Official Transfer Policy

[Bladeaway]

I was reading the Jamie Ward thread, and it seems not to be such a popular proposition.
Common theme seems to be “he’s too old”, “he’s always injured”, “always the cheap option”.

(For the record I don’t think it would be a bad signing on a pay-as-you-play basis).

Anyway, it got me thinking about the current transfer policy at Bramall Lane.
So I trawled the website to see if I could find some more information. It seems someone left this document lying around on the public file server, and it makes for pretty interesting reading!
It’s obviously incomplete (perhaps an old draft), but still gives some good insight.

 

[Pierre's PC]

How long did you work on that?

Approximately 105 people die per minute, that's 105 people who could have spent some time looking at that and died disappointed.

 

[Bladeaway]

I’m travelling. Lots of time on the train. Not much to do.

I felt was more productive (or hopefully more entertaining) than all the moaning that’s going on in the Jamie Ward thread

 

[Topplayersleave]

Excellent flow chart, I like the truth,
Some like to get their knickers in a twist when they see or hear it, but the truth is always the best policy

 

[Harrisblade]

I’m travelling. Lots of time on the train. Not much to do.

Learn to drive - please!

 

[Rodley]

If you look up the definition of “Bant-urgh” in the dictionary it shows that picture.

2/10.

 

[BigBed]

I’m travelling. Lots of time on the train. Not much to do.

Maybe you could try Danger Wanking!??
A quick blast without getting caught would certainly speed the journey up!

 

[jt64]

Not had a fax machine joke in a while

 

[HolmesfieldBlade]

We’ve just bought a CB for £4m...

Cant please everyone...

 

[Bladeaway]

Not had a fax machine joke in a while

I’m impressed you got that far down the chart!

 

[8lade]

So I trawled the website to see if I could find some more information. It seems someone left this document lying around on the public file server, and it makes for pretty interesting reading!
It’s obviously incomplete (perhaps an old draft), but still gives some good insight.

Well I don't trust it, it doesn't use official flowchart shapes.

 

[Barney]

We’ve just bought a CB for £4m...

Cant please everyone...

And sold Brooks for £13m...

 

[pommpey]

And sold Brooks for £13m...

And Maguire/Walker sell on bonus.

Keep saying it mate. Then more will tell you everything is ace and McCabe is running the club brilliantly.

pommpey

 

[Worksop II]

And Maguire/Walker sell on bonus.

Keep saying it mate. Then more will tell you everything is ace and McCabe is running the club brilliantly.

pommpey

McCabe sells Maguire for £1.25 million, and Harry is now worth more than the Club Kev has been building 20 years .....

Epic

 

[dazzlingblade]

McCabe sells Maguire for £1.25 million, and Harry is now worth more than the Club Kev has been building 20 years .....

Epic

It's funny if we get a transfer right it's great insight by whichever manager it was at the time, if we undersell someone it's McCabes doing

 

[georgebernardshaw]

I’m perplexed - you’re saying that we have a transfer policy?

 

[pommpey]

It's funny if we get a transfer right it's great insight by whichever manager it was at the time, if we undersell someone it's McCabes doing

No. As people have told us, 'if he wants to go, there's nowt you can do about it', etc.

Fuck the Murphyesque three year contracts and all that. When he signed that one, everyone was jizzing firebolts and saying what a fucking good bit of business that was. Contracts mean fuck all, and it might have been nice to learn that when it was gleefully announced he'd re-signed.

When it comes to Maguire and Walker, we still aren't seemingly capitalising on any windfall from their ongoing sales - summat like five or six million by my yardstick. Okay, we've signed Egan … £4m … loaned Henderson … 'wages' and obtained McGoldrick who was released.

And now north of 10 million for Brooksy (who'd signed a four year contract last season)

I know it's been made kinda untrendy round here to ask 'weerzt'munneh?' but that's exactly what is being asked.

If we all just keep mantra-ing that everything is gonna be okay, maybe it will be, huh?

pommpey

 

[Berlin Blade]

No. As people have told us, 'if he wants to go, there's nowt you can do about it', etc.

Fuck the Murphyesque three year contracts and all that. When he signed that one, everyone was jizzing firebolts and saying what a fucking good bit of business that was. Contracts mean fuck all, and it might have been nice to learn that when it was gleefully announced he'd re-signed.

When it comes to Maguire and Walker, we still aren't seemingly capitalising on any windfall from their ongoing sales - summat like five or six million by my yardstick. Okay, we've signed Egan … £4m … loaned Henderson … 'wages' and obtained McGoldrick who was released.

