Is our budget any bigger than last year?

[sage]

There was talk of a relaxation of the business plan and small fees being paid out, but having raised maybe £2m to £2.5m in sales and 11 people leaving Inc end of loans, we don't seem to be upping the ante at all.

I'm not suggesting MM style frittering but I was hoping for a couple of real upgrades. 

[Ram1988]

6 minutes ago, sage said:

There was talk of a relaxation of the business plan and small fees being paid out, but having raised maybe £2m to £2.5m in sales and 11 people leaving Inc end of loans, we don't seem to be upping the ante at all.

I'm not suggesting MM style frittering but I was hoping for a couple of real upgrades. 

It has but at the same time we are making sure the club is being ran sustainably. We won't be throwing around large transfer fees in league one. 

I would have liked to think we could have spent 500k on a centre fowards though if the rest of the team was free agents.

[May Contain Nuts]

Maybe Warne & Clowes are just confident that he has what it takes to assemble and manage a squad capable of putting us in contention around Christmastime without spending fees, and instead we're holding what spends we do have back for that notoriously difficult January window so as not to be caught short when people inevitably raise their prices, thus actually allowing us bolster our ranks midway through the season for a change in order to help avoid the Feb-March energy slump identified in past seasons playing to the levels Warne expects.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Kokosnuss

[Carnero]

It's the 18th July and the transfer window closes 1st September, there's plenty of time to spend £ on the right forward when they become available.

As a L1 club, if it is players from higher up that we want, such as Ladapo & Godden, then unfortunately we have to sit and wait for Ipswich & Coventry to conclude their own transfer business first.

Patience Daniel san.

[Anag Ram]

30 minutes ago, Carnero said:

It's the 18th July and the transfer window closes 1st September, there's plenty of time to spend £ on the right forward when they become available.

As a L1 club, if it is players from higher up that we want, such as Ladapo & Godden, then unfortunately we have to sit and wait for Ipswich & Coventry to conclude their own transfer business first.

Patience Daniel san.

Yes, all the top targets will be ambitious and will want to assess their options. Discussions will be protracted and complex.

Whereas, it will be a case of Jordan? Yes, of course, I’ll just get his coat!

[TomTom92]

Doesn’t appear that there’s much in the pot. Be interested to see what Leigh Curtis has to say on the matter. 
 
Warne in one of his interviews alluded that he didn’t have a transfer budget. 
 
Can’t help but agreeing with another poster when they said they doubt Rhodes was a top target. Feels like we’ve missed the boat and the options remaining are slim.

Edited July 18, 2023 by TomTom92

[Srg]

1 hour ago, Carnero said:

It's the 18th July and the transfer window closes 1st September, there's plenty of time to spend £ on the right forward when they become available.

As a L1 club, if it is players from higher up that we want, such as Ladapo & Godden, then unfortunately we have to sit and wait for Ipswich & Coventry to conclude their own transfer business first.

Patience Daniel san.

If the money we have, we spend on a 32 year old, I’ll be disappointed. 

[MadAmster]

1 hour ago, Carnero said:

It's the 18th July and the transfer window closes 1st September, there's plenty of time to spend £ on the right forward when they become available.

As a L1 club, if it is players from higher up that we want, such as Ladapo & Godden, then unfortunately we have to sit and wait for Ipswich & Coventry to conclude their own transfer business first.

Patience Daniel san.

Spot on. Keepers, defenders, midfielders etc are all there to be had. Strikers are at a premium. It's not the money that's the obstacle. We have that. We didn't overspend last season's budget so we have that money. We have the money from selling Bielik and JK. We have the money from the 27k+ gates we had last season when the budget was based on 17k. At 20 notes a pop that's getting on for £6M. 

The one striker we got in thus far is still recovering from an op he had at the back end of last season. Look across the EFL. How many strikers have changed club this summer, so far? Not many. We are hampered, not by lack of money but by the "moderate fee" we are allowed to pay. My guess is 500k max. We are also hampered, as you rightly say, by clubs unwilling to sell strikers they want to replace until they have the replacement in place. That last situation is also hampering the clubs we want to take strikers off.

