I understand that, but my point was, investors look at potential as well as finances. If I'm an investor and i want to buy a football club, you look at recent league positions to narrow your options, then (almost in tandem) check their finances. Plenty of PL clubs losing more than us, but still pick up investors due to having a higher profile.
Considering the **** show he inherited I think he’s done really well, we now seem to be through the worst of it, so I agree this season we have the be too half at the very least and threatening the top 6. I think the investor issue would be much more nuanced than just our league position.
He was bang in in regards good uns coming through, if it wasn’t for our academy lads we really would’ve been in trouble. Of course NP and the coaching staff have to take credit for their emergence as well.
The team wasn't a $h1t$how, it went to the last day of the previous season under LJ with a chance - albeit slim of making the play-offs. Financially, yes, but that was down to COVID, it threw everybody for a curve. Others adapted better than us, others didn't, such as Derby, Stoke, Reading etc.
True, but by that token, you have to give the same credit to LJ for the emergence of Bryan, Reid etc. Many on here won't they say they were signed by other managers, and LJ was "lucky" to inherit these "crown jewels"...
I meant financially, he deserves great credit for turning the finances around whilst remaining in this league and now being in the position to push on next season.
I’m not LJ never had 6/7 academy players in a squad .,NP has had too and still managed14th this season,,that’s some feat.
Ashton, that ‘sh1t show’ managed to achieve higher league finishes than his squad has. It’s subjective. Nige has done well on a limited budget, but the EFL only considers league position when working out who gets promoted or relegated.
The **** show I’m referring to is our financial position and paying very high wages, we were lucky to avoid any form of sanctions, NP has this season achieved 14th position whilst eventually getting rid of most of our high earners, If we get the summer recruitment right, with a bit of luck, we could be in for an exciting season.
I think that argument has been done to death.. Affordable before covid, not affordable after.. simples.. we move on!
On that we probably agree. Also probably not what you meant though……. The LJ era spent big, like a lot of clubs did whilst the market was buoyant and achieved top half Championship - 8th place or thereabouts on consecutive seasons. FACT. The NP era came after COVID bit and when many clubs including our own had to trim the wages bill to dodge FFP. Nige has done this successfully and I’m glad about that. No complaints. He’s done a good job. My only comment - which constantly gets shot down - is that LJ/Ashton worked within the boundaries of the football environment as it was during their tenure. It was bountiful back then. It’s no longer bountiful and Nige has had his hands tied tighter than his predecessors - and he’s done well. I’m not sure if we are even disagreeing - I’m happy with Nige. He’s done good. End of.
I think with hindsight we spent too much before COVID as well. A lot of clubs did, hence so many getting points deductions etc. We were all guilty,as fans we wanted those marquee signings COVID.to an extent brought all non premier league clubs to their senses. An example is Kalas, unless a p/p club or possibly foreign club, comes in for him, it’s very unlikely he’ll get anywhere near. his present salary again, certainly not here.
The problem was, the prize of getting promoted was so lucrative clubs were prepared to gamble in order to get promoted. Also the fact that historically if you were successful and got promoted the penalty for achieving it illegally wasn’t high enough, and the gains outweighed any possible sanctions. Often there were no penalties at all unless you got relegated back to the championship. Most clubs pushed themselves right to the limit and often beyond hoping they’d be successful.
Whilst previously we had players we could trade on like Bryan, Reid, Webster and Kelly. Who at the end of the last year of LJ/ MA year did we have that could have been traded on to make enough money to sustain the spending then?
For us, the other way of looking at it, We needed to finance to secure our championship status, before then we yo-yoed with league 1, we were not a fashionable club that players wanted to come too.. had it not been for that period, I believe we wouldn’t be where we are today..
