Thetownend.com

thanks for all the hard work and goals, best of luck at Leeds

Eh? Explain.

You only just heard about this jcp? Old news

its been spoken about for ages but wasnt going to happen in January, but now it will be done in January

I really don't give a fuck if he goes or not....

Cox is not leaving in January - from the horses mouth - not the teenagers Christmas party night.

Ok dell

Damn, I expected a better response than that!!!!

as if Cox is going to tell u if he was leaving, u prob asked him whilst leaving the ground 1 day, they will tell strangers exactly what they wanna hear

Speaking to paul burrell last night i heard a lot of bad stuff, and i'm quite frankly dissapointed by what he had to say

Stranger?

Good luck to Cox if he goes,i hope he goes on and does really well...would you stay and put up with the shit weve had to endure this season...hes been by far our best player and yesterday was probably the worst ive seen him play...as for Leeds that will be doubtfull now as they are struggling to even make the playoffs so will be probably be looking to unload players if anything.....as for Morrison and Kennedy,well theyve got alot to learn about being pro if theyve been spouting off.

bit naughty if u named callum and it wasnt true dave, i know loads of the team were out last nite cos i was asked but had to look after my nan who has been ill recently, was told callum wasnt goin, unless it changed last minute

I saw a man eat his own head in rush. Unless he has a twin.

Sorry to hear about your nan too.

ok fair enough mate, silly boys!!

How much £?
League Two mid table Club here we come.

Sell him while we can because on the last two performances he is worth tuppence hapenny

Gazza's wish has come true then!

Is that you on ThisIs JPC?

http://forum.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=5164

Great topic this ...

i saw sean morrison in revolution. true story

Everytime I think I havent posted here for a while I have a read see JCPs commenst and log off again.  You make me laugh how you name drop daily, ha ha we are not a premier club, instead we are soon to be a league 2 club but ha ha ha ha you make me life mate

I also saw Sean Morrison and Callum Kennedy yesterday.

Along with the rest of the Swindon Squad!

FACT!

Well, some of them turned up anyway!

Yes I want the club to sell Simon Cox because he is shit!

expand please! ;)

A gentlemen never tells. I fear i've said too much already.

 Given that the Board have already stated there will need to be a player sale in January to stem financial losses...it doesn't take too much thought to work out that it will be Cox.

 I don't think we've another player who'd command a fee.

Me either however some people get a bit excited about Morrison (not really anyone outside STFC though)

Well Leeds sacked Macallister so maybe hes not going there.

Never said January though Reg. Don't try and pass that off as a fact because I was there and Fitton never said that.

morrison is deffo worth a fee.

not with only 6 months left on his contract he isnt...

I dont give a toss want Cox wants but his deal isnt up in the summer and what with us being at the bottom his value to our team is much more than his transfer value would be.

Selling him would once again highlight STFCs total lack of ambition.

 Our main ambition for this season was always a serious shot at the JPT, which is why MM was sacked after going out at Withdean....the league form before that was reasonable.

 Think this was a reasonable strategy...after all Brighton are in the area final and they're as shit as us....should they beat Looton its Wembley and some decent $. Then you build from there...

I think Histon had a part in his dismissal.
You are right with your post, if we had performed at Brighton and again at Shrewsbury, one step from Wembley, we have missed out big time.

why does 6 months left of contract have a bearing on his value dv?
if it expires then fair enough,but he'll be offered another contract or sold.

I think youll find Cox has this and 1 more year left on his contract

contracts are worth jack shit if the player wants away.

This is the reality of our situation. It's all very Rory Fallon-esque - I fear the same conclusion.

Histon certainly didn't help, but if we'd got past Brighton MM would have been kept on.

because in January he can talk to other clubs. If a better club talks him him and offers him a deal he isnt going to stop here is he.

of course we'll be get something from a tribunal if he lets his contract run down and leaves, but he's been here what 18 months? if that. We wont get much.

As far as I am aware, Morrison like just about everyone else has not been offered a new contract yet. Thought Fitton and Co would have learnt from last season. We waited too long to offer Comminges a new contract, if we'd offered him one in december he'd probably still be here.

Morrison wont sign a new contract and will be gone in the summer and I dont think he'll be alone in that either.

Also, Reg for once; you are talking rubbish. Our league form has been nothing short of terrible and if our main aim for this season was to win the piss poor paint pot then thats rather pathetic. I'd like to think the large majority of us would rather have a good league season than win the most pointless competition on world football.

Don't think Reg said anything about what the majority of us want DV.

Go and eat some cake.

 Prior to the cup games we'd had back to back home wins, and whisper it a clean sheet, and a battling point at Scunthorpe, then top of the league...7 points from 9...reasonable form. Of course we'd all like to see something happen in the league, but given the lack of strengthening in the summer, I don't think anyone to take seriously saw us as anything other than mid table. We've got to build the club back up somehow, JPT is a good way to do it.

 The thing ManUre have just won is the most pointless competition in the world, closly followed by the Setanta Shield,

 

if he lets his contract run down, and then fucks off then he's a cunt.and so would fitton be for letting him.
he is deffo worth money as he is better than tozer.if we get nothing or dont give him a 3 year deal minimum then that will be a fucking disgrace.

I recall DB saying that if Maynard at shit city was worth 2.5 mill what would that make Cox worth

dave byrne said we would win yesterday.
cox aint even worth 1 million.

I agree with you. Although Morrison isnt running his contract down as such, its not like he's turned down a new contract

Still, Morrison and Kennedy have both not been offered new contract (well its certainly not been made public if they have) and neither has Macklin who has had Premiership scouts flocking to see him.

Some good potential with all 3 of those and all with 6 months left on their contract. We're going to lose out on a shed load of money.

