Grey Fox

5 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Put Scott and Naismith in the 3 man midfield and Preston would have had some new issues.

I know that it is sadly hypothetical now but the range of passing of Naismith, plus the passing, dribbling, ability to win free kicks at very opportune times in both halves of the pitch would have caused Preston some issues.

Hindsight too but Sykes wide right when fit.

Retaining Scott, now that would have been an idea….."………………..

1 hour ago, Monkeh said:

Consider we signed someone yesterday and about to sign another, how can you even say he hasn't been backed,

That would make 6 players through the door, they didn't come free and the club is still losing 300k a week,

And how many have left , Baker, Klose , Kallas , DaSilva , Moore , Scott , (that’s six) plus wage reductions for others. Nigel Pearson has certainly not been backed, and I would be ( happily) surprised if he renews his contract. 
 

This club, the one I have supported from boyhood, is going nowhere, wake up and smell the coffin( that was predictive text , but I think I’ll keep it)

13 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I’m really referring to the pre-Covid accounts…the cost of running BCFC is beset by costs of the other service providers that imho do us no favours.

I take your point re events though, a good point.

I kinda expected a £20-25m windfall, no matter how much of that was the first payment to have resulted in a budget adjustment.  The fee is banked, even if the cash isn’t, and generally Cashflow hadn’t ever been an issue before for SL.

I never couldn’t see.  You’ll see I agreed / liked a lot of the sentiments of your posts

What I and others have questioned is the reality of PL clubs coming calling.  There’s a player in the middle too.  That’s what we’ve been trying to get across.

And my point was to sell when we are ready, in this case when we would have a midfield capable of competing, which it was Fermin obvious ( now to everyone) that , without Scott, we do not.

Over and out, I’m having a day off.

41 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

I know.  I was buoyant.  I thought that the Semenyo money had predominantly covered Mehmeti and Cornick and the 4 summer signings, and if Alex did stay, I thought we had addressed some issues of depth, and were ready to kick on.

If Alex did go, we would use some funds to carry out recruiting to the plan.

Then I hear Nige say we are close to our wage budget.

I assume he’s being careful to not pay Scott-tax on new players or contracts for existing ones.  But the sense is that he’s not trying to be smart, but telling us “as it is”.

There is still a bit of time left in the window to quash my fears.

But if they aren’t, I think I will be incredibly disappointed.  I don’t think you raise money from player sales AND cut costs too, and then not be allowed some of it.  If the 4 summer signings were preempting Scott’s money, then SL is being incredibly tight.  And I don’t know why he would, unless we go with some of the thoughts expressed by others on this and other threads.

Talk about potential for knocking the wind out of your sails!!!

That Luton comment was crass and really showed that SL doesn’t understand football.

Unfortunately Mr P, the costs of creating every £1 of revenue is too high.  Nige has done his bit on the playing side costs (and some), what is the rest of the group doing.  At one point the playing costs were a big millstone, those have been sorted by and large, a good base to work forward from.  But the costs of the overall model are inefficient.

If I was an investor I wouldn’t want to touch the rest with a bargepole.  Football club, ground, that’s it.  Cancel support contracts for the rest, bring it in-house and control your own destiny.

So , you can now see what I’ve been banging on about? 

To answer this thread’s question, we can do enough to stay in this league, but there is no intention/ ambition to do any more than that.

12 hours ago, PFree said:

Just a thought, but given we as fans are looking for some form of entertainment, what players, if any, offer the chance for you to get excited and get off you seats...? 

Might seem a strange question, but I feel the bad atmosphere / low morale is down to negative football and nobody “having a go” - my feeling is largely down to the answer is actually, nobody?

Anis perhaps, but with Antoine and Scott now gone, was NP not after some form of maverick / exciting / unpredictable type?

Who else, offers this..?

 

We specialise in the mediocre, so the answer at the moment is none, however there is potential in players like Conway , Bell and others, until we flog them off to the first bidder that is.

