Transfer rumours !

As far as Dion - ask for silly money - everyone else seems to get it barre us of course.

Charles is loved here - for his workrate as much as his goals. Evatt's style of play really suits him. There are signs of a developing strike partnership with Victor. We are in with a chance of playing in the Championship next year. 

A move might put all that at risk so the only remaining reason I can think of for Dion to want to move would be for better money and personal terms and if he does that he is welcome to go.

The fact that George was prepared to turn down better money to continue his development with us shines a light on the loyalty thing.

wanderlust wrote:Charles is loved here - for his workrate as much as his goals. Evatt's style of play really suits him. There are signs of a developing strike partnership with Victor. We are in with a chance of playing in the Championship next year. 

A move might put all that at risk so the only remaining reason I can think of for Dion to want to move would be for better money and personal terms and if he does that he is welcome to go.

The fact that George was prepared to turn down better money to continue his development with us shines a light on the loyalty thing.

I fear Dion and George are completely different characters Lusty and also at completely different places in their careers. I can’t see Dion turning down the chance to double or treble his wages and move immediately to a higher level at his age rather than remain on lower wages and risk not getting a higher level of football here if we don’t make it. As long as we get the right fee for him that’s all we can ask for. We are a buying and selling club I’m afraid and as IE said every player has his price. Hopefully that price reflects not just Dions value to the club but also to the team because we’d be much poorer without him. We couldn’t force him to stay if an offer came in and somehow I think Dions the total opposite to George and would take the money and run. How about £3m in for Dion and £1m out for Johnson Clarke Harris?

Whitesince63 wrote:
I fear Dion and George are completely different characters Lusty and also at completely different places in their careers. I can’t see Dion turning down the chance to double or treble his wages and move immediately to a higher level at his age rather than remain on lower wages and risk not getting a higher level of football here if we don’t make it. As long as we get the right fee for him that’s all we can ask for. We are a buying and selling club I’m afraid and as IE said every player has his price. Hopefully that price reflects not just Dions value to the club but also to the team because we’d be much poorer without him. We couldn’t force him to stay if an offer came in and somehow I think Dions the total opposite to George and would take the money and run. How about £3m in for Dion and £1m out for Johnson Clarke Harris?

Of course we are ultimately a business but in some ways, Evatt and FV allowing the players to decide themselves if they want to leave somewhat distorts the model. Exactly who is running the business?
I sincerely hope it's not the players and if the club needs sales income to fund a favourable purchase they stop faffing about and tell the player they're going whether they like it or not.

I think that's a very optimistic valuation of Dion BTW.

I thought you claimed to be a Business Advisor?

If so you would know that the company's workforce - which Evatt and the players actually are - don't call the shots - the owners do.

Let us look at what we know.

We've received a bid for Thompson.

We know we have received other bids previously that don't meet our valuation of the players concerned - and have rejected them.

Seems on this occasion that the bid must have met our value because it was discussed and put before Thompson to consider if he wanted to go.

Seems he didn't and the club was not apparently in any apparent need for the £1m we are understanding, that was offered.

We also know that at this time Thompson is seen to be just a squad player rather than a regular starter.

(Without checking) I believe Thompson's contract ran through to 2026 but has now been increased by an additional year.

It seems to me that both Thompson and the club are happy for him to stay.

It seems very unlikely that he's demanded a wage increase to stay (why would he if he knows the club is looking to let him go for the money offered by Bristol City) hardly in a position of strength if he knows the club would have sold him if he didn't want to stay on the terms he already had!

Why then have the club GIVEN him an extra year on his contract then?

I assume they could have given him a wage rise under the terms of his existing contract if they had the mind to do, so it seems to me the extra year was to show that they value him, maybe award him a moderate pay increase but mainly to protect what they see as a future sale for much more than £1m and/or a key player in the months and years to come.

It again shows to me at least, that the continuing funding appears to be there to subsidise the club for the foreseeable future, even though the club IS NOT financially self sustainable and continues to run at a trading loss.

I don't believe Sharon is our financial fairy godmother, but rather she is the front to others who are.

Hopefully they don't lose interest in us anytime soon.

Sluffy wrote:I thought you claimed to be a Business Advisor?

If so you would know that the company's workforce - which Evatt and the players actually are - don't call the shots - the owners do.

Let us look at what we know.

We've received a bid for Thompson.

We know we have received other bids previously that don't meet our valuation of the players concerned - and have rejected them.

Seems on this occasion that the bid must have met our value because it was discussed and put before Thompson to consider if he wanted to go.