Say what you like about Iffy but bringing Lukas Jutkiewicz into the first team slowly then offering him a 3 year deal worked out perfectly for club.

we might not miss out though dv.if buts maybes? fuck me this is turning out like last nights tit for tat meaningless bollocks regarding cox's goals.
haha

A players value these days in generally about how much time he has left on his contract. Teams arent going to pay money for the likes of Morrison when they can pick him up for a minimal tribunal fee in 6 months time.

At least double that.

JPC you better be fucking wrong on this rumour.

I doubt he is. We're going to need Morrison now, if Aljofree is out for the season. It looked to me as if he was being kept out of the team prior to Saturday to ensure he avoided injury so we could sell him and afford to keep Cox. With that option now gone, I fear we have only one saleable asset...

We can sell Morrison put Kanyuka or Amankwha in there. Or get a loaner in.  All much a muchness if you ask me.

I know we can't keep Cox for  long, probably not past the end of this season. But selling Cox now would, IMHO, pretty much relegate us and would be a bitter pill to swallow.

It would be like Rory Fallon all over again but even worse.

Fallon only had 6 months left on his contract and could have gone for free at the end of it.

I'm hopeful DV. Watkins said they weren't selling Cox...unless a stupid fee came in. I doubt Leeds would bid £2m+ for him. If they did, form a business point of view they'd have no choice but to consider it. But I can't see it.

I would be gutted from a fan point of view. It's nigh on impossible to find another Cox mid season unless you are lucky in the extreme with a loan/gamble. Without replacement we'd most likely have a Paynter/Corr, Paynter/Peacock, Paynter/Sturrock front two. That would relegate us!

THE BOD aren't stupid, I trust them to do the right thing.

Luke Rodgers will be sold by Port Vale in January.

He's currently on loan at yeovil, but there's no way they can afford him.

(Just thought I'd throw that in)

Rodgers was a threat on saturday to be fair.

lets sell cox and sign rodgers

He's already reject us once.

And probably wouldn't be warmly welcomed by the Town End after his antagonising on sat.

Cox is much better than Rodgers but i was impressed with Rodgers his movement and runs were good

Rodgers had a good game. Seems a horrible little bastard though

Funny how a lot of people do see the game the same sometimes.  I started off hating that Rodgers fella, but the more the game went on the better a player he seemed.  Man of the match by the end of proceedings imo.

What was with Rodgers and that other Yeovil player grabbing Phil Smith as he was about to kick the ball out? Petulant pair of gimps.

If Cox does go it's hello league 2 unless we replace him with someone half decent enough. Without Coxy's goals this season we'd be close to bottom.

What on earth was wrong with Cox on Saturday, his touch was woeful and in front of goal he played like a rabbit in the headlights? Very unlike him from what I have seen.

I heard he was doubtful to start on Saturday after picking up a dose of myxomatosis, might explain a thing or two.

Because he didn't have Paynter up there with him.

He's been poor since Malpas left. Same goes for Paynter.

Maurice Malpas in getting best out of players shock?

Getting the best out of player. Shame about the other 10 on the pitch.

Indeed. It took way too long to get a reply along those lines  :eek:

Sorry Rich, there were 10 others trying to reply, but Malpas couldn't get anything out of them either.

Nicely done.

So JPC is this happening now or not now we have a new gaffer?.....

The Sun (i know, I know) said that Bolton were after Cox.

He's not premiershit class so be surprised at that one...and he wouldn't be a regular either... but I suppose Cox is bound to be linked with other clubs

aparently bolton and fulham are looking at him, let him go back to the prem and rot in the reserves like he would have done at reading had we not come in for him.

Blimey sebster, that's an angry response! Do you need a hug?

Early shift!  He's tired bless him!

Skysports.com understands that Fulham and Bolton are set to battle it out for Swindon striker Simon Cox.

The 21-year-old is hot property after scoring 16 goals so far this season, and was named PFA Fans' League One Player of the Month for October.

That form has alerted both Roy Hodgson and Gary Megson, who are thought to be lining up bids in the region of £1million.

But they face competition from Championship side Sheffield United, who are hoping to beat West Ham and Fulham to the punch by preparing an immediate £750,000 offer.

Cox joined Swindon from home-town club Reading last January, and his 22 goals since then - including two hat-tricks - have alerted top clubs.


Yeah your right what would be the point in him going just for him not to play and for us to be then trying to find a striker that could score a similar amount of goals when we need to stay up this season unless we bring back Parkin or sign another good striker from our league or league 2.

Skysports.com, the home of the unsubstantiated rumour.

A million?  Is that it?

I love how theres a rogue 'West Ham' just thrown in there too, with no previous mention. Good work there.

Can't remember if I have posted this before so I will again.
I was told November/December time that the Cox deal to Sheff Utd was agreed.
£1.5m was the price. I dont know how true it is,but the source was fairly reliable.
I hope he stays though as I have a bet for him to be top goalscorer this season. E/way though so a top 4 finish is enough.

If that was the case he would've gone when the window opened surely?

Cox behind the window, sounds like a porno!

£1m ? surerly though that would only buy his left boot

for a million quid i'd snap any clubs hand off for him.and for that sort of money i'd want all of it to be made available to the manager.if we get anywhere near a million for coxy i'd guess it wont be all money upfront, and will depend on his future progress.

Sell his left boot then and keep Cox himself, he could always buy another pair.

And buy the way your username should be "Power to the people", you forgot the 'the'.

And by the way, it's by not buy

And by the way, there should be a full stop at the end of 'And by the way, it's by not buy'.

Touche.

*Touché.

I was waiting for that.

You make a valid point Sir. Of course you neglected to point out that a sentence should not be started with a conjunction.

It's this kind of nonsense, up with which, I will not put.

Nev I thought that never start a sentence with an "and" was a load of old bullsh these days.   That rule shas long gone hasn't it?

