Thetownend.com

We offered that Johnson fella 3k a week the other day before he signed for Walsall…

Plus we offered Harry Smith a deal as well.

Out of interest how do you know Town offered Smith a deal. And if correct what were the conditions of the deal.?
Conditions could have been for 12 months and 2k a week.

Second hand info but came for the gaffer, supposedly.

Dunno exactly what Smith was offered: whether it had got that far. We were definitely interested and trying to get a deal done.
Johnson was all but done and was expected to be announced on the Wednesday with the kit launch.

Town have really gone down the pecking order if players are choosing Oldham, Sutton and Saddlers over us.  :badmood: 

To an extent, yes

…but it’s all relative. 95% of the time the players will sign for whoever offers them the most money.
So just because a club offers more than us doesn’t by default mean we can’t compete.

If Walsall rate player x higher than us they might offer him a better deal and he’ll sign with them. Certain clubs may have more cap space in their budget because they have less players so can offer better wages.
Some clubs might have different philosophy on signings. Some clubs might go for less players on better wages and others might go for the squad game and sign more players on lower wages & then hope when injuries, suspensions, fixture congestion, loss of form kick in they are better off for having a bigger squad.

Unless two clubs are offering a player exactly the same deal - it’s not always a case of us being over looked or other clubs ‘out spending us’

Fair and logically put.
But non league Oldham for heavans sake.

Non league is a professional league these days (it’s probably due a rebranding & probably should come under the EFL as League Three) only need to look at the teams coming up the last few seasons.

Alternatively being one of Oldham’s best player & top earner could very well be more lucrative than being a squad player on an average wage at Swindon. Depends how each club rates the player comparably to the rest of the squad / division

No idea on Oldhams finances.

Flint will be signing for Sheff Wed and if not them, a mid to low Champ level side. That's the attraction his agent has been pushing for him. Be very surprised if he signed for a League One side - Derby at a stretch but Sheff Wed are the club he wants to sign with after helping them get promoted.

That's a bit blurry that one Aud  :soapy tit wank:

And the main reason Raglan was leaving Cheltenham was to move closer to his Cheshire home. Joining us would have moved him even further away.

This has popped up round here, TBH nothing really to do with us and just shows that it happens to all clubs, but the absence of anyone (on the story or wider SM) trying to lay the blame on the club is quite jarring.

https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/23630265.carlisle-united-suffer-transfer-blow-paul-simpson-reveals/

Similar thing happened with Jonny Williams and Bradford/Gillingham.

And if Div is to be believed Danny Johnson - although I am not sure Johnson and Austin would be a good partnership - Austin and Harry Smith, perhaps.

Tom King (ex-Newport keeper) was mentioned earlier in this thread I believe - he's gone to Wolves to be third/fourth choice experienced keeper.

So these journeymen lower league keepers are going to be paid a king's ransom to be sitting on the bench for Premier league clubs. Clearly you cannot blame them given the money they are likely to be getting, but it's a bit of a swizz really for Premier league clubs to get around the 'home grown' rules by hoovering up goalkeepers that they are never going to be playing.

You could look at it 2 ways in that the standard of lower league keepers is likely to get worse, or that more opportunities will be available for goalkeepers that otherwise wouldn't have made it.

Like Vigs. Burnley are paying Man City £15m for their keeper James Trafford.

Not even covering up their money laundering now. £19m for a lad whos never played higher than league 1 is a joke

Who is money laundering, is there some sort of back door arrangement between Burnley and Citeh ala what is being alleged between Chelsea and the Saudi's?

I see he originally came through at Carlisle so hopefully some of the money may filter down from there, hadn't noticed that he was a knob in gob lad.

What with Scott Carson West Cumbria is becoming quote the breeding ground for these keepers.

Trafford has yet to concede a goal for the England Under 21s in their Euro Championships.

The fee does seem high but if he hits his potential and he becomes England's next international keeper for years ahead, he could probably go to a big club for £50 million+.

Alternatively our approach of having youth keepers on loan could become more of the norm

That will make Vigs 3rd in line surely, as they still have their keeper from last season who was auto 1st choice, surprised me he has gone to make up the numbers for ££$$, shows sadly some players think of the money rather than wanting to continue playing.

He’s spoken on podcasts etc about his family and tbh even for a 3rd choice keeper, the salary bump (plus a longer contract) at a Prem team will likely dwarf a League One/Two wage. He’s coming up to 30 now so this is probably an opportunity to earn some good cash for his family and future that is too good to turn down. There’s always the chance he can see out his contract there, training at top facilities and being part of a high quality squad and then drop back down to a championship/League One club afterwards.

I’d do it if I was in his shoes without a 2nd thought.

I was thinking about it earlier and trying to do some rudimentary maths to help weigh up what I would do in that situation. The figures I'm using are totally made up of course but, let's imagine he was on 2k per week at Orient, that's a salary of £104,000. A very generous salary, of course. Orient offer him 3k per week as a new contract to take his salary to £156,000. A generous offer and a nice pay-rise. London living isn't cheap of course so that should help pay the bills.

Burnley come in and at a very conservative estimate offer him 5k per week (it may be nearer 10k, i've no idea really), a salary of £260,000 (or £520,000 for 10 years) over 3 years. Yes he won't play any football, but he'll be in a much better position to set himself and his family up for a long time. Not forgetting he could probably get himself a very decent house in Burnley for about a year's salary :)

So he gets handsomely compensated for 3 years and will still be 32 at the end of it so has the opportunity to play more football after Burnley. I think it's a bit of a no-brainer really.

I think third choice keeper might be the best gig in football. It's basically a pathway into coaching, you get well paid, don't have to do all that much that's stressful and if you really get lucky, there might be an injury crisis and you're playing Chelsea. Plus the cachet of getting to call yourself a Premier League footballer.

Can entirely understand why he is doing it, but including Vigs they already have 4 keepers on their books before the guy rolls up from City, so possibly even 4th or 3th choice, especially as a couple of the others will also fit the homegrown trigger as well.

Take the 'grim up north' blinkers off for a minute,  ;) no footballer in their right mind would live in Burnley, but out into the Ribble Valley and you ain't getting noting for £260k, possibly 4x's that at least! Seriously though, its where the professional rich from Manchester live.

He may end up getting loaned out.

oh yeah, I mean the countryside up there is stunning so i'm pretty sure he'll be in a nice area. But what he'll be able to get for a million quid there, versus what he could get for the same money in London is chalk and cheese.

If i was 30 years old, have had a decent career in the EFL earning a couple of grand a week but playing every week, and then somebody came along and offered me £10k (it's probably more) on a 3 year contract to train hard and be guaranteed the best seat in the house and be in and around Premier league squads on a match day - with the knowledge that after 3 years I will likely be able to continue my EFL career on wind down due to me being a "Premier League" player?  I would take it..

Obviously completely makes sense from Vigs point of view, no judgement there.

I do think football in general needs to look at this though. Its the latest example of the top clubs essentially hoarding talent. Clubs lower down the pyramid will have on average poorer standard keepers now.

Then you get the very best clubs complain about the lack of competitiveness of PL2 and wanting to put their B teams in the football league.

The best thing the people at the top of football can do, in my opinion, is to limit the number of registered players a club can have, both senior and junior. It will never get implemented as its not in the top clubs interest.

But smaller squads at the top, means more talent for lower league teams. Its also means more players who develop later essentially will need to be bought from within football pyramid, increasing clubs finances further down the leagues. It will help all clubs develop training and development facilities. It will stop all youth players being hoovered up by the top clubs, more will play for their local teams. Its so simple.

Players moving on for money is something I’ve changed my mind on a lot over the past few years. Previously I’d look at players like Oscar moving to China or the recent Saudi expansions for big bucks with confusion but when looking at how short a players career is and on the reverse how cut throat football clubs are with cutting ties with players, you’d almost be foolish not to take those big money moves at that stage of your career. Life doesn’t stop when a player retires and setting up your future and family’s security with a couple big contracts can be done.

Wellens to Salford was also one I’ve come round on. The guy was offered probably way more money at a job much closer to home, regardless of how it turned out, it would have been silly to turn down.

In purely footballing reasons and what effects this has on a wider scale however like Riddick mentions is a different point.

I never had an issue with Wellens going. What stuck in the craw was him saying Lee Power was a great chairman!

I think that's a fair comment.

I never had a problem with him leaving given what was going on at the club, and moving closer to his family.

I think there would be very very few who would leave like that and then out the chairman honestly. I doubt any would. I also suspect as a manager, Power was a pretty good chairman. Just look at the talent he 'paid' for that season. We paid for Doyle to sign perm for 5 months for fucks sake, crazy. Power is a cunt, not backing him at all, but from a football point of view, he did everything Wellens wanted, until Power decided to cut it all off that summer.

This is exactly my feelings. He knew exactly what was going on he was mates with them all and that's what bothered me most, got the heads up and fucked off

To say that when he knew what was going on and what the fans felt, and he has doubled down since the implosion, shows a very strange lack of regard for the fans and the club in my opinion.

This. 

It just fuelled all the mongs that wouldn't hear a bad word against him. 

Back to JMT training with us. I’ve just read a tweet that Big Dunc never played him towards the end of the season even though he was fit. We may have benefitted as JMT wasn’t going to stick around with him in charge. Let’s hope we’ve already signed him up given the news today.

It would be classic us if he now ends up going back to FGR.....

As player manager

According to Wikipedia this guy can barely manage 25 games a season?

Was ever present in FGRs last 2 League Two campaigns including captaining them to the title (apps for first season there skewed by covid). Last season he did get injured at end of October last season for a few months and when he returned, Dunc went to a back 4 which JMT can't do so wasn't ever going to play.
Hopefully if he can be managed in same way Willo and Gladwin were for us, we'd be able to get the FGR captain stint out of him.

He’s left sided isn’t he? Interesting to see what that means for Clayton and FBT. Maybe FBT is back the left hand side after all.

Left footed but plays best (and most at FGR) in the centre of a 3 in a Cover style role and organising the back 3. Makes him an even better fit for us with how unorganized our defence was last year.

Jordan Alan Moore-Taylor - I wonder whether his parents were comic book fans!

Sebastian Revan.

Left back/centre back from Aston Villa on loan. 19 year old teammate of Shades for St Kitts and Nevis played 24 times for Hereford on loan last season.

DLC FC

Where’s this come from mate?

A loan LWB/LB seems the option I feel in the event Devine gets/keeps fit and can be our long term LWB going forward. Have plenty of cover there from Lavinier, Shade and FBT too.

A friend of an agent, the Villa forum says a loan offer from a L2 club has been accepted but don't name the club.

