| Spending wisely? 10:25 - Jan 27 with 5385 views | earlsgreenblue |
I am beginning to wonder if our immediate future is being threatened by a long term strategy & very basically without criticism are we spending on personnel for tomorrow rather than today?
With NB showing signs of some form (it can be short lived I understand) did we really need another left 10?
I don’t think I’m alone in that our midfield is just not quite good enough & survival might hinge on that, pace, technical skills, physicality, endurance & that all important eye for a pass seem to be missing & when watching other teams albeit on tv they seem to a degree to have it.
So, to my mind this is the area we are most weak in, now we are getting players back defence (needs improvement) but the players are already here for that, a Flynn D type in the middle would massively increase our chances & that’s my area of spending, another striker as well obviously! |  | | |  |
| Spending wisely? on 15:27 - Jan 27 with 965 views | Vaughan8 |
| Spending wisely? on 14:42 - Jan 27 by OldFart71 |
Phillips is probably on more than that with us and City paying around 50% each. If as some have suggested he is on £130 k a week then he's definitely not worth it. If I was him I'd be shovelling as much in the bank as I can between now and when his City contract ends as there's no way another Premier League club would entertain him on that sort of money and certainly going down a division he'd lose £100k minimum. |
Yes I did think, he must be the only one anywhere near that kind of money currently.
I don't think hes worth 50% to us really. He has been OK, but being presumably the highest earner, he should be more and should be starting every/most games. | | | |
| Spending wisely? on 15:29 - Jan 27 with 962 views | Bellevue_Blue |
With the benefit of hindsight it's really really easy to pass judgement.
Phillips, Muric, Johnson, Ogbene, Cajuste, O'Shea were all bought in for the betterment of the team as players who had played in the division and were pencilled in as immediate starters. That's 50% of our summer business with the other 50% geared towards growth and value.
O'Shea has proved to be a fantastic piece of business, Cajuste (where would we be without him) and Ogbene very unlucky. Phillips, Muric & Johnson have all failed to deliver on expectations but no team is going to hit on 100% of transfers.
To criticise Ashton and co is absolute madness though. Had we gone for more experienced players and Southampton ended up with Delap you'd be asking why we aren't taking flyers on players who proved themselves in the Championship.
We are a player light up front, we have a GK problem and we are a player light in midfield because we got the biggest swing in Phillips wrong. Besides that I think our business has been excellent (I'm hesitant to pass judgement on Jack Clarke yet as I think there is a real player there). [Post edited 27 Jan 15:50]
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| Spending wisely? on 15:41 - Jan 27 with 920 views | MVBlue |
| Spending wisely? on 11:20 - Jan 27 by Marshalls_Mullet |
Would anyone really pay us more than £20m for Hutch? |
In todays market, yes we'd get our money back pretty much. |  |
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| I think this is a valid point.... on 15:50 - Jan 27 with 902 views | ITFCSG |
| I think this is a valid point.... on 10:31 - Jan 27 by JakeITFC |
The two things are very much linked, but I get the impression that McKenna enjoys that development aspect of players too. I think it hasn't helped that our kind of 'sure thing' signings (Ben Johnson, Ogbene, Phillips, O'Shea and possibly Muric) haven't really been perfect either. |
McKenna can love developing players but ITFC isn't a charity to develop up-and-coming English players for the national team and other Prem clubs!
If we go down, a lot of these "talent" will leave anyway, so what's the point? | | | |
| Spending wisely? on 16:03 - Jan 27 with 850 views | PositivelyPortman |
| Spending wisely? on 13:42 - Jan 27 by itfc_bucks |
Is that the Flynn Downes who (a) hasn't done "it" at Southampton and (b) showed no overt interest in coming here when leaving West Ham? [Post edited 27 Jan 13:48]
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We certainly don’t want Downes here again. |  |
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| Spending wisely? on 16:55 - Jan 27 with 803 views | itfc48 |
| Spending wisely? on 14:03 - Jan 27 by Vaughan8 |
I'm sure we would have liked some more experienced premier league players but with that comes not only the fee, but the massive wages. I read the average wages for a premier league footballer is about £67k a week.
