Comments in todays papers about the transfer budget

[Lifelong Supporter]

I have very much enjoyed the last two seasons, however, we are not ready for the Premier league yet - are we?

we have all wanted a change from Hyypia, nice guy just has not worked out.

We did make some good signings on paper, we can all be wise after the event, some appear to have not worked out as we would hope, but lets see what happens now.

Don't forget We still make a huge loss, a good job we have Tony to keep it going and put in a small fortune, we know he has the best interest of the long term future of the club in mind,

At this time remember family is much more important than football (though it is great to see us win!)

Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year,

onward and upward, a win against Reading would be nice,

A nicely balanced post, great.

 

[Bozza]

Sorry, I didn't mean the 'build up a fighting fund' bit - I have no idea on that.

More that - we weren't able/willing to compete at the top-end of Championship wage demands, and that there is a need for honesty around that in order to manage fan expectations but it's a very difficult message to deliver. As Tim said - it's not sexy - particularly post-Gus who was very sexy.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I think all that TB needs to be now is honest, and he probably is.

We (including TB) want to get to The Premier League. We've had a go and it cost a few bob, not so much that it killed the club but too much money at the same time as we were building the training ground, finishing the stadium extensions and building our development squad.

Perhaps we've now decided that we'd have a better chance of Premier League survival and then establishing ourselves in the top flight once the development squad players are established and the training ground is developing more talent.

So we now need to keep our costs to a minimum whilst maintaining Championship status and building up our cash reserves, so we have a fighting fund rather than trying to keep within FFP.

This wouldn't be a bad plan BUT it's not sexy, not seen as ambitious and it's not going to keep the 23,000 STHs, necessarily. It is, however, a good common sense approach IF, and it's a big IF, you can communicate it to the fans, they see some progress and buy into it.

Good post. A lot more sensible than some of the conspiracy theories. It further splits my mind viz a viz messers Barber and Burke. I made a post a while ago with an analogy to my son's school which briefly lost its way when it expanded and added new buildings. I'd be the first to say that David Burke has delivered brilliantly on the Academy but has it been at the expense of paying attention to the recruitment of players? Similarly if this is the long term strategy financially then it makes perfect sense and I can only conclude TB concocted it with Paul Barber's help (that's my opinion btw). So why then come out with all this PLR ready, squad with playoff ability, One Ambition crap? It just makes you look silly when you end up in the bottom three and the p**s taking can hardly help the morale of the club.

 

[Igzilla]

I can live with that. It will definitely influence who we get as manager. Best some people scale down expectations.

I would happily accept a few years of solid Championship football, maybe with the odd flirtation with the playoffs, whilst building up the talent. I think it's properly ambitious, as it's about laying the foundations for a long term, thriving PL club, not a yoyo club like Palace or a spendthrift, "supernova" club like Pompey.

 

[Albion 4ever]

I'm sure Bloom/Barber said that Oscar Garcia had a 4% increase in playing budget when he took over, and I'm sure Bloom/Barber said it had gone up slightly more this year.

 

[somerset]

Sorry, I didn't mean the 'build up a fighting fund' bit - I have no idea on that.

More that - we weren't able/willing to compete at the top-end of Championship wage demands, and that there is a need for honesty around that in order to manage fan expectations but it's a very difficult message to deliver. As Tim said - it's not sexy - particularly post-Gus who was very sexy.

Indeed, that's my point.........but as several have said, if the club says it can't target the Prem from an economic perspective, then ST sales are going to fall, the original idea as we entered the Amex, was that we were now capable of promotion, this idea and the enthusiasm that ensued, underpinned the 20/24k ST sales in season 1 and 2 under Gus.

 

[Bozza]

I'm sure Bloom/Barber said that Oscar Garcia had a 4% increase in playing budget when he took over, and I'm sure Bloom/Barber said it had gone up slightly more this year.

Bloom went on record as saying our player wage expenses this season are higher than ever before. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30004150 - "The cost of our squad this year, in terms of salaries, is higher than it has ever been in our history."

I have speculated before that it could be that our wages are the highest - who are we to doubt Uncle Tony - but our overall playing budget itself could be lower (less spent on player acquisition expenses). We won't know about that for another year and a bit when our accounts for season 2014-15 are released.

 

[jamie the seagull]

I was not saying anything against Derby. They were superb. Fluid attacking football, tactically aware, strong blokes. If we played like Derby this would be a happier place.

