Sparkle

That explains that then - the administrators didn’t pay the bill and we would have had a transfer ban for three windows if we didn’t pay up sharpish - ah well thanks to the new owner for sorting that mess out then - the Polish club did nothing wrong here.

I still can’t work out why we signed the two Poles for that much money when we were in the mire with money, it just made no sense and ultimately crippled us. 

I wonder what the dispute could have been? - we either agreed something or we didn’t! 

1 - Derby 

2 - Portsmouth 

3 - Bolton 

4 - Peterborough 

5 - Burton 

6- Barnsley 

Five yeas ago this would be considered a good signing. Not now for all the reasons previously discussed 

1 hour ago, plymouthram said:

Latest news with Reading, who signed Sam Smith might have to let all their summer signings go, due to their tax problems. They are now under a fresh embargo and rumours are that the 4 players that they recently signed are yet to be registered.

That would be interesting especially as they have already broken Mr Smith 

9 minutes ago, Red Ram said:

Bird is a different type of player to Knight but he's also a better one. We should be looking for at least what we got for Knight. More really

I didn’t want to lose either of them but ultimately it’s about opinions and personally the one with all the international caps, an ability to play in multiple roles and score goals would have the higher ceiling but like I said I wanted to keep both of them, it just a shame to look at all those youngsters we have been forced to lose 

2 minutes ago, jameso said:

Not saying you didn’t, but did you?

You definitely said they were after Knight.

Either way, what should the club or we-the-fans have done with your information/intuition? Is the point that the writing was on the wall and hopefully we have his replacement lined up and ready to go (or should have)?

You have lost me with that 🤷‍♂️

I did say many weeks ago that Hull were trying to get Bird from us !

Anyway the worrying bit for me is in the Hull paper article where it says Hull are speaking to Derby and have spoken to Bird himself ( if true) 

we as a club cannot afford to let half decent transfer fees not come in if players can walk away in a years time for nothing but fortunately we would still get a decent fee for his development if that did happen. Ultimately if Bird wants to see his future in Hull then good luck to him.

Another concern is that my expectation is that we get promoted this season but we would then need a range of better players again next summer so it would be very difficult recruiting with little money for transfer fees at that point.

If he doesn’t want to stay I’d expect Warne to sell him and I couldn’t blame him 

in terms of a fee I can’t imagine Hull would go anywhere near the £2 million we got for Jason Knight so it would be sub £1 million no doubt - personally I would like him to stay get promoted with us and earn a good move to a premiership club where we genuinely get a decent transfer fee.

1 hour ago, Brailsford Ram said:

Potential that Marriott did not fulfil and Derby lost a lot of money on him. He was a bad buy as would JCH be if Peterborough received anywhere near what they're asking for him. They are both the same age; JCH has scored 122 in 363 games, Marriott has 89 in 318 games. Each of them has scored most of their goals in League One (and League Two in Marriott's case) and just a handful in the Championship. Marriott was overpriced and so is JCH at the price Peterborough want.

Peterborough saying they have turned down bids from USA league one and championship for JCH - which would suggest he will be sold later on in the window 

1 hour ago, simmoram1995 said:

Talking to someone connected with the club today briefly spoke about transfers apparently Warne has spoken to 8 players from 4 clubs + free agents. Originally he was looking at signing three players but has approached clowes to discuss the possibility of upto 5 coming in. No names besides a strong indication one coming in is sharp, waggy is 50:50 might sign him to booster the over age players in u23s and the first team. Positions spoken about are as follows LWB but Warne is struggling with that and might go for a LCB /LB , A 10 that looks to be a prem loan , two strikers - one older poacher type currently looking at Sharp , waggy , assombolonga and wickham the other is a young championship player and finally it appears another CM likely more of an older head. The player Warne is frustrated about was Rhodes apparently had agreed a 1 year deal with an optional extension but  no showed a medical  Saturday morning his agent came back saying he wanted more money  plus an 18 month deal. My source is in the media department 

If any of that is true then I’d expect the club to wish Mr Rhodes good luck in the future

1 hour ago, Tyler Durden said:

I remember when Dean Holdsworth was our assistant manager under Phil Brown and he had to play 3 games as a striker when he was 36? As we didn't have any other players available.

And some folks think we've got it bad now trying get Waghorn back. 

Let’s not be to concerned about potentially signing Waghorn - we were playing Moxey at centre forward in the championship and Delap at centre forward in the premiership - that’s a left back and a right back 😆😆😆

23 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Oh ok. Was just trying to expand the conversation is all. I keep seeing people questioning Warne and the recruitment staff for having not found this pacy, young forward. As yet I’ve not seen many viable options that fit within our apparent restrictions.
I thought Lee Bonis would be a shout when he was linked, but he signed a new deal. Sam Smith was a goalscorer at this level last year but not young and pacy as such, and joined Reading so that’s a moot point. Nombe has been suggested by a few but seems Exeter want big money for him. Alfie May is a talent at this level but wanted a move closer to family, and perhaps the fee involved was prohibitive too. Looking at non-league and league two’s top scorers last season we couldn’t afford Mullin or Langstaff it seems due to ongoing restrictions, and most of league two’s top scorers are older strikers that spending a fee on might be received as bad business. 
 