And now north of 10 million for Brooksy (who'd signed a four year contract last season)

I know it's been made kinda untrendy round here to ask 'weerzt'munneh?' but that's exactly what is being asked.

If we all just keep mantra-ing that everything is gonna be okay, maybe it will be, huh?

pommpey

A few things here:

Firstly, don't take this the wrong way because it's certainly not a personal attack, I do often agree with what you've got to say. Now, I don't think it's as simple as how you've described it. We're quite a big club and therefore have quite a lot of outgoings. For example, wages. If you say that the mean average of our player's wages is around 10k a week, which is quite reasonable and we've got around 25 players on the books at the moment, that's 250k a week on wages. A million a month. £12 million a year. Then all the player's bonuses, coach wages and all admin staff salaries and catering staff etc. Throw in the running of the academy and the costs involved. I don't think we'll make £12 million a year in ticket sales, match day revenue etc. We haven't had a cup run in a few years either so no money coming in from that. Perhaps TV money and sponsorship deals will make up that but i'm not sure. Then you've got player sales,which you've listed above. When you factor in that we have actually only got £4 million upfront for Brooks and £1 million for Harry and about £5 mill for Walker. We've signed Egan for £4 mill, plus around 15-20k a week in wages (nearly a million over the year for 3 years) that just about breaks us even there or there abouts. Any new signings and this 'increased budget' is courtesy of the owners (regardless of the absolute shambles on that front at the moment) and it does annoy me a bit that people aren't grateful for that and expect us to just throw 10 million at it regardless of how far that might set us back in the long term.

Second, I was cooking some frozen chips last night, and after about 5 minutes my housemate asked me if they were nice. I tried one and it was horrible. Still frozen. When they were done though, they were great. In hindsight, I shouldn't have judged it until the cooking was complete. It reminded me of this transfer window in many ways. Lets wait til our business is complete before we wade in eh! We've been linked with some great players in this window and I love seeing Wilder constantly winning these mind games with other managers and not making us look stupid. It bodes well for the season ahead when he'll be meeting those managers week in week out.

Everything is gonna be okay.

Wilder's a winner.

 

[Harrisblade]

No. As people have told us, 'if he wants to go, there's nowt you can do about it', etc.

Fuck the Murphyesque three year contracts and all that. When he signed that one, everyone was jizzing firebolts and saying what a fucking good bit of business that was. Contracts mean fuck all, and it might have been nice to learn that when it was gleefully announced he'd re-signed.

When it comes to Maguire and Walker, we still aren't seemingly capitalising on any windfall from their ongoing sales - summat like five or six million by my yardstick. Okay, we've signed Egan … £4m … loaned Henderson … 'wages' and obtained McGoldrick who was released.

And now north of 10 million for Brooksy (who'd signed a four year contract last season)

I know it's been made kinda untrendy round here to ask 'weerzt'munneh?' but that's exactly what is being asked.

If we all just keep mantra-ing that everything is gonna be okay, maybe it will be, huh?

pommpey

You know it's only £4m up front don't you?

 

[pommpey]

You know it's only £4m up front don't you?

Meaning, what, exactly?

I mean, is this another "we'll sign one of your players, and you can have a friendly with us" ruse?

What is the plan regarding the balance for Brooks? Sure, pay it off when you want Bournemouth. You're okay with your PL bankrolling and rich (organised) benefactor. It's not like SUFC are in a bit of a crisis at the moment with two twats fighting like cats in a bag and are awash with munneh. We'll get by. We don't really want squad strengthening and I'm sure Wilder has not got his eye on one or two more out-of-reach targets from (for a change) higher divisions.

I'm not distrusting Wilder. I'm highlighting that as ever, we never fucking fulfil the prophecy with actions, do we?

pommpey

 

[I should coco]

I know it's been made kinda untrendy round here to ask 'weerzt'munneh?' but that's exactly what is being asked.

For about the ten millionth time, we lose between £4m -£7m EVERY season.

These losses do not magically disappear once the accounts are out and they have to be covered by someone/something. This is why KM brought the Prince in, he simply isn't rich enough to stump up this kind of cash every season.

Why do we lose money like this? Wages, wages, wages and wages.

The semi final money, sell on clauses, outgoing fees all go to plug these losses.

It really isn't that difficult to grasp.

 

[pommpey]

For about the ten millionth time, we lose between £4m -£7m EVERY season.

These losses do not magically disappear once the accounts are out and they have to be covered by someone/something. This is why KM brought the Prince in, he simply isn't rich enough to stump up this kind of cash every season.

Why do we lose money like this? Wages, wages, wages and wages.

The semi final money, sell on clauses, outgoing fees all go to plug these losses.

It really isn't that difficult to grasp.