Seems he didn't and the club was not apparently in any apparent need for the £1m we are understanding, that was offered.

We also know that at this time Thompson is seen to be just a squad player rather than a regular starter.

(Without checking) I believe Thompson's contract ran through to 2026 but has now been increased by an additional year.

It seems to me that both Thompson and the club are happy for him to stay.

It seems very unlikely that he's demanded a wage increase to stay (why would he if he knows the club is looking to let him go for the money offered by Bristol City) hardly in a position of strength if he knows the club would have sold him if he didn't want to stay on the terms he already had!

Why then have the club GIVEN him an extra year on his contract then?

I assume they could have given him a wage rise under the terms of his existing contract if they had the mind to do, so it seems to me the extra year was to show that they value him, maybe award him a moderate pay increase but mainly to protect what they see as a future sale for much more than £1m and/or a key player in the months and years to come.

It again shows to me at least, that the continuing funding appears to be there to subsidise the club for the foreseeable future, even though the club IS NOT financially self sustainable and continues to run at a trading loss.

I don't believe Sharon is our financial fairy godmother, but rather she is the front to others who are.

Hopefully they don't lose interest in us anytime soon.

I largely agree with that Sluffy though I’m sure that IE always wanted to keep George as he believes, as I do, that his value will increase in years to come. I see the additional contract extension and wages as a perfectly normal part of a renegotiation and hopefully George will prove it to be a good move for both.

Lusty, you may be right and I may well be being a bit ambitious about my valuation of Dion but strikers are a rate commodity and therefore fetch more money. I’d like the club to set a high bar with Dion because allowing him to leave for effectively peanuts could turn out a really poor deal if it costs us promotion. I’d hope that like George Dion might think that there’s every chance he could end up this season with a L1 Champions medal to add to his Cup win and would decide his best future is to stay here?

Sunny Mirror, Sports News Editor has posted this today...

While I'd love to sign Clarke-Harris, it would be madness to sell Charles seeing as he's the only player we have who scores regularly.

I hope this is bollocks!

Surely if a serious offer does come in for Charles, then the club would bend over backwards to keep him at the SHITCREEK.

I’m sure the club would want to keep Charles but if Stoke, or Watford who are also said to be interested in him, do make a bid then if it’s more than we’d have to pay for JCH it would seem a good deal. We do need to bear in mind also that 20% of the fee we get goes to Accy through the sell on clause so bids around £2m would be needed to sort both and that’s even assuming JCH wants to come here and we can agree on wages which has been a problem elsewhere like Baccus. Could we raise the quoted £1m needed to buy JCH without selling Dion, that is the question?

Whitesince63 wrote:I’m sure the club would want to keep Charles but if Stoke, or Watford who are also said to be interested in him, do make a bid then if it’s more than we’d have to pay for JCH it would seem a good deal. We do need to bear in mind also that 20% of the fee we get goes to Accy through the sell on clause so bids around £2m would be needed to sort both and that’s even assuming JCH wants to come here and we can agree on wages which has been a problem elsewhere like Baccus. Could we raise the quoted £1m needed to buy JCH without selling Dion, that is the question?

The JCH thing looks dead according to Posh local paper but I think the bigger question is that if we did have £1m to splurge wouldn't it be better spent on strengthening our soft centre rather than on another striker?

wanderlust wrote:
The JCH thing looks dead according to Posh local paper but I think the bigger question is that if we did have £1m to splurge wouldn't it be better spent on strengthening our soft centre rather than on another striker?

Not better for me Lusty. It’s goals that win games and whilst we can rely on Dion to contribute the same can’t be said of the others, including Victor. I don’t think we’re as weak as some make out in midfield so personally I’d rather see another quality striker like JCH in who would terrify defences and force them to keep more players back. I just don’t think with the attack we have that we’ll score the goals necessary for the automatics whereas with JCH I believe we would.

JCH and Dion would be a great partnership, we play Dion and one other who are all big target men so how does that not fit our style of play?

Norpig wrote:JCH and Dion would be a great partnership, we play Dion and one other who are all big target men so how does that not fit our style of play?

Perhaps it's not his height that is the issue but more to do with his ability to run around pressing, and the tippy tappy possession football Evatt will only play.

Besides we don't have £1m to buy him with.

Also his age might be a factor, we don't seem to go for anyone 'older' these days?

Sluffy wrote:

Perhaps it's not his height that is the issue but more to do with his ability to run around pressing, and the tippy tappy possession football Evatt will only play.

Besides we don't have £1m to buy him with.