Perhaps a Dobbin type loan again might be a good shout, not sure which clubs have that ready made young striker to loan us that will guarantee goals and create moments out of nothing, using Dobbin as an example he wasn’t held in high regard by some fans. 
It’s almost as if we could do we collectively adjusting our expectations as the options available to us are currently scarce. 

I believe Portsmouth went in for Dobbin for this season but pulled out due to the cost in terms of loan fee and wages wanted combined. expect him loaned out on the last day of the window or played by Everton this season

4 hours ago, The Last Post said:

Assisted by Ian Ormondroyd the giant at the far post, Milford(pretty boy)was more interested in his perm, What a silent drive home that was, With Leicester fans taking the piss on the bridges going home 😡up the M1 

Silence of the Rams - I can’t wait to watch them complode hopefully 

2 hours ago, Ram1988 said:

Left wing back is the area of concern for me. Fozzy doesn't have the legs to do it for long periods of the game and Tommo doesn't have the physicality or disapline. 

It’s one game 

5 hours ago, Brailsford Ram said:

Any sort of win on Saturday will do for me. I don't want a season anything like 1993-94 thank you. As you say, it started with the 5-0 home win against Sunderland. But it ended with Forest promoted in second place and with us being beaten by Leicester and Roger Milford in the play-off final. Awful memories, never forgotten. 🥲

Can we at least have the 5-0 bit 👍 - I remember it all very well

4 hours ago, alram said:

we have the 2nd oldest squad in the divison behind wycombe. the generalisation is based on fact, it isnt unfounded.

 

i have no problem with 1 or 2, but we just signed washington whos 31, its like we learnt nothing from last season - an old squad just doesnt have it in them to play so many games at this level succesfully

Sheffield Wednesday had the oldest squad in the league last season and spent most of it in the top two and eventually achieved promotion with a couple of forwards who didn’t exactly score + 15 goals each 

More optimistic - no Sheffield Wednesday no Ipswich - more sides in off field difficulties 

9 minutes ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

The fact that I can barely remember that happening says it all about covid football.

Yep I blanked it all 

7 minutes ago, jono said:

Did anyone else note in the interview Warne saying “people lie in football” .. it sounds to me if a deal was done for someone verbally but there was a sudden change of mind. ? Ummmmmm 

Nope didn’t hear that but I am getting on a bit 

10 hours ago, Wolfie20 said:

The time lost that really boils my p*ss is immediately after a goal is scored until play actually resume.

Does this mean that those who leave early will up and go after 95 minutes or still at 85 minutes?

I will consider it 

Dependant on cost and dependant on fitness it’s a simple decision if he wants to play here 

2 hours ago, Jayram said:

Well our owner will need to understand that if that is his philosophy going forward, however laudable, it will probably lead to a certain level of pitch mediocrity, fans becoming disillusioned and a subsequent fall in attendances, revenue and interest. Sadly there doesn't appear to be such a thing in modern football (especially at this level) as a self sufficient club or at least a successful one. We will need occasionally to push the boat out to sign the kind of players that will get us out of the division otherwise we will end up being stuck here for years. 

The football world of finances in England has changed outside of the premiership money.

52 minutes ago, Kernow said:

Not paying transfer fees doesn’t necessarily help you to be self-sufficient though, if anything it can stunt things because generally if a player is free, there’s a reason for that. I understand why we can’t/won’t pay fees right now following admin, but if we got promoted and still wouldn’t spend then I’d be a little concerned.

What we should be doing going forward is focusing on a good recruitment strategy. Coventry as an example signed Gyokeres for £1mil and sold him for about 20x that. They also got Hamer for a similar fee, and if sold then would generate a similar profit. 

Nowadays, £2mil would be a big outlay for us, but if it’s a calculated risk then it’s not a bad thing. We could’ve bought Watkins instead of Nugent and made a massive profit, instead it went towards our losses and was part of the chain of expensive decisions that lead to us going into administration.

I am sure we would spend within what we receive and whilst we are within the third division it will seem a smaller outlay but when we get promoted it would increase in line with the extra money we would have in income whilst appearing a similar situation 

2 minutes ago, Eoghan1884 said:

Hardly played ? He has around 300 professional games at 26.

Possibly found his level in Scotland then?

On 26/07/2023 at 08:58, Gerry Daly said:

I wouldn’t want to comment on the figures you use - for example I have never seen the figure of 17K attendances anywhere before - but I agree with the logic of your argument. We must surely have more money than we thought we would have or might have based on a worst case estimate that would have been used for the business plan. Nobody would have planned on the basis of 27,295 average gates for last season and every likelihood of the same if not even better this season. 

Our owner sets the budget for all aspects of the club and hopefully we are determined to be self sufficient and not a debt ridden football club which means lower wages and hardly any transfer fees and selling when decent offers come in. 

9 hours ago, Eoghan1884 said:

Regarding McGrath he only had 4 appearances because he was on loan at Dundee United where he got 9 goals in 37 games. He’d be a great player at this level and would add goals to the squad.

Has played 8 times for Ireland nearly all appearances coming in one of the 2 10 roles behind the striker - very similar position to where Warne would want to play him.

He’s 26 and has good work rate for a high press so I think would be a perfect addition.

Half way through a normal football career and hardly played and I would suggest that Sibley has a better chance of progressing in that role if given it properly?