You keep mantra-ing this like it's the real and only reason, and we should all now go away and accept it. Just what McCabe wants, in fact.

This isn't all about wages, is it? We regularly put bums on seats in a 32k stadium (up to and beyond 20k in most instances last year) and sell merchandise. We are on telly quite a lot. We obtain cash from player sales, sell on clauses and our final league position. If you really expect us to believe that the wage bill exceeds that then I'm afraid I can't accept it. Like I say (and always have) I'm not suggesting McCabe is lighting cigars and buying yachts with the proceeds. I'm saying that the amount of cash we generate (in my view) far exceeds what we pay the playing staff. You simply can't say we make a £4m-£7m loss each year just because we pay the squad so much.

And as for McCabe bringing HRH in to better the club ... gimme a break, will you? This in itself is turning out to be just another fucked up episode in a long line of fucked up episodes which if you scripted it and put it on Netflix as a serialised drama indicating how not to run a fucking business, people would still not comprehend it.

Our only hope is Chris Wilder.

pommpey

 

[I should coco]

You keep mantra-ing this like it's the real and only reason

I keep mantra-ing it, bacuase IT IS the real and only reason.

and we should all now go away and accept it.

No, put some angry posts on here. That should change things.

This isn't all about wages, is it

It is.

Gate receipts, merchandising, advertisinga and TV money are far higher than in L1, but then again so are wages.

 

[BushBlade]

You keep mantra-ing this like it's the real and only reason, and we should all now go away and accept it. Just what McCabe wants, in fact.

This isn't all about wages, is it? We regularly put bums on seats in a 32k stadium (up to and beyond 20k in most instances last year) and sell merchandise. We are on telly quite a lot. We obtain cash from player sales, sell on clauses and our final league position. If you really expect us to believe that the wage bill exceeds that then I'm afraid I can't accept it. Like I say (and always have) I'm not suggesting McCabe is lighting cigars and buying yachts with the proceeds. I'm saying that the amount of cash we generate (in my view) far exceeds what we pay the playing staff. You simply can't say we make a £4m-£7m loss each year just because we pay the squad so much.

And as for McCabe bringing HRH in to better the club ... gimme a break, will you? This in itself is turning out to be just another fucked up episode in a long line of fucked up episodes which if you scripted it and put it on Netflix as a serialised drama indicating how not to run a fucking business, people would still not comprehend it.

Our only hope is Chris Wilder.

pommpey

We lose money every season. It’s in the accounts. It’s not really up for debate. You’re quite right that it’s not just wages, FFP wouldn’t allow it. But we still lose money. If we didn’t, KM wouldn’t have been so keen to get PA on board. If owning the club benefitted him financially he’d have kept it to himself and kept on taking the money, you know that.

I’m no fan of KM, I think he’s done a shocking job and between Warnock going and Wilder arriving every big decision he’s made has turned to shit. The money, pre-Wilder has been wasted, on poor managerial appointments and poor quality players. And we’ll still waste money with Wilder because that’s how football works, every club signs players that don’t work out. And the weird thing is, so many clubs fuck up, I get the impression that running one isn’t as easy as it appears on the surface.

I’ve got no issue with people criticising McCabe but criticise him for the mistakes he’s actually made, there’s plenty of them.

 

[pommpey]

I keep mantra-ing it, bacuase IT IS the real and only reason.

What? So what we have, in reality, is a squad full of players on significantly more money than we generate from net gate receipts, merch, TV, sponsorship, player sales, sell-on benefits ... (there's more) So all of that is pumped back into paying the players?

It's not, is it coco?

No, put some angry posts on here. That should change things.

Transl: "Do not question the Lord. He is right in all word and deed. He is right because I say he is, and declared statements say so too."

You do realise there's some truth in that alignment with the Holy Bible, don't you? I mean, Noah is meant to have built a giant fucking ship and stuffed a male and female of every fucking species on it across the planet, fed them, reared them, housed them for forty days afloat sans propulsion and navaids, landed it on a mountain and then released them back into their own habitat - according to a declared statement. Despite some wags saying 'it aint necessarily so', people still say it is.

Gate receipts, merchandising, advertisinga and TV money are far higher than in L1, but then again so are wages.

So, every club runs at a comparative £4m-£7m loss then in the Championship? Careful what you say here, because I do think this isn't true.

pommpey

 

[BushBlade]

What? So what we have, in reality, is a squad full of players on significantly more money than we generate from net gate receipts, merch, TV, sponsorship, player sales, sell-on benefits ... (there's more) So all of that is pumped back into paying the players?

It's not, is it coco?



Transl: "Do not question the Lord. He is right in all word and deed. He is right because I say he is, and declared statements say so too."