Would be a strange one on paper to be honest with us already having 3 left sided defenders and rumoured to be signing another on top, also doesn’t fit into the experienced category.

Although Devine is one of those 3 and who knows if he’ll last.

Yes, left back/LWB wouldnt be my first choice of position to be filling.

Nor mine however putting 2 & 2 together - is Devine one of the players Flynn has said can leave?

Could well be, he is currently a waste of a wage.

His blurb on the villa website suggests he can play LB/LWB or in midfield. Sounds like a younger version of Ellis!

Heard from someone very reliable that Moore-Taylor has had a lot of offers from National League and below. Yeovil have offered a 2 year deal. Swindon likely to offer a deal but only a year deal.

He wont be coming here then

I mean *most* one year deals usually have the ‘automatically extends if x number of games are played’ clause

I guess so.

Did he mention anything about budgets and wages in his interview yesterday?

Very difficult to judge based on one very early preseason game. He did okay, but he didn't stand out as much as FBT, Clayton or even Lavs playing that role.

Here's what Flynn had to say on bbc wilts -

https://twitter.com/BBCWiltsSport/status/1676720443233820674?s=20

Location probably factors in. Someone mentioned he lives fairly local?

Really hope Devine comes good this year as he was the absolute DBs at Orient, one of the biggest tests he could have had. Him being injured already in pre-season doesn't bode well though.

Weird isn't it football. Devine was really not rated at Walsall and Shade was. Despite playing about an hour in a year he is the one people want to see

If that’s the case, are we shopping in the bargain bin again, or have we spotted something others have not?

TBH in his 134 minutes playing for Swindon he has shown he has a lot of potential, Shade has been incredibly hit and miss.

Although I think there is a player in Shade somewhere if he can find his best position, Devine seems to be able to play in his position already despite being made of balsa wood.

He may well have other L2 offers too, this is just the words that the person used.
It may not necessarily be a case of bargain basement either. Non League clubs right now are chucking a lot of money around to bring EFL calibre players down to their level. EFL clubs may be cautious with JMT too due to his injury record.

Well, for one, Cooper was at Melksham last night watching FGR so would have thought if he was interested he’d have been at Supermarine. Also, presume he knows what we are offering and has decided to train with us. If the terms weren’t to his fancy I doubt he’d be bothering being at Swindon at all.

Yeovil are Swindon reserves now with Jordan Young, Jake Hyde, Frank Nouble, Jamie Sendles-White and Jordan Stevens all plying their trade there.

Do we know if it's a new injury and not just the tail end of his injury from Orient?

Flynn. Saying we have been quiet is due to various factors..

Comes down to 1 thing....we are skint.

Playing budget has been slashed.

We will be relying on Loans unless Flynn gets some players out...

You had us signing three players this week five days ago, and have linked five senior pros (Kerr, Raglan, Clare, Brown, Hunt) from higher levels to us here in the last few weeks. I totally get that things can and do change with individual transfers, but you seem to have shifted your view on our budget and financial position quite dramatically in the last couple of days. What's changed?

If this is true and not trolling (and I have no idea either way), is this a recent change? As a couple weeks back you were putting some fairly decent players in here that wouldn’t have come cheap.

Surely can’t be too skint if we were after some of those names you’ve previously mentioned

I’d also question why we are skint? Better income, surely, than 90% of League Two clubs from ticket sales and merchandise alone. Why are we the paupers? It doesn’t add up, unless we are simply being more prudent.

Not that I feel we are skint, but ticket sales and merchandise count for very little nowadays and pale into comparison when up against the clubs in this league with benevolent rich owners. FGR make barely a £1mn in that kind of revenue per seaosn but have an owner who puts in £2-£3mn each season that means they'll always compete. Same can be said of a lot of clubs in this league.
Also noticed a lot more recently that other clubs are overtaking us on the season ticket numbers such as Grimsby and Notts County.

Add to that Gills, Mansfield and Stockport who all have topped 5k ticket sales, Bradford always sell many more due to the ticket price being so low, Wimbledon are said to be over 4k already in season ticket sales as well as the 8k at Wrexham, some big home averages this coming season in L2.

But overall income from ticket sales means that us, averaging 9-10,000 - will see 5000 paying full price. Most of Those others hovering around 5000 STs won’t get an extra 5,000 POTD fans.

He didn't say we were skint, I think what he said was that some clubs where money is no object (We know who they are), are paying well over the odds and he isn't prepared to do that. There's a difference between wasting money and being skint. He said once the market speeds up things will calm down and reality will ensue.

True but out of the clubs who have sold 5k the only ones who probably wont get too many more OTD sales would be Mansfield and Grimsby, even Gills will have a couple of 1,000 on the days if they start well.

Cowleys previous posts suggest he doesn’t know what he’s fucking talking about, much like the rest of us.

Wrexham and Stockport are limited by their capacities so neither is going to get substantially more in ticket income than us - although that doesn’t matter to Wrexham.

Both teams averaged higher home gates than us last season though. We will get more fans in if we are doing well, but there is zero guarantee of that!

Yeah, but hardly that many more to produce substantially more income. I’d guess, too, our ticket prices were a bit more!

Not sure about ticket prices TBH mate but I think we are no longer one of the higher ones we are about middle of the park on season tickets and match day prices now.

Stockpot averaged a massive 69 more than us!

We must have a couple of hundred sponsors too  :)

Christ. Is £27 the norm now?

The other thing as well though is that Gills, Notts County, Wrexham, Stockport, Mansfield all have a very rich backer, partly why the season ticket sales are so high.

As they all feel the likelihood of a decent season with the extra funds and wages for new players so the fans are backing them with bums on seats, Grimsby too seem to think they will have a good season.

In all honesty there are very few fans of clubs that think their own teams will not do well, other than, for whatever reason, we seem to be collectively thinking that as a fanbase.

Partly that is down to previous owners and partly that we haven't made any significant signings so far.

Of course that COULD change, but I am not sure it will change.

They did but its still more than us and they finished higher in the league and have a very rich owner.

I posted about some of the other clubs accounts a while back - in essence, the big ones in this Division all make (or find ways of reporting) about the same level of Revenue in a season as we do now - Bradford were a good example.  The difference is the appetite to run at a loss and "fund" that loss.  While Clem has loaned the business money to pay off debt, we have not had any appetite to run at any sort of significant loss, with the 500k being talked about as the current bridge to break even.  To that end, a Bradford or Wrexham can outspend us.

Any rumours in guy?

Nope. Nothing. Nada. Not a sausage.

Yes and then extent of how skint we are became apparent

Offers were reduced , we lost players.....

Loans may now be the only incomings

Things change....

You carry on believing we will sign marquee signings

You will be very disappointed this season...

We're Swindon fans, it's what we do.

I am in a perpetual state of disappointment when it comes to all things STFC related!

My only ITK prediction is Cowley38 is full of shit.

I know what you mean.  I have massively lowered by expectations which can be a bonus when something decent actually happens

Exactly that! expect nothing then anything is a bonus!

Its been reported that Mansfield have sold 4000 ST's so far, interesting to know how some of the other so called bigger clubs are faring, last season we was consistently at or near the top most weeks on home attendance and away support, you wonder with the likes of Gills and Wrexham throwing money about if their crowds will match those ambitions.

The club reinforced that we’ll have a competitive budget, early business and experienced signings so I can’t see us being skint.

Although whether the timing of those comments coinciding with the ST renewal window were purely coincidental or not can be left up to the cynic inside yourself.

On a serious note, my expectations for this upcoming season are as rock bottom as they’ve ever been. Of course the aim should be challenging for automatic promotion but at the minute I’ve got us down in the 11th-16th bracket so would take a pretty big car crash of a season to be further disappointed.

5,200 season tickets sold so far for them, they have capped it at a maximum of 6,000 season tickets.

I was bored so I tallied up Cowley38's predictions. Here's what I found.

Things he's got wrong:



This one is ace, after England drew with Scotland in the World Cup... remind me how we did again? :D


Also he does not like Scott Twine one bit :D






Things he got right:

In a northern centred league and more away fans.

To be fair, most of those are shit opinions rather than predictions.

Mansfield only produce the basic accounts that Power used to for STFC and are part of an interwoven group, so getting any type of understanding of their finances is impossible.  They appear to run at 250k loss a year, but that could be under or over reported depending on how they move money between connected companies.

Gillingham make less money than we do, by a margin.  They ran at a loss of nearly 1m in 2021/22.  They did however have a massive revaluation of their property, which made their accounts look rather rosey (which I presume was ahead of the takeover deal - which was "lucky").

The game last night showed we currently have a squad of players that are currently reasonably set for league 2. If we were to add nobody, i'd guess a count of predictions would have us somewhere 16th-20th ish. The reality is now, that we probably need 5-6 players of decent quality in the spine of that side to make us properly competitive. We're now almost 4 weeks from the season kicking off and we haven't done nearly enough business to make a case for us to be promotion chasers/play-off chasers or also-rans. Who we bring in, to strengthen that spine will be crucial.

Yes you are sad, things change

The England stuff we were shite in the games leading  up to the comment.

Twine yes he signed for Burnley,  but has he been a regular?
I said he wasn't good enough fir a starting berth at that time........is he a starting player?

Did anyone ever know where those Red Bull rumours came from?

I think most of us feel like that, however there are some of our fans who actively seem to vigorously knock one out over the idea it could all go tits up for some reason.

Agree with all of that. We still have the majority of the squad that contributed to one of our lowest ever finishes. New manager improvement or not, it’s a lot to ask them to improve enough to compete for promotion in what will be a much harder division, they’ll need those 5/6 quality players as you mentioned. All about what happens in the next few weeks before the season starts. The “ideal” plan would have been to get a few done early and then leave those real last touches of quality until late in the window where we know they’ll become available. Our business to date gives little confidence in that happening. If we’re waiting until after the season starts to get most of our business done and essentially sacrificing the first few games then it’s all a game of catch up.

Hoping I’m proved very wrong and we’ll get some quality come in over the next couple weeks.

The one straw of optimism I'm clutching at is that Charlie signed on for another season, which he wouldn't have done if he didn't think we would be competitive this season... would he???

Ah but he doesn't know what the ITK posters know!

I don’t think people are giving much credence to the changes a competent manager can bring. The young ‘uns all have a first season under their belts and should improve. We’ve potentially got the top striker in the league, Hutton who has the most assists for a ‘defender’ in Europe. I’ll be disappointed if we aren’t sniffing around or in the POs.

I refer you to my previous post :D

Where my heads at too. There's a lot of potential in this squad that can be realised by potentially having a competent manager in Vs what we experienced under Lindsey and Morris last season.

