Well at least it's woken a few of us up from our transferless induced nap! It would be a major coup from the reports but as others have commented, the wages are likely to be an issue not just for us financially but also for the dressing room harmony. At least Mike will be happier drinking his morning coffee today.......
'Rather have a happy team fighting as one,than jealousy and bitterness in our team' As a player and now spectator I just don't see this logic. In teams I played for, football and cricket, there were numerous players paid lots more than others. I was glad to play with 'betters' and enjoyed some success that went with it. I/we realised other competing clubs were paying in the same fashion, so for me it was 'do as the Romans do'. It's small minded 'nimby' type players who are jealous of better players.
Not convinced wages would cause great disharmony - I'm sure that if you examined the payroll (as you would any company) there'd already be some disparity between even first-teamers. It's part and parcel of football and life. Hope that this rumour is true and near to completion, so that we don't get pipped to the post, although I'm not sure the media would have much bearing on this - any team at our level would know about him and any potential availability without reading it on the back pages of tabloid newspapers. As mentioned, it does almost seem too good to be true that such a highly rated young player would come to us ahead of other teams (including Premiership sides) for a comparatively reasonable fee, but I'm staying hopeful.
Its a sod, the wages issue ! I agree with RR about preferring harmony to superstars, but this is one we will need to overcome if we are to progress. TBH I can't see that Lingard will be asking for 20K per wk, nor that he is worth that kind of money for an untested 22 year old, even if he did just put one past Barca reserves in a pre-season friendly. On the other hand, Bristol City could be just what he needs after an uneventful first 6 years to his career, which hasn't exactly gone off like Michael Owen has it
http://www.football365.com/news/21554/9934515/Newcastle-Want-Lingard Lingard recently emphasised his desire to stay and fight for his place at his boyhood side. He said: "The manager has not said anything to me at the moment regarding my future. "This is my club. This is where I want to stay." Appears as though this rumour may be losing steam rapidly - was an exciting couple of hours mind.
Believe me in the business world it causes all sorts of issues,certainly causes issues in sports teams.
If Newcastle are interested, then we're scuppered. McClaren took him on loan last year and despite their ridiculous owner, the lure of staying in the Prem for more money and playing in front of 50,000 footy crazed Geordies will trump what we have to offer.
It's a gamble whichever way you look at it and as truerobin said, if he is successful at City, perhaps we could see a future target for bigger clubs. First he has to want to be here and commit himself to a brighter future with way more playing time.
Our bid has been widely reported and accepted by those in the know in Bristol, whereas most reputable sources around Newcastle haven't given much weight to their rumour. Personally, I reckon either Man Utd or the players' agent might be trying to raise the transfer fee or salary by adding another team into the mix. Given how soon it is until the start of the season, I hope we have him signed by Friday.
That's that one gone as well then http://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/article/wednesdays-press-talk-2594203.aspx
I'm gutted, Lingard is exactly the kind of player we needed, and we didn't make a move for him. Call me a pessimist, but I think that's it for our transfer dealings this summer, and since we've not adequately bolstered our squad I really think survival will be a struggle this year.
I do, because we've had several months to get ourselves in order, and we've signed a single player. Given our recent history, I think the board have underestimated this league once again, and that we're unable to compete with others in this league. I reckon Cotterill will stick with who we have at the moment, and promote from the academy. We might sign someone on loan, or panic buy if a player gets injured, but I think we're largely done.
Oh well the fat lady ain't singing just yet,There will be others in the frame. Big wage earners will cause unrest anybody in business will tell you that. resentment will come through.
So why is every other team signing people but us? What we seem to call "high wages" is just "wages" to everyone else. Bring frugal is a double-edged sword. If we don't spend and go down this season, we can kiss goodbye to all the quality signings we made last season. Our better players are Championship bound, with us or without us, and why would they want to stick with us when they can earn double elsewhere? A lot of our success last year was down to Cotterill. I fear that this season the board are happy being back where we belong, and have decided to sit back and hope that Cotterill can run a club on a budget again.
Completely agree, and if the board are reintroducing the austerity measures again, then they can sit and watch results and attendances fall away along with our place in the Championship, as in my humble opinion we are 3 or 4 more quality players short of what we need for mid table obscurity. There is still time and all that but we are now just 75 hours from the big kick off
To be fair to the board/manager, our first choice team from last season was very strong and remains intact, and the signing of Kodija is potentially a slight upgrade - finding players to improve upon them is going to be difficult. Having said that, there's no doubt that the side is wafer-thin and it's a dangerous game waiting it out. Pretty much it'll be all or nothing - either we'll be lucky with injuries, do well and it'll be called a stroke of genius, or it'll be the opposite and they'll be an outcry over how it was allowed to happen. We'll have to wait until after the window closes before we can truly judge, although I think if we make a bad start then the atmosphere will turn sour and will have a negative effect on the side.
What we tend to overlook is the role that bit-part players played in ensuring we kept our leads. Cotterill was often clever with his substitutions, not bringing on players to aid tired legs, but bringing like-for-like replacements on at key points in a game, more often near the end of a match. Cunningham, JET, and co might not have played in the first-team often, but in terms of appearances they came off the bench a fair number of times. This time around we no longer have the luxury of knowing that we can sub off any of our players and have someone that can maintain our dominance. Our subs bench will be full of academy players that will probably see bench appearances for us as the highest level they'll ever play at. An outcry is right, but sadly it'll be Cotterill that gets the chop. I've felt for a long time that Millen, McInnes and SOD were probably solid coaches that couldn't manage our board. Cotterill has succeeded because he bucked the trend, but if he can't get the signings he needs then the board need to stop pretending that the Premier League will ever be achievable, and need to start telling us that in our current financial situation the best we can hope for is to be a good League 1 club.
