Summer Transfer Window 2023

[Saint Matty 76]

God these rumours are all depressing.

I know expectations have to drop slightly but if we’re looking at Drameh, Zeqiri and a currently injured Stewart to replace KWP, Tella and Che. Crikey. (Before somebody needlessly snaps at this, yes we don’t know if that’s the case as of yet. I’m just worried.)

The board, and even the club via social media have been very quick to tell us about having the means for serious reinvestment with the sales we’ve made. Combine that with RM’s comment about us looking stronger at the end of the window then last week… hoping for the best but consistently expecting the worst at the minute.

Edited 29 August, 2023 by Saint Matty 76

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

Lots of rumblings about the money that should be spent or whether it can be spent.

On whether it should be, I wrote another post detailing why I personally believe this is a conscious strategy to save money now to spend more when promoted. I believe I first got the impression of this by a comment made by Blackmore, so I assume he has had conversations on the topic with those inside Staplewood. Link here. In short, they aren't wasting transfer money on Champioship players and instead are saving in for when we are promoted.

As for whether it can be, this is a great website for football finances as it goes through all the accounts.

It sounds obvious but we have loads of money available. Yes we have been relegated, but with the parachute payments that comes to about -£50m in TV revenue lost from the previous year. Some sponsorships will drop slightly, but the TV revenue will be the main drop of income plus perhaps an extra -£10m if being extremely pessimistic.

On the books, we will be very profitable this year. Even though we spent £130m last season that cost is amortised over the duration of the contracts for the players we bought. So that would have only been an extra (approximately) £30m paid per year over 4 years had we kept all those players (I'm just averaging out at 4 year contracts here for simplicity). But the players we sold will go down as immediate income. We have brought in £150m from player sales this summer.

Factoring in that our players have taken a 40% wage reduction due to relegation clauses (as confirmed by Semmens years ago and journalists this summer) and have lost most of our highest earners. From our approximately £60m wage bill last season we will be saving approximately £24m. In terms of total personnel cost savings (including bonuses etc I expect and perhaps other staff) most relegated clubs save far more than that (Norwich saved approx £50m).

Under Gao we were almost breaking even (approx -£10m per year). Being very pessimistic, we shall say we have lost £60m in income from relegation and we are paying an extra £30m for the players we bought last summer (I'm not even going to minus the ones we already sold). That puts us at -£90m. We have saved a minimum of £24m on personnel (honestly could be double) and made £150m in sales.

Using our previous seasons as a reference then : -10-60-30+24+150.... which would make us at minimum £74m in profit for this season.

In real cash terms it will be a different story, but there are plenty of ways of deferring payments (loans+obligations to buy). Just as our outgoings are paid in instalments over 1-3 years, so are our incomings. The club might be very honest about not having large amounts of cash available to sign many players (as my previous post said - I suspect they don't want to waste money on Championship players), but they absolutely could work around that if they wanted to as they will be very profitable by the year's end.

For reference, when Fulham went down they made £12m in sales and just took the £60m loss on their accounts to go back up (having lost £100m the year before).

Anyone saying we don't have the money to spend is lying. We may not have the cash this moment, but that can be worked around. We are in an extremely healthy position.

Anyone saying we are at risk under FFP is lying. You can lose over £100m over a 3 year period while in the Premier League, we likely exceeded that last season but have more than made up for it this year. In previous Gao years we were at worst losing around £10m per year.

Sport Republic invested into the club, they don't need or intend to take that money out. I suspect they will make a profit on the £130m they spent on players last year having made almost half of it back on just one player already. I'm fairly certain I read that they also paid off our loan debt just after acquiring the club.

Edited 29 August, 2023 by Luke SkyWalker-Peters
Grammar and context

[The Kraken]

1 minute ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

God these rumours are all depressing.

The rumours are as depressing as you interpret them. They’re not always the truth. They might be, they might not be. Getting depressed about them seems a bit far.  Down negative man, down.

[Mr X]

we've taken in close to 150 million in player sales theres no excuses from SR not to bring Someone in that can fire us to promotion yet we are looking to do it on the cheap with mediocre players as always  

[Harry_SFC]

5 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Agreed that would be the perfect outcome. I'm assuming we sell our remaining 4 prem quality players so don't want to seriously entertain the possibility of keeping Che but it really would make us strong. Bring Wood in and with our existing midfield options we will be looking very good even if we lose Sulemana, KWP and ABK. 