Unfortunately a lot of the summer signings actually haven't been a massive improvement on what we already had which is a shame. |
I think this is exactly why we've gone with the strategy we have done. Wages are a killer on PSR/FFP so we've had to go with projects that cost reasonable fees but command lower wages than established Prem players.
In hindsight some players haven't been huge upgrades but can you really go into a Premier League campaign hoping that your players that are unproven at this level will step up? | | | |
| Spending wisely? on 17:39 - Jan 27 with 756 views | Blue_Heath |
I said at start of season we appear to be buying attributes and re-sale rather than what the team needs. I still don't think KmK knows his best 11 or system come to that due to the crazy amount of RB's LW's etc we have collected.
We would have been far better retaining a core of the momentum squad and adding to it. It seems when we have 6 L1 players in the side we generally perform better.
I appreciate it's a huge step up but the likes of Johnson, Clarke, Phillips have hardly set the world alight, albeit two of those had prem experience. Only Axel and Delap appear to have the physicality to cope in this league long term.
This has de-harmonised team spirit, again I appreciate the league is harder but when we concede we look done something that was never the case previously.
That said, it's been a steep learning curve and we are way ahead of schedule. I have faith the owners will get it right moving forward. | | | |
| Spending wisely? on 17:59 - Jan 27 with 710 views | SuffolkPunchFC |
| Spending wisely? on 17:39 - Jan 27 by Blue_Heath |
I said at start of season we appear to be buying attributes and re-sale rather than what the team needs. I still don't think KmK knows his best 11 or system come to that due to the crazy amount of RB's LW's etc we have collected.
We would have been far better retaining a core of the momentum squad and adding to it. It seems when we have 6 L1 players in the side we generally perform better.
I appreciate it's a huge step up but the likes of Johnson, Clarke, Phillips have hardly set the world alight, albeit two of those had prem experience. Only Axel and Delap appear to have the physicality to cope in this league long term.
This has de-harmonised team spirit, again I appreciate the league is harder but when we concede we look done something that was never the case previously.
That said, it's been a steep learning curve and we are way ahead of schedule. I have faith the owners will get it right moving forward. |
I don't see any evidence of a problem with team spirit that you suggest there is. In fact in every Town TV player segment I've seen, there appears to be amazing team spirit.
Do you not think injuries have impacted the chance to have a stable team, and stolen from KmK the opportunity to have a settled group?
We've been losing players on and off since day one, and were one of the teams with the most days lost through injury at the turn of the year. I've not seen an update on this stat during January, but I suspect we're still near the top.
Right now we have injuries / sickness to :
Chiedozie Ogbene
Conor Chaplin
Leif Davis
Wesley Burns
Samuel Szmodics
Hopefully Leif is very short term, but availability of players each week has impacted any chance of even medium term stability, and certainly reduced the chance of many gelling. | | | |
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| Spending wisely? on 19:55 - Jan 27 with 652 views | gsoly |
| Spending wisely? on 16:55 - Jan 27 by itfc48 |
I think this is exactly why we've gone with the strategy we have done. Wages are a killer on PSR/FFP so we've had to go with projects that cost reasonable fees but command lower wages than established Prem players.
In hindsight some players haven't been huge upgrades but can you really go into a Premier League campaign hoping that your players that are unproven at this level will step up? |
Really fair piece I think, and yes, one area which I very rarely see commented on is wages. Wage bill is the killer for clubs when it comes to relegation etc - just look at Leicester. Also, people can scream from the high heavens about our 'spending', but when the dust settles and we publish our wage bill for 2024-25, we will be 20th in the league by a margin.
Despite that, I can't see how it won't have caused some dressing room issues this season, with the way some of these signings have struggled and our L1 players have performed. I have it on good authority that Johnson is on £60k-a-week (the perks of running your contract down). How does Wes Burns feel about that? Harry Clarke? Axel? And, with him struggling, how do we shift Johnson in the years to come? Very, very few Championship clubs could afford to take on that burden.
