Thetownend.com

From BBC

Swindon Town's Charlie Austin unsure over future

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/swindon_town/9312165.stm

At no point in the article does he say hes unsure either, he says he is still talking to the club about a new contract and hopes to still be here after January.

I'm not so sure he will be here, I'm sure that there is a figure in Fitton's mind that if this is offered or close to it then they will accept it - what is our record transfer fee recieved ?

I've accepted it happening in jan, it's inevitable.

Think it was Horlock @1.5 mill, but Cox went over that with the add ons.

Transfer fee received £1,500,000: Kevin Horlock Manchester City January 1997
Transfer fee paid £800,000: Joey Beauchamp West Ham United August 1994

Probably out of date now but i got this from http://www.napit.co.uk/viewus/infobank/football/engdiv2/swindon.php

Same. I think he'll be gone in a few weeks.

Aren't those quotes a couple of weeks old now.

Whether he stays or goes will to state the blindingly obvious depend on the right offer coming in, and on Charlie. At least we don't have to sell so should et a good price.

Simon Cox went for 1.9 so definitely out of date.

 :cry: :badmood: :cry: Can you really ever come over the fact that we paid West Ham £800,000 for Joey Beauchamp!?!? That's crazy. Even more crazy was it that I saw Joey Beauchamp score the winner against Wolves in 1994 LIVE from the new Intel Stand!

Did we actually pay £800.000 though? I could sworn Adrian Whitbread was used as part of the deal or something. Or am I getting all confused?

fitton has a tough call now.our season has been a pile of shit so far with charlie being the only real thing of any quality to give fans hope.
every player has his price,but selling your star player with us where we are aint gonna do him any favours.
if charlie wants out then he has little choice anyway though.
i'm sure charlies laughs at the celtic rumours were nervous ones.he'll know full well they are after him.....

Good post arriba....i for one will be very unhappy if he is away.

We should get around the same for Austin as we did Cox......how about investing at least half of it on new players...it wont happen though.

but considering austin's younger and a better all round player might get us more money ?

Agree with that Arriba. We don't reall know what's going on behind the scenes. Whether Austin wants to stay or go, whether the new contract talks have broken down for that reason or whether they are a smoke screen to try and put the price up, whether the board will want to sell regardless of Austin's thoughts or not. It's all anyone's guess at the moment.

I know it sounds a bit of a daft question, but are football transfers subject to tax? If so, are the prices generally publically quoted before or after?

Nope...the same money isn't around now....Celtic wont have enough for him.
If we get a bid any ware 2 million the club will snatch there hands off...i accept we have to sell....but my desire to watch is waning fast.............that is rare for me.

then monthly installments and international appearance bonus ?

The company is charged tax on its total gains and profits, rather than on a per sale of player basis. So before any tax

So if we were to sell Austin in January, we'd be better off spending the money before the summer so we can write the transfer fees off against tax liabilities? Unless we're still losing masses of money every year, but I've a feeling it's down into six figures as an operating loss now.

Most transfer deals are typically all paid in monthly instalments. Selling clubs only usually demand money upfront if the club is financially unstable. 

Every single cotract has a international  clause inserted.

We're still losing around £2m a season before transfer profits (unless things have changed substantially over the last 12 months) and we've got about $1 billion in losses from previous years they can write off any profit against.

Sad to say I'm feeling pretty much the same as you.

We say that we accept we have to sell him, but do we really really need to?  To me all we ever seem to do is take one step forward and the two steps back.  We constantly talk about building for the future, but when does the future start?  How can we build when we sell 1 or 2 of our best players every season?  I know that's what happens when you're a club of our size, but to be honest I'm pissed off with it.

Arriba's post sums it up perfectly.  We've had a crap season so far with no real sign of it improving, the one player who's performed consistently throughout is probably going to leave and potentially we'll end up in a relegation dogfight.  The end result will be a lot of pissed off supporters, myself included left wondering where it's all gone wrong and a large number deciding not to renew their season tickets.

Also, when Charlie does go, does anyone have any advice on how to break it gently to a 7 year old that his absolute idol has gone to play for another team?  He's going to be completely devastated, but I suppose if he's going to follow Swindon Town he needs to get used to the heartache from a young age?   :(

My understanding is that current year trading losses (basically matchday & merchandise revenue) can be offset against the gain from the sale of a player in the same year. Trading losses from previous years cannot offset this (as they can only be used against trading profits).

There's a whole bunch of other complications such as rollover relief (which gives relief on any gains reinvested in other player purchase within x amount of time) and whether the club decides to write off the cost of a transfer fee (for a player purchased) over the length of his contract or take the hit on the profit all in the same year.

I won't pretend to know any more because I don't. I suspect, as mentioned in another post, we'll have a big enough loss in the year not to worry about any tax liability anyway.

Interesting then even if it may be irrelevant. What's certainly relevant though is that Hull look like getting MacLean from Peterborough, so will probably cool their interest in Austin:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/peterborough_united/9312976.stm

Well put. I fully realise that the income from these player sales is necessary to keep the club afloat, and I guess sometimes it's easy to take for granted what good shape we're in compared to almost any other point in my lifetime.

However it is hugely frustrating that just as things were looking up on the pitch 6 months later it seems we may be in for another crucial player departing.

Would be nice to follow some of these players for more than a year or two.

I think that if he is going to go then we should be looking to get a bigger fee than we did for Cox as Austin has more potential AND the key thing is to get a decent replacement as we know very well we cannot rely on what will be left for goals.

But equally if there is any ambition of reaching the play-off's this season then we should be looking to keep our best players and Charlie is obviously one of them, even if he does not sign a new deal then come the end of the season he will still have 1 year left on his contract and will still be a sellable asset, FWIW I suspect Charlie will sign a new contract with the agreement that he can leave when a suitable club / offer is made. 