Tbh I'm expecting all 4 to go, so if any of them stay then that'll be a bonus in my eyes. 

[The Kraken]

1 minute ago, Mr X said:

we've taken in close to 150 million in player sales theres no excuses from SR not to bring Someone in that can fire us to promotion yet we are looking to do it on the cheap with mediocre players as always  

Just to clarify…which of the signings we’ve made so far this summer have been on the cheap and mediocre players for this level?

[Streaky]

Russell Martin said we will have a stronger squad by the end of the window. I can't see how that can possibly be true. 

How could he be happy with what he's been left with.

[Galway saint]

1 minute ago, Harry_SFC said:

Tbh I'm expecting all 4 to go, so if any of them stay then that'll be a bonus in my eyes. 

Fingers crossed 🤞 

will have been a great window if we can manage it and get the lad in from Aberdeen 

[Saint Matty 76]

4 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

The rumours are as depressing as you interpret them. They’re not always the truth. They might be, they might not be. Getting depressed about them seems a bit far.  Down negative man, down.

You’re not wrong whatsoever.

I’d love to turn off completely until September 2nd but the reality is we could either have the best team in the league or a decent one in 3/4 days time. The willingness to sell has me worrying it’ll be the latter, but fingers crossed.

[Ralph Fastenbüttl]

33 minutes ago, Fabrice29 said:

"Braced for a bid" btw...what even is that kind of reporting? Weren't Aberdeen also braced for a bid a few days ago? We're in peoples heads without doing anything. 

The thirst for links is so desperate that it leads to this kind of reporting. Being seen to be active in the market is a victory in itself. Such weird times.

I love the idea of the club management braced against various bits of furniture around the manager's office; the assistant manager curled up in a ball under the desk, the chairman clinging to a pillar by the fire escape, the reserves coach with his back to one bookcase and his feet raised up pressing against another so he's wedged in place. All just waiting nervously lest the fax should spark into life.

[saintant]

4 minutes ago, Mr X said:

we've taken in close to 150 million in player sales theres no excuses from SR not to bring Someone in that can fire us to promotion yet we are looking to do it on the cheap with mediocre players as always  

It's all being held in a trust fund and we're not allowed access to it until we are promoted. Hope they know what they're doing.

[Fabrice29]

5 minutes ago, Ralph Fastenbüttl said:

I love the idea of the club management braced against various bits of furniture around the manager's office; the assistant manager curled up in a ball under the desk, the chairman clinging to a pillar by the fire escape, the reserves coach with his back to one bookcase and his feet raised up pressing against another so he's wedged in place. All just waiting nervously lest the fax should spark into life.

‘Everybody knows it’s bid day yes!? Is Outlook definitely working? Send another test email just to be sure. We all know our roles when it comes in right? We practised this. Did we definitely turn off read receipts? Test that again too’

[egg]

7 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

The rumours are as depressing as you interpret them. They’re not always the truth. They might be, they might not be. Getting depressed about them seems a bit far.  Down negative man, down.

Yep, and we can't do a thing about it. We'll either have a decent squad when the window slams shut, or we won't. Regardless, we'll have shifted all or most of the poor players  we've carried (but who have suddenly become god like), will have a manager who plays a decent brand of football, and a January window to come. 

Football is never depressing. Unless you make it. 

[northam soul]

Can’t agree Painsil terms apparently Good IMO.

[egg]

9 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

You’re not wrong whatsoever.

I’d love to turn off completely until September 2nd but the reality is we could either have the best team in the league or a decent one in 3/4 days time. The willingness to sell has me worrying it’ll be the latter, but fingers crossed.

Ask yourself who wants (and needs) promotion more, SR or us...that's one reason why I'm relaxed. They fecked up last season, then fixed things behind the scenes. I'm confident they'll get this window right. 

[Fabrice29]

10 minutes ago, Streaky said:

Russell Martin said we will have a stronger squad by the end of the window. I can't see how that can possibly be true. 

How could he be happy with what he's been left with.

And yet somehow, CB’s aside, our squad is stronger than it was. Mainly because it’s been been coached properly. 

[S-Clarke]

7 minutes ago, northam soul said:

Can’t agree Painsil terms apparently Good IMO.

