It does help, though. If you have no money at all then you have to sell your assets to pay a transfer fee. Our problem has been that we haven’t spent well, not by a long chalk. I hope Cocu does have a reasonable budget, and that he uses it to buy players on the up who will increase in value and not see their value fall to zero as with Johnson, Butterfield, Anya and Blackman, not to mention the millions more squandered on their combined wages. I include Johnson in that list because although he made a decent contribution at times, in terms of overall product for the outlay he was a poor signing.

Spending wisely does though and hopefully that’s what we do. I’m sure Mel has learnt from his boom or bust approach as he is still trying to offload the last remnants now.

Going to an interesting 4 weeks that's for sure

Hey Bilston, do you live in the place near Wolverhampton where the Robin2 is, or is there another Bilston?

Yes SB, I'm about a mile from the Robin, there is another Bilston in Scotland apparently.

I live in Rubery, & get to the odd gig over your way (New Model Army, Spear of Destiny, Anti-Nowhere League, that kinda shizz).

Anti-Nowhere League, FFS, I saw them in the Assembly Rooms in about 1982.

Still going strong, Scouse - you should dust off your Docs & pop down to a gig.

I've seen Stiff little fingers there a few times, I keep missing Big country and From the Jam because of world commitments

I've seen SLF there a few times, so we might have been at the same gig. I last saw them there on the tour when Jake was wearing that spotted shirt for the whole tour, whatever year that was.

I am happy to be still in the Championship with a promising new season ahead, an apparently good manager with a good academy and some funding for new players. My season ticket is bought and I can look forward to seeing many good, competitive games and inflicting defeats on Forest, Leeds and many others.

Going back to the original post for a minute, what would you consider to be hefty in the investment stakes?

I'd assume that we're thinking of expenditure that's just shy of the FFP limit, but quite how you translate that into a transfer kitty is beyond my grasp of maffs. You'd need to know the club's projected income & outgoings in the terms of wages, agents' fees, etc. It's not surprising that clubs fall foul of FFP, with all the unkowns that need to be factored in. Selling the ground for £41m was a smart move, but we need to use what's left of that revenue quickly, I'd imagine.

I think if he could get two or even all three of the Dutch players he wanted and Davies is fit again £10m would be very useful.

Speaking of Dutch players, has anyone seen anything about post-Brexit rules? In the absence of any football-specific stuff, I guess we just need to obtain a visa like any other business, which should be fine. However, I (vaguely) remember the late great Graham Richards commentary from the Jim Smith days when we were only allowed 4 non-EU players, including the subs, and we had Poom, Wanchope & others I forget, so one of our subs had to be swapped prior to kick-off to avoid breaking the rules. Not sure what the current rules are.

Stimac & Asanovic would've been 2 of the other 3, plus maybe the other Costa Rican fella who was basically here to keep Wanchope company in a strange country.

Doesn't our spending have to be in line with our revenue though? We can't re-resell the stadium.

I think Mel is unlikely to pi$$ all his money up the wall again, took him several years to recover from our last boom and bust folly.

I guess if Mel gets his equity syringe out we're allowed up to 39 million debt over 3 years. Think our wage bill is starting to reach sensible-ish amounts again but if we want big signings then I'm sure it'll be back up to 47 million odd quite quickly. Not sure how we can afford that.

Our ticket prices are extortionate so we can't squeeze the fan too much more here and I think are a big reason why we're losing attendances, think our cup runs and playoffs should help bring a bit more TV revenue in, if Brett Wilson or someone else invests I think that'll help but we have limits unless we're going to really gamble on promotion, or get even better at creative accounting.

Bringing in biiiiiiiig players on biiiiiig wages would also stifle the academy to first team pipeline which seems to be the focus of the club now. Not sure we have any huge assets: Keogh, Bogle, Carson????

If we did get rid of Bogle/Keogh we'd have to replace too. Maybe we have room for a minor marquee signing and a decent loan. Shinnie hopefully will be the goalscoring MF.

Another central MF I think is needed preferably a number 8 with pace in my mind but I'd like to think under decent coaching: Holmes, Evans, Huddz, Sibley, Knight and Bird would be at least decent.

Is Ambrose still with us? Can he, Davies and Keogh shore up the CB for a whole season, possibly not. Can Cocu make a CB out of Wisdom??

Up front I actually think we're okay and wonder if Cocu will see some value in Chris Martin. He could offer us the out ball if we need to go direct in a game, Marriott could offer the running (false 9) and Waggy the crash, bang, header stuff.

Wingers I think we do need to invest here.

1 x CB, 1 x CM and 1 x Wide Fella for me.

Think a loan could cover one, a number 8 we might be able to get bargain hunting and maybe splurge on a wide man.

Solis was it?

It's a good question, offer wondered about the non EU rule when you see Chelsea and Man City with numerous South Americans in their squad.

Plus I thought Mel was looking to sell up.

2 Wellies

If Cocu is going 4-3-3 my impression was that Shinnie would be used as the DM with possibly Holmes on one side and either a loan from PL or oversees or alternatively we sign someone semi decent. The Academy players mentioned play back up.

I'd like to see Dutch dude played on the right wing, which is where he played for Brentford.

I'd also like to see Cocu experiment with Lawrence in a no.10 role with Marriott and Waghorn both playing up front.

When Zoon was at Brentford he did an interview and was asked to what extent his game had been improved by Cocu. He said not at all, because Cocu didn’t play him. He left no doubt that there wasn’t much love between them. Unless a hatchet can be buried I would be surprised if Zoon featured for us.

Desi I think Shinnie was a number 10 converted from a left back, don't think his skill set is defensive MF but I might be wrong.

It'll be an interesting dilemma if Cocu does tweak the 4-3-3 to a diamond to allow for Waggy n Marriott. I don't think it'll be our default but maybe when chasing a game or looking to put pressure on the oppo's CB's.

Think TL and Zoon have a lot of doubters will be interesting to see what Cocu makes of them and Bennett too, if he can teach Bennett to score that's a singing in itself.

If I had to play a team today:

......................Roos.......................
Bogle....Keogh....Davies....Malone
................Huddz.....Holmes...........
.....................Shinnie.....................
..Waggy..........Marriott.........TL......

Maybe Bennett/Zoon for Waggy form depending. It's a tough one for me in goal, think Carson is the better goalie but Roos the better footballer.

Yeah Backo was saying about Zoon n Cocu's previous, Vidal's.

You never know though he could be to Cocu what Lee Croft was to Nigel Clough at least for the first 3 or 4 games of the season before normal service was resumed.

comment by lastapostleofvidal (U1491)
posted 39 minutes ago
When Zoon was at Brentford he did an interview and was asked to what extent his game had been improved by Cocu. He said not at all, because Cocu didn’t play him. He left no doubt that there wasn’t much love between them. Unless a hatchet can be buried I would be surprised if Zoon featured for us.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jump to 3:00m for the "interesting" bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVOacxRycxI&feature=youtu.be

Oops.

My friend said that be careful who you cuss off cos people you think long gone always come back.