MojoMuffin
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- Joined
- Jul 3, 2023
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Bare with me on this. I understand this may be giving credit where it isn't due, but is this just the tough bit of a long term plan which comes to fruition next year?
Is this how the story goes?
1) Relegation from the Premier League in 20/21. Finances are a concern now given we're relegated with the below players that were signed during our top flight tenure, who are possibly on very good wages plus the affects of the covid fall-out. Relegation clauses may have been in-place, but we're still bleeding money.
(Berge, Mcburnie, Moose, Robinson, Freeman, Osborn, Brewster, Ramsdale, Burke, Bogle, Lowe.)
2) Slav gets appointed for a promotion charge in 21/22 and we sell Ramsdale to Arsenal and loan out 4 of the signings made in the Premier League. Slav changes the formation and play style completely, it doesn't go well and is sacked by November with a hefty pay-off from the club.
3) The memorable press conference comes out regarding future strategy in terms of promoting youth from the academy and through UW. Hecky is appointed to run the first team for a 2nd time.
4) After a below par start to the season, Hecky somehow manages to get us into the play-offs, of which we fail to win and remain in the Championship for a second season.
5) True to the future strategy conference, in 22/23 we only sign one player in Anel Ahmedhodzic but replace the expired loan of MGW with the loan signing of Macca from City and give Ndiaye a change to shine in the first team. We also bring in Doyle, Clark and Khadra in on loan whilst Moose, Burke, Freeman and the rolls royce leave on free transfers.
At this point, finances are in a very poor state of which towards the end of a brilliant season we're unable to afford the upkeep of the stadium and are placed under a transfer embargo due to defaulted payments on Ahmedhodzic. Money is scarce, the Prince is skint and we can't even afford to feed our own grass.
6) We are promoted automatically to the Premier League at the end of the 22/23 season. I genuinely think this comes as a surprise to the board and the new transfer strategy was based on a model of us being in the Championship for another 2 or 3 seasons. The promotion funds fill a big hole in the finances and secure a more promising future for the club for the next few years to come.
7) This is where my biggest criticism comes in. Despite boasting what appeared to be a well thought out business model of promoting youth into the first team, we are promoted to the Premier League with an absolute exodus of players looming the following summer with contracts expiring not just throughout the starting 11, but through the youth ranks of which were apparently destined to be our future first team. It's my understanding that we made large efforts on certain players to extend them last summer but failed to do so, ala Ndiaye.
Now, with a caveat to the contract situation, the only thing I can assume is that we simply did not have the money to extend contracts to 10-14 players. Which if so, this is where I may be giving too much credit to this long term plan because the board took one of the riskiest decisions with the club that I've seen in my life time to use non-guaranteed promotion funds to secure the signatures of our future team. It's possible, especially with what we've seen with other teams that we took a massive gamble by making some (contextually for us) big-money loans and signed a promising defender that we couldn't afford to give it one vital last go to get promoted. It paid off and we'll never know what would have happened if we didn't go up. Thank fuck we went up.
8) I still maintain the opinion that this was not the season to splash the cash, of which we were clearly lacking. I think the transfer strategy remains the same but due to the sales of Ndiaye, Berge, two players who did not want to play for us anymore, along with some of the promotion funds, we go for young, promising players. We take a realistic stance on our chance in the Premier League and decide to sign players who would give us a much better chance of promotion next season, rather than relying on young lads from the academy as per the original strategy.
We bring in Hamer, Souza, Trusty, Traore, Slimane and Davies. Players we hope will perform well at this level, but at the very least be up to par in the Championship the following season. We also take a punt at survival with the 2nd loan spell of Macca, a few names to cover injuries and also what could have been a clever deal with Villa to sign Archer with an obligation for them to buy him back upon relegation. We also take a punt on BBD in the JTW. There's absolutely no guarantee all of the players we signed to long term contracts remain with us. That will however be at the clubs discretion and Traore looks to be already out the door. Outside of the signings we have made in the summer, it's anyone's guess who remains and leave. Again though, that will be at the clubs discretion given we're fixing errors made in regards to contracts.
Macca, BBD and Archer will leave but at Championship level, these aren't irreplaceable. O-hare with his contract expiring in the summer could be a decent replacement for Macca rather than another loan for that position. Archer has shown some clinical ability in the top flight and definitely in the Championship, but I do feel there'll be another striker we either sign, loan or give a chance to in our younger lads that can do a job next season.
Now, my point here in regards towards the end of a long term plan - A plan to build a team that can get promoted from the Championship. If the original plan was to build a young squad capable of getting promoted to the Premier League, I do think that plan comes to fruition next year. I think it's come sooner than expected because of an unexpected promotion of which we have taken the opportunity to sign better young players for that promotion push rather than academy lads we would have relied on and had to develop for a few more seasons in the Championship.
I completely understand the frustration of what's happening this season and the embarrassment of results that we've had to watch. I'm just trying to take a step back from the Saturday kick-offs and try and see a bigger picture, particularly the picture that the board painted for us, and based on what we've done so far with players and contracts, this is where I'm at with it. I'm looking forward to next season, genuinely. I know people are pissed off and bored of chucking 50 quid away a weekend to watch us getting spanked to bits at this level, but with the squad we've got and the fact we only sold Ramsdale upon relegation after splashing over 100m, I do think the Prince will try and keep this squad together based on the strategy they went with. Best guess, Anel goes after relegation and a few of the old boys. I don't think we'll do a lot of business in the summer due to what we've done last summer, plus we have brilliant youth in Osula, Brooks, Arblaster etc who could play a big part next season too. There's a lot of unknowns about next season in terms of the sale of the club, coaching team and management which you can't legislate for, but I'm quietly confident we'll be there or thereabouts in terms of a promotion push.