He sounds like someone who was being touted around by both Genk (they needed money), and his agents. I don't particularly think he wants to leave Belgium, or at least join second tier football.

[HarvSFC]

The key positive from this summer is that the player's being brought in are being brought in for the manager, the man in charge and the man who selects the team, as opposed to last summer.

Joe Shields was like a kid in a sweet shop, and still is at Chelsea given their high spend, high turnover and relatively poor results. None of Mara, Aribo, Maitland-Niles, or Edozie fit in with Hasenhuttl's high pressing, winning the ball up the pitch tactics. Mara, Aribo and Maitland-Niles barely break into a jog, while Edozie's work off the ball is pretty lacklustre. It was as though the manager had no say last summer while in previous seasons he had a big input. Pretty sure it's a big reason as to why his whole persona changed in the final months at the club, that and his coaching staff getting the boot and having Selles forced upon him.

Now, this summer we've got Manning, Martin's POTS last season, Shea Charles, a Wilcox signing, Downes, Martin previously managed at Swansea, Fraser, former teammate of Martin and Holgate, a ball playing centre-back.

At least we look to have a plan this summer, just need a few more to come in before the weekend. It would be nice if we signed a permanent striker and got one in on loan like we did when Ings left and we bought Armstrong and loaned Broja.

[Saint Matty 76]

20 minutes ago, egg said:

Ask yourself who wants (and needs) promotion more, SR or us...that's one reason why I'm relaxed. They fecked up last season, then fixed things behind the scenes. I'm confident they'll get this window right. 

Again, another good way of looking at it.

I hope you’re all right. I’m just not choosing to trust them until they’ve done something right.

[The Kraken]

4 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Again, another good way of looking at it.

I hope you’re all right. I’m just not choosing to trust them until they’ve done something right.

They’ve already done something right fella. Downes, great signing. Fraser, much promise. Charles, super prospect. Manning looks ok so far, especially going forward. Hard to criticise players in so far, surely? And we’ll see about Holgate, no idea myself but we’ll see and if he’s good enough to get on £70k in the first place, there’s the potential of a player there.

If that doesn’t meet a benchmark of doing something right, I fear you’ll just be disappointed with the vey thing else that’s left. Meh, up to you what you think but doesn’t make too much sense to me for the metrics you’re putting out.

[Saint Matty 76]

2 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

They’ve already done something right fella. Downes, great signing. Fraser, much promise. Charles, super prospect. Manning looks ok so far, especially going forward. Hard to criticise players in so far, surely? And we’ll see about Holgate, no idea myself but we’ll see and if he’s good enough to get on £70k in the first place, there’s the potential of a player there.

If that doesn’t meet a benchmark of doing something right, I fear you’ll just be disappointed with the vey thing else that’s left. Meh, up to you what you think but doesn’t make too much sense to me for the metrics you’re putting out.

I probably didn’t phrase that correctly whatsoever. I’m very happy with every piece of incoming business we’ve made so far, other than Holgate. However, the value of those incomings cannot be determined until we find out where they fall and who they’re replacing at the end of the window. 

They also did good pieces of business last year but the window didn’t work out as a whole. I probably should’ve said that I’m choosing not to trust them until they’ve got a transfer window right.

[Gloucester Saint]

54 minutes ago, Galway saint said:

Fingers crossed 🤞 

will have been a great window if we can manage it and get the lad in from Aberdeen 

If it’s either of those two, it won’t be before Friday as Aberdeen have a second leg European game v Hacken Thursday night (on BBC iPlayer)

[Saint Scott]

Sky Sports are reporting that Celtic are close to signing a CM. O'Riley on his way for a medical tomorrow?

 

[Dark Munster]

11 hours ago, egg said:

Sure, Adams has hit the ground running this season, and I agree that he needs adequately replacing. If he isn't, then we've got a problem, but the window is wide open, and I cannot imagine that we'll be left with a gaping hole at CF if Adams actually leaves. 

That's what most of us thought last summer.

[Lighthouse]

45 minutes ago, egg said:

Ask yourself who wants (and needs) promotion more, SR or us...that's one reason why I'm relaxed. They fecked up last season, then fixed things behind the scenes. I'm confident they'll get this window right. 

