Next two weeks will show us what ambition this club has.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

We simply will not attract suitable players if we do not offer competitive wages. Suspect Richardson is meeting the same reluctance that Taylor (30-40 failed recruitment attempts in last window ?) encountered. So annoyingly predictable. Doubt anything will change until Mr Stewart sells the club and that i would guess is probably closer than many people think.

We pay the higher wages but then go bust, how is that a good idea?

The club doesn’t have an infrastructure nor support to finance high wage bills

Or then again we could wing it like Reading and other similar clubs and at best hope to finish half way up the Championship

[MillerBill]

We pay the higher wages but then go bust, how is that a good idea?

The club doesn’t have an infrastructure nor support to finance high wage bills

Or then again we could wing it like Reading and other similar clubs and at best hope to finish half way up the Championship

That's a load of rubbish.We have had over 6 million from the Championship TV deal +over 2 million in season ticket sales+1 million for Barlaser+1.3 million for Wiles.We spent just under a million for Nombe and 400k for Tiehi.With a wage bill of 5.5 million,there's still a decent amount of money that LR should be given to improve this squad.

[caytonmiller]

Plenty saying LR has tightened us up and made us hard to beat. Maybe he has but at the detriment at the other end. I haven't looked at the stats but I'm willing to bet our attempts at goal are a lot lower under LR than under MT.

[caytonmiller]

That's a load of rubbish.We have had over 6 million from the Championship TV deal +over 2 million in season ticket sales+1 million for Barlaser+1.3 million for Wiles.We spent just under a million for Nombe and 400k for Tiehi.With a wage bill of 5.5 million,there's still a decent amount of money that LR should be given to improve this squad.

Barlaser fee was 900k. Wiles fee was undisclosed.
Nombe fee was 1 million and
tiehi fee was undisclosed but said to be a record signing at the time. The old record was ladapo again undisclosed but thought to be 500k.
Can I ask Where did you get the 5.5 million wage bill from?

[MillersTime]

But if they are outperforming their contract, vastly in some instances, and have heard of murmurs about other clubs being interested (for more money), they are highly likely to not be that interested in extending their stay. Play another season, the club will then either be forced to sell so they don't lose out completely or you can run down your deal and secure even more money when signing somewhere else for three.

The incentive to sign isn't there. The fact Viktor did is astonishing and a massive outlier. That shows his respect for the club. If I were him would I of? Probably not, for the reasons stated above.

Barlaser was better than us and knew it.
Chieo likewise.
Wes thinks he is, although pretty meh, can still get more elsewhere.
Smith ran it down and then had full flexibility, he wanted to see where we were come the end of the season if I remember correctly.

We all want to extend our best players at the best time for the best period, but it doesn't happen. That being said, they definitely should try extending the deals of some. Ollie seemed keen, we should be all over that. I agree.

I'm looking forward to it being pointed out where I have lost touch with reality in my response....

Break down the multitude of errors, please...

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

That's a load of rubbish.We have had over 6 million from the Championship TV deal +over 2 million in season ticket sales+1 million for Barlaser+1.3 million for Wiles.We spent just under a million for Nombe and 400k for Tiehi.With a wage bill of 5.5 million,there's still a decent amount of money that LR should be given to improve this squad.

And where does the money come from to pay all of the NYS staff, to repay various loans and to pay match day stewarding etc?

Outgoing money is much more than just player wages.

[howdydoo]

You’re living in cloud cuckoo land if you think the wage bill is £5.5m

In 2021 it was over £8m with NI payments etc.

Turnover was over £12m and we still posted a loss of over £700k.

There will only be any money available if we sell our keeper.

[flourbasher]

Not sure what your point is flower?
Are you saying don’t tie down players like oddofin.
And when you say people said this or that. I’m on about the club doing what’s right and they haven’t consistently successfully done that with contracts for a long time. Victor excluded.
People will always have opinions on players etc you can’t use the fans difference of opinions as a get out for the club.
I’m generally a happy clapper but we’re a mess in a lot of aspects at the moment mate. Having a pop at supporters however inconsistent the views may seem doesn’t mask the situation we are in.

PR
Only just seen this apologies for the delayed response
The point I was making is that the sport of football is very fluid and can change very quickly.
Hence it,s very difficult to decide what is the best strategy and course of action.
A lot of people seem to be blaming Tony, Paul Douglas, Matt Taylor even LR now.
In the Summer transfer window many fans were really happy with recruitment and we’d gone up a few notches in terms of budget and quality.
We then had some fantastic performances and results at home including Blackburn, Norwich,Preston , Coventry. We looked as though we could survive again but then catastrophic injuries happened. We seemed to be having 2 every game or so. That’s what’s killed us.

Since then fans turned on the ex manager, blamed poor recruitment, not handing out better contracts etc
Taking odoffin as an example , he’s only shown consistent form this autumn in over 2.5 seasons. He’s had opportunities, admittedly sporadic ones , but he’s taken a long time to hit cship quality. So what were we to do with him?

I’m not blaming or criticising fans I’m just pointing out that hindsight is a wonderful thing and there seems to be some significant U turns in opinion

[NYSRich]

Don’t know who’ve you been watching, but Odoffin has been one of our most consistent performers for the past 12 months.

[Pocket rocket]

PR
Only just seen this apologies for the delayed response
The point I was making is that the sport of football is very fluid and can change very quickly.
Hence it,s very difficult to decide what is the best strategy and course of action.
A lot of people seem to be blaming Tony, Paul Douglas, Matt Taylor even LR now.
In the Summer transfer window many fans were really happy with recruitment and we’d gone up a few notches in terms of budget and quality.
We then had some fantastic performances and results at home including Blackburn, Norwich,Preston , Coventry. We looked as though we could survive again but then catastrophic injuries happened. We seemed to be having 2 every game or so. That’s what’s killed us.

Since then fans turned on the ex manager, blamed poor recruitment, not handing out better contracts etc
Taking odoffin as an example , he’s only shown consistent form this autumn in over 2.5 seasons. He’s had opportunities, admittedly sporadic ones , but he’s taken a long time to hit cship quality. So what were we to do with him?

I’m not blaming or criticising fans I’m just pointing out that hindsight is a wonderful thing and there seems to be some significant U turns in opinion

Thanks flour.
In my original post I agree with you about the blame culture it has to be someone to blame.
That’s the issue for us we get a player in and if he’s deemed not to be championship quality then it’s a poor signing. Oddofin is a great example as I agree he was deemed as not good enough.
Fans will always change their minds on here it’s evident as on social media.
I do stand by original point though a long term plan needs to be implemented now. If that means we accept we’re only going to sign players of a certain age/criteria etc which may mean a few years in league 1 so be it.