Here is some more info i have been told, again take with pinch of salt with this HP source.
With only two weeks to go untill the window closes, time is running out for us to build a sqaud for the Championship.
Talking to someone i know, they said that Hughton wants/needs another 3-4 players to maintain a strong sqaud for the course of the season, that would be in addition to any replacements for further players departing.
We have had no offical bid for Dann as of yet, and £6M would not be enough for us to sell, Interest remains from Arsenal, Everton and Villa but Liverpool have seemed to cooled any interest.
With regards to Jerome and Zigic its likewise no bids have yet been tabled, just clubs are interested but have not taken interest no further. Fulham are interested but will not budge on their £3M cash fee, Bolton are interested but but so far no firm bid has been tabled, only Stoke have made any offer that we would want for Jerome and Dann but they have gone to look elsewhere, we still want £6M for Jerome and it seems Bolton are waiting to see how bad Jeromes injury is, and could yet try a loan with a option in January.
Zigic will be off, even if on loan, Real Betis and Villareal are the front runners, Hanover and Besiktas are also interested butu Zigic would prefer to go back to Spain for less money.
As far as players comming Hughton has targets but a lot depends on goings out, as at the moment he has to resort to frees and will look at the loan market and change in unemployed players demands come the close of the Window. He has a few players in mind who he would like but who would carry a fee and thus the sale of Jerome and Dann could be key, Ben Turner and Anthony Gerrard are players Hughton would want to replace Dann with should he be sold.
A lot of free agents wage demands are too high, or terms of their contracts.
The club are looking to agree a 2 year deal for Gardner provided its based more around appearences, i dont know if he meant that Gardner would trigger a extra year deal provided he played so many games, as we originally wanted a 1 year deal with a option in our favour and he wanted a 2 year deal in his favour, so this could be middle ground.
On a final note, Hughton would not reject to having Barton sign on a free, and player would not object to playing in Championship for the right club but the problem would be wages as the club are not in any position to pay £20K+ to players (which rules out a lot of free agents).
We was looking into bringing 3 players 2 weeks ago all on free but wages and the position our club is in was a stumbling block. Dave Jones was not interested due to our circumstances and we was prepared to pay him a deal that would be more than Wigans if we got promoted and Carew we was prepared to pay £16K that could rise to £28K if Promoted.
So if we was to willing to sign £40K at least worth of wages for free agents, its a bit of a concern why we have not gone for anymore.
Maybe Hughton wants to get the right men and not just sign anyone for the sakes of being availible and free.
The KiD
Heard it on the Grapevine 1!
posted on 17/8/11
As i said a pinch of salt, but same person did tell me we was after Carew and Jones and when i said that some it off but then week latter it was confirmed we was after them.
Looking at what the person has said, it seems that Hughton has his hands tied there are players he would ideally like to sign but cant sign them because they would not be free agents, some would be loans with a loan fee.
Person said that a lot of income/sales is simply going to pay off debts which are still about £23M (of which half was left by old board, i.e installments on players).
Now if thats the case then that could mean we still owe clubs for players who are not even here any more, like Portsmouth did and that could only add to worsen matters.
Nothing official has come as far as Dann bids, and the person said only Stoke had made offers the club would accept and its a case of thats what we still want.
So that would mean unless we get £16M (not cash) deals for Dann and Jerome then they wont be sold.
Good thing is those players was signed under Brady and would have relegation clauses and thus not cost massive £1M or more wages like players signed under Yeung.
A concern is that the longer we leave it, then any last minute sales of Dann and Jerome would leave us in a pickle with no time left to get suitible replacements.
Maybe that means we may end up with Gardner and Shefki Kuqi.
As a lot of the decent free agents and loanies are being snapped up by clubs, while we are making little progress.
The KiD
posted on 17/8/11
What I think you are trying to tell us Banjo is that were have the status of a L2 club financially, if that.
Thats where we will end up if your financial guidelines are anything to go by.
Do you have any good news for us???
posted on 17/8/11
Pls dont take this the wrong way but... what a load of bolllax. People have ben on about signing this person and that person since the season ended last time around, if we sell Gardener we will buy Best, if we offload more players from the wage bill we will then sign such and such a player.
Plenty of people were telling us how we were going to build a team for promotion, some of us said back then this would not happen and it hasnt, personally Im sick of peoples dillusion !!!
This isnt aimed at anybody in particular, if we dont sell off the rest of our squad from last year, ie Zig, Jerome, Liam, the board will probably be worried about paying the players wages, we dont want to keep our players, we 'need' to sell them, the club cannot do without the money, then they will pocket every penny!!!
If you believe what the liars on the board say, and that we are in credit with the bank, then why do we need to sell before buying?
Do me a favour! We have who we have now to get us as high up the table as possible, our biggest hope, imo, is depending on King to hit the floor running when he is fit
KRO
posted on 17/8/11
Well i think we had a decent core to build upon,
Sadly its lacking cash or ability to build upon that core.
Myhill, Doyle, (+ another Keeper or Butland)
Carr, Spector, Caldwell, Davies, Ridgewell, Murphy (+ another 2 CB's).
Burke, Redmond, Fahey, Mutch, Gomis, Beausajour, Valles (+ another 2-3 midfield players).
King, Rooney (+ another 2-3 Strikers).
Thats a worse case to build upon, problem is though that 17 players needs at least another 8 more added to it and about 4-5 of that need to be new players and not youth.