They have proved that it's not how much but how you spend it.
They did not spend a fortune on Elphick and Cook (another disastrous decision by our club)...
They can spot a talent and pay to get players who may have a sell on value unlike us (Grabban)

 

[Bozza]

They have proved that it's not how much but how you spend it.
They did not spend a fortune on Elphick and Cook (another disastrous decision by our club)...

Although by all accounts they are paying them far more than we ever would, and that's where the real cost lies.

They can spot a talent and pay to get players who may have a sell on value unlike us (Grabban)

Other than Barnes, Bridcutt, Buckley and Ulloa you mean? (Add Ince and March to that at some point in the future)

 

[Barnham Seagull]

Nothing wrong with planning long term as long as you ensure that we are competitive on the pitch and use your money wisely and have a very good coaching and manager set up.

Unfortunately we seem to have neglected this, spent what money we had on dross, injury prone, bad attitude and players that don't fit in to our squad at the same time as having a very light and in experienced coaching set up headed by a novice manager.

 

[kevtherev]

How many of the current top 6 are getting parachute payments People who are running this place couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.

 

[Mattywerewolf]

They can spot a talent and pay to get players who may have a sell on value unlike us (Grabban)

Ulloa?

 

[Julio]

Did you see the games vs Derby? That wasn't "within a whisker" to my eyes, it looked like quite a sizeable gap in class.

Was at both games; first leg we were a bit unlucky - second leg the wheels well and truly came off. But, we took points from Leicester & Burnely and without so many draws who knows? Derby were and still are the best team in the league.

 

[Notters]

More importantly, it makes all the money and effort us fans put in, seem just a waste of energy over the last 4 seasons. They told us we were targeting the Prem...... when clearly we were never in any sort of financial position to.

Plenty of teams have gone up with a smaller budget than us.

 

[johnjim]

Good,thread sensible conversation for a change,well done everyone and happy Christmas to all. Things can only get better?

 

[Barham's tash]

I'm sure Bloom/Barber said that Oscar Garcia had a 4% increase in playing budget when he took over, and I'm sure Bloom/Barber said it had gone up slightly more this year.

Yes but the more important aspect is that whilst CPI might be running at <2% for the country im pretty sure that on the basis of supply and demand for quality players wage inflation at Championship level is probably still running at somewhere in the region of 5-10% so we're still going backwards.

Bloom went on record as saying our player wage expenses this season are higher than ever before. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30004150 - "The cost of our squad this year, in terms of salaries, is higher than it has ever been in our history."

I have speculated before that it could be that our wages are the highest - who are we to doubt Uncle Tony - but our overall playing budget itself could be lower (less spent on player acquisition expenses). We won't know about that for another year and a bit when our accounts for season 2014-15 are released.

I've heard that this is indeed the case and that we're kind of winging it to try and make the Premierleague at which point TB would be happy to invest further sums specifically on transfer budget. BUT i've said it before and i'll say it again I don't care if we go up or not right now. All I want is for the manager we have to play an attractive brand of football and recognise if things aren't working and play to our strengths not highlight our weaknesses.

That first season back in the Championship at the Amex was almost perfect. Yeah we finished 10th but we played some brilliant football beat some very good teams well, and flirted with the play offs up until just after Christmas, then fell away.

I'd take that any season tbh and then one day everything will click, we will push on and we will go up. Until then lets just enjoy the ride.

 

[Northstander]

what was Burnleys budget last year,anyone got ideas?

I'm happy to be proved wrong but not a massive catchment area

 

[El Presidente]

I think the point is, that there was massive enthusiasm and belief, sold to us by both Bloom and Gus in fact, the target was the Prem. As we now see from successive managers, from a player perspective, we weren't really competing, despite our two flirtations with the playoffs.

But we spent £21 million on wages in 2012/13, how can that not be competing?

 

[Machiavelli]

Although by all accounts they are paying them far more than we ever would, and that's where the real cost lies.



Other than Barnes, Bridcutt, Buckley and Ulloa you mean? (Add Ince and March to that at some point in the future)

Dunk, Walton and maybe JFC too.

 

[El Presidente]

what was Burnleys budget last year,anyone got ideas?

I'm happy to be proved wrong but not a massive catchment area

In 2012/13 it was £15.3 million.