If Cox goes we are fucked although he hasn't done much lately, he had a baron spell last season and then started banging them in again.

james, yes it was a mix of being pissed off and being up since 5.30. Nothing a good work out at the gym couldnt sort out.
im all good now

im addition, i still stand by my previous post,

 Did he lord it over the opposition in his "baron" spell?

Yeah, i thought he behaved a bit like Duke!

Cox is going nowhere, TCP will confirm.

He was interviewed on BBC earlier apparently..........

What TPC?

I've not heard that Jan - I tend to work in old fashioned black and white grammar.

FROM WESTERN DAILY PRESS

Striker Simon Cox is ready to discuss a new deal to stay at Swindon Town.

Cox, who is the club's top scorer this season with 16 goals, will tell new manager Danny Wilson that he is happy to pledge his future to him at the County Ground, despite the club's recent struggles on the pitch.

Cox also refuted speculation linking him to Premiership club Bolton Wanderers – and stressed he will not be seduced by the glamour of a move to the top-flight if it means he is left sitting on the bench and playing in the reserves.

"I don't think anyone has come in with any bids for me and I'm happy where I am," said Cox.

"I am just waiting for the transfer window to close and we will see where I am at the end of it, but I still expect to be here.

"I have already said that when a new manager came in I would be prepared to talk about new deals and all sorts."

Cox has another season under contract and made it clear he is enjoying being a regular in the team after his previous experience at Reading.

"I don't want to go back to my Reading days," added Cox. "If I do leave – and I cannot express enough that I am not – it won't be to sit around anywhere.

"I'm not going to your top-flight Premier League clubs to just sit and wait, come on for five minutes here and there and not play the next week because I have done that.

"That is rubbish and undoes all the hard work I have done here. I want to be in the team earning the best money I can. I don't want to be sat on my backside all the time.

"Playing well in the reserves gets you nowhere. I have done it and don't want to do it again."

A pitch inspection will be held at the County Ground at noon today and club officials are not optimistic that tomorrow's match against Stockport County will get the go-ahead.

If it is called off, next Tuesday has already been pencilled in for the League One fixture

Yaay!

has no one told him he's going to Leeds yet?

Ssshh it's a suprise.

As quoted on December 21st, responding to TCP ...

I think TCP knows we believe him alot of the time so every now and again he'll throw in a fake one just to see who believes it.

Like when he said Iain Dowie was going to be our new manager and Arriba bet on it!

Or, when it comes to first team issues, he knows the same as the rest of us, i.e. shit all?

He gets his info from the youth team who get their info from what they think they know and considering half of them are thick as fuck some of it is bound to be wrong.

i didn't bet on it dv.

We had a Barron once-and a noble and a king.Ialways kind of hoped we'd sign Steve Earle and Frankie Prince to make an "aristocrat X1"

We had a Duke as well.   Reg. - any players named Lord in the past ?

According to swindon-town-fc.co.uk, no.

All eat Viscount biccys at halftime...........

It amazes me that when Cox sounds off about a move away some fans are quick to jump on his back......there not so quick to sing his praises when he releases a statement like this....lets hope the club give him a good contract with big clauses to our benefit.

 it appears to me that if a bigger club came in and offered him a place in the team, and more money he'd be off.yes he's happy here, but he'd be happier playing at a bigger club on more dosh.i wouldn't blame him either

Not 100% sure, he wants first team football and at Swindon this is guaranteed.
He is not good enough for the Premier as yet, he's young and still learning and theres loads more improvement in him I'm sure, another season in Division One will do him no harm at all.

yeah he can deffo improve.he wanders out of position,drifts offside way to much, and argues with officials,but he can get better.i dont think he's good enough for prem or even upper champoinship yet.lower championship regular, i'd say probably good enough

Agreed Arriba...lets just hope Wilson has had a word with him,i mean theres a possability Wilson asked that Cox is not sold when accepting the job...no one at Swindon would argue if he went for mega money,but he cost us £200,000 if Reading get 25% that dont leave us with alot of profit from a million....think it would have to be at least a million and a half and i cant see us getting that in this climate......

On skysports saying we rejected a bid in the region of £500k from a championship club:

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11719_4807866,00.html

Well that's fucking stupid. Should have accepted that.

probably bollocks soapy tit wank

If Cox does go, I hope we hold out for more than a measly million quid for him. If the rumours are true about the Bubble and his shit board getting 1m for Tozer - who had no first team experience, and 1m for Lukas - who was skilful but woefully short of pace, I'd expect Cox to go for at least 3m.

Cox is playing in a shaky side that give him fuck all in terms of regular quality service, yet he's approaching 20 goals already this season with months still to go. I think we all know what he's going to be capable of in a decent team, which is why bigger clubs are sniffing around.

I'm resigned to losing him as he's pure quality and deserves to make his pile in the game, but I'll be pissed if we flog him off cheap, and 1m is far too fucking cheap.

if wer'e talking man city prices then 3 million is ok.otherwise it's a fucking joke. £750,000 would be good value for him cash upfront in the real world.

I don't think it's true that we got anywhere near a million for Lukas or Tozer. Certainly not before appearance addons and such

The top of the top league one scorers don't go for 3million in recent years, possibly ever. I doubt there are more than a couple of examples over 2m.

I wonder who has leaked this story though?

my seeping nipples.

With sell on clauses etc, we should be aiming for well over 1m as his loss will cost us more that that when we fail to sign an adequate replacement. Someone mentioned earlier what happened when Rory Fallon was sold years ago. We didn't sign anyone capable of scoring goals to replace Fallon's, and we promptly went down a division. Unless DW has someone already lined up to replace Cox (if the rumour is even true) then we either need a big fee for him or we keep him as he's the only lifeline we have between dropping down into the basement again or staying up.

Slightly off subject, but if Fitton won't pay agents fees - a stance I admire, but not at the expense of us stagnating or getting relegated - why don't the red army offer to pay them instead? According to the trust website there is over 30k in the fund, so why not?




