we moved to RH?

[Terry Harkin]

Thank you Terry Harkin...Now there a user name for you from yesteryear and maybe its actually TH himself or at least who saw him play as I did in the 1964/5 season when he scored 35 goals for us which was a record for the club at the time. I was about 20 years of age at the time and saw him play every home game and a few away too. Just looking at Wiki reminded me he signed from Port Vale for 2000 pounds at the time which showed we had some ambition even then lol..

I chose Terry Harkin as a user name because I have a foot in both camps I'm a season ticket holder at the Vale and I get to as many Alex games as possible including a few away games.

And yes I did see Terry play didn't pull any trees up for the Vale really but was on fire for Crewe.

I know it doesn't fit well that I follow Port Vale on here, but anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a football nut and coming from Crewe originally I really want the Alex to do well.

[gazan]

Let's see; 760k a year- that's roughly 14.5k a week. Divided by let's say 22 players = approx 660 a week. That is actually worthwhile, at face value. However, that's only based on the current salary levels including 1st year professionals and scholars, all of whom have a chance of playing in the 1st team. BUT, to have a group of seasoned pros would make the baseline salary bill much higher than it already is and would probably use up the 760,000 before you attract 'higher quality' players.
There would also definitely have to be other sources of revenue stream in order to just maintain the team. With the current rate of turnover of players plus inflation, the club would always be running in order to stand still.
Finally, speaking for myself, there is great pride to be had in continually turning out new talent at the club, something we never did before the academy arrived.

[Timmy58]

Finally, speaking for myself, there is great pride to be had in continually turning out new talent at the club, something we never did before the academy arrived.

And that is the ultimate pleasure in watching the Alex. It has been a pleasure to watch them over the years and I hope it continues