Thetownend.com

I was going to put this in the matchday thread but thought it worth a thread to get us through the tedium of a Wednesday.

Given our good start to the season, Power talking about us potentially breaking even and some very good performances from the team and a number of individuals this season is anyone concerned about a mass cull in January? For me, we have a number of players who I think will be on the radar of Championship/Premiership clubs. Of course if we are fighting for promotion in January, you would hope our best players would stay and help us to promotion.

Fods - Amazed nobody has come in for him already. Consistently solid, rarely makes a mistake and has proved good with the ball at feet. Guessing his size might put some clubs off.

Byrne - Has been our player of the season so far at Attacking Wing Back. Goals, assists and creates havoc. Surely good enough to play in the Championship on current form?

N. Thompson - We really missed him against Colchester and Rochdale and he improves season by season. Has signed a new contract but money talks.

Kasim - Immense in midfield. Calm, composed, good at set pieces.

Luongo - A class act. Surely is destined to play higher up the leagues

Smith - Control of an elephant sometimes but scores goals. Is league 1 his level?

The thing about our team is their age. They are all teenagers or low twenties, ideal age for clubs looking for talent. Peterborough have reaped the benefits of this before, so hopefully if anyone does get sold, we get a handsome fee for them and are replaced adequately.

Unless you are bankrolled by a rich owner then every club at this level is a selling club.  Hopefully the money we got for Louis will mean we don't have to sell someone in January but if we do then that's just business at this level.

Wes needs to move on for his own sake, too good for this level and has been for a while.

Obika could be added to that although we've only just signed him, and Gladwin will get there although he probably isn't yet.

Basically, anyone who isn't on loan is saleable with the clear and unfortunate exception of Harley and Ward!

Read somewhere we have an option on Byrne's contract for an extra season. Maybe it involves a pay rise and we're waiting till the last moment to save a few pennies before taking that up?

Losing any of the players listed wouldn't be ideal, but Power has shown an uncanny ability to unearth talent from various places when the need arises. Whether we'd actually make much money on them is another matter, they probably all have fairly sizeable sell-on clauses from previous clubs. Thompson being an exception of course.

Haven't you got a quiz, lurking in your inbox?

I'd rather just enjoy a decent win until Saturday, rather than worry too much about Jan....having said that I did meet a  bird called Jan, earlier in the year, very nice, but her maiden name seemed to be Piranha, the gangster bros put me right off

According to Power we are breaking even so unless he decides he wants to rake some of his money back quickly then there's no need to start selling. The longer we hold onto them, then more we'll likely get for them eventually. He'd know that. Saying that though we may lose one or two to help balance the books or because a great offer comes in.

That, and I don't see the point in looking for the negatives in the fact that we have some good players.

As they're all clearly friends I'd hope they'd be more than happy to stay for the remainder of the season just to see where it goes so they might all be after the sort of deal Louis has got.

But I can imagine our attendances picking up in the new year if we're still in the promotion race, which will help with funds.

Who knows, we can always put on music festivals... that worked great last time.

It would be great to see some numbers from the 6/8 game ticket packages.

Quiz day is Friday, you know that Reginald!


Not looking for negatives at all Flash, just to get a bit of discussion going.

There are way more positives than negatives at STFC at the moment and long may it continue.

I really really really want Gladwin to come good. I reckon there is a class footballer in him.


That's a good point, you can see from Twitter that there is a close bond off the pitch between the players and they obviously enjoy playing for a with each other.

I hope the attendances and atmosphere pick up at home, that's a negative for me at the moment but Preston and Bristol City should see lots of people coming.

The age of the players basically makes nearly all of the starting XI an asset (bar the loan players)

Even Williams could command a fee given his start to the season!

Just wishful thinking on my part...

There was a rumour doing the rounds last night on twitter of Luongo off to wet spam in January and loaned back for rest of season.

Whether there was any truth in that have no idea

I'm not sure Tans tweeting something counts as a rumour doing the rounds.

Sounds too plausible to be a Tanswell rumour.

He also put RIP Boy George recently on social media!!

Nah weren't tans, if he told me today was Wednesday I would have to check a calendar.
Not sure if originated from a local based hammers fn but he was certainly in on the convo.
Sam was asked by town fans if he had heard anything too

https://mobile.twitter.com/thomasrestell/status/527194805521379330

It's where the rumour came from, not exactly a reliable source is it.