I don’t mean to discount that, I’m just taking into account that the league is massively tougher next season. That sort of mentioned improvement could be enough to get this squad as it is challenging in a division of last seasons quality but to expect the level of improvement out of them to challenge in a harder division is a step unrealistic in my opinion.

Truth of the matter is there are probably 12 teams looking at the 4 promotion slots. 8 will be disappointed.

For some reason - can’t think what - I don’t think good old Luke Warm will cut it in L2 with Notts County.

Anyway, it should be a cracker of a season - if we’re amongst it!

I noted previously that it seems a little unfair to write off players based on last season considering the managers they were playing under, in many cases being played rarely, if ever, in positions which actually suited them.

TBH if you don't want disappointment the easy answer would be to go and support one of the big 6, something which I suspect would do wonders for the blood pressure of some of our fan base.

I know it's been done to death on here, but on paper it's a much tougher division with the 2 bigger sides coming up from non-league, as well as possibly stronger showings from sides like Donny, Walsall and Gillingham to add to the usual merry band of play-off chasers. I just don't think we can really throw our hat into any rings, until we see the calibre of signings. Flynn may well be a competent manager, but if we're bringing in Demetriou and Labadie and similar, then you'd struggle to make a case for a promotion chasing side.

If Flynn is able to get a better tune out of the players we had last season and add some additional quality, I think play-offs wouldn't be unthinkable. If Cain, Clayton, Wakeling, Khan, Hutton, Lavinier and FBT etc can kick on from last season, we could be in for a good season. Maybe we'll see the lesser spotted Aguiar showing some of that form in our win at home to Walsall. I think I saw that Cain looked quite good in the number 10 role last night, if that's the case it sounds like Flynn is already working well on the training pitch to get more out of what we have.   

Agree it's unrealistic and don't expect that from this squad in isolation as-is, but if 3-5 first team quality and experienced additions come in to create a much more balanced squad to provide the current players a better platform to realise their potential, that combined with a competent manager means an improved season is possible. Emphasis on the possible.

In fairness to those expressing concern, even for STFC the thought of going into a season in Division 4 and worrying about whether or not we are Play Off contenders is a fucking dire state to be in.

Who is the lad in the second photo? Young lad with brown hair. https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2023/july/gallery-images-from-our-pre-season-encounter-with-supermarine/

Looks quite similar to the chap I saw in the picture of one of our supposed new signings the other day. Is it Harvey Fox? My brothers source still hasn’t spilled the name.

More than once you said he wouldn't be first choice at league one level = clearly bollocks

Just saw Rob Angus in Millets. Think we are downgrading to tents.
--------
From what we've done since the beginning of last season we seem to have reduced our wage structure a fair bit.

I don't think we can attract established proven players any more because of it.

may be proven wrong but It fits with the 500k cost reduction narrative in the AB minutes

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/teams/first-team/defender/harvey-fox/

Not sure if that's the same person, he's straightened his hair if so...

You can accept that for a couple years whilst rebuilding but that absolutely cannot be acceptable long term. There were understandable allowances and expectation drops when Clem first came in as so much needed sorting (and still does) so those sorts of things are understandable whilst firefighting. Where we are now though, it absolutely shouldn’t be acceptable if we can’t attract established, proven players in the basement division.

If that’s the policy, we are normalising life in this division. If we stand still, we’ll slip down and before you know it, the other end of the table comes into play. It’s not enough. The owner(s) need to move on if that’s the case.

I want saying it's policy, just an observational current state of play and guesswork as to why we can't seem to attract players.

To settle for mediocrity makes it so.

What I'm disappointed in is that, after the absolute whinge-a-thon that was the Morris reign, Flynn has abandoned his positivity after a working week in the job.

Even if it is true, the comms from the club are woeful. Confidence sapping and never going to shift a season ticket. There is plenty they can say without lying. This is just depressing.

Think this is aided by the fact Devine is a left back. That where he plays. Can probably do a job at LWB and the large majority for regular used football formations have one of those two positions in them.

Having been here for a year I still couldn’t tell you of Shade if a full back, wing back, winger, wide forward, #10 or centre forward. Think he appeared in all those positions for us last season. To me his attributes scream out winger but we don’t really play 442 anymore (not many teams do) so not sure where I’d slot him in, in 352 or 433

Not remotely true.

I think Shade has to play the Anderson role behind a forward and be utterly free to wander.  I still do not think he is any good though, regardless of where he is played.  An athlete who bullied his way through youth football seems the likely outcome of his career.  Love to be wrong though.

I'm with you, what I've seen so far he's no more than a lower league 2 player to come off the bench and have an impact in the last quarter of the game but hopefully Flynn will make me change my mind.

Definitely getting Ricky Shakes vibes from him.
However, as I’ve said previously about other players - more than happy to give him a clean slate under new management

Not a prediction - a fact.

Time will tell....

Let me know when those quality marquee signings arrive.....

We will see....

As for the budget. Don’t think it’s been slashed, don’t think it’s bottom end of L2.

However, when you look at our outgoing players. We haven’t freed up alot of cap space have we?
I imagine that’s the difference. Our budget is competitive but might be 85% accounted for.

Club x might have a lower budget in total but only 50% already accounted for and thus 50% to play with  in the off season.

50% of a smaller number can be a bigger number than 15% of a bigger number.

You keep believing that.....

The financial situation at STFC is anything but rosy......

I've but no idea if you're in the know or what your  saying is true or bullshit and looking for a reaction but by stipulating timescales which have passed you're opening yourself up to criticism unless you can be more open about the information you claim to have.

Well for Cowley's post of five days ago to be proved true, we'll be seeing 3 in and 4 out tomorrow, so admin's going to be busy. Get the drone on charge.

Don't believe I mentioned any timescales

I have jyst said time will tell wether we can afford any significant players....

Without reading back I'm pretty sure last week you mentioned that specific players would be signing this week.

And if you read back, I said things had changed.

Finances meant they could not sign.....

Cant afford to put it on charge, just seen Rob Angus buying a powerbank

Would finances stop the four going out? Surely if we were skint and could get four players off the books, we'd jump at the chance? Has the fax machine been put on eBay?

Opposite, we’ve accidentally left it on charge all pre season and thus have spent Raglan’s wages on the electricity bill. Hence why the northern boy who wanted to move closer to home turn us down to sign for a northern team closer to his home.

While I am joking, it's odd that football stadia do not make better use of Windmills and Solar Panels - the Town End would be a great place to take advantage of the wind tunnel effect.

So we’d agreed deals with these players?

…you’d think if our finances were as bad as rumoured and that information was accessible enough that a poster from the TEF knows about it - that the club/manager doing these negotiations would know, right?…and not agree deals we can’t afford?

You said this?

What’s stopping the 4 players leaving? We to skint to pay the electric for the fax machine to work?

Some other club wants to sign them.

You mean you didn’t know?
Pah, I knew weeks before Cowley, I just couldn’t say anything.

If we had far less players on the books then we do I would be worried.

It is a consequence of sdm handing out 3 and 3 year contracts to anybody last year, because arguably we would be better without a lot of what we do have under contract. If we had less and more players had been signed this summer, we could have the same number as we do now but feel better about it.

The positive from Flynns message yesterday (unless I imagined it) was he consider we ha e 15/16 core players. Which feels about right. And means he is trying to shift 3 or 4? So I still expect a lot to happen with 7 or 8 players coming in.

Get 3 or 4 experienced players in the spine of the team as he has mentioned. Then use your outstanding 4 loans to get real quality in.

We could be in a good spot then honestly.

Said before last week. Kit launch Wednesday obviously alot of our sponsors were there (and we have many) and Flynn said a few things that contradict what is being said here…

…week is a long time in football though.

Maybe misplaced faith but I’d like to think Flynn knows a bit more about our budget that most but stranger things have happened.

You're bloody right though. How many stadia have solar panels all over those huge roofs? And turbines powering their floodlights? Even Dale Vince doesn't seem to have caught onto that one has he? One for the next Trust meeting please Jan!

Feels like doom and gloom already and we havent even kicked off the new season yet :suicide:

I thought that this was an interesting non-wrist-slitting perspective:

https://twitter.com/Ryan_Real_EFL/status/1676999557341642764

"Not far behind loads of teams at an early stage still. Don't forget you've booted Sandro and Morris.

So it's a completely fresh start.

Most of the deals that will have happened with other teams, will have been in the works since March/April.

If you wanted speed could have kept Sandro and gone for the targets he was working on👀.... No didn't think so.

Flynn has come in, assessed the squad and highlighted targets now he's having conversations seeing who is available who wants what. It's not always black and white. It's sometimes circumstances.... sometimes a player who looks perfect from the outside may ask for massive wages .... Sometimes they don't want to move... and fans go why didn't you go for him.

You're going for experience too remember.... These guys often have families, kids, lives that they need to think about. It's easy to sign an 19 year old with just a suitcase.  Not like FIFA or football manager when it's just wage and fee. Often they have to relocate, uproot schools, take kids from their friends... it's not that easy.

It'll come together and things are moving. If the start of the season was tomorrow I'd understand... It's not you've got time you've got a guy who the club trusts making the decisions with a decent budget.

Don't panic!"

I wonder if it's because stadia generally use a lot of energy for a short period and have very low requirements through the rest of the week. You'd need a battery farm as well as the generator...

I'm no expert, but doesn't that mean they could sell back what they generated to the power company?

I just might be the genius that solves the club's profitability issues, and gets all the Just Stop Oil crowd in as season ticket holders. And all the FGR fans. Oh, hang on...

We could call it the Lee Power farm…

In an alternate world, Lee Power makes a different career choice and becomes a highly successful DOF.

As a Chairman/Owner, however, he's up there in the all-time Hall of Shame.

only if you mentioned it first... :D


we had some solar discussions back in february. any new stand should have it imo

Depending on the pitch of the roof facing East may reduce the yield of energy by 15/20% which maybe a factor.

Please stfc, sign someone for the sake of this thread! Look how off topic we have gone.

Was thinking the same a cpl of hours ago.

80% of something is better than 25% of nothing

Have we actually signed anybody new yet?

Bollocks and football, for example.

In terms of turbines getting consent for anything of any significant size and thus use would be a total nightmare to get planning permission for, in terms of panels I suspect its something to do with stadia roof's being comparatively flimsy not designed to add weight on top of them, being structurally designed to resist sheer rather than hold anything beyond their own weight.

I've got a mate who is heavily involved in football (And other) stadia planning, I ask him when I see him, if I remember!