You do realise there's some truth in that alignment with the Holy Bible, don't you? I mean, Noah is meant to have built a giant fucking ship and stuffed a male and female of every fucking species on it across the planet, fed them, reared them, housed them for forty days afloat sans propulsion and navaids, landed it on a mountain and then released them back into their own habitat - according to a declared statement. Despite some wags saying 'it aint necessarily so', people still say it is.



So, every club runs at a comparative £4m-£7m loss then in the Championship? Careful what you say here, because I do think this isn't true.

pommpey

Had to involve a ship didn’t it.

 

[pommpey]

... I get the impression that running one isn’t as easy as it appears on the surface.

And I thoroughly agree. I am almost (but not quite) begrudgingly thankful for McCabe's insistence with staying with the club, but I am equally dismayed at the season-on-season fracture of trust that he garners between (some) supporters and the board. A few seasons ago we were told that the sunny uplands of success were his priority and a return to the PL was his aim. Now, I wouldn't mind him selling Brooks (and the rest of the (un)surprising departures) if he was straight with us and told us the truth as to how much shit the club is in - largely due to his daft strategic decision making. It isn't the supporters who appointed David Weir ... but are we still paying the fucker off? It seems like it. What happened to Clough? Why did he suddenly bail? We looked like we were stabilising and then BAM ... he's fucking history, only to be replaced by more ineptness. How much has all of this REALLY cost in cash terms, please? I mean, the Prince is meant to have paid off a chunk of all this, no wonder he's sticking around and fighting McCabe for the steering wheel. He's paid for the fucking fuel to make the engine splutter along.

It isn't easy running a football club, no siree. But it isn't easy sitting around watching your football club underachieve due to underinvestment either. Let's not forget, we have shed a fucking tankerful of talent since we dropped from the last brief period in the top flight, and we have ended up with chimps like Sammon, Hammond and fucking Higdon.

The reason we are where we are is because of Wilder. He can't get us promoted on the current squad and the rest of the league - or at least those who want greater things - are spending and bringing in on loan players who will make a difference come next May. Look at Wolves and Fulham and their squads. That is where we should be.

pommpey

 

[pommpey]

Had to involve a ship didn’t it.

It's what I know. And, much the same as coco when I ask 'weerzt'munneh?' I have ranged many statistical nautical criteria (and some limited zoological ones) at Christians when the subject of Noah and his Arky McArkface who simply roll their eyes and say "Believe in the Lawd 'cos it says so in de holy book!"

pommpey

 

[I should coco]

I know I shouldn't as it only encourages you, but......

You do realise there's some truth in that alignment with the Holy Bible, don't you? I mean, Noah is meant to have built a giant fucking ship and stuffed a male and female of every fucking species on it across the planet, fed them, reared them, housed them for forty days afloat sans propulsion and navaids, landed it on a mountain and then released them back into their own habitat - according to a declared statement. Despite some wags saying 'it aint necessarily so', people still say it is.

"Believe in the Lawd 'cos it says so in de holy book!"

What are you smoking?

I don't see how ancient biblical analogies have any relevance to anything that either of us have said. It makes me think you are just off on one and probably don't bother reading what I, or others, post in reply.

So, every club runs at a comparative £4m-£7m loss then in the Championship? Careful what you say here, because I do think this isn't true.

No.

Some have smaller cheaper squads (eg Rovrum) and lose less.

Others lose more.

Some a lot more.

Please prove me wrong by listing 12 (half of the divsion) who make a profit.

Take your time.

I'm here all day.

 

[pommpey]

I know I shouldn't as it only encourages you, but......

What are you smoking?

I don't see how ancient biblical analogies have any relevance to anything that either of us have said. It makes me think you are just off on one and probably don't bother reading what I, or others, post in reply.

Not smoking anything. Try to follow the thread, and not the McCabe Shiny Coin, huh? If you're struggling, I'll elaborate: try not to believe everything you see and read, especially from those who would have you suspend cynicism and critique for their own salvation. It's kinda like god, when people tell you he's some bearded dude who lives in the sky. You do understand that he isn't and doesn't, don't you? Please tell me you do.

Please prove me wrong by listing 12 (half of the divsion) who make a profit.

Take your time.

I'm here all day.

So if just one breaks into profit, that's enough? Why twelve? Why is that a qualifier?

The way you are painting this is that KM is eternally shackled to a lump of concrete which is pulling him into the murky depths, and its the same story for eleven other clubs, at least.

Ever cross your mind that it needs some sort of decision process to put the chain around your ankle and lob it overboard (there ya go, more ship stuff)?

pommpey