Notes to add:
Is this how the story goes?
1) Relegation from the Premier League in 20/21. Finances are a concern now given we're relegated with the below players that were signed during our top flight tenure, who are possibly on very good wages plus the affects of the covid fall-out. Relegation clauses may have been in-place, but we're still bleeding money.
(Berge, Mcburnie, Moose, Robinson, Freeman, Osborn, Brewster, Ramsdale, Burke, Bogle, Lowe.)
2) Slav gets appointed for a promotion charge in 21/22 and we sell Ramsdale to Arsenal and loan out 4 of the signings made in the Premier League. Slav changes the formation and play style completely, it doesn't go well and is sacked by November with a hefty pay-off from the club.
3) The memorable press conference comes out regarding future strategy in terms of promoting youth from the academy and through UW. Hecky is appointed to run the first team for a 2nd time.
4) After a below par start to the season, Hecky somehow manages to get us into the play-offs, of which we fail to win and remain in the Championship for a second season.
5) True to the future strategy conference, in 22/23 we only sign one player in Anel Ahmedhodzic but replace the expired loan of MGW with the loan signing of Macca from City and give Ndiaye a change to shine in the first team. We also bring in Doyle, Clark and Khadra in on loan whilst Moose, Burke, Freeman and the rolls royce leave on free transfers.
At this point, finances are in a very poor state of which towards the end of a brilliant season we're unable to afford the upkeep of the stadium and are placed under a transfer embargo due to defaulted payments on Ahmedhodzic. Money is scarce, the Prince is skint and we can't even afford to feed our own grass.
6) We are promoted automatically to the Premier League at the end of the 22/23 season. I genuinely think this comes as a surprise to the board and the new transfer strategy was based on a model of us being in the Championship for another 2 or 3 seasons. The promotion funds fill a big hole in the finances and secure a more promising future for the club for the next few years to come.
7) This is where my biggest criticism comes in. Despite boasting what appeared to be a well thought out business model of promoting youth into the first team, we are promoted to the Premier League with an absolute exodus of players looming the following summer with contracts expiring not just throughout the starting 11, but through the youth ranks of which were apparently destined to be our future first team. It's my understanding that we made large efforts on certain players to extend them last summer but failed to do so, ala Ndiaye.
Now, with a caveat to the contract situation, the only thing I can assume is that we simply did not have the money to extend contracts to 10-14 players. Which if so, this is where I may be giving too much credit to this long term plan because the board took one of the riskiest decisions with the club that I've seen in my life time to use non-guaranteed promotion funds to secure the signatures of our future team. It's possible, especially with what we've seen with other teams that we took a massive gamble by making some (contextually for us) big-money loans and signed a promising defender that we couldn't afford to give it one vital last go to get promoted. It paid off and we'll never know what would have happened if we didn't go up. Thank fuck we went up.
8) I still maintain the opinion that this was not the season to splash the cash, of which we were clearly lacking. I think the transfer strategy remains the same but due to the sales of Ndiaye, Berge, two players who did not want to play for us anymore, along with some of the promotion funds, we go for young, promising players. We take a realistic stance on our chance in the Premier League and decide to sign players who would give us a much better chance of promotion next season, rather than relying on young lads from the academy as per the original strategy.
We bring in Hamer, Souza, Trusty, Traore, Slimane and Davies. Players we hope will perform well at this level, but at the very least be up to par in the Championship the following season. We also take a punt at survival with the 2nd loan spell of Macca, a few names to cover injuries and also what could have been a clever deal with Villa to sign Archer with an obligation for them to buy him back upon relegation. We also take a punt on BBD in the JTW. There's absolutely no guarantee all of the players we signed to long term contracts remain with us. That will however be at the clubs discretion and Traore looks to be already out the door. Outside of the signings we have made in the summer, it's anyone's guess who remains and leave. Again though, that will be at the clubs discretion given we're fixing errors made in regards to contracts.
Macca, BBD and Archer will leave but at Championship level, these aren't irreplaceable. O-hare with his contract expiring in the summer could be a decent replacement for Macca rather than another loan for that position. Archer has shown some clinical ability in the top flight and definitely in the Championship, but I do feel there'll be another striker we either sign, loan or give a chance to in our younger lads that can do a job next season.
Now, my point here in regards towards the end of a long term plan - A plan to build a team that can get promoted from the Championship. If the original plan was to build a young squad capable of getting promoted to the Premier League, I do think that plan comes to fruition next year. I think it's come sooner than expected because of an unexpected promotion of which we have taken the opportunity to sign better young players for that promotion push rather than academy lads we would have relied on and had to develop for a few more seasons in the Championship.
I completely understand the frustration of what's happening this season and the embarrassment of results that we've had to watch. I'm just trying to take a step back from the Saturday kick-offs and try and see a bigger picture, particularly the picture that the board painted for us, and based on what we've done so far with players and contracts, this is where I'm at with it. I'm looking forward to next season, genuinely. I know people are pissed off and bored of chucking 50 quid away a weekend to watch us getting spanked to bits at this level, but with the squad we've got and the fact we only sold Ramsdale upon relegation after splashing over 100m, I do think the Prince will try and keep this squad together based on the strategy they went with. Best guess, Anel goes after relegation and a few of the old boys. I don't think we'll do a lot of business in the summer due to what we've done last summer, plus we have brilliant youth in Osula, Brooks, Arblaster etc who could play a big part next season too. There's a lot of unknowns about next season in terms of the sale of the club, coaching team and management which you can't legislate for, but I'm quietly confident we'll be there or thereabouts in terms of a promotion push.
Notes to add:
- United World is shite.
- Lower your asking price, Prince.
- I'm not a clapper or a fanny.
It's the blades way.