11 hours ago, Finley_Smith10 said:

The transfer window still hasn’t ended yet mind. Who knows what our team will look like in a weeks time. Think it’s abit too soon to change formation. 

Why, who else are we selling ?

4 hours ago, Fuber said:

The bank account. Creativity costs money. 

Pearsons sold players for £35m+ and spent £2m ffs.

Which explains why we are sh@@ perfectly. I’m going to shut up now , as requested, but ffs , what did you all expect?

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

I think your final para is a good one.  We haven’t just signed 4 “for the futures” to which @Grey Fox’s point would be valid around signing them, developing them, and then selling them before we get them playing at their best FOR US.

We’ve signed Dickie, with 100+ championship apps, who is largely viewed in as one of the better CBs at this level. Likewise, we’ve signed Jason Knight, with 100+ championship apps, a full international who fits (on paper) exactly what we needed.  Through a combo of selling Antoine (possibly Alex’s expected sale) and the situation at their own clubs we have been able to get them  at very good fees.

 

All of the above were within budget before we sold Scott. With those players and our existing squad I believe we could mount a challenge with Scott in the side , as he makes us better than average. Without him our midfield is not dynamic enough to do so imo.To not take that gamble for one season , I think, shows a lack of ambition.

1 hour ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

It varies. Many Championship clubs sell, seems a bit of a way of life. Brentford did and are still doing okay..

What however would now disappoint me significantly would be if we now sell anyone else who is key any time soon- Scott is the big sale, the big ticket profit, Semenyo too when we were rebuilding a bit in his case.

The rest is probably SL but I hope none of Vyner, Pring, Bell, Conway are sold.

Dickie for <£1m or no more than that at most is a strong addition, you need some Championship accomplished performers as part of the successful blend.

Listen to SLs interview, and be disappointed, very disappointed , significantly.

7 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Accountancy aside, still reckon we are at least one CB light. Well one anyway which we can surely afford now.

One CM too, post Scott.

People can then debate about GK and forward, depth vs man in possession etc but squad feels a little thin to me.

As you say, Baker, Moore, Kalas and you can add Klose to that all gone.. for varied reasons in varied ways. Just Dickie in. Atkinson out for months.

DaSilva for Roberts a bit of a tick

McCrorie v Tanner, fine when McCrorie available.

Knight in good, Scott out not so much.one light there IMO.

People say striker hut when all fit and available not too unhappy with Conway, Wells and Weimann competition- problem is Conway out for a couple of months, Weimann fit soon we hope. Maybe in contention for Hull away.

O'Leary fine but supposing he's injured, banned or just loses a load of form or confidence.

I don’t disagree, my point is that if we continue to sell highly talented players and continue to replace them with either those considered to have the potential to be developed and sold (Knight) or experienced Championship players (Dickie) to keep us at this level, then how will we ever be better?

Hopefully the club will prove me wrong, and big Scott money purchases are in the wings, but I’m not holding my breath. 

6 minutes ago, Port Said Red said:

Everyone knew Scott was going, that's why they were able to get the deals done early, do you really think that these things all happen in a nice easy order, we sell that player, we buy that player? It never has worked that way, never will. You don't think we have sold Scott because it suited us? £25m for any player is going to be turned down, because they are fragile human beings and might be worth nothing after a bad tackle.

I have been here since 66 too, why do you think we sold Garland and what happened after we did? Working on building on a great youth set up then worked, why won't it work now? In fact we might have continued to have more success of we had continued down that path instead of Dicks insisting on 10 year contracts for his favourites.

A lot of that happened under our greatest ever Chairman so it's clearly not a new policy dreamt up by SL.

Replacements for Kallas , DaSilva , Baker , Moore were not imo subject to the sale of Scott, who we could have kept a further 12 months before selling.Let’s agree to disagree, but the accountancy led idea of gradual improvement on the sale of actual talent Will I’m afraid not work.

3 hours ago, Port Said Red said:

Off you **** then. If you think the club is so badly run how can you keep supporting it? 

