If we stay up then what?

I can see a lot of poorly-run clubs going tits up financially next season. If our accounts look healthy by comparison, I wonder if the board may be tempted to invest a little more (by our standards) to cement a higher position and improve the 'value of their brand'.

All dependent on us staying up of course, which at the minute I'd say is 50/50.

 

With our reputation of getting shut of folk and starting a fresh each new season with a untested team... May I suggest if we do stay up let's start the annual cull with Paul Conway...
Thinking about it... Even If we go down still get shut ... ....just my opinion

 

I don't think they really care about the football side at all tbh How much power does the CEO have? As in , does he have a budget and what he does within that is up to him or does he have to run everything by the owners?

 

If we stay up eventually the system will work. It's only failing at the minute because relegation is putting the better players in the shop window during the promotion season.

 

I agree. We are a weak side at the moment. Very few, if any, of our players would be seriously considered by other Championship clubs. Some are too raw, some lack experience, some are too lightweight, some are just not up to standard yet. Plus money is going to be tight for most clubs next season if crowds aren't back inside the grounds. Some players hoping for a move may be disappointed at the lack of bids.

 

In my more optimistic moments I can follow that logic, although it doesn't say much for the ability of other clubs' scouting setups. More frequently I think, there are two ways this cycle gets broken: by staying up or by staying down. The latter has looked more likely over the last few seasons and if it happens then I don't see the system getting us back up out of an extended stay in League One. On the other hand, if we do stay up then will the system push us on or will it just be a temporary reprieve? With the way many other clubs in the Championship operate I don't see scraping into 21st as much of a stepping stone to success. I hope I'm wrong but it's hard to be too optimistic. Our best long-term hope of success is probably surviving a widespread day of reckoning. Which may well be coming.

 

I suspect the "value" of players will fall this close season and for the next few years. Clubs can't afford to spend the same money as they have been. If anything, it will level the playing field downwards - which means we might end up having to go lower ourselves.

 

I think we have to accept the owners plan and the fact that we HAVE to sell players as they are unwilling to put money in themselves to promote bfc in anyway.
That said ....if we were to survive then we would still have to sell. I think we were told at xmas that allthough there was a bit of money the budget had been spent.
The question for me is always who we replace our best players with and i think the remit of this board is crystal clear on this subject.

 

It does not matter which league we play in, our Annual Financial Statements will show that we lose money before player trading. That is just how things are, and how things would be, even if we had more match day revenue. That is why the strategy has to be buy young, improve and sell on. It does not matter whether you view the situation as individual seasons in isolation, as many fans do, or as an ongoing business that has to view thing in longer terms, as the board does. The club has to break even because that is the way that our owners see things, and if they are unwilling to invest more of their own money, that is the way it has to be. As fans, there is just no point in us getting excited about it. If the owners say so, that is the way it is going to be.

The owners have good reasons to want to improve the club. It is part of their long term plan to buy cheap, improve it and sell on. But it is a long term plan, and they must be able to improve the club without spending loads of cash, otherwise the price that they paid for the club rises, and they find it even harder to find a buyer willing to meet the increasing price to buy it from them. They are business men not philanthropists, and on that basis, the whole thing makes perfect sense. If we go down this season, there will be player sales, because we will lose money. If we stay up, there will be player sales because we will lose money. We will win more matches next season if we do go down, and we will undoubtedly be challenging for promotion. We have some very good young players who are improving all the time. I enjoy watching that improvement process, and though it is sad when they are sold, I know that there will always be new players to carry on that process.

The jump to the Championship is a big one, far bigger than it was in the past. That is because of the difference between SCMP and FFP. The first few years are the toughest as promoted clubs struggle to catch up, and match the quality available to established Championship clubs. One of the ways that the step can be made easier is with a settled squad of players, and the longer contracts that are on offer to our promising young players are an attempt to bridge that gap. But those players are very young and if we judge them before they have had the time to improve, then they are bound to fail that test. We have to be patient. We have to understand that the plan extends into the future and that there will be setbacks along the way. We have to accept that it is the only way forward if our owners do not see the sense in spending their way to success, and in that, I am onside with the plan.

 

I think people forget just how much the club spent last summer. It won't have been peanuts. If three of four had hit the ground running we probably wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

It's a bit meh though isn't it?

 

Is it "a bit meh" because it is a bad plan, or is it "a bit meh" because fans have unreasonable expectations and are unwilling to temper those expectations based upon the evidence of their own eyes?

 

I agree with you but it makes me question why we bother?

 

I think we would because the likelihood of the foreign players hitting the ground running at the very least would be rare. All credit to Mads, Scmidt , Diaby etc but settling in to another club is hard enough as a young player , let alone another country. Bear in mind too that Pinnock needed time to settle at Brentford and that was moving back to his home area.

 

I know why I bother.

I bother because of the joy it brings me in the few seasons when everything falls into place. That does not happen often, but that is why it is a joy.

 

I'd like to see it falling into place like it did between 94/95 and 2000. That's what made me fall in the love with the club

 

I think most fans (especially now) appreciate the club has to be prudent with our monies but we differ with our board in our achievements. The fans see success as what we see on the pitch week on week, the board see financial achievement as their priority.

 

My first season was our first ever in the 4th division (1965/66). My expectations are clearly lower.

 

I had a difference of opinion with Loko the other week on this very point. You really cannot separate the two. Spending money that you do not have improves the team, but it does so because it endangers the club and puts in doubt its continued existence. People hate it when I say that, but it is no less true for all that