Unfortunately we DO have to sell him at some point. Financially we need the money. But just as importantly Charlie will want to step it up a level eventually. When that happens its over! I'd prefer him to stay and learn a bit more, but how does he know how often the chance to move up a league will come? Who knows what is round the corner.

We all know and accept that this is the price of failure at Wembley. What was a bit of a shock to the system was our failure to kick on another level despite the inevitability of losing key players.

I felt pretty low about football the first few months of non performances this season. I think I'm through it now. Hope you do the same.

When we do sell Charlie it is vital proper money is made available and used wisely to find a replacement. I don't think I could stomach a "what we have is good enough" speech. But I don't think we'd get one either.


I've started preparing my 6 year old. Started with when Greer left. He wasn't so bothered other than Douglas being captain (not sure why he is not a Dougie fan). Anyway he' getting there with the whole idea.

Totally agree ^

Charlie has made himself an idol for young Swindon fans to boot and it would be gutting for them to see him leave so soon.

What makes this situation worse is that we have a total over reliance on one player. Sort of like the Simon Cox situation.

We do sell off our star assests but  our squad has improved because of it (i know this season has been poor) but players like Douglas, Prutton, Caddis etc... do not come cheaply.


The best we can hope for is that Austin stays to the end of the season and  we enjoy his stint in a town shirt.

I wouldnt be suprised to see Douglas leave in January either...  :eek:

22 Nov 2010 16:59:00
Brighton are close to securing two permanent deals to completed in January.

Jonathan Douglas from Swindon town and Bury hit man Ryan Lowe.

You gotta love the rumour mill! If Douglas and Austin go we might as well swap stadiums with Supermarine

If we sell Douglas, then we may as well give up now. We've spent years and years looking for a player of his calibre, so to get rid of him would be a travesty!
Have contract negotiations began with any of our out of contract players?????

Right feel free to shoot the messenger for once but i did hear a few weeks back that Douglas and Wilson now have no relationship at all.

Just saying

Consider yourself shot.

If that's the case then why is he still skipper?

Don't know i will get back to you on that after i make something up.

Haha! Everyone's falling out with one another, if recent reports are anything to go by. Wtf has happened to our team!?!? I blame Greer.....

imagine the abuse you would now be getting if you were a new poster.

I heard dougie was unhappy at the sale of greer and wants out, the club want him to stay apparently.  :(

I can see why people wouldn't be happy though tbh.

Lucas
Ferry
McGovern
Sheehan
Lescinal
Amankawah

All first team regulars last season in a team which helped us get to wembley yet are now regulars on the bench and being replaced by players who are no better imo.Bar Lucas maybe

Very true

It's alright arriba, we'll all make up for it by sexually abusing him in the Merlin toilets if the next home game is ever played.

Pah!

Not to mention Losing Greer , Ward, Darby and Paynter...

Thats 10 top quality players from last season not playing this season.... :badmood:

I don't like all these stories you lot make up. I don't know if any of them are true.

To be honest, I've buried my head in the sand with regards to STFC the last couple of weeks. Got a weird sense of disenchantment about the whole thing at the moment.

Same! Today is the first time in a long time i've caught up with all the 'gossip'. 99% of it i expect is total bullshit, mind.
I do miss the football, despite how frustrating it has been thus far....

I havn't made any of it up

I'm going to ban you, troll

I don't miss the football, I miss going to the pub before football more.

Wasn't the rumour in the summer that Greer & Douglas hated each other & wouldn't play in the same team together anymore.

I guess that means that if Douglas is going to the Gayers, that Greer must be on his way out, probably to Barcelona in a swap deal for Messi, thus scuppering our changes of the Austin/Messi swap deal that's imminent.



PS   it's fun just writing total bollocks on an internet forum isn't it :D

PAh, you'll be saying Owen Tudor Jones as his replacement next.

To add to the bullshit rumour mill then maybe the solution to this cinundrum is a straight swap deal and greer will come back to make Dave happy. 

This seems to be sweeping over a lot of us at the moment.

Whereas I shall be mostly burying my head in snow for this season.

I've got no problem with Austin going at the end of the season as it’s natural progression but I'd have a major problem if we sold him mid relegation battle as I still don't think our squad is good enough without him to stay up in this league. Plus we’ve got a wonderful record of getting relegated when we’ve sold top scorers mid season in the past. If Douglas was to go as well then we may as well just kiss goodbye to our league 1 status as lets be honest we'd have little or no chance of replacing either in January.

I think this transfer window is going to be a big indicator of just how ambitious Fitton and co really are. Keep the better players and it shows that maintaining or bettering our current position is the priority, however if they sell Austin in January then it would be major concern to me that they are so willing to dice with relegation for the sake of a quick buck two and you'd have to start worrying why we are in need of money mid season as opposed to waiting until May/June. I appreciate this isn't going to be a popular viewpoint with many, but we are a football club and if we are in league 2 at the end of this season then we'd have gone backwards since they took over despite any financial progress that has been made. It'd be the usual 1 step forward and then 10 steps backwards for STFC and you'd have to question what the board consider a successful season.....success on the pitch or a successful season in the bank account. I couldn't stomach another season in league 2 again anytime soon so that would probably be me done with the club for a while at least.

[just saying] If it came out that Douglas and Wilson were at complete loggerheads and one of them had to be shown the door, who should go? [/just saying/

Douglas. Everysingle time.

No player anyway should be favoured over the manager, especially one who's done as much for us as wilson. And anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong and should be banned from the internet for ever and ever

Depends if it was solely a spat between Douglas and Wilson, or whether he had "lost the (majority of) the dressing room"

Or, thirdly, if it was just a load of shit that some one made up just for the hell of it.

Lets fucking hope so..........