Indeed, anyway I'm off over to the Oxford forum to set up an account called Stratton38 and see if they believe that I know more about what's going on at their club than the club apparently do.

The CG would be great for wind turbines, considering the average wind speed is around 70mph.

Oh there is no doubt that with the tunnel it would be better than building them in the Irish Sea  :D ;) , however try getting permission to build a feck off turbine in an urban location, its hard enough getting consent for the bloody things in the countryside.

Especially on the Bank.

Wind turbines won't work if it's too windy & solar panels aren't very good when it get's too hot.
A urine recycling system might work. Would add a bit of veritas to "Same old Swindon, taking the piss...."

I think this is an important thing for fans to take into consideration when a player has chosen (or so and so club have beaten off X,Y,Z club for the signature of....) to sign for whoever. It doesn't always follow that the biggest club with the best support will automatically win that signature - in some cases it does of course. Terms of contract, relocation packages etc etc, loads of things that happen behind the scenes. I think the football manager analogy is pretty good, fans tend to really simplify these things and not look at these things holistically and without rose-tinted specs.

For example, I can't imagine there was a chance in hell we were the most lucrative option Jonny Williams had when he joined us originally - but we were reasonably located and clearly managed him very well fitness wise towards making the World Cup in Qatar that was always clearly his main aim.

When this was in the transfer rumours thread I was going to post this but then it disappeared.  Transfer rumours is a hypothetical thread right, so why do people get so angsty when somebody posts a negative rumour, i don't get it..  The whole point of a rumours thread is that you read it and then make your own mind up as to whether you believe it or not.

People getting themselves worked up because Cowley posts something that may or may not be true is like people getting angry with Trump for suggesting injecting bleach into yourself will cure Covid.  Make your own mind up, but getting angry at the person delivering the message on a forum is a bit weird.

I used to see it with Duke as well.  Maybe the Transfer rumours thread should be renamed to the Positive Transfer rumours only thread.

I think the recent pushback on Cowley has been to do with inconsistency more than negativity - he's gone from 3 in 4 out this week to all our signings will the loans in the space of three or four days. ITK stuff will always be difficult because things change and they won't always be right, and a lot of "ITKers" are in fact making shit up/hanging round in the car park. The reaction has always been the same and people still post it.

This.

I dont get berating people for supplying info that doesnt come true, its a transfer rumours thread (or the other one is :) )

There is far more bollocks posted than what Cowley is being accused of.

And its rumours, so of course its going to be inconsistant, some will hit some will miss the mark, also as nemo states things can move fast in football, one day things are ready to go and the next its all off again, look back to Theo Robinson and Danny Wilson.

For those who like Matchday Food!

Cowley is free to post any rumours.

I'm free to say he's full of shit.

You're free to moan about me saying he's full of shit.

In complete fairness, at a quick glance a lot of the things you pulled up for Cowley were more opinion based predictions rather than facts or rumours.

You can be itk whilst also having poor takes on things. Having some poor takes doesn’t mean you can’t genuinely have a source somewhere for stfc.

That’s not to say I’m siding with or claiming Cowley is itk, just being fair.

Where's Chang these days?  :hmmm:

Just pointing out it is a bit weird, if that constitutes as a moan in the Social Media world these days, then it wouldn't surprise me one bit..

Apologies.

*You're free to point out it's a bit weird

:bye:

Been saying this all season TBH.

Having listened to the post melksham interview I wonder who the player we lost out on bracelet they wanted to go further north was. Happened in last couple of days. Sounds like the sort of investigative work PV likes...

Charlie Raglan I believe.

He wanted to go further north and to a lower division. Not sure what that says about the appeal of playing for Swindon.

I see Coughlans comments on BBC about losing his newport players and how tough it is wages wise right now.

…that we aren’t in the north?

The wage gap is closing between L2 and the Confernece and in some cases the lower division can exceed L2.

I expect he has roots and family in the North but for me there is no contest in where to live, the green fields and downs of beautiful Wiltshire (and the surrounding area) vs the grim wet surrounds of the Greater Manchester urban suburbs.

Its no contest for me, Wiltshire would win 100 times out of 100.

We all seem to talk favourably about the nice parts in the area when using attraction as to why they would choose an area...but let's face it, no player is going to stay in the centre of Swindon, middle of Mansfield or middle of Oldham ....but they would most likely if they like country living, be happy to stay at Marlborough in Rural Wiltshire, Beautiful Edensor in the Peak District, Alderley Edge in Rural Cheshire, and Greenfield or Saddleworth in the Southern Pennines which is literally about twenty mins from the middle of Manchester or fifteen mins to Oldham. If city or metropolis life are what they enjoy then for Swindon footballers that becomes a bit more difficult without extra travel...they'd have to opt for living in say Bristol which isn't really a stones throw away like Manny is to Oldham or as conveniently close as Nottingham or Sheff is to Mansfield. Even Chesterfield becomes a great prospect if we're talking location and proximity to best of both for players.

Also if they really wanted to stay in the Norf and already lived in a leafy part of Leeds like Roundhay, they would still have only a forty five min commute to Oldham - granted a similar commute from Bristol to Swindon on a good day but without uprooting everyone.

I don't think it's particularly right to compare rural wiltshire with the outskirts of suburban Manny when Swindon itself is a bit of a shithole {and yes there are plenty worse in the country}. Let's compare a bit more like for like JJ, you tinker ;)

We all know there are plenty of gorgeous places to live all over the UK and for a Pro footy player, where money isn't so much of a struggle, then they have the fortune of being able to live somewhere rather nice and pleasant - even if the local shithole happens to be where they ply their trade, it doesn't mean they have to live right amongst it  :D

‘The wage gap is closing between L2 and the Confernece and in some cases the lower division can exceed L2.’

So lemme guess this right. A player is prepared to drop a division (maybe two) because of more money? Rather than a contract with a higher division club who are likely to be contenders for promotion. Now I realise before some clever arse starts a bigger picture debate on the minutiae of such shenanigans but I’d give more truck to a player coming here for the potential and his future career than one just looking for an enhanced payday.

There are plenty of factors that don't just include money

Depends on career trajectory for me. If a player is 27 and realistically isn’t going to touch higher than League One then I can see the sense in them dropping down to a moneybags conference side if they’re offering stupid money.

Same with the Saudi expansion. If a premier league player is 26 and realistically isn’t going to get higher than maybe one season in European competition then they’d be silly to turn down a Saudi team offering a massive wage bump.

If it’s a up and coming player with their future uncapped infront of them then it’s different but to me if someone is willing to give you stupid money and you’re not likely to go much higher than where you are then I can’t blame you for taking it.

Imagine you’re a Swindon fan who is a professional player thats 28, you’ve experienced a promotion or 2 before , what’s an extra promotion worth for a team like Burton that you don’t care about Vs a high wage bump that could set your family up for a good few years

Sorry about that.

Jinx

Nah Batch, their name is Kaufman, it's above where their avatar would be. C'mon fella - keep up  ;)

Wrexham have supposedly bid 500k for Tshimanga who started up front against us last night for Posh.

Kane seemingly off to Bayern. Quite an interesting and exciting transfer if he goes for it.

Was prolific in the NL for Boreham Wood and Chesterfield, but only signed permanently for Posh in the summer. Suppose stranger things have happened.

I had literally put him into my FPL team thinking he'd stay at Spurs. Shows what the hell I know!

About bloody time

The fact a player of his quality hasnt won any trophies is a travesty

I begrudgingly picked a fantasy league team that's got Kane in it too. Might make him captain.

Last season I picked the worst team I could and called them Oxford United.


Agreed, although as much as I dislike them, I'd have preferred him to go to Real Madrid

Part of me thinks he wont want to go, never shown any real desire to leave Spurs and has always seemed happy.  Then again Bayern woudn't have kept coming back in with bids if they hadn't already tapped him and knew he fancied the move.

Good luck to him, guaranteed at least one trophy next season

If they can get it done today/tomorrow he likely wins a trophy on Saturday!

I imagine he’ll go there for a year or two. Collect some trophies and go back to Spurs for the last part of his career.

Still suspect he doesn't want to/won't leave Spurs not sure whether its entirely love of the club or a fear of leaving London, on that basis I had expected him to got to PSG if anywhere as he could basically commute to Paris from London if he wanted to. 

You've got to think they've sounded him out to avoid ending up with egg on their faces in public.

I thought they'd already tentatively agreed personal terms, hence the pressure Bayern could apply to Spurs.

I think it's a fantastic move for Kane and at the age of 30 it's probably his last opportunity of joining a big club and can see him scoring a hatful of goals there.

Sky now saying it's looking increasingly likely he will stay at Spurs.

Wanker in my opinion...

For not going?

If i was him inwould be off like a shot, can see him going for free end of the season though if he does stay

I wonder if he is thinking one more season and he can go to any club he wants in the premier league, rather than Levy refusing to sell to one.

I reckon he's after the all time PL goal scoring record.
Wouldn't be surprised if he signed a new contract.

The Bundesliga is a bit of a one horse race isn't it, albeit Bayern were lucky to win the title last season.

Lucky to win a one horse race?

You'd be really unlucky to lose one😀

Maybe one more season at Spurs then pop out to Saudi for a couple of seasons!

Nah the crayons would melt.

Well yeah, it's always possible to stumble just before the line and let one of the also rans in.

Man City did the opposite in their one horse race and rather than stumble just before the line, gave the also rans a big head start, just to make it challenging.

Alex Scott at Bristol City is off to Bournemouth for £25m. Incredible talent but mad that the market has got to that stage where a second tier player to a midtable at best Prem side is £25m! Might even cover Landsdown's losses for six months or so.

Not only can he then choose where he wants to go, but leaving for nothing next summer a good portion of the reported £80+ million transfer fee can be paid directly to Kane as a signing fee.

Yeah he must be struggling for money right enough :)

But flippancy aside, your totally right. Would be a real kick in the teeth to Levy should that happen.

That's the Bosman ruling for ya😀

Matej Kovar sold to Bayer Leverkusen - €9m

For staying at Spurs, yes 100%

Can't blame Kane weirdly, he will want that all time record and isn't far off it

Shearer is only fifth in the all time record, some way still to go for Harry.

:wotjump:

He will be happy with the PL one won't he. Only about 2 seasons and he will do it

Can’t see that reported anywhere yet, but if it’s indeed true…

WHAT. THE. FUCK?

By all accounts he did well on loan in the Czech league and got a winners' medal last season. Incredible redemption arc for the worst goalkeeper I've ever seen wear the shirt. Well done him for proving the doubters wrong.

