Brentford have spent around £100m ... ... it would be daft to believe we won't spend money and won't replace players. That's how football works and everyone knows it.
I've never said we won't spend money, I'm saying we don't need to spend £20 mil to survive if we go up. As for Brentford it's not like the owner is chucking millions of his own money in to fund it. 17/18 season spent £10 mil, got £13mil back in. 18/19 season spent £6mil, got £31.5mil back in. 19/20 season spent £31mil, got £36mil back in. 20/21 season spent £6.5 mil, got £52mil back in. So in the last four seasons, they've spent about £54mil and got back about £130mil. I'd say that Brentford are an excellent example of being smart with transfers and having a sustainable model that generates an income to allow for further investment in the team to improve it.
I agree with you mate, not disputing what you said. The gist of it is that all clubs have to spend, to progress, and that's exactly what we'll do. Believing the players think their jobs are all safe, if the club denies that, is naive in the extreme. Some of our lot have been at half a dozen, or more, clubs and know how it all works.
We'll deffo have money to spend and it will get spent. But we will be spending it completely different to how we have before and it will be based much more on data and scouting than having a few agent's as contacts imo. Our time in the Prem is an excellent example of a totally inept transfer policy where we spend a fair chunk of cash and mainly end up still being fairly ****. Really think with KLD we'll see us being similar to Brentford and buy in potential to develop rather than going for high transfer fee ready made players. Look at Forest, spent £5 mil on a 29 year old Harry Arter and he's played about 10 games. That's the type of transfer we'd have made in the past, think in the future it will be trying to sign the Ollie Watkins when he was at Exeter type of player.
Look how much Barnsley and Luton have spent since going up. Both have competed fine and Barnsley are currently in the playoffs. We would be going into the Championship at a great time. A lot of clubs in there are in financial ruin. If we had 60m and spent it wisely we would more than compete
KLD has made the back room appointments and put in the building blocks for success, the academy is getting attention in the right way now, not to produce saleable assets but to hopefully provide the home grown talent round which we can build success. He's also backing that up with a serious budget in order to recruit real quality to push forward. Reporting this now is a sign he has no intention of "consolidating our position" in my opinion. The last three seasons prove that if you talk yourself and your fans down you will end up as a "sleeping giant" eventually believing you are no different to the Accringtons, and Fleetwoods around you. I personally don't think there's anything to be gained by purposefully trying to consolidate anywhere other than in the premier league, if he backs us financially in the top division we wont be cannon fodder and can buy our way to safety to push on from there. If the worst come of it we at least have the parachute payments to fall back on. I am enjoying this new found confidence in my club and don't want it to end before it has started - can you tell
good post, i do not think i am alone in my thinking that this time will be so much different to when Mr Short took over the helm...many still despise the bloke yet he threw money at the club time and again, yes it was his fault for hiring entirely the wrong people but the lad did try his best and in the end did the best he could to get new owners...there is already a structure in place, there is a lot of background work already going on, even those already brought in last window seem to fit the profile. anyone thinking money will be thrown around again is in cuckoo land, this lad and his team are looking at getting this club to pay for itself and long term it can only benefit everyone, money will need to be spent of course and we will still be one of the best supported teams with one of the biggest crowds in the game...and that has to be a wee bit of an attraction to players.
That's the difference between our previous owners and our new owner. Hes putting it out there that he will pay whats required rather than worrying about not being able to fix the lift or not being able to afford the electric bill for the spot lights. Hes saying he will compete and that he has more than the necessary funds to get who we want. It doesn't mean we wont get value for our money in my opinion, we will still have a valuation and ceiling price for any player but we are now a different proposition for anyone tempted to move in that they know they are coming to a club with ambition and serious backing.
That's one way of looking at it, yeah. On the other side the players with some ambition and self belief will think I really need to get stuck in for the rest of the season and prove I'm worth a chance in the championship.
IIRC we were looking at Watkins when he was at Exeter but didn't fancy paying £1M+ Hopefully we won't make that sort of error now
If a premier league team get told they have millions to spend the players who leave normally just move abroad or another premier team when a div 1 player gets told to leave it’s usually the end of their career not a nice thought.
I hope they press on with the revamp and clear out the majority of the squad in the summer. Let's attack L1 with a young and vibrant squad full of pace and endeavour
Purely circumstantial. We were showing shaky signs at the back for weeks. We were relying on the goals of a player who is pretty crap and went through a purple patch. All creativity comes from a 35 year old we need to turn the magic on a couple of times a week. Looking back we never going to go up really. In this climate of Covid our players should be grateful to be in employment in a few months time, let alone with SAFC.