The Way Forward ?

[Spud55]

Was having a chat with my city supporting mates the other day about the general state of the club and where we go from here, and this is what we were chatting about.

I personally think that it may be time to take some drastic action (not sacking Millen) but with the squad.

From what i can see it looks as if Millen has no desire to use the following first team squad players,

Clarkson

Hunt

Stewart

Johnson

Between them they must be taking up 20 - 30k per week in wages (obviously i have no hard facts on what they earn, but i'd guess as they were given contracts on the basis that they would be playing in the first team of a relatively established championship side) they must all be on a decent whack.

It also appears that nobody wants to take them off our hands, i would have expected league 1 clubs to already have at least offered to take them off our hands on loan by now, or at least be expreesing some serious interest even if they haven't actually put firm bids in.

I also must assume that we aren't looking for much if any kind of fee for any of them as we are fairly desperate to get them off the books. (again i could be wrong)

As a club since the signing of spence we must be somewhere near the cieling of the wage budget as we seem to now be in the position where we "have" to offload players before bringing any more in.

So i think it's time for the board to sit down with Millen and decide on the players he doesn't want and who are in the last year of their contracts and give serious consideration to negotiating a deal to terminate their contracts, my list of 4 players is who i can safely assume Millen doesn't want, but Cisse and others could well be added to that list as it seems as if he doesn't want them but i can't be in any way sure.

Assuming these players are on 20k per week between them, that's about 800k to a million quid we are committed to paying them for the rest of the season, and if we are not looking for fee's for them it's highly unlikely that a club will wait until Jan to put offers in, as Lee Johnson on a free now is no better or worse a deal than a free in January.

If we could get those 4 players to take 75% say of their wages as a lump sum now that would save us at least 200k over the year (assuming they are on 20k p/w between them, and they have 40 weeks left to run on their contracts) which would give us some room in our wage budget to sign the players we need rather than paying those that we don't.

Also i think selling Maynard has to be seriously considered, for the first time in as long as i can remember, we have a ready made replacement in Pitman so if we can get good money for him then i think we have to do it.

SL has always said he's happy to back managers in the transfer market if the players are right and value for money, so on that basis i think it would be reasonable for the board to go to SL and say, we want rid of these 4 players, will you cover the cost of a one of write off to pay them off and not impact our wage budget at all, also we are going to flog Maynard for x amount that we wish to keep as a transfer kitty. I think asking SL to treat the pay off of 4 or more players who nobody wants is far better value for money than any transfer fee, especially if you combine this with money made from the sale of maynard to fund any transfers we do want to make.

It's not an ideal senario, but if not being able to shift the dead wood is what is stopping us bringing in players like the lad from Man City then we need to consider drastic action.

In the long run i think it would help as well, we all know we have a lot of players out of contract this summer and there will be a huge rebuilding job come the end of the season, if we can shift 4/5 of those players now and bring in a couple of players in January then they will be bedded in the squad come the end of the season and we wont be in a position where we are starting from scratch in the summer.

This is just my ramblings on what i think we should do now, we have to tighten our belts and Millens hands are to an extent tied, which isn't entirely his fault (the board have to take more of the blame than anyone). Millen clearly has some good ideas about where to take this club, but without being able to sign some defenders i don't think he's going to be able to last long enough to implement any of his ideas.

I'd be interested to see what other people think is the way forward with this squad ?

[spudski]

You can't just negotiate and terminate contracts, unless the player is willing to do so. It cuts both ways. The player is entitled to stay here, take his wage until the contract expires, as long as he continues to train and make himself available for the squad.

These players know they are onto a good thing here, and most likely won't be paid the same sort of salary again. They are going nowhere unless a team pays their full wages and they go out on loan.

We are bolloxed...

[chipdawg]

We're 1 game into the season

[spudski]

We're 1 game into the season

But it does feel like just a continuation from the end of last season...if not worse.

[chipdawg]

But it does feel like just a continuation from the end of last season...if not worse.

I know what you mean, but i just think we need to hang fire and take stock of the next few games. Not saying for a second we won't get beaten by Cardiff on Sunday, but with Killkenny to come into the midfield and (hopefully) Nyatanga and Fontaine never being picked together in central defence ever again( ) plus another player or 2 coming in (i don't believe the lazy cr@p in the EP), then i think we'll survive quite comfortably

[Spud55]

You can't just negotiate and terminate contracts, unless the player is willing to do so. It cuts both ways. The player is entitled to stay here, take his wage until the contract expires, as long as he continues to train and make himself available for the squad.

