Things aren't fully right yet at ER, but give the new owners time and I'm sure they will make this a great club again. With the new owners we need to be patient and allow them to fix things and find ways of bringing in more money, via investors. If we get a chance to take on a player with EPL qualities, then let us hope we are successful, however we need to be aware that we don't have the finances to pay top salaries or transfer fees, thus we need to live within our means. Like everyone else I'd be happy if we got a player like Chris Burke on loan, however I would prefer to see Hall given a chance, as we already have him and are paying a wage.
"Your final words hit the nail on the head "It's so much better than the recent past" and that is the crux of it, Bates was so bad ANYTHING is better and we are willing to accept things now we would never have accepted a few years ago." Been my point for a long time. Well said
By "never would have accepted a few years ago", I take it you are going way back farther than Bates. Further than Ridsdale? I honestly cannot remember one good chairman / owner at our club, in my lifetime. We were always a club doing things on a shoestring. We were constantly in debt, fighting for our lives. Even the guy who bankrolled Wilko has admitted that if we had not gone up we would have gone out of business. That was a gamble, and a lucky one, courtesy of getting a guy like Strachan to come in and motivate the whole squad to play in a certain way. We had a brief blip (I am not going to go back as far as the Revie era - it is too long ago) under Ridsdale, but it twas built on quicksand. Could have been built on solid foundations, but he couldn't stand back from the fans and say "slow down, let's make sure we do it right". This lot are at least as good as the best we have had in the last 30 years. Whether they remain that "good" will all depend on what they do with our club. So let's please stop kidding ourselves and likening things to Chelsea, Man City, or Man Utd.
By the sounds of it, Becchio leaving had more to do with Warnock than the owners. If anything, GFH allowed the manager to get on with the football side of things (although Warnock was a fool, but that's not the point) which is the way it should be. They signed Morison because Warnock wanted him. We sent him out on loan because that's what McDermott wanted. Yes they had control over the situation, but they were acting on the orders of the manager in charge at the time. As for the McCormack situation, they should've sent Middlesbrough packing straight away, but at the end of the day our best player signed a new long term contract - how many times have we said that over the last 10 years?
Middlesbro kept coming because McCormack (or his agent on his behalf) was saying he wanted the move. GFH did not put his house on the market. Obviously if he wanted to leave then he would have, it was part of the game to get a new improved deal with 2 years left. The club or GFH probably felt they had to deal as the fans were putting the pressure on to keep him. Now regards investments, most accounts say the owners are paying 15m in wages already to the deadwood Warnock brought in. Plus with us paying 2 million a year to an offshore company for the ground we have to be careful. We will feel the effects of Bates for years. Face the fact that Ken Bates legacy has tarnished the club and will inevitably restrict investments in the short term. Now I for one am happy with the steady progress in the right direction. We are not buying big or chasing journey men looking for a final cash cow. Next we need to rebuy Elland Road and keep hold of the youngsters. MOT
The house is still on the market, he is moving to a better neighbourhood. Apparently every time he is at an away game his other half is spied on by an old bloke in a flasher mac.
It is absolutely untrue that I lent my pocketless mac to Leeds60 for his perving. I need it myself for mine ....
I was just reading the interview with McD about deadline day and I thought it was quite interesting. "I won`t pay over the odds for anybody. The owners don`t know me particularly well at this time and you have to look after the interests of the football club." That to me would seem that GFH were willing to back McD to bring in Burke for the extra money Birmingham wanted but McD didn't think he was worth the money so pulled out rather than GFH being tight.
I'd be interested to know how much McDermott was willing to offer in that case. Yes he is approaching 30 and he is out of contract at the end of the season, but you can't doubt his quality.
Ok McD approach would make sense providing he can get him on loan or an alternative winger. If he doesnt then surely 600k will have seemed a small price to pay if it improves our first eleven especially if gfh were willing to back it. Hoping McD has a rabbit up his sleeve in next couple of weeks
I don't think McDermott views this season as a genuine promotion season and therefore wants to build the club with younger players who will improve as the club improves. Burke doesn't really fit that category
Are we though? GFH said when they purchased us that we are now debt free, so they meant debt free apart from that debt?? So we are a possible £300k apart in what could be the difference between promotion and missing out. If the manager thought he would make the difference surely it is better to go for it. If he had 18 months to go or even two years on his contract would £600k have been a good price? Yes a player who is going to be out of contract in June costing £600k can be questioned but what if he chooses to sign for someone else? Were any of the transfer closing day purchases by any of the top clubs worth what they paid? A local team in my county Kettering Town went bankrupt unable to pay 58k on the same day Bale signed for Madrid and someone popping up a post on here that Bale had already earned 58k
Ristac, I think this is just GFH playing with words again. Their definition of debt clearly doesn't include 'liabilities', which is effectively a controlled debt. I think when they use the term 'debt' they are talking specifically about unexpected or out of control debt. The case in point is the mortgaged season ticket debt. A liability to them, a debt to you & I. They like their clever wording, do GFH. Spin, spin, spin!
The funniest thing about that statement is that the clown spent the whole of your £1M budget on an average League 1 midfielder
I suppose you would recognise an average league 1 player easily enough as you have a team made up of them and worse
