MadAmster

3-1  Collins, Bird, NML

17 hours ago, Ramarena said:

I thought that mod had killed it stone dead a few years back.

Rattea? It's a small band of max 20 posters but we all "know" one another and in some of cases folk actually do know each other, just as I have met a few off here face to face.

4 hours ago, Ramarena said:

Wow it still exits?

Just.

14 hours ago, Scott129 said:

Which forum and who?

FootyMad. No player name mentioned.

15 hours ago, Wolfie20 said:

Well if it's anything like our forum I wouldn't take that as gospel.

.... you may like to remember that this thread is "rumour mill". We should never take rumour as gospel

With both these behaviour based initiatives and the rule/Law changes (most of which are already Laws that refs just don't enforce), I fear a rash of cards in the first few weeks of the season and then normal service will be resumed...

3 hours ago, DCFC1388 said:

Away kit looks like a revamp of the 1988 away shirt

My thoughts too except the new one looks like it's drunk/stoned. The one improvement compared to the '88 job is that the Ram is now facing the correct way

applicable to players, subs, coaches and fans.

As with the changes in the Laws/rules I posted in a previous thread, I welcome these and it's mainly stuff I've been asking for over a number of years. I've never had a reply to my suggestions from EFL or PGMOL but I can now stop, for the time being, as most of my wish list has come to fruition.

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2023/07/football-unites-to-improve-participant-and-fan-behaviour-for-the-202324-season

54 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Bill  on the Newquay to Par line I've heard.  Got 10 goals playing for Truro Turbines in 2008 and still has the ability to stretch games at 45 as our 4th back up choice striker of the window.  We'd better add some steel plates to that bench too hold the weight of these backups, it's groaning.

As are a lot of fans. Nobody's selling/releasing strikers until they've signed a replacement. Just need the first one in the chain to get a replacement in and the striker go round will get into full flow. Problem is that first club can't sign the man they want because his club are waiting for his replacement to sign....

Read on another forum that we will sign a striker this week and it's not Waggy although he might sign as well...

Apart from enforcing multi ball, all they are really doing is saying they are going to enforce existing Laws they've let slide... 

It will be interesting to see how well refs implement these. Particularly happy with the multi ball, stopping the all in wrestling in the box, time wasting, how to handle injuries, calculating added time properly which may help curb time wasting tactics, the prevention of a quick restart by not retiring the full 10 yards immediately. I fully expect a flurry of cards in the opening few games but players, coaches and managers learn quickly and I'm sure by early October we will start to see the first ruses to get round the changes.

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2023/07/match-officials-to-adopt-new-approach-for-202324-season

3 hours ago, Jayram said:

I understand that principle but if we extrapolate that over the next few years are you prepared to pay £28-£33 for a match ticket to watch us spend season after season in this division, selling our best youngsters, paying nominal fees  and hoping for the best? If you are then that’s fine but I imagine a large chunk of the fan base are not and interest will fade rapidly. There has to be a balance between sustainability and ambition; no one is wanting a return to MM days but equally if we want to get out of this league anytime soon we will need to be competitive in the transfer market and that means occasionally having to pay the going rate. 

The point being we couldn't spend on fees last season. We had a wages cap. We had a maximum spend limit. A budget based on 17K gates. We averaged 10259 more than that per game. That's a good few million we should have in the bank.

This season we may pay "moderate" fees. We haven't paid one so far. A decent season on the pitch will see us make a fair few quid this season as well. DC seems to be banking on PWs penchant for promotion from this division. Going into next season we should have a decent warchest we can use to get the players we need in without going into debt.

Transparency in my thoughts demands that I add that ticket prices don't put me off as I live in the Netherlands and a trip home for a game cost me getting on for £500 last season. A few quid here or there on the price of a match ticket isn't going to put me off. First trip this season will be sometime in September.

2 hours ago, Allen said:

Bobby Duncan. Sounded like we’d signed somebody special………..

the word "special" has more than one meaning. 😉   I've always thought the lad may have had some mental health issues. Others have said he's arrogant, has his head up his arse.... whatever the reason, he looked like having a great career. That's gone up in smoke.

15 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Giles Barnes was the best player we've had from our academy.  In todays market of talent hoovering he'd have been sold for 20 million with add ons within 12 months.  Remember Roy Keane saying that the goal he scored against Sunderland could only be scored by those with exceptional ability.  I saw that one live and he was right.  He pretty much missed our entire premier league fiasco with injury, then got that bust knee preseason against Stokes big unfriendly giants.  He really should have stayed at Derby and rebuilt his career rather than going to Fulham after those 2 goals on his comeback against United in the League cup semi final but putting it nicely he had rather a large head that ultimately sent him down the MLS route rather than putting in the work he probably hadn't needed to before with his skill level. Nearly came back here under McClaren 1 if I recall. 

Derby were advised to persuade him to quit and they'd both get 4 or 5 million. Giles wanted to try to rescue his career. That was why he left. The club wasn't willing to take the chance on his knee.

39 minutes ago, Simmo’s left foot said:

Which is what Mel Morris did...

... and why DC won't do it. Self sufficiency and sustainability are the key words going forward. We were on the brink a year ago. More recently Southend United and Scunny are in the mire. Bury went tits up. Brum were in the deep and sticky. Unless clubs realise they can't keep throwing money they don't have at the hope of getting promoted, more will either escape by the skin of their teeth as we did or go under a la Bury and others. The game cannot be run along those lines. 

