Junior Hoilett

agree gandy. no point throwing money that we don't have around in an attempt to stay up. been there, done that, bought the t-shirt... well, got the t-shirt, didn't pay for it until the interest was too much that i couldn't afford to pay for it and then had to sell all my t-shirts in order to finance the interest payments etc etc etc...

 

So what is the way forward?

Do you see us staying in the premier league doing what we are doing year on year? Or do you think there will be a time where we have enough cash to raise our wage cap and transfer budget to afford the more expensive players like Hoilett and Moses?

I am not talking about being spending money we don't have now, more for the future when we have had a few seasons of revenue in from the premier league and are back totally in the black and have cash in reserve.

 

The main objective along with staying in the Premier League is to get rid of all external debt. Getting an expensive player won't help that. Then we can maube consider the slightly more expensive player.

 

i think we have to be realistic. the long term plan is to become established in the top flight with a 35k stadium, top academy and be self-sufficient so that if we ever do go down we won't suffer heavily from the loss of tv revenue.

so how do we get to that stage? staying up next season would be a great start! this would mean we also have access to the far bigger tv money deal coming in the season after next. this automatically will give us far greater resources. in my opinion, tied in with the new tv deal is is to make sure we are debt free - this is happening whether people want to or not next april, so that's good, but means we have our hands tied this summer. if we stay up next season, then we can really push on and see the wage cap lifted, but not by much unfortunately. next up is to get the stadium as big as possible. until we are punching at our real supporter weight and filling it, which i think should be the 35k suggested, we are going to struggle to pay bigger wages. once that is done then i think our plans will fall into place, but its still a while away. until that point, we have to remain patient and understand that the club are doing their best behind the scenes with what they have got, and that the reason they are doing it this way is to make sure we all have a club to support for many years to come. if we go down next season, it is a setback, but it wouldn't be the disaster that others may suffer from.

 

It has to be consolidation before expansion. Establish ourselves (if we can) as a Prem League team, rid ourselves of debt and then look at ways we can expand the brand and bring in players with a bit more exotica.

We must have the club set on the right foot financially before anything else happens no matter how "unambitious" that may appear to be.

 

Good post,

Sometimes what you write can be mis-interpreted by others. I didn't mean we should get Hoilett as I said in my first post that I knew he would be out of our wage league. But, I like him and would love to see us getting players like that in the future at some point. He is young and I think a good talent.

However, I would not like it to put our club at risk of bankruptcy. It is exciting times for city fans and I hope we can build on this success and really establish ourselves in the top flight. We really could do with a larger stadium though, this should be looked at very soon when/if we manage to stay up this season this would mean that we would be self sufficient.

 

kemp, i gathered you didn't think we should get hoilett. i don't think anyone realistically believes we are capable of affording him right now. you're right - he's the sort of player we should be signing in the future though. the ground expansion is extremely important - it is currently holding us back.

 

The gate receipts for the expansion would guarentee that we would be self sufficient. Also, it would be easier to get casual tickets......hopefully!

Do you think expand CR or move?

 

i really don't see the need to move! there is plenty of room for expansion at our current location. the maths is rough but we either knock down and rebuild the city stand for say £8m or we build a 35k stadium for £80m. no contest!

 

I love Carrow Road. Atmosphere is the best and I would like to stay there.

I seem to remember some talk a while back about relocating. I wonder how much the land is worth where CR is?

 

also, i like the character of our stadium - these new 'bowls' tend to lack soul

 

My opinion is that we do what we can this season with what we have plus a couple of unspectacular signings to improve our weaker areas. Even with what we have I reckon we have a better chance of staying up this year than we had this time last season - we have Bennett/Howson/Butterfield and virtually all of our players have decent top flight experience.

Regardless of where we finish the debt goes (hurrah!). If we go down we hold what we have and use the parachute money to strengthen for a promotion push. If we stay up for me the priority is getting the capacity of FCR up. This will give the club a significant perpetual revenue stream and allow us to compete with the next tier of clubs in the PL and significantly increase our chances of being premier league fixtures. I know it is football run by accountants but we cannot throw £10m-£15m plus wages at improving the squad.

 

its disappointing really but this is bang on. without the better infrastructure at the club, any larger deals or bigger wages would only put the club in jeopardy again. 17th next season, although at first glance may seem slightly disappointing at not being able to build on last season, would in fact be a great season. its all about survival

 

Forgetting hoilett for a second but why the hell are we not in for Clyne with Southampton?!

 

i'm not sure that we aren't, but he's very expensive. i'd love to see him here

 

At some stage, I believe we will get relegated again. Its a matter of probability rather than possibility. With the increase in SKY money and if it keeps growing, clubs will attract even more foreign owners and the inevitability that despite the financial fair play legislation, clubs will throw money at achieving success or even the staus quo.
We do not appear, certainly while Delia is owner, appear to be falling for that one. And we won't be alone in that philosophy. And that will put us into a group of clubs who will eventually be relegated.
Can we make Delia immortal?

 

how often does 'chasing the dream' work?

would be interesting to know how many clubs, certainly of our size, some even bigger, have thrown more money at it than they had available to them. where are they now...?

i'm sure we'd all go and watch our club irrespective of divisional status so is it really worth risking the club just so we can try and get high up the top division?

that doesn't mean we shouldn't aim to be the best we can but not at the expense of the club's long term future.

 

Try looking no further than Fratton Park .....

 

How do they have creditors getting a penny in the pound for the second time! Who was mug enough to give them credit?

 

hoillett flying to germany for talks with moenchen gladbach, which is not surprising. imagine they can offer at least double what would be on the table from us.