It’s amazing how many people seem completely oblivious to this point. So many comments on here and on other social media seem to be founded on the idea that if SR sell anything that’s not nailed down, don’t spend any money and spend the season fighting against relegation to L1, that they are somehow winning. As if it’s a big conspiracy, whereby they secretly want to drop out of the football league entirely but if they keep lying about it to the fans then somehow… profits?

They clearly want success, which this season will constitute a playoff spot at the bare minimum. They’ve put their money where their mouth is in every window so far, even if many of the players they bought were questionable at best.

[egg]

Just now, Dark Munster said:

That's what most of us thought last summer.

Last season we were ditched by Shields (thankfully as it happens) leaving the deals to Rasmus.  This season it's being overseen by Wilcox, with Mowbray the main scout. We have new people in the boardroom, a new head of finance, a new manager, etc etc.

It's staggering that people do not appreciate that different people are now running the show. 

[Saint_clark]

2 hours ago, The Kraken said:

Just to clarify…which of the signings we’ve made so far this summer have been on the cheap and mediocre players for this level?

This is a really good point. A lot of the rumours have been underwhelming, but the actual signings have all been decent to very good, with some of them coming out of nowhere. IIRC it was only really Manning and Downes that were rumoured before signing and even those really could have been luck on the reporters side, as we've been linked with almost all of the players that did well under Martin at Swansea. 

[Bad Wolf]

3 hours ago, Saint Scott said:

Sky Sports are reporting that Celtic are close to signing a CM. O'Riley on his way for a medical tomorrow?

 

Do we really need another CM??

[Dark Munster]

3 hours ago, egg said:

Last season we were ditched by Shields (thankfully as it happens) leaving the deals to Rasmus.  This season it's being overseen by Wilcox, with Mowbray the main scout. We have new people in the boardroom, a new head of finance, a new manager, etc etc.

It's staggering that people do not appreciate that different people are now running the show. 

It's staggering that people do not appreciate how difficult it is to find a decent goal scorer, even with competent people in charge.

[Granite_City_Saint]

8 hours ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

Lots of rumblings about the money that should be spent or whether it can be spent.

On whether it should be, I wrote another post detailing why I personally believe this is a conscious strategy to save money now to spend more when promoted. I believe I first got the impression of this by a comment made by Blackmore, so I assume he has had conversations on the topic with those inside Staplewood. Link here. In short, they aren't wasting transfer money on Champioship players and instead are saving in for when we are promoted.

As for whether it can be, this is a great website for football finances as it goes through all the accounts.

It sounds obvious but we have loads of money available. Yes we have been relegated, but with the parachute payments that comes to about -£50m in TV revenue lost from the previous year. Some sponsorships will drop slightly, but the TV revenue will be the main drop of income plus perhaps an extra -£10m if being extremely pessimistic.

On the books, we will be very profitable this year. Even though we spent £130m last season that cost is amortised over the duration of the contracts for the players we bought. So that would have only been an extra (approximately) £30m paid per year over 4 years had we kept all those players (I'm just averaging out at 4 year contracts here for simplicity). But the players we sold will go down as immediate income. We have brought in £150m from player sales this summer.

Factoring in that our players have taken a 40% wage reduction due to relegation clauses (as confirmed by Semmens years ago and journalists this summer) and have lost most of our highest earners. From our approximately £60m wage bill last season we will be saving approximately £24m. In terms of total personnel cost savings (including bonuses etc I expect and perhaps other staff) most relegated clubs save far more than that (Norwich saved approx £50m).

Under Gao we were almost breaking even (approx -£10m per year). Being very pessimistic, we shall say we have lost £60m in income from relegation and we are paying an extra £30m for the players we bought last summer (I'm not even going to minus the ones we already sold). That puts us at -£90m. We have saved a minimum of £24m on personnel (honestly could be double) and made £150m in sales.

Using our previous seasons as a reference then : -10-60-30+24+150.... which would make us at minimum £74m in profit for this season.

In real cash terms it will be a different story, but there are plenty of ways of deferring payments (loans+obligations to buy). Just as our outgoings are paid in instalments over 1-3 years, so are our incomings. The club might be very honest about not having large amounts of cash available to sign many players (as my previous post said - I suspect they don't want to waste money on Championship players), but they absolutely could work around that if they wanted to as they will be very profitable by the year's end.

