........... the Paul Conway interview revealed a bit more of the recruitment strategy. It’s likely this strategy will not bare fruit for at least 3 or 4 years. In that time support from the fans will be lost. And neither can managers wait that long. They are only judged on their previous season. Stendel obviously wanted to kick on and make his name in the Championship. He could then look to move to a club with bigger wages. The close season transfers quashed that objective. The directors have to reassess their recruitment strategy. As Paul Conway says the club doesn’t want to fall into the trap of pumping £9 million per year into the club - BUT the owners must put money up front to prime the pump so young players can come through and be developed. If not - then we will lose more fans and more managers as the club is stuck in 1st gear.
While listening to the Paul Conway interview - a picture of a salmon farm came into my head. Yer know - the circular floating bins that they have on lochs in Scotland. The ones where they buy young fish and allow them to grow. Then harvest them when ready. Supporters will not tolerate watching a fish tank. Supporters have ASPIRATIONS.
I'd take the fish farm at the moment. At least the young salmon are protected. They dont get chucked in with the sharks for 90 minutes every Saturday afternoon.
Conway sounds like a man that doesn't know his arse from his elbow, from listening to that interview. He's trying to achieve something that's never been done to my knowledge. If spending nothing and not entertaining any debt was the way forward, then loads would be doing it. His plan will never consolidate us in the this league, and isn't even guaranteed to make us competitive in the one below.
Their not football men thats the problem, their business men trying to hit the jackpot. Do we have anyone in the boardroom with an ounce of footballing knowledge??...... Who advises who on signings etc?? Im guessing not much scouting goes on and its all stat based, video analysis??
Not so much 'football people' in the respect of them being ex players or managers, but the likes of Dennis and Cryne were local to the club and also supporters. Dennis and Spinksy still go to the games. I've spoken to Michael Spinks on a couple of occasions, and he's knowledgeable about the club and players, same can't be said of Conway. I think the latest interview shows him to be very limited.
The moneyball idea is not new. Bristol City, Brentford etc have been using it for years. This is our first year under this board and if it goes to plan then the next batch of signings should be much better than the last lot although I wouldn't bank on it. Brentford lose their best players every year for top dollar and although replacements are cheaper, they're in the £3m bracket which is sufficient for them to remain in the upper echelons of the Championship. I genuinely believe that is what the board are aiming for rather than being a yoyo club. Time will tell but I'm willing to give it another season to see if this is true.
Slight difference is the Chairman has invested over £100 million of his own money whereas we are trying to do it without
At the moment we have ONE saleable asset - Woodrow. Others might be worth something in a couple of seasons. So according to your theory - we will have to wait 2 or 3 seasons before recruiting another batch of players. We could be in all sorts of problems by then. What these owners should have done (in hindsight) is continue with Patrick’s way of doing business ie bringing in older players with a mix of young loan players BUT with the intent of signing these loan players if they were any good. Patrick didn’t have the money to sign these players when they became available. These owners have. They could have made mega bucks by buying some of the young talent that was allowed to leave.
Would you not count Mowatt as a saleable asset? I would... As for loan players, the majority of decent loanees are not coming to us to be in the shop window they're there to get experience and then return to their parent club. Only clubs with more financial clout such as Leeds tend to buy them. We can't compete with their wage demands either.
For me it’s a bit of each, one or two strategically selected Loanees to strengthen the team can only be a positive thing, what used to happen was very much more like ‘we have a space for a loanee, let’s go get one’ almost along of lines of having one cos you can instead of improving the team.