 

delta did someone log in as you? that last post wasn't up to your usual abusive and hilarious standards.come on chap must try harder

Me, abusive? Fuck Off :nod:

I may be guilty of using industrial language, but I'm more articulate and far better educated than half the cunts who post here and I'm fucking spot-on as usual about Simon Cox.

Better Educated? What does that mean?

I'm naturally clever and frown upon all you educationed types.

delta i jest.i like your posts and usually laugh loud, but the last one was a bit timid by your standards.

when fallon was sold didn't we get peacock to replace him eventually?

We should be looking for the same amount Crewe accepted for Maynard.

that was £2m was it?

Yes Peacock was Fallon's replacement.

Its been said before but we need to be mindful of any sell-on % that Reading have.

AF paid for SC out of his own pocket, so he'll probably be wanting his GBP0.25m back as well.

Also, if SC has not requested a transfer then he'll get a chunk of the fee, maybe 10%.

And then, the board have said that any sales may be neccessary to offset losses, such as MM's pay-off.

Plus, income tax on any player sale.

etc.

So if SC gets 10% and Reading get 30% then we must be looking at £1m minimum to sell.
Then pay back AF, that leaves us with just about enough to buy a player of Paynter's ability, great.

We wont sell this season, does not make sense.

He will probably go in the summer after we stay up by the skin of our chops....

That would make sense, just one year left on his contract and he will probably request a move to further his career.

That made me do a mini-sick in mouth.

Better than a mini-sick in the lap!

yes and no

we bought Peacock in first and both he and Fallon played in a game against Bournemouth where we dicked them and it looked like Peacock was the missing link and that Iffy had finally put all the pieces together then we sold Fallon and that was it

Then peacock turned total shit

With the sign-on from Reading, this would be a very low fee.


£500K Blades bid knocked back by Swindon?
01:47 PM 18 January, 2009
An offer from the Championship for Simon Cox has been turned down by the Robins.

Sheffield United have been linked with a move for the ex-Reading man and are in the market for a striker after selling James Beattie.

21-year-old Cox netted his 17th goal of the season in Saturday's defeat by Huddersfield.

http://www.fansfc.com/story/4966.html

no he won player of the season the following year.

In a very poor league 2 team dv. He has been shit this year

We made use of one of the perks of the Leigh Mills deal to take in Spurs reserve-team hot-shot Jamie Slabber on loan about the time we sold Fallon.

It was hoped at the time that he would be the perfect replacement for our leading scorer.

Im not going to disagree, I think he has been shit this season.

Up untill this season I think he has been a very player for us. He certain was under Sturrock, Malpas reverting him to a striker seems to have almost killed off his career.

When he first got moved back into midfield this season I thought he did alright for the first few games but now either his legs are going/gone or the teams fitness is shit as a whole.

If I were Wilson I'd look at him and think he doesnt have the legs for a central midfield and I'd take a serious look about slotting him at centre back.

umm, no we didn't.

Correct, I had the misfortune of seeing Slabber play, Fallon was sold while I was away for my first season in the Alps.

Slabber was signed on loan the season before that to play instead of Fallon

That's a bloody good idea, what with Jerel playing as a lone centre half at the moment.

Plus Peacock can talk, which has got to be a bonus, at least then Peacock can give Jerel some company and they can have a good chat while the opposition's forwards casually stroll around with a ball conveniently at their feet.

Peacock is a striker not a very good one but still a striker. He has been shit in midfield and his legs are going but because he can talk you would play him cb? Its partly his lack of defensive ability that our defence is under so much pressure

I was trying to be funny. Humour has never been a strong point of mine.

The thought of Peacock at centre half is alarming, tbh thought of the cunt even in the team is not exactly brilliant.

Sorry barry more aimed at dv.

I think we need to look at the whole squad and realise that the quality isn't there.

If we could afford to, I would be looking for a Right Back, Centre Back, Left Back, Left Midfield, 2X Centre Midfield, Right Midfield and Striker.

The only players currently at the club that would regularly get a game are Brezovan, Ifil and Cox.

We had a bit of a purple patch last season, which led people (Me included) into thinking we've got a pretty decent squad. We haven't, they're shit.

Huddersfield fans reckon we're the worst team to play at their place this season and they're not the only ones.

We just need to hang on in this league and see what Wilson can bring in in the summer, a couple of signings in January won't be enough to transform the side.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/wdp/sport/football/Swindon-reject-Huddersfield-s-bid-Cox/article-623674-detail/article.html

huddersfield getting in on the act

 :bye:

 

I dont think cox will go in january. Morrison is a different story though

spill

Good bet I suppose as none of the other useless fuckers are likely to attract any bids.

From the tone of that article and the quotes from Fitton is sounds as though we're gearing up to sell him sooner rather than later.

If we're like the swindon of old, then cox will be going for £75k shortly.

I was told there was no way he was going in January.

But, he must be one pretty pissed off player at the moment, no new faces coming in to strengthen the squad, no manager for 10 games, can't buy a win from anywhere, the club has gone backwards on the pitch since he signed, etc etc.

I now feel that if a decent offer comes in then Fitton will take it, and Cox will rub his hands and be off in a rush before the end of the season.

Here you are DW you now have £600,000 in the fund to strengthen the squad and in the long run even though we would lose our star player, he on his own cannot keep us up.

£600,000 is a fair whack these days, and you can almost believe that Cox being replaced by  3-4 good players would better the team in some ways. 

But I can't see that much being made available given our projected losses, lack of FA cup run, sacking of Malpas, etc. And where the hell do you find 3-4 good players available now that would want to come to a relegation threatened club.

Moreso selling Cox would not sit pretty with the fans during a relegation battle. Everyone has a price that can't be refused, but I would imagine it would have to be a bloody good price for the Town faithful to lay off.