For reference, when Fulham went down they made £12m in sales and just took the £60m loss on their accounts to go back up (having lost £100m the year before).

Anyone saying we don't have the money to spend is lying. We may not have the cash this moment, but that can be worked around. We are in an extremely healthy position.

Anyone saying we are at risk under FFP is lying. You can lose over £100m over a 3 year period while in the Premier League, we likely exceeded that last season but have more than made up for it this year. In previous Gao years we were at worst losing around £10m per year.

Sport Republic invested into the club, they don't need or intend to take that money out. I suspect they will make a profit on the £130m they spent on players last year having made almost half of it back on just one player already. I'm fairly certain I read that they also paid off our loan debt just after acquiring the club.

Your maths are suspect. Why do the cost of our purchases get spread over 4 years, while we get the £150 million from sales all in one go? It doesn’t make sense. If you are consistent, it looks more like a £40 million loss than a £74 million profit.

 

[DT]

3 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

It's staggering that people do not appreciate how difficult it is to find a decent goal scorer, even with competent people in charge.

Piroe was on a plate and we pushed it aside, to boost a direct rival. Big mistake. We will find out how this team is over the coming tricky fixtures, and I think people are in for a bit of a shock. Especially in terms of conceding goals. And possibly scoring them, unless we spend where we clearly need to. 

[Tamesaint]

5 minutes ago, Granite_City_Saint said:

Your maths are suspect. Why do the cost of our purchases get spread over 4 years, while we get the £150 million from sales all in one go? It doesn’t make sense. If you are consistent, it looks more like a £40 million loss than a £74 million profit.

 

I am pleased that it is not just me who doubts the maths here. There will be costs to write off against the income from  player sales  depending on how the initial purchase cost was amortised in the finances. 

Cash in could well be £150 million but this will not all be profit. 

[egg]

4 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

Do we really need another CM??

Apparently this lad is very versatile - can play well as a DM, CM and AM. If Charles is needed at CB, that only really leaves Downes as DM. I also wander where Alcaraz fits this season - he's really struggled being played as a box to box CM. 

[Dman]

4 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

Do we really need another CM??

No, not imo. 

[Dman]

2 minutes ago, egg said:

Apparently this lad is very versatile - can play well as a DM, CM and AM. If Charles is needed at CB, that only really leaves Downes as DM. I also wander where Alcaraz fits this season - he's really struggled being played as a box to box CM. 

One I'e been really disappointed with - fallen behind A.Armstrong in that 8/10 role imo. 

[egg]

1 minute ago, Dman said:

One I'e been really disappointed with - fallen behind A.Armstrong in that 8/10 role imo. 

He's a pure 10/second striker and just doesn't suit his current role and doesn't offer enough. I forget who it was against, but his ambling back when AA had to run back and make that tackle ok midfield was telling. I think we'll get another proper CM. 

[Smirking_Saint]

8 minutes ago, egg said:

He's a pure 10/second striker and just doesn't suit his current role and doesn't offer enough. I forget who it was against, but his ambling back when AA had to run back and make that tackle ok midfield was telling. I think we'll get another proper CM. 

He looked good in the second half against Norwich but other than that he’s been pretty anonymous, I thought he’d suit this team and set up but he hasn’t looked comfortable yet

[Dman]

18 minutes ago, egg said:

He's a pure 10/second striker and just doesn't suit his current role and doesn't offer enough. I forget who it was against, but his ambling back when AA had to run back and make that tackle ok midfield was telling. I think we'll get another proper CM. 

I wonder if we could try him out on the right, especially given we wont have a tella replacement ready for Saturday, I wouldn't think. 

[Tanlee]

Not bothered by the players leaving if they don't want be here, just hope we get a couple in, loving a few new faces at the club it freshens the whole club up and gives match days something extra especially after what has been the same old shit for a couple of seasons. 

[Jimbo]

9 hours ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

Lots of rumblings about the money that should be spent or whether it can be spent.

On whether it should be, I wrote another post detailing why I personally believe this is a conscious strategy to save money now to spend more when promoted. I believe I first got the impression of this by a comment made by Blackmore, so I assume he has had conversations on the topic with those inside Staplewood. Link here. In short, they aren't wasting transfer money on Champioship players and instead are saving in for when we are promoted.

As for whether it can be, this is a great website for football finances as it goes through all the accounts.