He said he didn't want to pay inflated prices, and there are often players available on a free or for bargain amounts, like Dickie, like Knight, like Roberts, do you genuinely believe that they have weakened our squad as a whole? You don't think that's succession planning?

I am sure we would all like to think that we could be in a position to hold on to a player of Scott's quality, but the truth is there are only a handful of clubs at even Prem level that could do so. 

The best we could do, and what we did was get top dollar for him, the same as Brighton with Caicedo and Macallister. 

If you can't see a difference between the way we are operating now to three years ago, then I feel that you can't look beyond your blinkered view of the club.

 

Dickie and Roberts are direct replacements for Kallas and DaSiva who both left on frees , Knight has the potential to be developed and sold. None of these examples are here because we sold Scott.

Brighton know they have to sell to the bigger boys, but they only sell when it suits them and they can plan for the exit, in the examples you gave they actually got more on eventually selling and also qualified for Europe.

Ive supported this club since 1966, despite a pathetic trophy haul of only one title and a collection of paint pot cups, I will continue to do so, but in my opinion the current financial plan will not provide success. May I respectfully suggest that it is not my view that is “ blinkered “ , but that some of you need to open your eyes.

On 14/08/2023 at 10:23, downendcity said:

Had SL said " thanks to Semenyo's sale earlier this year the club's finances are very sound. As a result, we are free to spend Scott's transfer proceeds on reinforcing our squad", it would have immediately put up the price for any players we are looking to buy.

Even with the inroads made into pulling the finances back since Ashton left I suspect we will still be trading at a loss. As long as ffp limits how much SL is allowed to put into the club then if we want to maintain a competitive squad, there will be a need to sell players to balance the ffp books. Whether that is £25m a year I'm not sure, but perhaps it's a coincidence that it happens to be the amount of Scott's transfer fee, in which case my first paragraph might be relevant! 

 

The “ coincidence “ is that £25M is the figure SL is widely reported as having to bail the club out with each year. Therefore taking SL at his word isn’t it more likely his statement is indicating that he is not looking to continue to do this. As to new signings, our owner stating there will not be any major purchases is as good a source as we can get.

2 hours ago, downendcity said:

Had SL said " thanks to Semenyo's sale earlier this year the club's finances are very sound. As a result, we are free to spend Scott's transfer proceeds on reinforcing our squad", it would have immediately put up the price for any players we are looking to buy.

Even with the inroads made into pulling the finances back since Ashton left I suspect we will still be trading at a loss. As long as ffp limits how much SL is allowed to put into the club then if we want to maintain a competitive squad, there will be a need to sell players to balance the ffp books. Whether that is £25m a year I'm not sure, but perhaps it's a coincidence that it happens to be the amount of Scott's transfer fee, in which case my first paragraph might be relevant! 

 

It’s also the sum SL is widely reported as putting in to the club each year, therefore a more likely scenario, in my opinion, is that his ambition is to make the club self financing at this level. He no longer believes that promotion is a viable goal due to parachute payments to our competitors and therefore will not finance a challenge.

He also has no intention of continuing his financing of the club, if possible, so do not expect the revenues from sales to be reinvested on any other than an occasional youngster from L1 who has the potential to be developed and sold, and the odd Championship journey man to keep us up.

As a Bristol City fan, is that what you want, does that rock your boat, or is that what you are prepared to accept?

1 hour ago, Monkeh said:

And this is the point some posters refuse to acknowledge,

Selling players for offers too good to turn down will always happen, the key is sucession planning

And that's what I see the club putting in place, hence the production line from the academy in recent years

Succession planning ??? Uncle Steve has already stated we are not going to spend the money, instead we are planning to sell off £25M worth of players every year. 
That is a plan to head straight to League One, to not pass Go , nor collect any value for the money you pay for your Season Ticket. 

1 hour ago, eardun said:

We’re not the only selling club after all  

They know they have to sell , but only when it suits them , after Mcallister left , several others pushed for a big money move, but we’re told they would have to stay till at least the next window. Brighton therefore had time to plan for the exits and in the end actually got more than the earlier offers. They also had their best season ever and qualified for Europe.

