- Edwards accepting much reduced deal. - Scotland likely to do the same. - Bowyer GONE. - Leadbitter GONE. - 12 month option for fans on season tickets instead of 10. We have gone down the route of offering mass wages for players not worth the money. I feel confident, we will bring in some hungrier lower league players on much better terms. Dare I say, we could be copying the Norwich model. Lets see what the summer brings, but I'm a LOT happier with the state of our football club right now.
I must admit most of the exit's this week have met with my approval, lets just hope jewell can unearth 3-4 lower league gems that are of a simillar standard to Cressy...<isjewelluptothatworriedsmiley>
Hoppers, agree with you, or at least make sure we get value for money whoever we sign. We want at least 6 according to Jewells report in the evening star. keeper and Central defenders, midfielder, forward and cover for full backs. All good news but lets see who they are
The award for the most deluded thread of the season! We are £66 Million in debt having to rely on a reclusive multi-millionaire benefactor who is charging us interest on the debt. We now face financial fairplay criteria meaning that we can only spend a % of our overall turnover and with season ticket sales going down like a lead balloon, currently only 14,000, our ability to attract decent players gets harder every season. Heading in the right direction?.... Don't make me laugh! We are in deep **** and its about time Town fans woke up and smelt the coffee!
JWM i think your point is a valid one but it's not really the same argument unless you just read the title of the thread and I've certainly seen alot more deluded threads this season(naming no names of course). As a club our finances have been rubbish for about 10 years. If I've got it right it is no longer our debt as such, we owe ME noone else, whether that is a good thing or not I'm not sure. This may be me being naive but I don't see ME pulling out unless he himself gets into financial difficulty then we'd be in the sh*t. But you have to say it's good that we are finally not just throwing money at the situation, having players who want to be here over the money and that we are finally trying to get our wages into check? For me that was a big problem of why we have failed in recent years.
I'm not concerned about the debt or the interest or the terms, what I'm concerned about is there is no-one at the club who knows what it takes to get a team promoted so we can start to make some money. From my correspondence from Clegg and his statements it's obvious he doesn't have an f'ing clue. He tells us he's spent a lot of time working it out and paid a consultant a small fortune to analyse the effects of the different categories of stadium when firstly its not something you can really quantify and secondly it's something that any decent businessman could work out in an afternoon on a spreadsheet. Southampton do it incredibly well and Ricky Lambert has earned them 90m quid, nevermind the transfer fees for Walcott, Oxlaide-Chaimberlain, Bale... getting an academy right is not just about investment. Which talented young kid would want to come and join Ipswich's academy at the moment? The prospects are beyond dire. And now we've employed another fecking scout. A good manager will know all about the players in the lower leagues without the need for any bloody scouts. We do not need scouts in this country at the moment, we need them abroad in South America and the rest of the world.
We need a whole new spine just to compete in this league next season. x2 Goal Keepers, x2 Centre Backs, x1 Centre Midfielder, x1 Striker and a Decent Right Back. Evans will be keeping his cheque book firmly in his pocket so good luck Jewell
Of course you need scouts, whilst managers will be aware of certain players in the lower league, it's ridiculous to suggest that we don't need scouts, the more help the manager can get the better. Yes there's not doubt we need a fair few players for next season, in the positions you mentioned, which is why I think Ward could be a key signing for us. I like the idea of having a smaller squad, obviously not as small as it is currently, it is quality which counts, we already have some good players at this club, hopefully the new signings will add to this. I'm not so sure ME will be keeping his cheque book in his pocket, I'm sure there will be money available not as much as under Jim or Keane but there will be money available. The problem will be the wages and players who have higher transfer fees generally have higher wages.
Isn't the rich list out tomorrow.? That may give us a clue to the amount we may see flowing from MEs cheque book this summer. Shame we have got nobody decent in to spend it... Have to say I am with PTC on the scout issue, so long as he does his duty.!
I'm not sure if ME took over our football club primarily to make money directly out of us? Can you really make money out of a football club without reducing their chances of improving, I don't think really there is any chairmen to have made money out of a football club. But indirectly I think it is more to raise his profile, which I expect it has and also improve his contacts in the sports industry? I could be wrong but there you go..
What hasn't been mentioned is that the new financial fair play rules mean that a club can only spend money as a proportion of its overall income! Even if Evans wants to splash the cash he will not be able to do so without breaching the fair play rules. So it means that money can only be spent depending on how much income the club generates and as season ticket sales look to be 14,000 for next season there will not be money to spend in the transfer market. Even if we go and get freebie, we will still have to meet wage expectations!
Wages in general should come down though JWM. We won't be the only club offering lower wages, in fact we might even turn out to be stronger financially than we think, compared to some other clubs who make less revenue than us. Trouble is, everyone will be looking for the same lower league/bargain players but we have Agent Clogg in charge of contract discussions, so that's not going to help.
Do the financial fair play rules come in this season 2012/13 then.? I thought it was next 2013/14, my understanding is the same as yours JWM that expenditure is linked to direct income.
I was thinking about Kevin Davies today, if Bolton stay up i don't think he will be a regular starter and he is just the kind of striker we need. I'm sure he had been on the bench a fair bit this season but i may be wrong, i normally am when ive had a wine or 10!!
Rules come in next season but you won't get fined for breaking them until the following season. It could mean that we are doing the sensible thing in lowering our wage bill atm but perhaps still spend money where necessary in the transfer market until next season?? I'm sure there could be ways around it, Clegg mentioned that our sponsorship was due to be renewed next season, It sounds like ME is going to give us more money via that route. Plus could you have one season ticket say that costs £5,000,000 and a certain ME buys it??
The rules don't apply this season but unless we're planning on getting promoted this year then we have to cut our expenditure now. I really don't see the point of having scouts when we're not using them. Keano did but Jewell hasn't. For our purposes Jewell and his coaches could monitor the promising players in the three divisions below us.
Pretty sure he's been on the bench, but surely he would just be another Bowyer. Wages would be too much for us in my opinion. I'm sure wherever you want Jewell sacked or not, you would rather buy a young hungry player from the lower leagues than someone like Davies
Problem with this is that jewell would either have to go to the games which means he would only get to about 5 games a season or watch the match on tv- you would hardly get a picture of how good the player is from that. Also he must've scouted the likes of Stevenson, Drury, JET and Cresswell. More scouting goes into that than signing the likes of Leadbitter and Edwards from your old club! Jewells benn giulty of that too with Bullard and Ellington
