Short termism is exactly what everyone wanted! Either we want to be in the premiership or we don't. We have the man who's made a career out of getting promoted, I'm more than happy to let him do his job. If he wants to sell Clayton, or Snoddy, that's his move. He knows how to get teams promoted, and I trust him
We'll probably end up with a new nucleus, and after the disaster of a season we've just had, that's fine with me. Obviously this could end in an even worse disaster, but I'm happy with Warnock and until I have reason to believe otherwise, I trust him to sort the side out and at least get us into the play offs.
Ken Bates: "They will learn this summer. We have a squad of 30, we intend to cut it to 21-22, and we intend to get value for money. Fans are entitled to it and it is all we can afford." Today we lost 5 & put 6 on "the list". How many can we expect to come in?
Average wage based on 31 players on a budget of £11.6 million is £7100 a week. Take the ~ 1 million we paid on fees that year out of it and it was still £6500 a week. Consider we've spent £13.5 million on players this season, take out the ~1 million on fees - it's £7700 a week. Now, either we give Clayton, one of our better players and certainly one with potential at the very least, the £9k a week he wants, or we can kick and scream and piss and moan about players getting paid more than they should and FFP and debt and blah blah etc until the end of time. The first option isn't unreasonable when you consider the deficit is made up for by having at least 4 players (the youth) on significantly less than the average I've worked out, and further consider that our "massive" 31 man squad is getting cut down to about 23 players. A wage budget of £12.5 million based on what I expect we've spent on fees, split between 23 players is £10.4k a week. That's an average, so our best players can get £15k a week without taking the piss, easily, considering we'll have lots of youth in the squad (5 new academy graduates, Turner x2, Taylor, Thompson - that's 9 players. If you assume the youth players are on average £2k a week, take it out of the numbers and the average wage bill available for the other 14 potential players is £15.8k a week. That is absolutely astounding, so why are these contract terms so "unreasonable"? Based on bates own squad culling plans, Clayton can get exactly what he's asking for plus extra without breaking the bank. I can only see this as the club refusing to pay players what they are worth.
Certainly not what I want! This is a **** or bust strategy that is much more likely to end up as bust. I want us to build up from the academy, with every player playing in a certain way, exactly like Martinez put in place at Swansea. This would take 5 years, and we would have players coming through who would fit in whenever any player needs replacing. It would be a lot cheaper too, and we would not go through this stupid firesale and purchase bollox every year, with the (hollow and unfulfilled) promise of promotion at the end of it. We could have much lower wages, much lower prices, much lower expectations, much higher community involvement, much better morale in the fans, less arrogance, and a long term solution to get us into the Prem and keep us there. We are more likely to be relegation fodder than promotion material next season. This is a **** strategy that has zero foundations.
Don't get me wrong, that sounds brilliant as far as I'm concerned. But you ask the majority of our fans - they want promotion. They believe we have this God given right to be in the premiership. I'd prefer to plan long term, definitely. But for one reason or another, we're not planning long term. Therefore, if we're aiming to get into the premiership next season, I think we have the right man for the job, and whatever he thinks is right, I'll back him until he gives me a reason not to.
We'll let you have him in a bundle package that includes star names such as Rachubka, O'Brien and the goalscoring phenomenon that is Billy Paynter
Claytons own words "As my last retweet didn't seem to make sense to many of you... I DIDN'T ask for 15k a week." How many more players won't match what there worth? How many more will be "good business"? The way this club is run is a joke. Lies, deceit and bullshit from the very heart (albet stone cold one) of Bates and co.
!! We'll surely have to fork out for that! How about 5m rated CB Matt Mills and former League one team of the season player Jermaine Beckford? Maybe we could add Chris Weale? He nearly saved some penalties in the playoffs you know?!
Yeah I know, that group of players are the hallmark of quality in the football league. Played 20 times between them in the league this season, would you believe it! Mills and Beckford?! What a generous offer! And who could forget a great like Chris Weale...the man who almost saved a penalty in the play offs You know what, you could even have yourself a deal...
It does not surprise me one little bit that Clayton didn't ask for 15k a week. So here we go again, looking to get rid of our promising under 25's. It really riles me how Bates and co will not offer a decent contract to a player can only keep improving. We could be easily building a team around players like Clayton, Howson, Johnson and Snodgrass ( who I also think will be gone this summer). Surely the more games they'd have had together, the better they would become. But now we're left with rebuilding another team, which will probably take until Christmas to fully gel and finsh 7-12th again next season. I like the Warnock appointment and wish him all the best, but I am on a real downer about everything that continues to happen at my club, and while ever that stupid old twat is jn charge I don't ever think it will be any different. I won't be getting excited about promotion and will expect to play in this league at best for at least the next couple of seasons. MOT
There is as much truth about my affair with Lady Di than there is about Clayton asking for £15k per week, it's the usual bullshit from the Leeds United mafia and some people appear to have fallen for it yet again. Clayton may not actually be that good and I can see both sides of the argument about keeping him or letting him go, however what should not be up for debate is why he has been put on the transfer list, it's for money making and nothing else.
In all honesty, I think I'd prefer to sell Snoddy than sell Clayton. I know snoddy has had a better season but I think Clayton will have a better future and has more potential to be able to play in the premier league. This is a **** decision and this is why I ****ing hate Warnock
The clayton thing has clearly come as a bit of a surprise to us all. Interesting though to listen to Tom Kirwin on Yorkshire radio yesterday. He said that Warnock plans to strengthen the midfield, by which I think he means the boiler room in the centre. TK goes on to say that with this in mind, Clayton would not have been a guaranteed starter. So whatever the truth about how much Clayton's reps may have been asking for, I'm not sure that clayton is actually worth a great deal more than what he's currently getting. Let's look at it this way. Brown does not do glamourous. He just sits in CM & breaks up attacks. His only real problem is his age & that he's approaching the end of his career. That said, I hope we keep him for a year or two yet. Snoddy, when in the right frame of mind, can run a game. Beccs & Ross already finish off plenty of chances. With Somma returning next season, hopefully not showing any ill effects of a long lay off, this will help our attack. Where does Clayton actually fit in to all of this? How many times this season has he actually run the game from CM? Even allowing for it not being our greatest season ever, he still isn't the dominant force we need. If, & it's a big if at the moment, Warnock brings in a CM who can run the game for us that helps us up to auto promotion, we'll judge this as the right decision. If he doesn't & we don't, then so be it. It'll be another year or two before we finally get out of this league. I'm reserving judgement on yesterday activities for the moment until I see who we bring in. Pity about Bruce & Nunez. I think selling/getting rid of Paynter will come back to haunt us. But of the rest, so be it.
Completely agree Clayton's a good player, with the potential to be a lot better, but he doesn't run the games all the time. We need a CM capable of doing so, and doing it on a regular basis if we want to be promoted. Obviously if we sell him and Warnock doesn't manage to bring in anyone better, it begins to look bad, but providing he does bring in someone, I think it's the right move.
