I am sure as I get older I less understand football. I am either getting left behind with the times so to speak, or I never really did understand it in the first place. I thought the aim was to build your best possible team, in an aim to get promoted and then hold on to that team with minor adjustments to suit the next level. Now do not get me wrong, Martin Allen gets my support but here we are with recent rumours speculating about Jack Payne and Paulo Gazzaniga, probably two of the first names on a teamsheet. Along comes a Pampers League club and a Championship club and as usual for £££'s we are going to sell to the usual greedy elite. Football has become a business, much more so than the early days of my support and we are part of that supply chain. People talk with forked tongue though, much like a reptile. One minute we have got a good L2 side that just missed out on promotion, purely I hasten to add and supposedly due to Hessy's tactics and now we watch it get dismantled. Now I have practically agreed with every comment Martin Allen has said so far, seems like the sort of guy I could get on with, however, having read this story today on gillsconnect, he is reported as saying something I disagree with... http://gillsconnect.com/s/Gills_New...IC_OR_PLAY-OFFS_DEPENDS_ON_CASH_-_ALLEN.html? quote: Allen said, “If you’ve got money, and you can sign good players and pay good wages, then generally your team finishes higher up the league, that’s a fact.” end quote. What an absolute load of bull. Absolutely nothing to do with Martin Allen but if I mentioned to most Gills fans the reported 2.5k a week, they would certainly know what I am going on about. Slightly aggravated by circumstances, so let us try another from an opposite angle...Paulo Gazzaniga, what did his signing have to do with having money? So let me summarise this, we had a good team but now we have to sell to buy a good team and guess who is part of that process, the person that built that good team, what? hang on a minute, I need to have a good laugh. So what was wrong with Simon King, why was he not offered another one year contract on pay as play terms? What ever decisions are made over the coming months, I will get behind them and support them, I just have this horrible feeling this could all go so wrong and I hope that I'm wrong! Assuming Martin stays beyond Christmas. I have probably not put all this is a very good way. I just feel we seem to contradict ourselves in the quality of the team. I also fail to see our ambitions when entering the transfer market. Now I have said all that, we will probably bring in some massive signing and get auto promoted (tongue firmly placed in cheek). Or alternatively we could put several million lira in the bank and end up getting relegated (no tongue in cheek). I wish this season would just hurry up and restart, its like torture.
I know where you are coming from brb. But if we could sell 1 or 2 players with good potential and bring in 4 or 5 good players then surely that makes sense? Also on the flip side, let's just take Gazzaniga for an example, with 1 year left on his contract come the end of the season he will most probably walk away to another club higher up the pyramid, understandably so, leaving us in a much worse state than selling him, the chance of him staying (especially if he has a good season) when he knows he's already having interest from bigger clubs with higher profiles and more world coverage, he'd be a fool to stayin all honesty. Or if we were to play hard ball and refuse to sell he could have a little Hissy fit (I can think of another Argentine who had one not so long ago) play badly and sit out the remainder of his contract and walk. Would you like to see that?
I understand what you mean BRB but the brutal truth is that these players have to be sold as we are a selling club and always will be whilst we're in league 2. Better to sell them now than their contracts expire and leave for free. I agree with Gemini that the potential funds generated could see us strengthen the team with 5 new players. We musn't forget that Scally invested a lot into transfers last year and we were never going to have a great budget this pre-season but if we balance the books then more signings can be made. I do agree however that the Allen comment on paying big money etc was a bit foolish but at the same time he makes a valid point and it is the general rule if you know what you're doing unlike Stimson did when getting McCammon.
the only thing id like to point out is would it be fair to refuse these players their chance to play at a higher level brb? you must remember that ht elife span of a footballer is short in comparison to that of a normal employee in a 9-5 job or whatever so therefore players should be allowed to take the chance to move up the ladder and earn more money whilst they can as come retirement options are often limited due to having to be full time at football from often a young age and therefore denting their chances of future employement outside of the footballing world. as for the club its obvious that we have to get the money whilst we can rather than risk losing them on a free (as happened with rooney i do believe to an extent). plus as has been mentioned football is a team game and although yes having messi or ronaldo in our team would make us better but would it be enough to win the league or even get promoted with nothing around them? yes this is an extreme example but 1 player doesnt make the team. yes holding onto your best players is very helpful in trying to get promoted but so is being strong at all posistions on the field!
"If these deals go through, I can really strengthen the starting eleven and that would make a significant difference. If we don’t, then it will be a challenge for the play-offs. If we do get that money in, we’ll have the budget to challenge to go right to the top" think this sums up what i just said from his last paragraph unfortunalty the sale of these 2 players is about strengthening the team and not about individuals
I have to say brb I totally agree with what you are saying regarding what Martin Allen said if you spend more money you finish higher as that is not always true, it certainly raises your expectations but as we know from years as Gills fans we don't always perform well to expectations, we normally do better when there is less pressure so for once I disagree with Martin.
There is truth in what mad dog says. Generally the teams that can spend more money are higher up. But spending money isn't a for success. Though It all depends on what you define success as I suppose. We, as a club, will never be able to spend the kinds of money it would take to be what other clubs would class as successful though. All I want is to see the team perform to the best of their abilities and give their all, if that happens then we should be (and in my opinion have been) competitive and then with a little of that "luck" stuff we can be successful.
brb you have your answer - and you knew it - didn't you ? Some money from the sale of Gazza & Jack is needed to pay bills / balance the books - you know that's how it works at a selling club. I hope that what little is left for Allen will be enough to buy 'good enough' replacements.
I understand that we are entering a last minute bit of plea bargaining - and adopting the 'John Terry' defence - so nothing to pay.
of course. By the way when we failed to get promotion last season, what did we spend the fee for Rooney on? (seriously I cannot remember).
was thinking just the same thing the other day brb, why can't we get rid of this undisclosed fee business as well...these sort of things wind me up brb do you have number for anger management !!!
No sorry - lol For those interested, I believe that Darragh MacAnthony will be chatting live on Sky at 4.30pm, do not know if I will get time to catch it but it might be worth a listen in. You never know with exclusives and if there are any hints towards Jack etc etc.
He was on Talksport lunch time and said they had an offer of £700K accepted for a very good 20 year old but the deal fell through
If that is the case then the equations sits like this: selling = club survival, keeping = no club... Now I know which I would prefer
I would imagine the money was used to pay for the wages of the Tomlin and to pay Kuffor out of his contract at Bristol Rovers
Have you got a rough time, so i can pick up the link when it becomes active to listen to again. By the way, welcome to the board
Ok, I have found it - thanks 12:30-13:00 Listen from 10 minutes and 30 seconds in... http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/listen-again/episode/84680
Just listened to it, if the 20 year old was Jack Payne and, as is suggested, his agent messed up the deal (not his agent are you brb?) then I'd be getting a new agent if I were him.
