HRH interview

[gordoncharles]

the transfer fees of Robinson, bogle and Freeman alone would (who arnt even playing for us) would cover 2 players on a 4 year contract of 50k a week. We could have gone that route if that would have been what wilder wanted I’m sure.

Even when that's been done it's been, at best, scattergun, if not outright off-the-wall

The signings of Morrison and Rodwell were attempts to roll a double six which failed dismally and have probably cost over £5m.

Then we had other failed experiments like Retsos and Zivkovic. That's in addition to the good Championship players who were signed and then swiftly discarded.

 

[BushBlade]

I accept we are probably towards the bottom of that table - and quite possibly the lowest.

But As you say. We haven’t sold anyone, the prince could have flogged a couple of assets when they were coveted. But he didn’t.

The club has to live within its means - we’ve spend more than all last years tv money on transfer fees alone. The budget has to cover signing and paying for players - the transfer fees of Robinson, bogle and Freeman alone would (who arnt even playing for us) would cover 2 players on a 4 year contract of 50k a week. We could have gone that route if that would have been what wilder wanted I’m sure.

Plus you can’t guarantee safety - you need to spend the money wisely. Sunderland were paying 70k a week wages and went down. There’s certainly a benefit in being able to cut your losses or at least not having a couple of players taking 5m a year in the championship

Not for big money though. Part of being an established middle table side is developing players and selling them for good money to reinvest in the club, like Southampton do, or Leicester. I don’t recall many bids for any of our players.

We have a wage structure and if we break that, we have to pay more to other players too. And there will always be signings that don’t work out, you can’t just say “if we hadn’t have signed x, x and x we could have afforded y” it just doesn’t work like that. Every club has players that rarely play, every club signs turkeys.

We know full well that we didn’t get Wilder’s first choices and the lower you go down the list, the riskier it becomes. Could we have done better? Probably but perhaps not. Could we have done worse? Yes, I’ve seen clubs spend far more than us and still get it wrong. Like your example of Sunderland. And I agree that if we go down, we’ll be in a much better position to get back than they were (or Villa were, and others). But I do believe that if Wilder had been given the wage budget and transfer budget that Smith has had at Villa, we’d be nowhere near bottom of the league.

 

[Bladeinleeds]

Not for big money though. Part of being an established middle table side is developing players and selling them for good money to reinvest in the club, like Southampton do, or Leicester. I don’t recall many bids for any of our players.

We have a wage structure and if we break that, we have to pay more to other players too. And there will always be signings that don’t work out, you can’t just say “if we hadn’t have signed x, x and x we could have afforded y” it just doesn’t work like that. Every club has players that rarely play, every club signs turkeys.

We know full well that we didn’t get Wilder’s first choices and the lower you go down the list, the riskier it becomes. Could we have done better? Probably but perhaps not. Could we have done worse? Yes, I’ve seen clubs spend far more than us and still get it wrong. Like your example of Sunderland. And I agree that if we go down, we’ll be in a much better position to get back than they were (or Villa were, and others). But I do believe that if Wilder had been given the wage budget and transfer budget that Smith has had at Villa, we’d be nowhere near bottom of the league.

i agree with you on that one. You give wilder a top half budget and (no offence) but Bryan and jags are not playing on Saturday and hendo is probably still in net.

I think we were alway going to have to wait and see if we established ourselves before going to the next level - spend wise . If we go down and are lucky enough to come back up we’d do so from a stronger base than the 2019 squad.

just think we have to accept the prince living within our means - plenty of clubs cripple themselves LT going for something unrealistic.

 

[BushBlade]

i agree with you on that one. You give wilder a top half budget and (no offence) but Bryan and jags are not playing on Saturday and hendo is probably still in net.

I think we were alway going to have to wait and see if we established ourselves before going to the next level - spend wise . If we go down and are lucky enough to come back up we’d do so from a stronger base than the 2019 squad.

just think we have to accept the prince living within our means - plenty of clubs cripple themselves LT going for something unrealistic.

I hope so. It’s just so fucking frustrating at the moment, it’s like we could see the finishing line and then hit the wall. I have to remind myself that when we went up, all I wanted from Wilder was to keep us up for a season so we get three seasons’ parachute money, not two. I knew it would be a lot harder this season but I wasn’t expecting this.

 

[blackydog]

On par with yours now pal. Absolutely shocking. We finished the season with 21 points though. You’d give your right arm for that now. Currently you stand to be embarrassed and laughed at throughout the footballing world.

That's done it. I'm telling the Crowman.

 

[Silent Blade]

i agree with you on that one. You give wilder a top half budget and (no offence) but Bryan and jags are not playing on Saturday and hendo is probably still in net.

We are playing on Thursday and on Sunday!