Apologies to Stan Lazaridis on the Small Heath Alliance forum, but I was thinking of posting this article last night:
This weekend is our final football-free one before what will be a very, very hard season as Blues go to Cork next week for the start of the pre-season. The exodus of players will continue, no doubt in the weeks ahead.
The misery of relegation and McLeish's departure have robbed us of the opportunity to look back with pride on our finest achievement - the Carling Cup win over Arsenal back in February.
It's only just over 4 months ago, but it almost seems like a dream now.
So, my suggestion for this weekend is invite some mates round, crack open some cans and put the DVD of the match (or your Sky+/Virgin media box recording) and settle back for 100 minutes of pure magic.
Whatever else I think about Alex McLeish, thanks for this mate.
Here's a YouTube clip to remind us all of a perfect day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyhdpVyXs7E
Celebration Time!
posted on 7/7/11
Xpat thats ok saying it, but a lot will depend on how willing Yeung is to invest out of his pockets or from his investors.
You see the club have £40M less to live off this season, so we need to make cuts.
But we need to keep some of our players and we need to spend some cash. not millions and millions just some.
If we sell more than our share of players and do not spend then chances of promotion look bleak.
But then financially we may not be in trouble.
Its can/will Yeung risk some financial losses to push for Promotion or sell as much as he can so as that the wage bill is low, and cash raised covers the black hole in finances.
That leaves us in the same boat as most midtable Championship Clubs.
The KiD
posted on 7/7/11
sold him at half price...
-----------------------
Gardner might have been good, but he wasn't worth £12million.
I would have been happy with £8mill, the extra £2mill as compensation for his 'commitment' to the team he 'supports'
posted on 7/7/11
I think i could build a side thats not going to cost the earth, with money made/wages saved. And still pay off a lot of debt.
It will require some of the cash saved however.
If we keep Foster, Ridgewell, Davies, Murphy, Beausejour and Fahey, oh and Carr plus Ferguson.
If we see Dann, Johnson, Jerome, Zigic, Michel go and make £30-33M i think £5-6M of that spent could get us a decent 3 players add to some frees.
Guthrie, Best and Routledge from Newcastle for say £4M that can rise to £7M based on promotion and performances.
Kamara Free, Smith Free (depends on wages).
Added to what we have now (with changes to players above gives).
GK Foster/Doyle/Butland
RB Carr/Ozturk
CB Davies/Ridgewell/Caldwell/Kerr/Hubbins
LB Murphy
RM Burke/Routledge/Redmond
CM Ferguson/Guthrie/Gomis/Fahey/Mutch
LM Beausejour/Valles
CF/CAM Smith
ST King/Rooney/Kamara/Jervis/Asante
Thats 27 man sqaud that would cost in fees £6M (maybe less if based on lower fee and addons).
Yes there is no saying we would sign these and no way we would know if the wages would fit in with what we would want to pay.
But its not a totally unrealistic side.
The overall quality is what we need to aim at, so if we get all frees and if we sell all players (not inc Keepers) but provided the outfield side we have is at same quality as that side above we have a chance of promotion.
All that would be needed i recon would be a LB and a CB ontop of those 27 players (inc 8 Youth players).
The KiD
posted on 7/7/11
I think Gardner was a £5-6M who had a good season, so based on goals could say worth £8M, if Gardner can replicate the season he had last again and again yes he would be worth £8-10M+
I think £6M was a fair price, he may be worth more than that to us though, and so the £4.5M+ addons was a less than i expected.
If we are prepared to sell Gardner for £4.5M+ addons then surely £3M+ addons is enough for Jerome and £8M plus addons enough for Dann.
The KiD
posted on 7/7/11
---------------------Foster----------------
--Carr--------Davies-----Caldwell----Ridgewell
Routledge---Guthrie-----Ferguson---Beause.jour
----------------King------Kamara
Doyle
Murphy
Mutch
Fahey
Burke
Gomis
Rooney
A example of a side that could do ok, maybe not as good as what West Ham and Leicester have but i certainly cant see us getting much better than the side above.
The KiD
posted on 7/7/11
I think you are all missing the point, Gardner may well be over priced at 10M... but if you want him, thats the price you have to pay!
Bruce must be laughing his socks off at our hard ball tactics
posted on 7/7/11
Your right in that we have not played as hardball as say Reading are over Long and Mills.
They look to make £12M on Long and Mills surely by that Gardner should be £8M
But sometimes thats life.
Seems we are all but done as far as the fee for Jerome and Dann at £16M i think we wanted £18M+ for the pair but if its £16M cash thats good.
If its £10M or less cash its not so good.
End of the day though if we have debts and Yeung is skint/unable to cover losses or if he is not willing to.
Then we have to make money, even i that means not getting the full value for players i.e could see Johnson go for £7-8M and not the £10M we would have wanted.
The KiD
posted on 7/7/11
Thats life? Banjo, you have thrown in the towel... disappointing!
posted on 7/7/11
We cant judge what our chances are untill we know/see what kind of a sqaud we shall have.
Honestly i think we would have a chance, but not Automatic, but we just dont know untill we know who comes in and who goes out.
No point in saying we wont get anyone and have the scraps that no one wants, and that all players will be sold because at the moment we dont know if thats the case.
I feel less confident of getting Promoted this season as i did with Surving last season.
I felt we would stay up and get a 11th-14th place I do but most out failure on the Manager as the sqaud should have been good enough.
So this time while i am not really confident we do not know who we would keep/sign and CH is a good Manager so who knows.
Heres hopping
The KiD
posted on 30/7/11