I'm saying Beatties wages were too high, not that he was a waste. Reportedly on 35k a week could easily pay for another 6 players at a decent whack.
Name them. Also, why do people throw up Leeds and the rest? Namely because when they all fly too close to the sun or the expectation rises beyond what is reasonable (like us, now) thats where clubs generally end up.
Leeds
Pigs
Charlton
Portsmouth (currently)
West Ham
Cardiff (in and out)
Derby
Forest
Barnsley
All the above have got into financial difficulties in the main trying to manage fans ridiculous expectations. We used to have our feet on the ground and it was the pigs who had their heads in the clouds. Possibly the other way around these days.
Mistakes on the PR side have most certainly been made (Brian Howard,Leroy Lita) but in the main we are a very well run club. Might be why people like Howard Wilkinson (who can't stand us by the way) say that we are the template of a well run club. We are, but we take it for granted.
Why are we expecting too much I hear you say. Because in the current financial crisis both in business and elsewhere, every club outside of perhaps 5 are selling clubs. We are expecting to get promoted by the sounds of many, whereas a top 6 finish is surely the reasonable expectation. We are expecting Premier League Football next season. Why? Newcastle, Boro, West Brom are streets ahead of the rest and the best we can expect is to hang in there and hope that 2 or 3 of them implode.
I believe we now have put the excessive wages of players like Carney and Hendrie (Beattie was worth every penny of what he earned) who didn't fit into the team. If we start selling in January however, I will have been proved wrong. I feel the nucleus of a good squad is there, we need 2 maybe 3 loan players to top that up or perhaps make a signing or two in January. Footballs bubble will burst. Its a stupid idiot who predicts just when that will happen though. McCabe is not that stupid idiot and he is water proofing us for the storm.