I said at the start of the window we'd probably not get a striker in until mid August. The one we got is recovering from an op.

We also have another hindrance. PW's wish list for a player. That includes how good he is at the job, how well he runs himself into the ground and whether he is the right kind of character PW wants around the place. It is a hindrance but one I'm happy to have. 

[sage]

19 minutes ago, MadAmster said:

Spot on. Keepers, defenders, midfielders etc are all there to be had. Strikers are at a premium. It's not the money that's the obstacle. We have that. We didn't overspend last season's budget so we have that money. We have the money from selling Bielik and JK. We have the money from the 27k+ gates we had last season when the budget was based on 17k. At 20 notes a pop that's getting on for £6M. 

The one striker we got in thus far is still recovering from an op he had at the back end of last season. Look across the EFL. How many strikers have changed club this summer, so far? Not many. We are hampered, not by lack of money but by the "moderate fee" we are allowed to pay. My guess is 500k max. We are also hampered, as you rightly say, by clubs unwilling to sell strikers they want to replace until they have the replacement in place. That last situation is also hampering the clubs we want to take strikers off.

I said at the start of the window we'd probably not get a striker in until mid August. The one we got is recovering from an op.

We also have another hindrance. PW's wish list for a player. That includes how good he is at the job, how well he runs himself into the ground and whether he is the right kind of character PW wants around the place. It is a hindrance but one I'm happy to have. 

So we have a budget that we can't spend?

[Nuwtfly]

I think Clowes had made an error in judgement with those budget comments in the Ed Dawes interview. Warne then had to row back on it a few days later.

I suspect what money we raise from sales is probably going into just fixing problems remaining from the Mel era. DC even said himself that they're still dealing with issues from that time now.

Alternatively - perhaps we're just trying to do as much business as we can without spending a penny? I thought we'd had a pretty good window up until the Rhodes stuff.

[Curtains]

Got to admit the signings so far haven’t really been Stella Artois 

[sage]

13 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

I think Clowes had made an error in judgement with those budget comments in the Ed Dawes interview. Warne then had to row back on it a few days later.

I suspect what money we raise from sales is probably going into just fixing problems remaining from the Mel era. DC even said himself that they're still dealing with issues from that time now.

Alternatively - perhaps we're just trying to do as much business as we can without spending a penny? I thought we'd had a pretty good window up until the Rhodes stuff.

I think what effect incomings has on our budget and ability to pay fees is the elephant in the room.

Is the cap £500k regardless of what we receive.

[Nuwtfly]

1 minute ago, sage said:

I think what effect incomings has on our budget and ability to pay fees is the elephant in the room.

Is the cap £500k regardless of what we receive.

Would love to know the answer to that question!

[InstaRam]

Seems almost impossible to run a self-sufficient football club below the PL and I will accept we work on the free transfers and low prices market with respect to our recent hardships. As long as the clubs long term future is not at risk I am content as long as we see that the over over all direction is forward even though the pace i slow. 

[simmoram1995]

Part of me feels that although Clowes saved us I can’t see him being here longer than 2 years he won’t spend money to an extent probably wise considering the error of judgment of Mel. If we sign Rhodes Warne will have a lot of explaining to do as it would show either we have no ambition or quite frankly all the money we receive is going towards repairing other areas of our finances destroyed by Mel e.g. money for knight is actually going on the academy not the first team 

[Black ('n' White) Sheep]

If we weren't going to spend a bit (at least on a decent striker) then I don't get what DC's "budget... good enough to get us out of the league" comment in his interview was about! You're a legend for saving us DC, obviously, but you've built our expectations up now and were expecting better than 30+ year old journeyman strikers.