I've no doubt that he's better than what we saw but that fee eclipses what we got for Luongo/Gladwin, Ausin and Cox combined.  He was comfortably the worst keeper in L1 that season yet he's gone for more than what the other 23 (1st choice) keepers would probably gather between them. 

We could have a keeper concede 0 goals in a season and struggle to break 7 figures for a transfer fee, crazy what being at a big club does to fees.  I'd probably not want him for free, I'm sure we've not spent 9m on players across my entire lifetime (43).

It’s bizarre isn’t it? He was absolutely, without question, abysmal for us. Easily the worst goalkeeper I’ve ever seen

One more year at Spurs and then do a Sol Campbell!

Like I say, I'm certain he's way better than what we saw but to be worth more than what starting L2 players in total are probably worth is absolue madness.  (Probably too far re. the valuation of L2 players but I'm making a point  :) )

9 million. jeez.. while the above is true, definitely had to be better than we saw.

but for us, useless

‘Power to the people’ something I suspect 99.9% of everyone on here agrees with? Though the state will always have primacy in that.

Kovar for me was a bit like a Shade type player in that he had the hard stuff - in his case, big enough and able to play the ball on the ground in the way that modern top flight teams want. His basics absolutely weren't good enough, and that was a huge problem at our level where frankly, you do quite a lot of actual goalkeeping. In theory at least, that stuff should be easier to improve than trying to make a great shot stopper into a sweeper keeper. Young players improve all the time though, and presumably he has!

Premier League goal scoring record - not to be sneezed at, true.

BUT...3 or 4 Bundesliga titles (maybe a Champions League medal)...and few German Cup medals for good measure.

PLUS a fantastic lifestyle in a beautiful part of the world for him and his family...Germany is a great country and Bavaria is amazing.

To me, it should be a total no brainer...

agree with many but he was a kid. swindon was his first taste of senior football and he had wellens, hunt and sheridan as manager in his 21 games with us in what was an awful season of football. senior goalkeepers were a mess in that season- let alone kovar so we should cut him a huge amount of slack. wrong player at the wrong time. playing in front of a decent back 4 in a successful team would have been interesting to see.

now aged 23, impressed at burton on loan, and with united. pre-season tour with usa many united fans were saying he should be challenging in the new no.1 as people were that impressed with his games.

Won't be the first young player to improve with age and experience. I guess being at a huge club with the best facilities and best staff will always help.

I don't think many people will disagree in the fact his loan spell with us was awful. I personally am not hugely surprised he's gone on to command a decent fee, you don't get to be third choice keeper at Man U if you don't have anything about you. Now is the time to see if he sinks or swim as a first choice (I'm assuming) keeper at a big club.

Tottenham accept the offer, Kane wants to go, give him permission to go to Munich for medical.

Gets to airport, they revole premission and try to change the deal.

How cuntish is that

Liverpool, who baulked at the transfer fee for Jude Bellingham have now bid 111 million for Brighton's Caicedo. Baffling - until the point made by Quagmire below. :)

In their defence. That was before their whole midfield fucked off to Saudi.

No, that is a fair point, well made.

…which not only depleted their midfield but also would have bought in a fair few quid extra to spend as well…

Spurs have now said that this was 'fake news'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66276899

I suspect that now a fee level has been agreed it may smoke Chelsea out to make a matching bid.

So, is it their defence or midfield??  :)

Although I'm in no way a Bayern fan, welcome to Munich, Harry!

Appreciate there is a difference in age, wages and current contract situation, but if anyone thinks that Caicedo is worth more than Harry Kane, I have a bridge to sell them! Absolutely mad market at the moment. Kane for £100m is a snip compared to some of the shite out there.

Thing is (and its pretty much what you have said) if Spurs want to recoup a penny on Kane they have to sell which is forcing their hand and making it totally a buyers market (I think its only c.£87m anyway), but the again City 'only' paid c.£60m for Haaland?,  in Caciedo he has only just signed a new long contract and is 21 so Brighton have no need to sell giving them the whip hand, noting somewhere the cash that Brighton have bought in through transfer fees in the last few years and its phenomenal, Brentford get most of the publicity but it really is Brighton aspiring clubs should be looking to ape.

Yeah the difference between 21 and 30 in value is enormous, a 21 year old Kane would be worth more money than most clubs.

Yes, absolutely wasn't comparing apples with apples. Just making a flippant point about the headline number. But 3 to 4 years of Kane getting likely 25+ goals makes this a good value transfer for Bayern IMO.

Caicedo now having second thoughts about joining Liverpool

I think Klopp is psychologically damaged goods at this point. He's cracked.

I suspect that he will end up at Chelsea and Kane will eventually still be at Spurs come the end of the window.

(I reserve the right to be proven entirely wrong in both cases, likely within the next 24 hours!  ;) :D )

I'd love Brighton to build a 'Chelsea Stand', paid for my all the overpriced dross they've flogged those mugs.

And they also appear to have successfully improved their managerial situation by using Chelsea also. 

Kane deal complete

Hope he plays today. Imagine the German FA or whoever ratifies these things will be keen to wave it through for the profile it will bring.

I retract my previous comment. He's going to Bayern after all...

Looks like Kane had taken the spurs way with him to Munich 😂

I was thinking this myself...how many German Super Cups have Bayern consistently won? Isn't it like every year since 2015?  :hmmm:

What if in Deutschland he became known as 'Der fluch von Kane' and Bayern didn't win any silverware this season...Gulp. Bild would have a field day  ???

bayern destroyed a world beating sadio mane last season. kane will do very well im sure- hes too good not to and one of the most consistent season on season goal scorers you will find

Bloody hell Brighton...

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3e5hmGWAAAllnD?format=jpg&name=small)

Caicedo was sold for more (£100m) than the Amex cost to build (£93m). Crikey!

Sky reporting the deal is worth £115m which is a £111.5m profit on the buying price.

Chelsea getting away with the FFP by spreading the cost of the transfer over a 10 year period apparently according to the BBC.

I think its £100m + £15m add on's, albeit I saw it reported that the £15m 'add on's' are pretty much a given in this case.

I thought the whole FFP long contract loophole had been closed? Edit - ah my mistake...  ::)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12406001/Premier-League-CLOSE-Financial-Fair-Play-loophole-Chelsea-accounting-rules-UEFA.html

Neymar to Al-Hilal, christ.

I can't help but think the Saudi teams are going to buy their way into the CL in the very near future, which is depressing as fuck but money talks.

Isn't Neymar getting paid over 2.5 million per week🤣

But where’s the kudos for any players playing there. It’s exhibition stuff with meaningless results.

Something like that.

To be fair, as shit as this feels, it's basically just what the Premier League has been doing to every other league for donkeys years. Just financed by even more awful people.

To be fair no more ridiculous than Israel playing in the Euros

But the PL is at least paid for, largely, by us mugs paying for Sky etc. Who is actually watching the Saudi league. Where’s the interest? Maybe it’ll morph into something more mainstream over time but even the PL is wearing a bit thin I reckon.

It was for a while, but not sure we can say that Man City, Chelsea, Newcastle etc. is Sky money, that's Petrochemical/Nation State plaything stuff. Even Blackburn was Jack Walker spending all his dosh, just a nicer, more 90s version.

Sports washing at nation level for sure. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who finds watching Man City tedious. That’ll spread throughout the PL eventually. I wish the so called big 6 had fucked off to the Super League.

James Chester training with Barrow and has been offered a deal

I see that, had some really bad injury issues recently, sounds a bit like when we signed Zeki Fryers, obviously classy if you keep him fit...but thats gonna be difficult.

I suppose their thought process is once they have the structure and players that revenue will start coming

I just can't see that happening. No one will ever care about these clubs. This is the Chinese Super League 2.0

Players will make some money but then it will burn out.

Dunno if its been sorted now but theyb were struggling to find any broadcaster to cough up to show it in the UK.

On a similar vein I note that the Saudi national team are playing two friendlies at St James Park, that hot bed of Saudi football support!

I think it will take off i really do

They are also taking academy coaches , directors of football over as well. 

Maybe it's already starting to through Middle Eastern interest? beIN sports, merch sales etc. Just because Brits/Europeans aren't watching, doesn't mean there's not a market.

I think the real objective is getting the world cup isn't it.

I suspect it could be more than that, this looks a bit like LiV - a way of making Saudi Arabia get into the sports that influence the world, then use that to enhance their own position in that world.

Exactly with 4OOm+ population in the Middle East, there is market there anyway and many of those nations bloody love their footy. Of course if they get granted access to the ECL then that just opens up exposure to an established European market. People will watch because the ''big names'' will be there and so on. Be like watching an exhibition league of Harlem Globetrotters A, B, C D, etc


I think it's likely. Although I think FIFA have ambitions of making a tournament possible in Antarctica first, before returning to the Oil rich badlands of the Middle East. They even state that the opening ceremony will be Directed by Emperor Pen Gwin ;)

Surely after Qatar there won’t be another one in the Middle East.

Possibly. As mentioned, the Middle East does have a continent sized population, Saudi makes up for about a tenth of it I think. I'm surprised that the Middle East has never officially become an ''eighth'' continent both politically and geographically. Especially with several already having pan-region borders like a few Eurasian and Arabian/Persian/Afro Asian{?} type ones. Although that would probably upset many of the men in suits who draw lines across a globe in order to keep us all in our rightful boxes  ::)

Sky Sports News understands Sevilla, Fiorentina and Club Brugge are all interested in taking Brighton midfielder Steven Alzate on loan.

Alzate has one year remaining on his Seagulls contract and spent last season on loan at Standard Liege.

A few people have been suggesting we go for Harrogates Luke Armstrong, I am guessing that the £500k wanted by 'Gate is a bit out of our reach!

https://the72.co.uk/2023/08/25/wrexham-mk-dons-must-pay-six-figure-fee-to-sign-27-year-old-striker-report-claims/

Wrexham look like signing Brandon Hanlan from Wycombe 38 goals in 228 games. Jeez, thought they’d aim higher than that.

They were frightened off by the £500k put on Luke Armstrongs head when they enquired last week.

Charlton looking to offload Payne.

Yet another one filed under “went pear shaped after Swindon.”

Would welcome him back but he wouldnt oust Kemp from that role currently.

I'd be more worried that he'd be a very good signing for a Wrexham/Gillingham/Colchester if they sell Tchamadeu and come back to haunt us.

A likely scenrario, especially Colchester as he still lives near Southend which is an easy commute, Gills isnt a bad trip from his home either TBH.

I remember watching an interview on YouTube with Jack. He fondly talked about being closer to his mum and her loving him only being around the corner. So yep I’ll think he’ll want to stay in London if possible. He obviously can commute from a London base now.