Lastly 'uddersfields 500K bid is a joke. We have rightly told them to feck off.

I'm assuming Fitton will not accept less than £1m for Cox.

That would leave DW with £600,000 to spend.

Regarding compensation for Malpas, if you are sacked because your incompetent and not good to hold your position at the club, do you still get the full compensation and paid off in full, or do you get a redundancy pay-off?
I do not believe that Malpas has that much coming his way as pay off to be trueful.

If he does go it will be for the obligatory "undisclosed fee".

Not sure on the payoff, will have to see the accounts next year.

Do you really think out of a £1m fee DW would see 600K? Because  I don't.

If he doesn't received the full amount after pay-out deductions, I cannot see any point in selling Cox, I'm sure DW would not want to sell him just to weaken the side more than it is already and Fitton seems to me the type of chairman who would release the money for the good of the club.

I guess we'll have to wait and see then. Though as someone said, if/when it happens it'll all be undisclosed fees.

Does anyone know if Reading have a sell on clause added when we signed Cox?

Most likely.

I don't think we'll sell.

Yes 30%

Sheffield United had a £400,000 bid accepted for Jamie Ward (the lad Sturrock was after when manager here), unlikely they will come back for Cox

If we sell him there is no way in hell Wilson will be given 600k to spend at all.

As for Morrison, out of contract in the summer so we'll get fuck all for him to. Him leaving would also go hand in hand with the fact he hasnt featured in our first team for a while despite Kanyuka being awful and Aljofree being injured.

i'd want all the money to be made available to wilson should cox go.why would that not happen?

because the large majority of it would go towards paying off our losses at the end of the season.

Cox Out

Because for once the club is actually being run as a proper business. If you're trading at a loss of circa. £3 million and suddenly get a windfall of £600k it would be very un-businesslike to not use that windfall to offset the losses and put it straight into cash.

So with this new (hope) board we have a £3m debt instead of £25m debt and no money to spend.

If we do not spend and improve this squad we will eventually go down to Div 2, good chance this year, certs for next. Now where would that put the three-year plan.

We must spend to get us to the top of this Division for next season and hopefully Championship the next year.

Crowds will increase, revenue on sales all through the club will increase.

If money is not made available for DW then we have been promised a false dawn.

The way I understand it is that (big) money will only be made available for exceptional players (e.g. the £250k for Cox), otherwise it's loans and freebies.

Surely the wage budget is more of an issue. Transfer fees tend to be pretty low at this level, minus a few exceptions, but the wages eat in to the monthly budget pretty quickly if we can't offload some of the dead wood.

All of that would be great Dell (and I understand your logic) if there were any guarantees at all that spending cash would lead to success on the pitch.  and there isnt.

We ended up with the balance sheet that we had pre Fitton by consistantly spending more than we had to either chase success or more realistically avoid total failure i.e. relegation.

I can totally understand why Fitton and co do not want to go down this route again, but I do have faith that they are realistic enough to see we need some new players right now.  They dont have to be expensive to be any good, we're near the bottom of league 1 so obviously they incoming players do not need to be stars to represent an improvment on what we already have.

The biggest issue is that we have struggled to offload our squad players. I dont think anyone would shed a tear if roughly half our squad left, but other clubs dont want them, on in some cases i guess the players would not want to drop down a level or take a pay cut.

On the upside CT, a lot of the deadwood are out of contract at the end of this season so can walk.

i accept that sam.but football isn't like other businesses is it.if the board want to break even, then i dont think that will happen. losing your best player and not putting the money back into replacements would piss the fans off, and weaken the side too.getting anywhere near to breaking even would mean us fans would have to put up with the quality of player that we currently have to endure watching.that means we need a manager who can get the very best out of his players.ground redevelopment would increase revenue but would have to be paid for first to be constructed.basicly what i am saying is clubs like ours need boards that will fill the holes in terms of shortfall,and maybe throw a bigger chunk of their millions into improving the squad.
these fellas are succesfull business men, so why on earth buy into stfc if you are not prepared to lose some of your money.clubs like ours wont make money for the board,they must have known this.football clubs generally lose money-not make a profit.

It's a 3m projected loss for this season, although I guess some of it will come from costs/debt passed on by the previous regime.

When is the Bill Power court case?


I don't think Fitton et al are here to play sugar daddy and endlessly plug the shortfall. They are however trying to bring a deficit of £3M per season down to something manageable. It's not exciting but it has been achieved at clubs such as Walsall and Cheltenham.  And it is better than going bust.

Expectations rise in part from the board and in part from the silly "worth" values of the consortium. I don't know how much ££££ the have "spare" in real tangible liquid assets (money), but probably not as much as last year pre-credit crunch. They have to look after their business and themselves first and foremost.

I may be wrong of course.

I also think that some of what has happened in the prem has raised expectations of fans of lower league clubs like us who get new owners who are minted.

Just because Abramovich and The Dubai lot have thrown money at "their" clubs some of our fans feel as if Fitton and co have an obligation to do the same albeit on a smaller scale obviously.  They dont.  I know its tiresome, but spending £5m or so to save our club and small(ish)scale investemnt on players like cox and macnamee is good enough for me.

Just beacuse they are rich it does not give us a divine right to expect lavish new signings, when they are still subsidising the clubs losses. On planet reality we've spent more on transfer fees in the past year than we have for about the previous 5 put together. In wage budget terms it must be the biggest for a while given the size of the squad and the lack of loanees in it. So Allegations of doing things the "cheap way" dont wash with me.  

There are plenty of examples in recent years of clubs who have got out of league 1 without spending massive ammounts of cash.

A name from the past, I forgot we owe him money or is it the old board owe him, all got a bit confusing in the end.

I expect the board also know that a promotion chasing season in League Two would bring in more money then a lower mid table League One season would.