55 minutes ago, sage said:

Last comment on this. I never said we haven't increased our income. I have consistently said there is no clear evidence that our player budget is higher than last year, after inferring it would be.  

Once again you have offered 'kidology' AND 'tight budget', which was the whole point of my 3 replies to you, which is it?

I'll leave it there.  

Both, as explained in my previous reply to you. I even put forward 3 opinions, all numbered. It's not all or nothing. Could be all 3 or none of the above. You seem to miss the point that 99% of what gets posted on a forum is opinion. I try to back mine up with reasoned thought trails. You appear to skip those bits. I have no idea why. Cherry picking words doesn't help comprehension. 

16 hours ago, sage said:

Which is it? 1. Have we got more money (than say £200k plus wages) and 2. we are being coy or 3. do we have money we can't spend?

your previous answer didn't wash

You just don't get that we could well have the money, and I've explained why I think we do have it on several occasions, but PW is conning other clubs to get round the Derby County surcharge? That's on you.

I've also said previously that it could be that DC isn't allowing PW a huge amount to spend, possibly not even as much as the EFL have agreed we can spend. Grey areas where people's thoughts will differ. I'm not necessarily right. You're not necessarily wrong.

1. IMO, yes we do have more money

2. IMO, PW is playing kidology when he says there isn't enough in the pot to pay £200K plus wages as that would mean us only bringing in one player. He's telling clubs he won't pay inflated fees just because we're DCFC.

3. IMO, we do have the money but are limited by the "moderate" fee (whatever that amounts to) mentioned in the business plan. It could also be that DC is keeping spending low this season but, hopefully, enough now and again in January, to see the club promoted and then have a very good wedge to spend in the SBC.

All my opinion. As it has been in every post. I've explained WHY I think we have a lot of money we aren't spending (yet). Why do you think the money ISN'T there?

6 hours ago, sage said:

You've contradicted yourself.

Is it kidology or are we limited on what we can spend?

Thread is about players. Fees and wages. Everyone including yourself knows that.

If we have to pay off debts then fair enough or undergo urgent ground maintenance then fair enough.

However, as fans we see budgets as wages and fees to suggest anything else is disingenuous.

 

No.

1. He's saying paying a 200K to 300K transfer fee would mean he can only bring one player in. That may be true but based on what I've previously posted, it looks to me like kidology. I might be wrong.

2. Limits on what we can spend. I know that was £8M last year. I don't know if there's a limit this year. What I do know is that we may only pay "moderate fees" so yes, there is a limit of sorts. 2 actually. The moderate fee limit in the business plan agreed to by the EFL and however much David Clowes has set in the budget. Even then, if PW went to him and explained exactly why he wanted to exceed the budget, he might get it

Ergo, 2 separate situations so not a contradiction at all.

15 minutes ago, sage said:

That is income you are referring to.

The thread is about our player budget

income way above budget/plan. Income we haven't spent so should still have. We are still limited as to how much we can spend on fees and wages. IMO PW is using kidology when he says there's no money for transfer fees. I've not even mentioned the £3M for Bielik and Knight. We have the money, we just can't spend it. Also, the title of this thread doesn't mention "player", merely "budget". The "extra" from last year plus the money from the 2 sales might be earmarked for something else other than fees and wages.

9 hours ago, Rev said:

There has never been, and never will be, a team that's made a profit in excess of £6m playing 3rd division football. 

 

 

 

Our budget last season was based on gates of 17K. We didn't overspend on the budget based on that size of crowd. Our actual average gate was 27295. That's 10295 extra tickets per game. Take £20 a pop as an average and that's £6M over and above the budget.

If there's a mistake in my arithmetic, I'd be pleased to hear what it is.

I am extrapolating some things here but using known fact as the baseline. Based on that 17K gate based budget, part of the business plan, agreed to by the EFL, was a maximum spend of, IIRC, £8M. Now, I am sure that if we had gone over that spend the EFL would NOT have relaxed the restrictions on fees etc. If we had overspent the budget, the EFL would not have relaxed a single thing. That leaves the circa £6M on the "extra" ticket sales. The only guess I used was the average ticket price of £20. Even if the average was £15, that's still £4.5M over and above budget.

5 minutes ago, ossieram said:

Do you really believe he needs forgiving for last season?

Obviously, from what he wrote, he does.

Back to the original question... Probably. We'll have similar or better crowds, IMO. We have the income from a shirt sponsor which we didn't have last season. We will have whatever profit we made last season as well to dip into. If I've gauged it correctly, that would be in excess of £6M. We're not allowed to pay big fees, they have to be "moderate" at most which, in L1, is probably around half a million max. 

PW saying he can't spend 300K on a player or that would reduce him to just the 1 rather than loans/freebies which would see more players incoming. IMO, that is kidology on his part, trying to convince clubs we are still penniless so they don't try to apply the DCFC "surcharge" to any fees.

Of course, we will only know for sure when the accounts are published around March 2024.

Lee Gregory anyone? The word's cow's as and banjo come to mind.

Good results with good football when we can and blood and guts when we can't due to the opposition not playing to our script...