It sounds obvious but we have loads of money available. Yes we have been relegated, but with the parachute payments that comes to about -£50m in TV revenue lost from the previous year. Some sponsorships will drop slightly, but the TV revenue will be the main drop of income plus perhaps an extra -£10m if being extremely pessimistic.

On the books, we will be very profitable this year. Even though we spent £130m last season that cost is amortised over the duration of the contracts for the players we bought. So that would have only been an extra (approximately) £30m paid per year over 4 years had we kept all those players (I'm just averaging out at 4 year contracts here for simplicity). But the players we sold will go down as immediate income. We have brought in £150m from player sales this summer.

Factoring in that our players have taken a 40% wage reduction due to relegation clauses (as confirmed by Semmens years ago and journalists this summer) and have lost most of our highest earners. From our approximately £60m wage bill last season we will be saving approximately £24m. In terms of total personnel cost savings (including bonuses etc I expect and perhaps other staff) most relegated clubs save far more than that (Norwich saved approx £50m).

Under Gao we were almost breaking even (approx -£10m per year). Being very pessimistic, we shall say we have lost £60m in income from relegation and we are paying an extra £30m for the players we bought last summer (I'm not even going to minus the ones we already sold). That puts us at -£90m. We have saved a minimum of £24m on personnel (honestly could be double) and made £150m in sales.

Using our previous seasons as a reference then : -10-60-30+24+150.... which would make us at minimum £74m in profit for this season.

In real cash terms it will be a different story, but there are plenty of ways of deferring payments (loans+obligations to buy). Just as our outgoings are paid in instalments over 1-3 years, so are our incomings. The club might be very honest about not having large amounts of cash available to sign many players (as my previous post said - I suspect they don't want to waste money on Championship players), but they absolutely could work around that if they wanted to as they will be very profitable by the year's end.

For reference, when Fulham went down they made £12m in sales and just took the £60m loss on their accounts to go back up (having lost £100m the year before).

Anyone saying we don't have the money to spend is lying. We may not have the cash this moment, but that can be worked around. We are in an extremely healthy position.

Anyone saying we are at risk under FFP is lying. You can lose over £100m over a 3 year period while in the Premier League, we likely exceeded that last season but have more than made up for it this year. In previous Gao years we were at worst losing around £10m per year.

Sport Republic invested into the club, they don't need or intend to take that money out. I suspect they will make a profit on the £130m they spent on players last year having made almost half of it back on just one player already. I'm fairly certain I read that they also paid off our loan debt just after acquiring the club.

 

55 minutes ago, Granite_City_Saint said:

Your maths are suspect. Why do the cost of our purchases get spread over 4 years, while we get the £150 million from sales all in one go? It doesn’t make sense. If you are consistent, it looks more like a £40 million loss than a £74 million profit.

 

 

45 minutes ago, Tamesaint said:

I am pleased that it is not just me who doubts the maths here. There will be costs to write off against the income from  player sales  depending on how the initial purchase cost was amortised in the finances. 

Cash in could well be £150 million but this will not all be profit. 

Granite and Tame are correct. It isn’t £150m profit, it’s £150m less the unamortised cost of the players sold.

however, the unamortised cost of the players that have been sold is pretty low, so it will be relatively high profit, just not quite £150m.

eg JWP & Tella cost is nil, Salisu is c£3m (signed for £11m 3 years ago on a 4? Yr contract). By the same logic, tino, Lavia Carrrying values will be <£15m combined.  

 

 

[coalman]

45 minutes ago, egg said:

Apparently this lad is very versatile - can play well as a DM, CM and AM. If Charles is needed at CB, that only really leaves Downes as DM. I also wander where Alcaraz fits this season - he's really struggled being played as a box to box CM. 

His best role is sitting between the attack and midfield receiving the ball between the and releasing other players or taking a shot. We'll get the best out of him with Downes/Charles behind him.

There's a good argument that he and AArmstrong and SArmstrong are all competing for that position.

I really hope Charles at CB is just a stopgap rather than a regular occurrence. Though CB is still one of our weakest positions. Need one more in an Holgate to be like Fraser looked in his first outing.

[Pilchards]

My personal prediction 6 out and 4 in.

Is Holgate Woods replacement as we won’t budge on 2m?

Versatile FB/CB

Aberdeen player

Striker who’s available from the premiership

Norwegian midfielder.