I dunno, relegation would be hard to take. Last time we got relegated it almost seemed like it was us hitting rock bottom. Lowest we'd been in the football league in 20 odd years and the closest we'd come to going out of business.

I thought that season in L2 was rock bottom and it would never quite be that bad again. Going back there would be fucking awful

I think this board thought we would be challenging for promotion this season. Good end to last season looked positive, Simon Cox signed, 5,000 season tickets sold, good pre-season against qualities sides. All the signs were there, but it didn't happen and we are nearly rock bottom. Going down was not in there plans, and getting higher gates in Division Two I do not think so.

It's the football club and the old holding company. If the club lose then I have no isdea who owes whome what. The Wills have offered an indemnity on the outcome. I'm not sure if that means they pay everything, or part of costs or what.

Nobody owes anyone anything yet mind,  got to wait for the case to be heard.

Whilst the bigger income for being good in L2 rather than bad in L1 may be true,  I cant see our owners thinking like that at all for several reasons.

1. Its very short termist. They have already said they are here with a long term plan and relegation just makes that harder to achieve

2. Theres no guarantee that we would be any good in L2. OK, we did alright last time and generally were considered the biggest club in the league at the time, but the likes of Bradford and famously the Pox made fucking hard work of league 2

People will get off their arses to watch a winning side.

We'd get more fans in if we were at the top of L2 than the bottom of L1.

Infact we probably did but I cant be arsed to check.

I for 1 and my better half for 2 would not be renewing our season tickets for Div 2.
(Good I hear the do gooders say)

I'd be devestated if we went to league 2 again.Last time we had the Wise/Power factor creating a Buzz. This time I am not so sure would as financially rewarding. Especially with the recession hitting people.

Thats true DV.

But its only good for the clubs finances in the short term. We get promoted and end up back at square 1. Its pointless.  And theres no guarantee of getting promoted.

if we go down season ticket sales would slump big time.that said i think they will anyway next summer

The football club is the liable party because it is the legal entity that did/didn't take the cash in exchange for shares/loan.

Should the club lose the court case, i.e. the judge rules in favour of Power's money being a loan, the £1.25 million will be payable from the football club. But there are guarantees in place from the Wills family which were part of the sale & purchase agreement.

of course they will, we'll never sell 5,000+ season tickets again

Not unless they do a Bradford/Huddersfield.

Our promotion from Div 4 a couple of seasons ago was the flattest prmotion season ever. We flopped over the finishing line but it was nothing like other promotion seasons. There wasn't a great buzz around the place.
Being relegated would be a disaster. our gates would have dived this season had most people not signed up for a ST. In fact, pricing next season could be good fun. Even if they kept prices the same my guess is we'd be lucky to sell much more than 3k regardless of division.

Yeah it was strangely subdued-I think because we were embarrassed to be there in the first place

Contract Negotiations have started....

TOWN have opened discussions with top scorer Simon Cox about extending his contract at the County Ground.
The 17-goal frontman has 18 months left on his current deal, but chairman Andrew Fitton has set the wheels in motion to add another year to Cox’s stay in Wiltshire, and is confident of tying things up within the next couple of months.
Fitton confirmed that Cox was the subject of an unsuccessful bid from a League One rival last week, believed to be around £500,000, and revealed that no-one is expecting the former Reading man to be heading for the exit door any time soon.
He told the Advertiser: “If Simon Cox moves, it will be the right move for the development of his career.
“I have always told him that I would be honest if any bids came in for him. I kept my word and I think he was surprised by it.
“But he’s happy where he is and doesn’t see a need to move at this point, unless the absolute right move for his career comes up.
“I have informed Simon that we would like to open discussions on extending his contract, and I think it was received favourably by him. This happened before we received any bid for him.
“I would like to get something tied up before the end of the season and I would be hopeful of it happening sooner rather than later.
“We don’t want to get into very long contracts. We don’t want people sitting on five-year deals because the club has suffered in the past from people sitting on contracts. In the current circumstances I think a three-year contract is more than enough for players.”
Fitton has identified five other Town players with a view to extending their contracts, and has started discussions with “two or three” of them.

Very happy with them talking to Cox about a new deal but who are the other 5 he has identified? surely no one else has earnt the right to be discussing a new contract as yet.

Probably Easton, Brezovan... not sure on others unless they are some of the kids (did they sign 1 year deals?)

I disagree - if we don't start these negotiations we won't have much of a squad left at the end of the season. We might not be overly impressed with what we've got, but given our difficulty in attractnig new players we've got to start somewhere.

I'd guess at Ifil, J.Smith,Easton,McGovern and McNamee as being the five - bearing in mind it says 'extending' as opposed to 'offering new'

Even Easton should be playing for a contract, we have players that lack appetite at the moment at least lets make them fight for there future.  Why give players that already seem unmotivated the luxury of a longer stay.  Cox definitely give one to, Morrison I could understand, maybe even an on form Brez but beyond that I am struggling.

Half of these players have had plenty of time to prove there worth and have done very little.  Personally would let vast majority go in the Summer unless there is a massive turn around and let Danny Wilson build his own squad.  They have shown a lack of enthusiasm, ability, consistenty and fight for the best part of 2 years, why reward them for it.

Id guess the 5 would be Brez, Ifil, Morrison, Macklin & Kennedy

Would be happy if they were the 5. Couldn't give a monekys about the rest bar Vincent.

Could be when he talks about starting contract discussions with 2 or 3 of them that AF is planning to use them as hit-men to take out the rest of the mob.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/nov/25/football-scoutingreport-swindon-simoncox

Didnt catch this....hope other clubs note the valuation!
And i know SC isnt the sharpest tool in the book and apologies if its already been posted,i didnt see it.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_4841394,00.html

Bye, Bye?

hmmm  well Cox said he WANTED a contract extension so think that parts bollocks. I still think he wont go anywhere until the end of the season.

hmm his agent Alex Cowdy is a canny sort - he's a travel agent as well - I think we'd like him very much

how much did we get for him in the end?

