We sold Brooks for '£12m.'
We haven't replaced him with any permanent signing. We haven't spent a transfer fee on ANY attacking player.
Our only cash signing is a centre half, and in Wilder's words we have 'hardly touched the Brooks money'.
If you were told that would happen a few weeks ago, you wouldn't have believed it would you?
It's unacceptable.
We could get a couple of good loans in and it would still be far from good enough. Loans are ultimately dead money.
If you get that sort of money for a player, you replace, reinvest and build. Especially when you're left with a strikeforce made up exclusively of 30 somethings. But we've failed miserably.
And why? Fucking wages.
Given the fee we received for Brooks - not to mention the apparently competitive initial budget - we had an opportunity to get with the times and start competing properly but have chosen to retain our strict wage structure to avoid upsetting players who'd be off in a shot for the first half decent offer, and maintain the non existent 'team spirit'. The wage ceiling will inevitably rise anyway - it has to if we want to compete. We could have started that process this summer but instead small time thinking has prevailed, as per usual.
Yet we've still chased players whose demands exceeded our limits. It makes no sense.
It also helps that we're so narrow minded with our scouting. If you're going to limit yourself to the English market, you have to be willing to accept the inflated costs, which we're very reluctant to.
And the best part is that there's absolutely no guarantee we'll have this money available for transfers again. Far from it. And deep down, we all know it.
For our whole season to hinge on the loan window is absolutely shocking, and inexcusable.
A lot of questions need to be asked.
We're in for a nothing season.