Also his age might be a factor, we don't seem to go for anyone 'older' these days?

Are you sure we don’t have the money Sluffy, we surely have some of the bond money in hand and although we’ve purchased a couple we haven’t spent that much altogether. Don’t forget the money we got for Dapo paid for Victor so even if FV didn’t put anything in, we must have the million if we wanted to use it? 

I think we have to temper this buying only youth thing because if we seriously want to get into the automatics a little experience might be the ticket and at 28 JCH has all the experience without being too old. Also, the “he doesn’t fit our system” comment may just be a ruse by Evatt who may be banking on the price being lower if nobody else comes in for him and Posh need to sell? We’ll soon see.

We are not getting in the top two, you really need to let it go.

Whitesince63 wrote:

Sluffy wrote:

Perhaps it's not his height that is the issue but more to do with his ability to run around pressing, and the tippy tappy possession football Evatt will only play.

Besides we don't have £1m to buy him with.

Also his age might be a factor, we don't seem to go for anyone 'older' these days?

Are you sure we don’t have the money Sluffy, we surely have some of the bond money in hand and although we’ve purchased a couple we haven’t spent that much altogether. Don’t forget the money we got for Dapo paid for Victor so even if FV didn’t put anything in, we must have the million if we wanted to use it? 

I think we have to temper this buying only youth thing because if we seriously want to get into the automatics a little experience might be the ticket and at 28 JCH has all the experience without being too old. Also, the “he doesn’t fit our system” comment may just be a ruse by Evatt who may be banking on the price being lower if nobody else comes in for him and Posh need to sell? We’ll soon see.

When the bond was issued it was set for a total of £3.5m and that money was to be used to improve the pitch at the training ground and update the IT at the stadium and buy some big screens and other infrastructure improvements.  It was stated that anything raised above that total would be used to 'strengthen' the team.

The final sum raised was £4.5m.

How do FV define 'strengthen'?

Do they mean a £1m transfer kitty, or do they mean £1m to buy players AND fund their wages?

I don't know.

I also don't know how they manage the money?

For instance is the transfer fee paid in full, or is it in instalments over a period of years, or when milestones are achieved?

Let us assume for the sake of argument the £1m is simply for transfers which are paid in full at the point of the transfer.

Is then the £1m our total transfer budget or is there more from elsewhere?

Again I don't know.

The club however has been trading at a loss, has an outstanding debt of £5.5m to Prescott Business Park (PBP) and has taken on a debt of a further £4.5m to repay the bond (plus and additional bonus of 10% to the bond holders (£450,000) if we achieve promotion to the Championship during the period of the bonds term (5 years iirc?).

However on the flip side the club (apparently) has rejected a bid of £1m for Thomason and possibly another for Charles(?) so it seems money is not an issue to FV at this point in time?

Nevertheless I would assume that the £1m from the bond is all Evatt has been given, although he might squeeze a bit more from FV for the January window.

This also begs a question as to if IE has £1m transfer kitty to be used in full for now, or does it include the January window also?

For arguments sake again, let us assume it is all for now (although personally I suspect it probably includes provision for the January window too).

So what has he spent?

Nlundulu - £200,000 from Southampton allegedly
Williams - over £100,000 apparently
Baxter, Coleman and Dacres-Cogley - frees.
Forrester - £200,000 apparently from Port Vale
Mendes Gomez - from Luton - another £200,000 perhaps?
Ashworth - signed on loan BUT with option to buy - let say £100,000 to be set aside in case we do?
Maghoma - on loan from Brentford's - say a £20,000 loan fee perhaps?

We were also linked to Kane Wilson and Keanu Bacchus, so presumably we still have funds left to commit?

I speculate - and that is all I can do - that we may have something around £200,000 to £250,000 mark available (but it may also include all the money for January transfers as well - and say £100,000 of it may already be committed to sign Ashworth?).

I might be spot on or miles away but that's the best I can do.

I'm pretty sure though that we haven't got the £1m Peterborough want for Clarke-Harris.

Just over 6 hours left and we still haven't signed a Karl Henry type midfielder.

I will be seething if the manager doesn't get this sorted tonight.

Sluffy,you say you doubt we have the finance to purchase JCH and you may well be right but it seems so far that our owners either don’t have money to put into the club or they just don’t want to. As well as the Bond money they also have better than average ST sales and some big gates I would have expected a morale boosting window but another two players out and zero in despite knowing we need reinforcements in several areas. I do hope we’re good enough to compete but I’m beginning to have my doubts.