You are hallucinating Lenny. The cost of players these days is their salaries not transfer fees. Findlay was reputed to be one of the highest paid players in the championship and we have had Vincelot and Wright on loan from the championship as well. Four man months of that lot has been expensive before factoring in the immense cost of MacDonald. All nice to have but very pricey. Burton could have gone to MK Dons but Gills offered more, similarly Nelson, Weston, Barrett and Legge had League 1 options available but were enticed by Gills genorosity. And MA has so many backroom helpers this year that there is no room on the bench for them.
Compare this with last year when loanees were kids from the higher division and a couple of unwanteds from league 2. Signings, in the main came from non league (Fish, Flitney, Birchall and Kedwell) with only Lee and Whelpdale having any seniority. Going shopping at Brentford was strictly out of bounds and when asst manager Hendon resigned he was not replaced so that Nouble could be funded. You are right that there was a bit more to the squad but they were leftovers from the days of Dimson on league 1 contracts and were rarely even fit to play (King, Weston, Oli, Fuller, Richards, MacCammon etc) and what a wonderful stroke of good fortune MA had when this sad gang were cleared out at the first opportunity.
As for attendances, I am sure you know that in recent weeks they have indeed crept ahead of last year but we have seen incredible discounting of tickets since October the likes of which we have never had in previous years. It would not surprise me if cash takings have fallen. Of course despite the threadbare resources available last year, not every comparison is unfavourable and three less home defeats had occurred at this stage.
Compare this with last year when loanees were kids from the higher division and a couple of unwanteds from league 2. Signings, in the main came from non league (Fish, Flitney, Birchall and Kedwell) with only Lee and Whelpdale having any seniority. Going shopping at Brentford was strictly out of bounds and when asst manager Hendon resigned he was not replaced so that Nouble could be funded. You are right that there was a bit more to the squad but they were leftovers from the days of Dimson on league 1 contracts and were rarely even fit to play (King, Weston, Oli, Fuller, Richards, MacCammon etc) and what a wonderful stroke of good fortune MA had when this sad gang were cleared out at the first opportunity.
As for attendances, I am sure you know that in recent weeks they have indeed crept ahead of last year but we have seen incredible discounting of tickets since October the likes of which we have never had in previous years. It would not surprise me if cash takings have fallen. Of course despite the threadbare resources available last year, not every comparison is unfavourable and three less home defeats had occurred at this stage.