He absolutely loved playing for us though.
https://youtu.be/7yHvv_6vja0?si=VK3xIeiMkPcNt0AI

Interview here

Jack's an odd one for me, too good for L2 but was never a standout in L1.  Probably spend his career helping teams get-up.

Steven Benda to Fulham

A million quid plus apparently. Good keeper Benda, one of the best we've had in recent years. Kovar and the jurassic era aside we've had some pretty good keepers recently.

Good move for him, surprised t was only a £1m deal after Kovar went for £8m.

Wrexham have had a bid of £400k accepted for Brandon Hanlon from Wycombe.

Inflated fee? I would say hugely for a bang average player, or has been when I have seen him play.

Less than a 1 in 5 goals per game average 26 year old.

Wrexham said to be look at adding a 5th keeper to their books after Fosters retirement too. They currently have bid on 5 players in various positions.

£10k for every league goal he's ever scored.

I'd probably take £2.2m for Charlie, if they fancied sticking to that price level...

Crawley look set to sign Chesterfields 26 year centre back Laurence Maguire on loan after another injury to Conroy.

The CB has yet to make an appearance this season.

Should have kept him on that igh contract see

Massively uninspiring signing certainly that price!

The Wycombe fans dont seem bothered hes leaving either, many saying he blows hot and cold but has been playing as a lone striker in their formation when hes a number 10 role player.

Still I guess its cheaper than £500k for Luke Armstrong who has only scored 46 league goals in 170 games.

Ha, indeed.
Awful player. Cost us the play offs that season too imo…

Looks like Franchise are signing Armstrong too - £375,000. Which is strange as Wrexham supposedly offered more.

Can't help but think the Welsh club have made a bit of a hash of their transfer policy this season. It doesn't seem very joined up, nor have they 'done their business early.'

Seen plenty of signings that look duff on paper but turn out great & plenty that look great on paper but end up being crap

Different manager, different team, different formation, different style etc etc.

I know it’s early doors but I don’t think any of us were expecting Jake Young to smash the goals in as soon as he stepped foot on the pitch. When we signed him most tonight he’d be 4th choice…

I imagine whilst having the finances to sign players from 2 levels above is nice, it’s also a ball ache when trying to sort out any other deals as everyone will know you can offer the big money. Probably also a pain for wage budgets across the squad as the range will be so large and could cause upset.

Think they probably thought they could add a few to their squad and sail through the league (one of their strikers was talking pretty confidently about back to back promotions) and now the reality has hit, they’ll panic a bit and scatter gun the rest of the window/January in a pretty costly manner.

This is very true, altho 26 is quite long in the tooth to hit his high spot in his career, that said Doyle sparked with us aged 32.

As I have said many times previously its horses for courses, some clubs dont fit players and visa versa and some players dont fit a style.

So far we have got lucky with Young, long may it last.

Maybe the player wants to go to a 'proper' club like Franchise and not a joke club like Wrexham :D

Never did I think I would ever hear franchise being called a "proper club" :)

Hence the

(https://media3.giphy.com/media/qs6ev2pm8g9dS/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47x1kznf88dl0ec2sm7g2pllwvw4vu8ap6dzee1mkz&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)

 :D

Yes, I think a bit of a false sense of how their squad would fare in L2 for sure. Tozer for example looks miles off it, as Foster did.

Wrexham also linked to Lyle Taylor

I hope they dont sign him, he is too good for L2.

Doesn’t stop them still having a shite defence, though.

Well they are likely to be getting a better keeper than Foster soon. Wrexham have always been "we will score more goals than we concede" type of team under PP.

That only works when you have a good attack that can outscore the amount of goals scored against them, much more difficult in L2 than the Conference.

They were bang average against us, but then defensively we werent great shakes in that game either.

True but let's not forget the Breakspear factor. I suspect that Don Rogers ran over his cat 40 years ago and he's set about getting his revenge every time he refs us.

Oh the refereeing cost us for sure, but I think the refs this season are under a lot mor epressure so mistakes will happen, I just hope they even out over the season.

He’s 33 and hasn’t kicked a ball for over a year. I can’t imagine he’s got too many offers in all honesty.

If he is fit he would be quality though, but thats a big IF.

Great track record though with nearly 200 goals behind him at a goal every 2.5 games.

Who knows, I think the thing for any striker joining Wrexham is that unless they hit the ground absolutely sprinting they will get dropped the minute Mullins is fit again, which only looks like a few weeks off now.

Looking at Tylor's history he seems a bit of an awkward character so will his ego take it and will Wrexham want a dropped him knocking about?

Salah off this week, apparently.

I fucking hope not he's in my fantasy draft team  :crash: fucking Saudi's ruining our "English" game  :hmmm:

I don't think Liverpool will let him go this close to the window.

Thought experiment\question. How many does Salah score this season were he to make the surprise switch to the CG?

Much easier to get away from such a high price point player than it is to get there, would probably take 2 hits (3 transfers) to get up that high.  From Salah's price you can literally go to any other player you want in midfield and even taking hits to make the extra 1 or 2 transfers to spread the money around is OK if he's definitely gone and therefore not getting you any points in the week he leaves.

Cole Palmer off to Chelsea

had to Google him. I'm well behind on prem players these days

He played well against us in the FA Cup game 😀

fa cup? he must have been 12

He scored.

Who is Man City starting 11 vs Swindon?
Swindon Town

MANCHESTER CITY STARTING XI - Steffen; Walker, Dias, Ake, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Gundogan (C), De Bruyne, Palmer, Bernardo, Jesus.7 Jan 2022

19 maybe

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab5g_YG8mXw&pp=ygUaU3dpbmRvbiAxIG1hbiBjaXR5IDQgZ29hbHM%3D

it's me. ignore me. the shock of having to work after a few months feet up made me think he was at Chelsea going to City! Hence the 12 comment.

I remember now. He was bloody good and the only non full international in the city team iirc.

What I remember he was really quick and skilful.
Too much of the good life Batch over recent weeks😆

yeah. and 3+ years of working from home

You back in the office in your new job🤔

yup. 35-50 minute commute traffic dependant

I'll get used to it. I needed some time in an office again. 3 days would be ideal but can't do that with this job

That must be a shock to the system!

I watched that game in the bar I run, the owner agreed to let me put the sound on, given it was still covid restriction central if people wanted to leave to queue for a couple of hours in sub zero temperatures to get in elsewhere then so be it, we knew they wouldn't.

Anyway, as is often the case, the once in a blue moon (see a different thread and Man City folk lore) we were on TV, there was a tourist who was also a Swindon fan in the bar that night.  That's it really, we managed to see eachother later on and have a drink.

Was that in the Ski resort

It was, yeah.  Was a crazy time, literally people queuing for hours to get in bars.  Fortunately it did give us a very reasonable threat to people refusing to obey the rules layed down by the government, behave and keep your table or let the people waiting outside take your place and you go to the back of another queue.

Are you going back there in the winter or has that chapter closed

I've been here all summer too, will be heading home Sunday or Monday for 6 or 7 weeks.  I've been here since 2005, mostly winters obviously, it's actually my legal address since Brexit. 

I'd be in the same industry if I moved home, all my closest friends these days are still either in the same resort or settled close by, I really miss family and STFC every week but I watch every game online, I'm here for the long haul now.  Honestly I want to buy the bar I've been in all that time.

Nice one Tom hope it pans out well for you.

Thanks, it was only ever supposed to be 1 winter but a fractured vertebrae in April of that winter and missing the end made me want to go back for one more, unfinished business if you will.  Found my place in the world I guess.

As an aside we had over a foot of snow between Monday and Tuesday, even here that is not normal in August.

Fantasy draft is different though, only one person on the league can “own” a player. So I can only replace with free agent.

Apologies, I misread, I omitted the word 'draft' completely from my understanding of your sentence.  A group of us tried the draft system the first season it was introduced and none of us saw it through.  I'm very engaged with the main game so I sometimes forget the draft is there. 

Have you played it since conception or have you started this season?  I wanted it to be a fun alternative to begin with but for whatever reason never continued with it.

Interestingly there is an 'Anti FPL' community which uses the official points and values etc. whereby you have to get the worst score possible using a certain amount of budget with players actaully playing otherwise incurring a 'fine'. 

I only heard of this just before the start of this season and then forgot to find it.  I think it could be fun, Salah and Haaland on everyone's benches then loads of 4M defenders who will never return any points but play every minute.  Good idea.

Yep, I see Poch's traditional aspiration to work with a small squad continues to be fully respected and adopted by the top brass at Chelsea, do you think he is going to make it to Christmas?

Yes draft is very different. I joined my son's little league last year. I had always got really annoyed with him being invested in random strikers scoring or Chelsea keeping a clean sheet. Joined last year and am well and truly hooked. There are only 6 players so it's very competitive. We did the draft before the Kane will he won't he shenanigans for added tension. It's good fun.

Anti FPL sounds interesting. I was also thinking you  could put some "real" money in a league somehow and your investment increases as your players develop. But realised I really can't be bothered or am not clever enough to work it out :)

Wrexham paying £300k for Brandan Hanlan 🤣

Record of 1 in 3

1 ‘a’ in every 3 letters of his name

Not goals.

1 in 6 goals.

^

Peterborough have a bid of £250k turned down for AFC Wimbledon striker Ali Al-Hamadi, they are said to be looking at several L2 players.

Morecambe manager Derek Adams says he is close to signing 2 more players taking his Summer total to a whopping 16 new players!

MKD get a windfall from a 25% sell on clause for Sam Nombes sale from Exeter to Rotherham for £1m and look likely to spend most of that on Luke Armstrong from Harrogate.

If Harrogate lose Armstrong they must become one of the favourites for relegation especially after losing 8-0 at home to Blackburn last night, that must demoralize a squad.

Weren't they similar to us summer 21-22 in having about 2 players on the books at the start of the summer. Considering their ownership issues seem little further forward I would there is a lot of just making up the numbers within that 16?

I know Morecambe had an almost entire clear out of players in the Summer with relegation and players contracts not being renewed etc, not sure how many players they had but I think it was less than 10 from last season.

No idea how their new ownership is coming along but I do know they are still financially precarious, yes you would assume they just got in players who they could afford rather than players they actually wanted, certainly for the time being, and on short term deals too I would think.

The last thing I can find on it is this back in May.

https://www.beyondradio.co.uk/news/local-news/morecambe-fc-directors-call-for-urgent-sale-of-club-as-800k-loss-revealed/

Admiral Muskwe to Exeter

He's happiest by the sea.