Under MM everyone wanted to go in January!...i would like to think that DW being made manager and the fact Fitton is keeping him in the know about bids makes it easier for Cox to stay for a while...hes said he aint going anyware to sit on the bench so lets hope he can get 25 goals for us this season.

Even I wanted to go under MM!

I think a lot of young players move on far too quickly from clubs like Swindon. They rush in to a big money move to a bigger club and often end up not playing much before moving back to a lower division club.

Out of those clubs the Sky article mentions only Fulham and Sheff Utd would make any sense for him as neither of them have a forward with a double figure goal count, so he could possibly go straight in to the first team.

A million for him would be good, but I'd prefer it if they offered him a decent pay rise to get him to sign for a couple more seasons. If we were currently in the Championship, with his goal count so far this season we could easily be talking £4 million for him.

I feel a whole lot more comfortable with the idea of selling our best players on for a fee knowing that Diamandis has left the scene.  If we got something like £750,000 for Cox I'd be happy enough.  I'm sure Danny Wilson would see a fair slice of that to buy other players.  We're a selling club...and at least now we're going to get fair valuation for our players, rather than clubs lining up to offer nuppence for our best players because they think we're desperate and will be going to the wall next week.

Nice one - its always great proving people who make these "inside" claims wrong. Just goes to prove not to listen to certain people on this forum.

As someone who's consistently said Cox won't go in Jan, I'm inclined to agree, but I'm not going to join in until 5.01pm tomorrow for fear of jinxing it and provoking a late bid from Man City

Surely we'd only sell on deadline day if we had something decent lined up - that would be common sense right?

Cox will go sooner rather than later - as bad it'll be in the short term, at the end of the proverbial day - strikers come and go.

If Cox goes we will struggle to stay up.......whatever cash we get.

I reckon he will be gone in the Summer....Wilson can ship out the Malpas disasters and we start again.

More to the point, where the heck has JPC gone? Wilson crackdown on youth team leaks?

We had this debate on the way to Oldham yesterday saying that ok we may get 750K for say Cox but MOST of the time it is paid in instalments so a manager would never see 750K for transfers or even a portion really unless a fee was paid in full which is unlikely unless a Premier League club came in. Cox will most definately go in the Summer I feel unless we get some decent signings in... Cos afterall said he wants to stay etc and wanted a new contract but then for some bizarre reason turned a new one down? I can see Sheff Utd coming in tomorrow though after losing Beattie.

but it works both ways. If we get £750k for him which is paid in installments then who ever we buy as a replacement we also pay for in installments

I dont think cox will go untill at least the end of next season. He still needs to prove himself consistantly in this league if he is successful next season he most probably will be leaving us :(

I think he will give it a go with wilson then next january see where we stand 

I think Cox has proved himself already. Loads of goals in a dogshit side with very little service. Quality goals alongside the tap ins. He's also second in our assist list. If he can sort out his little miss pissy knickers act then he's a low Prem / high Championship striker.
If he goes now then it doesn't look good. If I was him I'd be looking for the door marked exit at the earliest opportunity.

Where did it say about turning down a new deal?

woohoo Cox stays!

Good news indeed...I'd like to see him break the post war record of 26 league goals scord in a season, jointly held by Bill Stephens, Bob Edwards and Peter Eastoe.

I did fear a last minute big money deal especially after the Walsall wondergoal.

Well done board, credit where its due, we are going to hold onto a decent young player for a whole season!

The sacking of Malpas did seem to unsettle him a bit. I can only see him going from strength to strength from here.

Where is TCP?
He started this bollocks about Cox going in January after getting the inside info from the youth team, but not that many posts from him since.

Again where have you gone?

As its safe to say now this leeds rumour was infact started by mcgovern who when pissed bet peacock a large amount the transfer was happening

JCP isn't as prolific as he used to be during the Malpas era. He got team news right a fair bit - but he was insisting Cox was gone during this window. Shame on you JCP.

TCP hasnt posted much since Malpas left. And you've never seen them in a room together have you?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm - :D

Not a room as such but the North Stand...

Ah, that was just him running from one side of the stand to the other. 

Actually IIRC Reg did, been swearing blind he's definitely off in Jan since around Oct/Nov. And I don't think Reg is getting his info from the youth team, so it's had more currency than just JPC.

Reg has been talking nonsense for a little while now, I reckon he could be turning a bit senile.

Bit harsh, Reg's output has been as per - 80% wisdom and 25% bollocks. He's kind of a TEF in negative.

Oh, and 10% old railway facts you never knew you wanted to know :)

But I reckon he's still way ahead of most of us, at least on the old railway stuff and probably on the wisdom too. Maybe it's just his bollocks have got more conspicuous?

Profundity becomes you, pauld!  :nod:

Interesting point, but I'm siding with senility.

Railway siding?

Not sure, I've lost track.

I've lost my train of thought after reading this thread

That is rail-y bad Colin.

Cox is mint isn't he.

Best Town striker since Fjortoft?

When he does eventually go he could potentially beat the £1.5m we got for Kevin Horlock.

What I would quite like to happen then is that we buy someone, anyone, for £801k, just to wipe Beauchump out of our record book.

 Cox is without doubt a decent striker, but for me SSP was better.

 

He has done nothing since he left us, Cox is younger has a lot more potential, I'm afraid I have to disagree.

Interesting. Cox is technically more gifted but Parkin's 68 goals in 3 seasons probably edges it in his favour for me. I really rate Cox but really, he doesn't even have a song ;)

For the record I'm not very interested in how many goals a player scores after he's left Swindon.

Sam Parkin was more of a man who could carry a team.

Maybe we should buy him for £801,000?*

*so long as Luton then offer £799,000 for Yinka Casal.