But there is little signs of any more incomming players, worse we now have out of that sqaud King and Mutch injuried leaving us with 1 Striker on the books (if Jerome and Zigic leave) plus Wood on loan and it also leaves us with 2 CM players.
A already think sqaud, with little signs of getting bigger seems to just be getting smaller.
Man Utd could pick there best 15 players but if thats all they had and to add to that they would only have players on par with our youth players who dont get games (Hubbins, Asante and Kerr etc). Then even Man Utd would find the Championship hard once injuries and fatigue start to mount up.
Its not just about the quality, its about the numbers and we are lacking in both areas, 46 games, sometimes playing 2 a week, plus 3 Cup Competitions is too much for our small sqaud to handle.
I feel our players will crash and burn by Xmass.
The KiD
posted on 17/8/11
Taity what we said about needing such and such players when such a such are sold, are sometimes realistic for a relegated club.
But not realistic for us, a club who now has to see nearly every penny go off to pay off debts.
By credit i think Panu ment that the banks are happy with the way we are making cuts to pay off debts and are happy as long as the interest is being served.
And thus the banks are not going to pull the plug and force us into administration.
I dont think the banks would lend us a penny to make improvements, only way any money would be loaned would be to keep whats left afloat even then i dont have a lot of confidence.
We have got past that transition period of no income because Parachutes dont get started untill August, no Sponsor and no Gate/Merchandise income aside from Season Tickets.
But still little signs of any signings.
Hughton has targets, i think he has found out the club are in a worse position than when he was first contacted.
Had he knew what he has to deal with now, i dont think he would have taken the job.
You see at the time before Yeungs arrest we never thought it would be this bad, and i dont think Hughton was aware of what would unfold the weeks following his signing.
The club have no cash, thats why we could not give the £300K Compo to sign Calderwood as his number 2.
Thats why Myhill loan is completely free no fee no wages.
Very worrying times ahead.
The KiD
The KiD
posted on 17/8/11
I think thats the massive difference with Sully and Gold they knew the money was in the Prem and so was always ambitious in the Championship, they spent, invested a good % of clubs income and then some to get us Promoted.
Sadly in the Prem they spend far less % of income.
With Yeung he does not have the cash to take such a punt, his backers may not want any part of a relegated club and then to top that off Yeung gets arrested and that really put us in big trouble.
The KiD
posted on 17/8/11
The window opens again in September until November .
kro.
posted on 17/8/11
They can open the friggin window and the door and may as well open a tin of beans because we are skint.
posted on 17/8/11
Well i think whats happened is that first of all Yeung had purchased the club for at least £30M more than it was worth.
Not a problem if say Yeung was worth say £300M+ in his bank and used cash to buy us. But clearly he never had much cash, or indeed the cash was not from his bank (well not all £81M) so that means its debts on our club secured on our land and assets, and debts owed to banks and share holders.
Yeungs investment in the Club has been about £40M+ (shares and cash loaned to club).
Yeung also took on some £11-13M of debts from the previous owners (most is yet to be paid installments and addons for players at blues).
Then Yeung invested some money ontop of income on players.
The combination of relegation = less income, and Yeungs arrest = less chance of promotion/income to pay debts and get promoted.
Has meant the banks and lenders want their money back ASP and thus any money we raise seems to be going right back to pay off debts.
The clubs wage bill for last season was upto £44M (that could inc all staff not just players) the players who have left so far would have freed up £21M at least, also chances are some players have relegation clauses that should see another £1.25-1.5M off that bill.
So i would say the current wage bill is a sustainable one for our income, means we have less players but then get rid of Zigc and his wages should pay the wages of at least 4-5 decent Championship Players.
But thats the problem, Zigics wages are a massive drain, and also we still need to raise more cash to pay off the banks/creditors and that means Dann and Jerome will have to be sold with little or none of that cash invested in fees.
Sorry to say but we need like 5 players plus replace Dann, Jerome and Zigic if they go so thats at least 8 players.
Sadly are there 8 free agents who will fit the bill of being decent, hungry and on low wages?
Chances are you will end up with some old, washed up, injury prone, mercenaries on high wages or lower waged journey men and crocks along the way.
The loan market could be vital but then again most loans may require a loan fee and that rules them out.
The KiD
posted on 18/8/11
Only since Yeung got arrested did the $%"£%" hit the fan.
Hughton had targets but i am not sure he knew if he had the funds to pull of any of them, as soon as Yeungs arrest was made, and it became more clear of our problems i bet Hughton then knew he would have to work with peanuts.
We was active untill Yeungs arrest, we had signed 5 players on frees, but was also looking at 2-3 more that had a fee even if on loan at first.
Maybe some of the players Hughton would have wanted could end up as potential loans but then its a doubt we would have any cash to pay any loan fees.
Best was going to cost £1M+ to loan but Newcastle wanted to keep him unless they got £4.5M
Guthrie again Newcastle do not want to get rid of and valued him at £3-4M aswell.
Routledge was gaining interest from other clubs and would commanded £1.5-2M Price.
Ranger again Newcastle only want cash sale for £1.5M (they know if he flops on loan they wont get peanuts for him).
Killgallon and McCartney would cost a small fee £750K to £1M each or indeed a loan fee.
Other targets are under contract and thus would have a fee. Inc Sharp, Puncheon, Turner and Gerrard.
The situation we are in rules out all the above because we just cant afford any kind of fees and instead have to look at free agents.
The KiD