In a mild (Alanis Morrisette) irony, Zimbabwe, the country of his birth, is landlocked. Perhaps that's why he had to leave?

That’s his insurance. 111

I have always wondered if the irony of there being no irony in that song was in fact a purposeful feat of irony.

Exeter, the river Exe and surrounding areas would be a nice place to settle down :pint:

The call of the ocean was too strong. No choice but to get out.

I believe she was going to call it ‘trivial things you don’t understand/mildly annoy you’ until the label suggested she pick something more pithy

Liverpool reject a £150m offer for Salah from Al-Ittihad.

Bang goes our chances of a loan then! :D

Liverpool are mad to not accept this. He’s 31 and they have signed numerous forwards already. They arent even in the Chmapions League this season

I suspect it will go through eventually, getting the most famous Muslim footballer in the world into their league would be the ultimate coup for the Saudi's and money is no issue for them.

£150m is quite a leap from the £52m they offered earlier in the summer   :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

By all means they should 100% take this but I hope they don't. Liverpool get so lucky with their transfer fees. Everyone will use it as evidence of net spend success like coutinhio to Barcelona.

Bradford City have completed the season-long loan signing of Aston Villa winger Chisom Afoka.

No way they can replace him though

🚨 Al-Ittihad are now prepared to pay £200m to sign Mohammed Salah from Liverpool

 :yikes:

Al-Ittihad will just keep offering more until Liverpool buckle. Everyone has a price tag eventually. It'll probably be somewhere near £275m by about 10pm tonight

Saudi window open until 7th or 20th depending on source. So they can keep plugging away.
Doesn't look as if UEFA or FIFA know for sure.

AFAIK the Pro League is 7th and below that is the 20th, no idea if the Saudi's can change that, wouldn't suprise me.

The funny thing will be when all these PIF owned Saudi clubs start loaning players to Newcastle in January!

Yep, was just thinking that Salah could end up on loan to Newcastle



Ahh yep, so it'll continue to rise no doubt.

RE: UEFA/FIFA...you could ask them or Blatter to play ''Pin the brown paper bag on Platini'' and they'd claim to not have an Infantino about it all. Very childish if you ask me  ;)

Someone reckons Wrexham are paying £475,000 for Armstrong plus £50k for getting promotion and on £6k pw wages.

Other than as a stand in for certain Marvel movies I'm not feeling the vibe over Armstrong.

Harrogate should laugh their way to the bank when & if cashing in.
Hopefully they'll get a chance to bring a replacement in if they do sell.

He's a decent player but coming off one massive outlier season in his overall career. Big Paynter to Leeds vibes for me -  except in that case all the money went to Billy (and fair play to him for landing that contract and probably setting himself for life). That said, anyone Wrexham want will triple in price and wage demands, it's just the risk of being publicly rich, so you can only really compare to what Wrexham would have paid for anyone else.

It's like being at school when the Posh kids had the latest expensive trainers etc!

Harrogate did slap on a £500k fee on his head this week, ridiculous for a bang average striker.

Umerah to Franchuse seeing as they’ve missed out on Armstrong?

The Salah thing just reminded me of Tomacco in The Simpsons.
‘We all agree that 150 million is an insult. The least we’ll accept is 150 BILLION!’

Man alive.

Speaking of squad depth. Gillingham who already have strikers Macauley Bonne, Oli Hawkins, Tom Nichols and Ashley Nadesean on their books, are now rumoured to have Lyle Taylor training with them.

That’s the gap between a club going for it (probably over the top though) and us right now. We could do with half of those.

Dan Gosling signs for Notts County

We are bringing a rusty spoon to a gunfight at this point.

Nah, its been reposesed

The rust could cause infection

https://forkedupart.com/soccer-player-spoon-retail/

We are signing him?

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: :clap:

Must be nice to be able to replace a squad injury so quickly and competently

We have the budget but it has to be the right player  :zzz:

Yea, they should be at home in a potential remake of Mean Machine..

Carlisle owners splashing the cash to sign Luke Armstrong from Harrogate on January 1st

Never seen the appeal in him myself but hes a big lump who scores goals and could do well up there, TBH he is close to what we need at times to change games, or a player of that build and style.

He has stated in the past he wont move south as he still lives in Newcastle which is an easy commute to Carlisle.

Wrexham in for Jonson Clarke-Harris AND Lee Gregory as Phil Parkinson wants to bolster his attacking options.

Admittedly they were as weak as us up front, for a promotion chasing team they have fuck all up front.

Those guys would be on a heck of a wage for L2.

The odd thing was they had Mullin & Fletcher on the bench, almost as if they thought they could beat us without trying too hard

Which turns out they did.

20 goals Notts County striker Macauley Langstaff on the verge of a £2m move to Coventry City.

Without Williams (if he does go to Swansea) and Langstaff they will plummet out of the play off places.

£2m for a League Two footballer! That's how you create a 'sustainable' club - have to invest in player development. In a way, Sandro was right... he just said the quiet bit out loud and overdid the balance.

Notts have spent a fortune, lost £1.7m in National League in 21/22. The £2m might make them profitable for a year I suppose.

Indeed it is, although I doubt we would have made an offer for Langstaff in the same position as he was 25 when he joined County, older than the "model" would have dictated towards.

He also cost them £50k plus add ons, I doubt we will sign any player for that sort of fee in the near future.

But yes it does prove that there is some good money to be made if the right players are signed from non league.

Several clubs from the Championship also looking at Jodi Jones from Notts County.

Gills make a bid of around £500k for Peterborough striker Jonson Clarke-Harris but face competition from Wrexham.

Saturdays opponents Colchester have signed Conor Wilkinson  just six months after signing a two-year deal with Motherwell. The 28-year-old is experienced at EFL level after spells with Gillingham, Leyton Orient and Walsall.

Lawrence Shankland at Hearts has been subject of a £900k bid from Wrexham but they face competition from Rangers and Celtic for the 18 goal striker.

Bloody hell. We arent getting out of this league anytime soon if other clubs are making bids for players like that

We should all be hoping County, Wrexham, Stockport and Gills go up really. Maybe Mansfield. No fairy tales please.

Which is why it was so short sighted of us not to get a deal done for Kemp in August, we could have sold him on for a few quid in a year or 2.

Absolutely.

Wrexham, Notts County, Stockport, Mansfield, FGR and Gillingham all have the bank roll to afford £500k+ transfer fees and have no need to actively sell just to stay afloat like most of the rest of us have to.

Couple of things around L2 last day or two

Crawley's loan keeper has moved to Notts Co
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67935913

Morecambe have also had their main striker recalled
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67914406

Donny have signed a loan midfielder from Spurs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67923504


Otherwise not a ton going on really.

Crawley replaced thier loan keeper with ex Millwall keeper Ryan Sandford on a short term deal.

Morecambe have their lanky striker Tom Bloxham recalled by Shrewsbury after scoring no goals in 19 games on loan.

Colchester lose loan striker Joe Taylor who goes back to Luton and is farmed out on loan again to Lincoln.

Winger Dion Pereira has left his loan at Sutton United going back at Luton.

Stockport sign midfielder Odin Bailey from Salford for an undiclosed fee.

Crewe Alexandra defender Connor O'Riordan set to sign for Blackburn for a fee of £500k+.

MKD sign tall wingback Kyran Lofthouse on loan from Barnsley.

AFCW sign defender Joe Lewis on a perm deal from Stockport where he has been on loan.

Saturdays opponents Crewe have signed midfielder Lewis Leigh from Preston.

Tomorrow is the last full day we can sign someone to be able to play sat. Clubs a joke

They have to be registered by 12pm friday to play saturday

But yes, utter shambles

We might have made signings already but for whatever reason not gone public yet.

He's signed five, he's waiting until Saturday 2pm to announce.

oink flap oink flap

 :D

The footballing powerhouse that is Carlisle United are in for Jake Young.

Dream on !!

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Salford have made a £200k+ bid for Falkirks 11 goal striker Callumn Morrison.

FGR sign midfielder Alex Gorrin from Oxford and Left Back Dominic Thompson (yes the same one that was here) on loan from Blackpool today

Seems a lot of Blackpool fans don't rate Thompson, but he showed something when he was here. Good signing for FGR.

Pretty good signings for them. I quite liked Thompson from memory, although was that during the Sheridan season?

He was the guy who looked amazing on debut and got steadily worse under Sheridan's coaching.

Not an exclusive player then

Mansfield sign Lee Gregory

Have they? They havent announced it anywhere

Flint signed a contract extension for another season though

Cambridge sign Lyle Taylor

Update: All done. Lee Gregory has signed on loan for Mansfield Town. Announcement on it’s way today/tomorrow i would assume.

Turned down Wrexham and Stockport, I expect it could have something to do with him knowing the club already as he played for them 12 years ago.

What a signing that is.

Gregory hasn't signed for anyone as far as I can see. Would be a coup for a L2 club for sure.

Not done deal yet, Parky moaning about how hard it is to attract players....thats because you are a flash in the pan team with shitty history in a shitty Town :D

Stockport denying they are after Hutton

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/stockport-county-transfer-latest-challinor-claims-arrivals-due-this-week-remeao-hutton-links-disspelled-joel-cotterill-returns-to-swansea/

Sounds like he turned them down to me!

Yeah, Challinor just saving face there. I think.

He’s not going there.

Mansfield were willing to pay 6k per week (50%) towards his wages

Someone else came in and offered full whack apparently

Could see him going back to Derby to be honest. He's got unfinished business there after getting injured whilst on loan a few years ago. I think he may have signed perm with them at the end of that season an certainly they were keen. Instead he signed for Wednesday. Can see him going to Derby to help them get promoted.

Defo not going to Mansfield according to my local sources

Cole Stockton the Burton striker joins Barrow on loan until the end of the season, he sscored 53 goals for Morecambe in the last 3 years.

Sunderland and Derby after Notts Countys Matty Langstaff for £1.5m.

Manchester United defender/midfielder Maxi Oyedele joins Forest Green Rovers on loan.

Stevenage sign Bradford City striker Vadaine Oliver on loan.

AFC Wimbledon sign Ronan Curtis

Very good signing if hes back to full fitness.

Wrexham make a £250k bid for Wigan striker Stephen Humphrys, he is ex Town target when he was at Southend but he ended up going to Rochdale for £50k then to Hearts and Wigan, us being put off by the fee Southend wanted at the time, he has since scored 30 goals in about 160 games.

Colchester sign ex Mansfield CB 23 year old Ryan Harbottle on loan from Hibs, he looked pretty decent against us last season for the Stags.

Proper Old Skool Surname!