I'd liked to have seen them both playing together, but sadly Parkin seems to have been a Swindon hit only, a bit like Maskell.  I'd rate Cox as being the better of the two as a striker, he's got a little more that would cut it against a better level of defender I think.  Parkin seemed designed for this level.

 SSP was very unlucky in his move to Ipswich...on the surface it looked an ideal sort of move...but he was undone by four things.

His predecessor was Darren Bent.
All his early goals scored were away from home.
He got a serious injury.
He moved to Luton at just the wrong time

Did you know?
He had the option to move to either Ipswich or Watford and the club/SSP chose Ipswich.
If he had taken the alternative move to Watford who were promoted that season we would have got double bubble on his transfer.... well there you go, not a lot of people know that I'm sure.

It was common knowledge at the time that SSP had a choice of Ipswich or Watford.  You could see why he chose Ipswich, but Watford may have been better....certainly Darius Henderson did all right out of it and he's not as good as SSP.

Simon Cox stated on Big League Weekend 2 tonight (where he was guest host with Cotterill) that he hopes to play at the highest level and if a club came in from the Championship that he would take it.... assuming the clubs agree a fee etc. He doesn't feel he is a Premier League striker YET though. Thats basically saying to a club then "Come get me in the Summer" which I think we all expected anyway.....

  He had a song going at leicester.

Well he has scored the best goal ever seen at the County Ground, so in my mind that means he is good enough to play in the EPL, if he really wants to.

You would have thought he'd wear a shirt that fitted him ::)

But, I can't blame him for what he said, I think Cotterill was doing pretty well at trying to sell him in any case

didnt see this one coming, I'm heart broken.

Taken from todays sun newspaper:

Simon Cox may be a typical greedy striker on the pitch, but he has a heart of gold off it.  The Swindon hitman 21, revealed how charity work keeps his feet on the ground and said "It's important that, when you're as lucky as I am in life, you give something back.
"My girlfriend and I are raising funds for a hospital wing to be built in memory of our friend, Caroline Murphy, who died in a car crash.
"We don't make the same money as they do in the top league but we're still better off than a lot of people so it's important we do something".

People can say what they want about Coxy being ambitious but for me his attitude is spot on every game he gives 100%, every game he applauds the fans and he has great ability as well.  If the rest of our squad had given as much as him all season then we would be in a much better situation.  Liked the story above as well its nice to see a player trying to do some good with there money.

Great post.

EPL ?, 'If he really wants to' ? Good Grief.  You're talking crap about the goal as well, in my opinion. It may be the best goal you've ever seen, that's not the same thing.

Just watched his little interview on Big League Review. It's obvious he wants to play at a higher level, but he did say that he doesn't feel he's ready at the moment.

Whether that means he's aiming to go at the end of this season or next is anybodys guess.

He said he wasn't ready to play in the Premier League at the moment, but would be silly to turn down a move to a higher division if the 2 clubs agree something (Championship)

I think Cox is the beetter striker however to be honest fans will always like SSP more mainly due to his long term committment to Swindon. He always said he wanted to play in the Championship BUT with Swindon, where as Cox, I think we all know he is here short term then will move on to bigger and better things without us. Using us as a stepping stone unlike SSP who wanted to go up a step but with us.

Yeah, but with SSP we were never in a relegation scrap so he had half a chance.

Every player wants to play at a higher level. There's no loyalty in football.

i like cox and rate him highly.but i prefered parkin as he just got on with it.cox cheats.i'm surprised this hasn't been picked up on by others(maybe it's because he's our player?)
also player interviews mena absolutely nothing, and i take them with a pinch of salt.

You mean diving cheating?

I'm pretty sure I've seen it bought up on here a few times arriba. I remember reading a discussion about it anyway, and I can't imagine it have being on anywhere else.

must have missed it ben,or forgotten about it.just saw alot of it saturday from him.

If it wins us games I don't give a shit.

I would also concur that Cox is a cheating little fucker.

  Came up a lot after the Brighton game, he was diving and whinging all game.

Even so, if its for our team and he is banging in the goals then its fine.

But he's crap at it, very rarely gets him anywhere which make sit even more annoying. Even Sabin could win a dodgy penalty or two

That's a fair point, he's absolutely awful at diving. Unlike that Lansbury chap, seems to have learnt from the masters at Arsenal quite well.

he dives.and also he likes to kick a player deliberately,then go down as if he's been fouled.
an ever growing problem in the english game unfortunatley.tackling is no longer an art, but cheating and diving is.

Ahh. The old Sabin penalty gravy train. I've got a vague memory of Keith O'Halloran had a good run of converting them at the start of the 01/02 season. Before  one or the other got injured and the opposition worked out the patented sabin "running really fast and going flying" technique.

It was O'Halloran that got injured down at Dorchester (Bouremouth's ground was being redeveloped).  We could see the ambulance from the away end, and it didn't move for a long, long time...we knew it was serious, shame that O'Halloran seemed like a decent player.

Yeah. I was at that game (I used to go quite often don't you know.)

I didn't...but now I do.

Haha, Eric Sabin.

I remember him scoring a header at Chesterfield away, on a Tuesday night.
I used to also go alot. :(.

I didn't know that...but now I do.  I was at that game too, 4-2 was it?

We won 4-1, right at the start of the season, Danny Invincibile got a brace as well I think.

I think it was 4.2, the second game of a season.
I think it put us top of the league if i'm correct.

That's my memory.  How did we go top with that team...even for a night? :D :D :D

I really dont think there is a single pro player that wouldn't dive if he thought he was going to get a pen.A sad indictment of today's game maybe.Its just that some are worse than others.

I was there too - horrible injury, think he went back to Ireland after never recovering and played semi-pro.  Looked like a tidy player (mind you, so would Shaun Close in that team!)

Coxys header - woeful..

Just read that Cox broke his leg when he was 19, didn't know that.