 

[hypochondriac]

8 minutes ago, Pilchards said:

My personal prediction 6 out and 4 in.

Is Holgate Woods replacement as we won’t budge on 2m?

Versatile FB/CB

Aberdeen player

Striker who’s available from the premiership

Norwegian midfielder.

 

And the 6 out? 

KWP 

Sulemana 

Adams 

Onuachu 

McCarthy 

Djenepo 

Mara? 

Edited 30 August, 2023 by hypochondriac

[FarehamSaintJames]

I’m not sure Adams will go now. Same with McCarthy (sadly) because of his wages. KWP will be 50/50 maybe depending on what silly last minute offer is made to us.

Onuachu will be loaned out, again, who’s picking up those wages on a permanent deal.

Mara I think we’ll be stuck with until January.

[SaintLondon]

It does seem awfully quiet but I wonder after Russell's comments the other day about "too much gets out at this club" that they've tried to make it more water tight. I'll take quiet tbf - I'd rather keep everyone we've got and not sign anyone further. Yes, it would have been nice to replace Tella but I think we can make do with what we've got. A championship team of the likes of Che, KWP, Downes, Alcarez, Sulemana & co should be more than enough to fight for promotion. If we can get rid of a few more bits of dead wood then I'd say it's not all doom and gloom. 

[Fabrice29]

22 minutes ago, Pilchards said:

My personal prediction 6 out and 4 in.

Is Holgate Woods replacement as we won’t budge on 2m?

Versatile FB/CB

Aberdeen player

Striker who’s available from the premiership

Norwegian midfielder.

 

Love the imagination on those signings.

[Fabrice29]

26 minutes ago, coalman said:

His best role is sitting between the attack and midfield receiving the ball between the and releasing other players or taking a shot. We'll get the best out of him with Downes/Charles behind him.

There's a good argument that he and AArmstrong and SArmstrong are all competing for that position.

I really hope Charles at CB is just a stopgap rather than a regular occurrence. Though CB is still one of our weakest positions. Need one more in an Holgate to be like Fraser looked in his first outing.

This is also the most difficult role when up against deep and compact defences. Think September could be a good month for him based on more open games.

[Polaroid Saint]

35 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

 

 

Granite and Tame are correct. It isn’t £150m profit, it’s £150m less the unamortised cost of the players sold.

however, the unamortised cost of the players that have been sold is pretty low, so it will be relatively high profit, just not quite £150m.

eg JWP & Tella cost is nil, Salisu is c£3m (signed for £11m 3 years ago on a 4? Yr contract). By the same logic, tino, Lavia Carrrying values will be <£15m combined.  

 

 

Good.points all.

The issue isn't "Maths" though - It's Accountancy. (Which has only the barest relationship to actual 'maths'). 

So many different columns to fill in and moving parts with wages, loans, contracts, payment schemes, income streams etc...

...Gawd knows what the actual figures are. 

[Tamesaint]

39 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

 

 

Granite and Tame are correct. It isn’t £150m profit, it’s £150m less the unamortised cost of the players sold.

however, the unamortised cost of the players that have been sold is pretty low, so it will be relatively high profit, just not quite £150m.

eg JWP & Tella cost is nil, Salisu is c£3m (signed for £11m 3 years ago on a 4? Yr contract). By the same logic, tino, Lavia Carrrying values will be <£15m combined.  

 

 

Do you know what happenings when players sign new contracts? Eg JWP must have received a large signing on fee when he agreed to his 7 year contract. Is the cost of the signing on fee swallowed in the year of signing or is it amortised in the same way as transfer fees?

[farawaysaint]

14 minutes ago, SaintLondon said:

It does seem awfully quiet but I wonder after Russell's comments the other day about "too much gets out at this club" that they've tried to make it more water tight. I'll take quiet tbf - I'd rather keep everyone we've got and not sign anyone further. Yes, it would have been nice to replace Tella but I think we can make do with what we've got. A championship team of the likes of Che, KWP, Downes, Alcarez, Sulemana & co should be more than enough to fight for promotion. If we can get rid of a few more bits of dead wood then I'd say it's not all doom and gloom. 

We shouldn’t be “making do” we should be one of the automatic promotion favorites. Anything less really is just moving backwards for no discernible reason except possibly a financial one.