These players know they are onto a good thing here, and most likely won't be paid the same sort of salary again. They are going nowhere unless a team pays their full wages and they go out on loan.

We are bolloxed...

I'm well aware of that, but I would like to think that most of them would rather be playing football than sat on their backside doing nothing. I don't think it's ridiculous to think that most would take 75% in a lump sum now to leave, even if they won't then you ask SL to cover the lot as a one off.

I don't think we will go down with the squad we have now, but equally I think that with a terrible start and no room to bring in players even on loan, means that we could get seriously stuck in a fight with 6-7 other teams and then anything can happen, with the room to bring in a couple of loans I think the chances of us even being in a fight are greatly reduced.

[Robbored]

It's not an ideal senario, but if not being able to shift the dead wood is what is stopping us bringing in players like the lad from Man City then we need to consider drastic action.

In the long run i think it would help as well, we all know we have a lot of players out of contract this summer and there will be a huge rebuilding job come the end of the season, if we can shift 4/5 of those players now and bring in a couple of players in January then they will be bedded in the squad come the end of the season and we wont be in a position where we are starting from scratch in the summer.

This is just my ramblings on what i think we should do now, we have to tighten our belts and Millens hands are to an extent tied, which isn't entirely his fault (the board have to take more of the blame than anyone). Millen clearly has some good ideas about where to take this club, but without being able to sign some defenders i don't think he's going to be able to last long enough to implement any of his ideas.

I'd be interested to see what other people think is the way forward with this squad ?

This issue is not a recent development. Millen, the board and those of that are in tune with what's going at AG have seen the current situation coming for quite some time. The aetiology of the disease stems back to the first post-play off season when there was a failure to maximise momentum and strengthen accordingly. Since then things have stagnated although some of us saw some indication of improvement with Millen's strategy of using two wingers in almost every game last season. Didn't always work of course.

Off the pitch Millen has introduced the development squad and re-assessed the coaching set-up within the last year but on the pitch he hasn't had the players to provide the 'entertaining football' that we all desire. That said at times Albert's trickery and mazy runs did brighten some of the games.

Without other clubs showing interest in our fringe players then there isn't much Millen or the board can do until next summer. Players are contracted and that's the bottom line. Going out on loan is a possibility but I believe the player has to agree to any loan moves. Some may refuse and be happy enough wearing a suit on matchdays. Its a problem that Millen has to deal with despite it not being his own fault.

I see this season as consolidation and not much more. No doubt Millen will try to produce attacking football but he doesn't have enough resources to it imo. Mid-table in April 2012 is fine by me given the situation the club is facing.

[HibbsyBCFC]

This issue is not a recent development. Millen, the board and those of that are in tune with what's going at AG have seen the current situation coming for quite some time. The aetiology of the disease stems back to the first post-play off season when there was a failure to maximise momentum and strengthen accordingly. Since then things have stagnated although some of us saw some indication of improvement with Millen's strategy of using two wingers in almost every game last season. Didn't always work of course.

Off the pitch Millen has introduced the development squad and re-assessed the coaching set-up within the last year but on the pitch he hasn't had the players to provide the 'entertaining football' that we all desire. That said at times Albert's trickery and mazy runs did brighten some of the games.

Without other clubs showing interest in our fringe players then there isn't much Millen or the board can do until next summer. Players are contracted and that's the bottom line. Going out on loan is a possibility but I believe the player has to agree to any loan moves. Some may refuse and be happy enough wearing a suit on matchdays. Its a problem that Millen has to deal with despite it not being his own fault.

I see this season as consolidation and not much more. No doubt Millen will try to produce attacking football but he doesn't have enough resources to it imo. Mid-table in April 2012 is fine by me given the situation the club is facing.

Couldn't have put it better myself. Spot on.

I'm sure there are a host of clubs in the lower leagues that would take the likes of Johnson, Hunt etc on but due to a significant pay cut it will prove hard to convince those players to put pen to paper elsewhere. Unless we get lucky I fully expect them to go the way of Gavin Williams - spending most of this season out on loan deals until finally being moved on next year.

The catalyst that will enable rumoured signings such as the Boyata loan deal will not be the sale of these fringe players but the transfer of Maynard before deadline day.