[Raich Carter]

I think we need to reset our expectations. Player wages are still high (almost all of our signings were playing in the Championship last year - they must be on similar money to what they got at their previous club) and overheads are significant (E.G. Moor Farm) so yes we have big gates but the TV money is dreadful at this level and that's what makes the difference. I strongly suspect incoming transfer fees bolster the bank balance to pay for wages, agents fees, etc but not much else.

We've been living in a dream world with MM - spending huge amounts of money that we just didn't have year after year so every penny counts at this level. Clowes will, rightly, be very risk averse and will want to limit his exposure to financial risk as it's well documented that the quickest way to stop being rich is to own a football club (our very own Lionel Pickering is an example).

My opinion is that we have a tiny budget for transfers and given the number free agents and the standard of player we need at this level, I think there's enough to go at without throwing money around. Obviously that's not what fans want to hear but equally, I don't want us in financial strife yet again.

Yes, we're Derby County. But we're Derby County in League One... 

[Raich Carter]

1 minute ago, Black ('n' White) Sheep said:

If we weren't going to spend a bit (at least on a decent striker) then I don't get what DC's "budget... good enough to get us out of the league" comment in his interview was about! You're a legend for saving us DC, obviously, but you've built our expectations up now and were expecting better than 30+ year old journeyman strikers.

Like McG?! Scored 134 goals in 504 games aged 35 - hardly prolific but had his best season ever under Warne after 15 seasons as a pro. Blimey lads, get real. 

[StarterForTen]

Free agents may not require a transfer fee to another team but they most certainly aren’t without costs. The fact that we’ve been able to pay agent fees this summer is probably the major factor in bringing in the players we have so far. I don’t know (obviously) but it would not surprise me if half of the Knight fee has already been spent on the recruitment to date.

A ‘competitive budget’ also does not translate to a ‘by far the biggest’ budget - possibly just puts in the top six in the division. Theoretically that should make the club capable of winning promotion as the Chairman said. 

[Collo_DCFC11]

Genuinely baffles me some of the stuff I read on here and on Twitter. For what it's worth, to answer the question, I think we have obviously got a bigger budget than last season and so far I believe Warne has spent it very, very well. We are not be spending huge fees on players or making glamour signings but we are building a seriously formidable TEAM and squad at this level with the right characters, some quality and players that will fit our system.

Bradley and Nelson are incredible signings at this level. Big, strong, mobile (Nelson, not Bradley as much) a threat from set pieces and the physical, ugly men that Warne alluded to in the off season. Ward and Elder are arguably the two best full backs/wing backs in the league and add quality and a real attacking intent to our back line. I predict the pair of them will provide a hatful of assists.

Wilson I haven't seen as much of but everything I have read and seen, I believe it is somewhat of a coup and could turn out to be a very shrewd signing under the radar. Washington I feel is our most underrated signing of the window and one I can't believe our fans are baulking at signing. Stats can be so deceiving sometimes and just because he doesn't score 30 a season, he is 'underwhelming'. I have seen him play on a large number of occasions and always liked what I have seen. As Warne has alluded to, he runs in behind and stretches play (can't remember the last striker we've had that does this), presses tirelessly and will bring more goals out of the rest of the team; I feel he will really complement what we've got and end up as an unexpected fan's favourite.

Digressing slightly but it also makes me laugh how people think we should be signing May, Nombe and Smith etc. because someone on Twitter says they have had a good season, despite 90% of our fanbase probably having only seen them play once or twice. Has it ever occured to us that Warne doesn't want them? Also keep seeing Clarke-Harris linked; although I think our budget is bigger, I do not think we are going to shell out the 2-3 million pounds that it would take to land him; plus, in my opinion, he isn't all that anyway. Scores a lot of goals granted but feel he is a very limited flat track bully and we could do better for less money (I for one would like us to get Godden, if it is realistic - would be a very good signing).

A very long winded way of saying I think we do have a decent budget, are currently spending it very well and Warne is building a very, very good squad with a few more to come, whilst also not spunking money on rubbish and thinking about the club's long term future.