This is the cost of doing business at PL level and it's why Ashton himself is no doubt paid the big bucks; to deal with these types of situations. But the club is in a whole different pool these days and it's far more difficult when things don't work out with a player.
FWIW, I think Hutchinson is comfortably worth £30m+. I think we underestimate how difficult it is for attacking players to shine in a relegation-threatened team. Gibbs-White is a good marker for Omari IMO and he went for £35m. |  | | |
| Spending wisely? on 20:11 - Jan 27 with 624 views | The_Flashing_Smile |
| Spending wisely? on 10:34 - Jan 27 by homer_123 |
Yes and no.
We have consistently recruited to improve the squad (which we have done by and large since KM and Gamechanger came in).
Clearly some transfers work and some don't but we look to improve each time.
In addition to that, we look to try and bring in players that will improve, increase in value and with a view to ensuring we gain a return on the investment.
Delap and Hutch are the obvious ones.
KM is keen to ensure that in addition to the above, we bring in the 'right' people who fit the ethos of the Club and team.
All of which is very much ensuring the long term viability of the team and Club.
Have we gone out and just bought players to keep us up, no - is that a problem. Maybe, potentially, yes.
Is the approach we are taking the right one, yes, for lots and lots of reasons.
It's not wrong to try and buy our spot in the Prem but I don't think it would have served us any better. |
If anyone knew which players to buy to keep a team up, the bottom third would all be buying them. Not quite as simple as that!
We also have to remember we are ahead of schedule. There are a number of things at the club which haven't kept up with the rise of the team on the pitch, the recruitment department is one of them. |  |
| Trust the process. Trust Phil. |
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| Spending wisely? on 21:59 - Jan 27 with 550 views | Blue_Heath |
| Spending wisely? on 17:59 - Jan 27 by SuffolkPunchFC |
I don't see any evidence of a problem with team spirit that you suggest there is. In fact in every Town TV player segment I've seen, there appears to be amazing team spirit.
Do you not think injuries have impacted the chance to have a stable team, and stolen from KmK the opportunity to have a settled group?
We've been losing players on and off since day one, and were one of the teams with the most days lost through injury at the turn of the year. I've not seen an update on this stat during January, but I suspect we're still near the top.
Right now we have injuries / sickness to :
Chiedozie Ogbene
Conor Chaplin
Leif Davis
Wesley Burns
Samuel Szmodics
Hopefully Leif is very short term, but availability of players each week has impacted any chance of even medium term stability, and certainly reduced the chance of many gelling. |
Bournemouth have loads of injuries look at them, every has to deal this. | | | |
| Spending wisely? (n/t) on 22:00 - Jan 27 with 545 views | HighgateBlue |
We've brought in Phillips and Cajuste in midfield. The former was a real statement signing showing serious ambition, but definitely for today rather than tomorrow. Cajuste has, by most people's reckoning, been a success. With hindsight, we might have done things differently there, but it's not like we haven't made signings.
Further forward, yes, there does seem to have been a kid in a sweet shop mentality. But because Villa are playing Football Manager with real people's lives by signing Philogene and then flogging him on, we missed out on him first time round, hence the second prize (fifth prize?) of Jack Clarke. When he turned out to have been a huge waste of money, we went back in for Philogene, who KMac clearly rates.
Burns and Ogbene getting injured is unfortunate, and that may have played a part in the Inciso signing, but I have a feeling he will be a good addition. Hutch has been up and down, and that is to be expected from a youngster in a struggling team.
I can't work out why Broady doesn't get more game time, I really can't, but ho hum.
In short, we wasted an awful lot of money on Jack Clarke. At the time, it looked like a decent signing having lost out on Philogene. Sunderland fans massively rated him, but I guess some players make the step up and some don't. Personally I think JClarke has taken minutes away from Broady unjustifiably. They aren't even that different in age: 24 v 26. [Post edited 27 Jan 22:07]
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