Someone you know......

I spoke to a bloke who I knows cousin who said that their aunties grandads best friends sons pet fish has been ill recently.

CH probably knows who he wants ,but can`t do anything untill someone is sold.Which is fair enough but by waiting ,all the decent bosmans will be gone.So seeing as we can`t afford both, wages wise, lets hope something is sorted sooner rather than later,trust the manager.

It's all gone quiet on the Scott Dann front. Surely Stoke are no longer Interested after signing two new defenders. Liverpool seem to prefer Shawcross so that just leaves Arsenal. I do have a horrible feeling Villa may be coming in for him though.
Would be interestig to see what happens if no one comes in for him. It's obvious we are desperate to sell. The way things have gone this summer we'd most likely loan him out or just drop the asking price. It does seem Danns willing to stay though. No way can we just keep him on the bench on the off chance someone may bid for him.

I still have a feeling we'll keep Dann and he's only being kept on the bench until he reaches peak fitness again. Also is it really fair to disrupt the central pair we already have? Its not like they've made any mistakes yet and, although Dann would be much better, if we did split them up and he moved on its not exactly great for moral.

I know what you're saying Tony_Jeff but if you have a player of Danns quality you HAVE to be playing him, regardless of how well the others have been doing. I must admit I have been impressed with Caldwell but I'd drop him anyday if it meant Dann could come in. Davies has started this season well and with Dann alongside him we'd easily have the best CB partnership in the npc.
Remember a few years back when Johnson and Quadrue started off the season playing well together at CB only for Quadrue to be dropped as soon as Dann was fit. Most people disagreed with this but Dann came in and was excellent.

Wow, I remember Queudrue, was always solid for us.. don't think he ever had a bad game

I don't see why we should sell unless someone puts in a ridiculous offer, with him in the team we have a better chance of going up, he wants to stay, his wages aren't that big, he's young......

I'm talking about Dann by the way

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

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???

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

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

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

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

The window opens again in September until November .


kro.

They can open the friggin window and the door and may as well open a tin of beans because we are skint.

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

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