We , on the other hand, appear to have one plan only, which is to recruit, develop and sell. Source for this view , Uncle Steve’s latest interview.

Pearson can do better than remaining at a Championship Selling Club, why would he stay. SLs  comments have only confirmed everything I have been saying, enjoy the ride , League One is the destination 

Trust Tommy recovers quickly, however, we have options, simply time for Wells and the other forwards to step up.

All sides get injuries, sadly it’s part of the game, it is how we deal with it that counts.

Lets not get too pessimistic too soon, you never know we might yet keep Alex Scott

9 minutes ago, Charlie BCFC said:

Mehmeti more of a Semenyo replacement no? Think we’re yet to see the best of him but I do think the competition has stepped Bell up a bit

You make a good point, but the principle is the same. Based on two players per position, Mehmeti competes with Bell on the left ( Cornick / Sykes on the right), Mehmeti is a young player from L1 , looking to make it at Championship level, Semenyo is looking to make it at the other end. So how has that made us better?

Sell Scott, we become mediocre, Uncle Steve gets a year off bailing us out, and we can all discuss who to flog off to the mighty Bournemouth & Boscombe next year.

On 02/08/2023 at 14:59, GrahamC said:

Interested to know how you know this.

We wouldn’t be the first (or last) team to sell its best player, plenty of them then subsequently do better, for example Brentford & Brighton repeatedly do so.

Your description of our existing midfielders is predictably moronic, so which one of those is Jason Knight? 

I’ll put you on ignore, I think, not going to learn anything reading your nonsense.
 

Rather think my “ description of our existing midfielders” proved more accurate than “ moronic” , yesterday, don’t you think?

Suggest you keep reading my “ nonsense” , as you might learn something.

Yesterday was only one match, so I’m sure we can improve, however, without Scott’s quality I doubt our “ existing midfielders “ can be any more than average in this league.

Should you reply , don’t bother with the childish personal slights, they don’t bother me and make you look rather silly.

Let’s hope we are better against Oxford and then Millwall. 
️️️

Cornick is what you get when you sell , Semenyo, can’t wait to see who the club come up with to replace Scott.

With both Semenyo and Scott, we would have been a much better side than what we saw yesterday, a side that could challenge the top end of this league.

14 hours ago, And Its Smith said:

I think today showed quite clearly how it will be harder for us without Alex Scott.  His bravery on the ball was hugely missed directly and indirectly as his courage rubs off on others as well.  His defensive side of the game is arguably as strong as his offensive side and I think with him in that side today we don’t get dominated quite so much in the periods where Preston had joy. 

Scott is one player who rarely kicks it anywhere and gives the ball straight back to the opposition, which we did all too often today. 

Yes it’s one game but one game can be enough sometimes to show what needs to be improved. Can we play better than that without him?  Yes we can. But life will be a lot easier if we manage to hold onto him, 

When Brownhill left us, a lot of fans didn’t realise how much he was going to be missed.  I don’t think there is anyone who will feel the same when Scott goes. 

Wonder who else has been thinking this

It is only one game, but if that was an advert for “ non Scott” football, it’s going to be a tedious, dare I say , mediocre, season.

If our club have any true ambition, keep him one more year before considering selling.

COYRs️️️

6 hours ago, BritAbroad said:

I think 6th. If Alex goes, really depends on who replaces him.

Someone far less valuable, so therefore not as good, so that’s your answer 

7 hours ago, pillred said:

Do you really think he makes that much difference? some yes but come on 10 places!

12 points between Coventry (70) in 5th and Hull (58) in 15th last season. 
 

There is not a lot of difference between the majority of well organised/ coached Championship sides, by having an exceptional player in your squad, that small difference can make big gains.

And it’s not just Alex Scott, add Conway and Pring and you have the nucleus of a very good side. You also need to add some belief, by turning down the offers for Alex you provide the substance for that belief.

Looking forward to tomorrow ️