:D

That was in response to seeing him nearly die whilst performing on tv the other night

Saw that. I was squirming with embarrassment he was so poor.

Not that I thought he was much good in his pomp

Oh right!! I thought you were trying to start a celebrity death rumour! :)

Foderingham is out of contract in the summer and has fuck all intention of signing a new contract and clubs aren't going to pay a fee for him when they can get him for nothing in the summer.

Byrne is an interesting one.  He has shown himself to be a superb wing back but how many clubs play with 3 at the back?  As a full back he has pretty much in the past shown himself to be a liability.  Could he play as a right winger in the championship?

The same applies to Kasim.

If he goes to A championship side it is unlikely they would make him the pivotal player he is with us - thus negating his playing value to a club.

I'd like to think that those players would sign new contracts in the knowledge we would let them go in the summer if we don't get promoted and thereby getting us a fee

Where I think Power has been clever is that he has signed a players and adopted a system in tune with the current vogue for tactical flexibility.

For example Wes fills a Sweeper Keeper role, midfielders who can play within a diamond e.g. Yasser as a holding midfielder, Mass and Louis as players who can burst through the lines going past players and Byrne as a genuine wing back.

Where we will struggle is to get Premier League teams to splash out on players from League 1. They seem to want to see players prove themselves in the Championship and most of our big sales now are to Championship clubs. If we got to that level those £1m players could be worth 2 or 3 times that if they prove themselves.

Good point, I think most of us knew Austin could make it, but it took another 2 years at a champ team to prove it. Of our current team 3 or 4 are of that standard, and the decision would be  to jump up a level or stick with us and do an early 90's job to get there.

What happened to that Pierre Chang fellow? I remember him repeatedly berating Byrne last season for being a 'joke player' and a waste of £200,000 (although, I think even those of us that rated him back then probably questioned whether we'd recoup all of that money at a later date).

It's pretty clear to everyone now that Lee Power can spot a talent, but I also think a major factor in the rise of saleable assets under him is the system we play, which allows the players to be seen in the best light.

There's often a sense in football that style that's easy-on-the-eye is almost like a sort of superfluous luxury, compared to a more pragmatic one purely designed to deliver results, but for a club which needs to sell players to ensure self-sufficiency, I wonder if it doesn't also makes good business sense, in that the whole, beautiful machinery of the team in operation seems to act as a sort of glittering show-room, allowing the players to show off the best of their abilities, in a way a more pragmatic style perhaps would not.

Where did that 200k figure for Byrne come from? I always thought he came on a free at the end of his Spurs contract.

We paid a six figure fee for him, that much was publicised at the time.

Must have missed that.

Probably hanging out with Kenneth McEvoy

Talking of ex-regular TEF people, what happened to Oxford Fan?

Interestingly his last post flagged up that his latest gf had DD jugs...maybe that, the grind of pedagogy and Oxford being shit, has caused him to move on.

dont think we'd get much for Thompson N.

Get off the mushrooms Adje, every team needs a focal point, he's ours I think.

average player,we go over the top because he's come through the ranks.just my opinion of course,not saying he's shit or anything

I can't imagine any Championship team coming in for him soon. If he can keep developing and keep performing over the course of a couple of seasons then maybe, but I'm with adje on this one.

so what makes Louis better than Nathan

Midfielders are an easier prospect to take on than defenders, and more likely to make some cash, particularly with our current system.

He's 19 years old, and playing in one of the strongest central midfields in the division. Nathan is about to turn 24 and is playing in a position that he only switched to a couple of months ago, in a defence that isn't exactly watertight.

One of the Sunday bullshits saying Wolves after Smith for £600k

Fuck me, they've already got 9,000,000 fucking strikers, how many more do they need?

Power wouldn't sell for that. If he got the money he did for Louis then I don't think he'll let Smith go for less than a cool mill.

8,999,999 and Leon Clarke

His age.

Ha Paul! our focal point? more so than Kass,Mass and Byrne?

Ok talisman, wrong wording. You always have to have someone, and sometimes they aren't the best player, or even near it.

love you mate

Lee Peacock was adored by the majority as a "talisman" and he was (...and I choose my words carefully...) fucking useless.

Don't be bad mouthing Sir Lee !!!

He had an ace coat

And sat with us for the JPT at Wembley :)