Do you think he can step up? It is a big jump from where hs is at although he is a very good defender.
He's got a lot of people keeping an eye on him, but nobody has taken the plunge yet, I reckon someone will take a gamble soon though, I'm sure his contract is up the end of next season so Grimsby would be daft not to cash In before he leaves for free
This has what's confused me through the whole thing. Despite people insisting we're close to the cap because of the wages we're spending, I just can't believe it when you look at what clubs like Middlesbrough and Stoke would have on their books.
Both have twice our turnover though at least. Middlesboro perhaps 3x. Stoke have he'd to trim wages but Boro have brought in some significant fees also.
Both would have close to twice our wage budgets too. If we've seriously catapulted to one of the highest wage budgets (excluding parachute clubs) in the division, then it just underlines how foolhardy our summer window was in terms of running before we were even crawling.
It's a gamble, but it's an inexpensive one. I don't know where the rumour about Fleming has come from, it's not one I'd heard and last I knew he was going to be first choice. Unless something has happened I'm not aware of.
I'm not sure, while we have three or four bigger earners, the rest of the squad that came in last season or in League One are still on comparatively small, four figure wage sums.
Until I see the side we bought play, I'm not going to say whether it was foolhardy or not. On paper, Oscar and Tetteh are probably upgrades on Eaves and Magennis, Seri and Woods are probably an upgrade on Smallwood and Cannon, Pelkas and Tufan are probably an upgrade on Honeyman and Moncur. Christie has been great, Figs has been disappointing overall but the rest simply haven't played. I do think you have to question pre-season though - they seemed physically unprepared and combined with repeatedly picking up similar kinds of injury I wonder what Shota was up to. Can't see it as all coincidence.
That's what I would have thought, and why I'd still put clubs like Boro, Stoke, maybe even Bristol City, far ahead of us in terms of wage budgets (even if they do have more income than us), not sure what Blackburn, QPR, Milwall, Swansea look like, but would have thought we'd be around their level (Cov too I suppose). Instead of throwing money at it, surely we look at the relative success of Luton, Hudd, Cov, Blackburn etc. in recent seasons and take that approach? I look at clubs sniffing around Stewart at Sunderland and question why we aren't? Taking the best players who perform in the Championship and building a strong core would seem to be the way to go.
