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KEN Anderson says Gary Madine’s big-money deadline day sale to Cardiff City was a game-changer at Wanderers.
Originally forecast to lose between £5-6million this season, the transfer fee received last month for the 27-year-old target man could put the Whites’ annual accounts back on an even financial keel for the first time in more than a decade.
Championship survival is the aim between now and the summer, when Anderson claims there is still work to be done to bring the wage budget completely into line.
And the chairman hopes that if the Whites can succeed in their bid to stay in this division they will be able to invest more heavily in the playing staff.
“That amount of money changes the season totally,” he said of the Madine deal, understood to be worth £6million. “We are now very, very close to be breaking even.
“We have still got players who are costing us a lot more than we should be paying for them, and that loses the club a lot of money.
“But going into next season I think we have got a budget in mind to break even.”
Wanderers have not paid a cash transfer fee since Filip Twardzik’s move from Celtic in January 2015 but were frustrated in £500,000-plus bids for Ipswich Town’s David McGoldrick and Charlton’s Josh Magennis on deadline day as they sought a replacement for Madine.
Ex-Arsenal and Crystal Palace striker Marouane Chamakh is among the players who have had a trial at Wanderers in the last fortnight as Phil Parkinson scours the free transfer market for possible recruits.
Anderson insists he will invest if the right deal comes along – but he is anxious to ensure he gets value for money for any incoming transfer.
“Will we buy players – well it is common knowledge we put offers out to buy a couple of strikers,” he said. “And Lee (Anderson, advisor to the board) brought in a couple of top players after the window, which we decided not to sign.
“The only reason for that is we’d need four or five weeks to get them ready and we haven’t got a pre-season. The only players I’d want to see come in now are ones who’d be ready to come into the starting 18.
“We don’t want to make the mistake – which we did do in League One last year – where we brought in a couple of free agents who didn’t feature, or very rarely featured, and I wouldn’t want to make that mistake again.”
Anderson said the decision to sell Madine was made bearing in mind Wanderers’ operating costs - but also when the deal offered by Cardiff was too good for the player or the club to refuse.
“His mind was set to go to Cardiff, challenge for the play-offs etc,” he said. “They could be a Premier League club next year and they probably offered him a lot more than we did.
“Probably two to three days before the transfer window closed the writing was on the wall he was going to go, for me.
The view in the end was that we didn’t really want a player here who didn’t want to be here, so the best thing was to do the best deal we possibly could.
“I think it’s the most profitable deal this club has ever done. And because of the crazy market of transfers in the Championship, I think we ended up getting a good financial deal.
“My aim is to stay in this league, then go on and do better things. But I have also got to look at the financial side for us to carry on being a club and give ourselves the best chance going forward.
“If I’m honest it’s an incredible amount of money we got for that player. It took a long while to get there, they put six different offers in – and the first two or three we just went back and said ‘not interested’.
“Gradually the figure started creeping up and then the day before the transfer window closed we agreed to Gary going there and agreeing his personal terms.”
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/16040849.Ken_Anderson__Madine_fee_changes_the_season_totally/
Originally forecast to lose between £5-6million this season, the transfer fee received last month for the 27-year-old target man could put the Whites’ annual accounts back on an even financial keel for the first time in more than a decade.
Championship survival is the aim between now and the summer, when Anderson claims there is still work to be done to bring the wage budget completely into line.
And the chairman hopes that if the Whites can succeed in their bid to stay in this division they will be able to invest more heavily in the playing staff.
“That amount of money changes the season totally,” he said of the Madine deal, understood to be worth £6million. “We are now very, very close to be breaking even.
“We have still got players who are costing us a lot more than we should be paying for them, and that loses the club a lot of money.
“But going into next season I think we have got a budget in mind to break even.”
Wanderers have not paid a cash transfer fee since Filip Twardzik’s move from Celtic in January 2015 but were frustrated in £500,000-plus bids for Ipswich Town’s David McGoldrick and Charlton’s Josh Magennis on deadline day as they sought a replacement for Madine.
Ex-Arsenal and Crystal Palace striker Marouane Chamakh is among the players who have had a trial at Wanderers in the last fortnight as Phil Parkinson scours the free transfer market for possible recruits.
Anderson insists he will invest if the right deal comes along – but he is anxious to ensure he gets value for money for any incoming transfer.
“Will we buy players – well it is common knowledge we put offers out to buy a couple of strikers,” he said. “And Lee (Anderson, advisor to the board) brought in a couple of top players after the window, which we decided not to sign.
“The only reason for that is we’d need four or five weeks to get them ready and we haven’t got a pre-season. The only players I’d want to see come in now are ones who’d be ready to come into the starting 18.
“We don’t want to make the mistake – which we did do in League One last year – where we brought in a couple of free agents who didn’t feature, or very rarely featured, and I wouldn’t want to make that mistake again.”
Anderson said the decision to sell Madine was made bearing in mind Wanderers’ operating costs - but also when the deal offered by Cardiff was too good for the player or the club to refuse.
“His mind was set to go to Cardiff, challenge for the play-offs etc,” he said. “They could be a Premier League club next year and they probably offered him a lot more than we did.
“Probably two to three days before the transfer window closed the writing was on the wall he was going to go, for me.
The view in the end was that we didn’t really want a player here who didn’t want to be here, so the best thing was to do the best deal we possibly could.
“I think it’s the most profitable deal this club has ever done. And because of the crazy market of transfers in the Championship, I think we ended up getting a good financial deal.
“My aim is to stay in this league, then go on and do better things. But I have also got to look at the financial side for us to carry on being a club and give ourselves the best chance going forward.
“If I’m honest it’s an incredible amount of money we got for that player. It took a long while to get there, they put six different offers in – and the first two or three we just went back and said ‘not interested’.
“Gradually the figure started creeping up and then the day before the transfer window closed we agreed to Gary going there and agreeing his personal terms.”
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/16040849.Ken_Anderson__Madine_fee_changes_the_season_totally/