Should be called Stan...

Jephcott to Newport permanently. Is this another club who now has more funds than us since their takeover...

Probably wanted too much in wages, we cant compete to the big hitters like Newport.

Completed transfer so far in L2 ins and outs.

Jan 24th
Luke Jephcott St Johnstone -> Newport County

Jan 23rd
Riley Harbottle Hibernian –> Colchester (Loan)
Luke McNicholas Sligo –> Wrexham

Jan 22nd
Jaden Warner Norwich –> Notts County (Loan)
Lewis Ward Swindon –> Charlton
Hakeeb Adelakun Lincoln –> Doncaster (Loan)

Jan 19th
Hisham Kasimu Sutton –> Farnborough (Loan)
Ronan Curtis Free Agent –> Wimbledon
Filip Marshall Aston Villa –> Franchise (Loan)
Rhys Bennett Man Utd –> Stockport (Loan)
Charlie Seaman Doncaster –> Wealdstone (Loan)
Lewis Bate Leeds –> Franchise (Loan)
Scott Butler Wrexham –> Marine (Loan)
Sam Bellis Barrow –> Kidderminster (Loan)
Jack Degruchy Doncaster –> Kettering (Loan)

Jan 18th
Craig MacGillivray Franchise –> Stevenage (Loan)
Josh Austerfield Huddersfield –> Crewe (Loan)
Deon Moore Lewes –> Sutton
Tiernan Brooks Notts County –> Rochdale (Loan)
Kayden Harrack QPR –> Morecambe
Brandon Barker Free Agent –> Morecambe
Rico Richards Aston Villa –> Stockport (Loan)
Emmanuel Osadebe Bradford –> Forest Green

Jan 17th
Lewis Walker Gillingham –> Woking
John-Kymani Gordon Crystal Palace –> Wimbledon (Loan)
Pharrell Johnson Nottm Forest –> Swindon
Maxi Oyedele Man Utd –> Forest Green (Loan)
Conor McCarthy Barnsley –> Swindon (Loan)
Vadaine Oliver Bradford –> Stevenage (Loan)
Cole Stockton Burton –> Barrow (Loan)
Remeao Hutton Swindon –>Gillingham
Cameron Rooney Morecambe –> Lower Breck (Loan)

16th Jan
Jayden Davis Crawley –> Braintree (Loan)
Ben Mason Wimbledon –> Farnborough (Loan)
Ged Garner Barrow –> Morecambe (Loan)

15th Jan
Ollie Sanderson Fulham –> Sutton (Loan)
Nino Adom-Malaki Millwall –> Sutton (Loan)
Mo Faal West Brom –> Walsall (Loan)
Tyreik Wright Plymouth –> Bradford (Loan)

12th Jan
Rob Apter Blackpool –> Tranmere (Loan)
Dominic Thompson Blackpool –> Forest Green (Loan)
Doug Tharme Blackpool –> Grimsby
Alex Gorrin Oxford –> Forest Green
Harvey Fox Swindon –> Didcot (Loan)
Justin Obikwu Coventry –> Grimsby (Loan)
Harry Wood Hull –> Grimsby (Loan)
Jack Bycroft Southampton –> Swindon
Jayden Richardson Aberdeen –> Colchester (Loan)
Tommy Simpkin Stoke –> Forest Green (Loan)
Marcus Dackers Salford –>Southend (Loan)
Bradley Williams Harrogate –> Bradford PA (LOan)
Paul Galtzel Liverpool –> Swindon

11th Jan
Sam Walker Charlton Athletic –> Bradford City
Harry Lewis Bradford City –> Carlisle United
Charlie Lakin Burton –> Sutton (Loan)
James Belshaw Bristol Rovers –> Harrogate
Josh Gordon Burton –> Walsall (Loan)
Dominic Gape Sutton –> Free Agent
Joe Adams Wigan –> Morecambe (Loan)
Sam Bird Stockport –> Stirling Albion
Billy Waters Wrexham –> Doncaster (Loan)

10th Jan
Tavonga Kuleya Doncaster Rovers –> Gainsborough (Loan)
Joe Lewis Stockport County –> AFC Wimbledon
Regan Griffiths Crewe –> Free Agent
Luca Ashby-Hammond Fulham –> Notts County (Loan)
Owen Cushion Wrexham –> AFC Colwyn Bay (Loan)

9th Jan
Odin Bailey Salford –> Stockport
Matthew Craig Spurs –> Doncaster (Loan)
Ryan Sandford Dartford –> Crawley Town (Loan)
Kyran Lofthouse Barnsley –> Franchise (Loan)

8th Jan
Lewis Leigh Preston –> Crewe (Loan)
Courtney Duffus Barrow –> Hartlepool (Loan)

5th Jan
Emmanuel Adegboyega Norwich –> Walsall (Loan)
Jay McGrath St Pats –> Doncaster
Archie Mair Norwich –> Morecambe (Loan)
Dawson Devoy Franchise –> Swindon (Loan)
Owen Devonport Accrington Stanley –> Fleetwood
Stephen Wearne Gateshead –> Franchise
Dan Gosling Notts C –> Free Agent

3rd Jan
Conor Carty Bolton –> Doncaster (Loan)
Conor Wilkinson Motherwell –> Colchester Utd.
Gwion Edwards Free Agent –> Morecambe FC

2nd Jan
Billy Chadwick Stockport –> York City
Darragh Burns Franchise –> Shamrock Rovers (Loan)
Marvellous Onabirekhanlen Walsall –>  Khalsa

1st Jan
Evan Weir Drogheda United –> Walsall
Scott Robertson Fleetwood –> Notts County
Ethan Bristow Minnesota –> Stockport (Loan)
Ryan East Bradford –> Rochdale
Evan Weir Walsall –> Drogheda United (Loan)
Paris Lock AFC Wimbledon –> Tonbridge (Loan)

That's not difficult. I have more funds than STFC.

Newport got took over yesterday
Huw Jenkins flexing that P

Ipswich signing Ali Al-Hamadi from Wimbledon.

£1.75 million.

Some fee that

That's how you do "sustainability" at this level. You won't easily balance the books on regular income alone, you need to get players sold and - especially - sell on fees. Exeter have made so much from that path.

If we'd have shelled out the small fees for Kemp and Young in summer we'd be looking at a serious windfall now or in summer. But we didn't, so here we are.

That was the Sandro model really, he just overdid it and got the PR wrong.

Wow thats huge, I didnt think he was THAT good when they played us but I dont watch him every week.

At least the Dons will reinvest any fee they get in strengthening their team.

At least they get a fee for under contract players too ;)

True :) hopefully we will get a good fee if any of our players move on now rather than them using "closer to home" as an excuse when they move to a club 25 mins closer ;)

I agree on everything apart from the Sandro bit because we are still repeating some of his mistakes right now.  his model was to buy up possible missed talent based purely on some stats he had devised from his bookmaking friends I assume.  However, we only ever put people on 1 and 2 year deals and sold them as soon as anyone offered remotely more than we paid out.  That creates massive turnover which increases the risks in the gamble and creates squad decimation.  What the teams that do this well do, is invest in a few, develop and nurture them, tie them up for a whole and then sell for decent fees one at a time.  Not create an entire squad in the same mould.

I still don't see how this works to its best unless you have a spine of "experienced" talent with those being developed around them.

Sandro definitely hadn't got it right, particularly trying too high a turnover, but he was aiming in that direction at least. I don't disagree with your assessment of what he got wrong, but at least it felt like that was a plan that could work with refinement, whereas our transfer strategy in the summer was... worse. Difference between a badly executed plan and no plan at all, I guess.

But yeah, I think we all broadly agree - have an experienced core and then five or six project players, one or two of whom might come off in a big way.

It doesn’t  :) but in order to get in a few decent, experienced players you actually have to spend a bit of money, which is where it comes unstuck for us.

Kemp was a good example of what we should be looking for in that model.  It wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to see he had some promising stats, not least the second half of last season.  I presume we watched him, or videos, before deciding to target him, so we had an idea it wasn't just on paper or a fluke.  To then go and get him on loan is stupid - buy him, sign him to a three year deal.  If he repeats the previous season, he gets interest, and because he is a forward player, he is in the premium transfer fee range.

Some people will say hindsight helps here, but if we are going to go down the polish rough diamonds road, he ticked all the boxes.  Precisely the type you gamble on.  You make that gamble a little lest risky by having competent professionals making up the core of your squad.  Loaning such a player makes no sense to me.  It didn't with Doyle, It didn't with Young and is still doesn't with Devoy (who may turn out to be shit by the way).  You loan from higher, you buy from here and below, or just above for "failed" talent.  I understand your squad at this level will still churn, but having them on 3 year deals at least gives you the chance to try and build, or get a fee.

Loaning Doyle made some sense because he had no resale value, but I agree with the others.

As for long term contracts, we did give out a couple - Wakeling signed for four years (that one even worked, we got a supposedly decent fee) and Aguiar three. I do wonder if the more senior players simply wouldn't accept them?

Even a 2 year deal would have been good business in the summer, with an option for a further year.

Even though we missed that boat, Kemp is still available for a below market amount - with six months on his contract and only being able to play for us or Franchise, it would still be excellent business to fork out 200k or whatever it would be, 2.5 year deal and we would make that back and then some in 12-18 months time. I still have a bit of hope that we will do this, but it does require an initial investment that I just don’t think we have atm.

Getting out of L2 is probably worth more than £200k to MK

That's a crazy fee. Is he really that good?

Ipswich Town clearly think he is.

13 goals in 23 games, although is impressive, doesn't scream 1.7m.

Jake Young must also be worth the same then, no?

It's quite an interesting question that initially I thought no, but when you take the 2 players separately, their goal tally this season is almost identical and they are of a similar age. So why is one going for 1.75 million quid and the other not reaching the asking price of 500k? (I think I saw it quoted)

12 caps and 3 international goals for Iraq proving he can do it at a higher level already?

Granted but I'm sure Young could score goals against Jordan, India and Indonesia as well. I just don't get why one is worth 600k and the other 1.7m...

I’ve forgotten now, but how much was Kasim rumoured to be worth when he was performing for us? Also Iraqi international.

Not sure that level of international player increases a player’s value that much. Way too much of a differential between him and Young.

Presume that fee includes add ons and not a flat fee.

25 minutes closer when it’s open road.
Closer to an hour when it’s really busy.
(assuming Kinsella is midlands based)

According to Wiki Al-Hamadi has 31 goals in 71 career appearances compared to 32 in 118 for Young.
Better than 1 in 2 over last couple of seasons for Wimbledon.

Gives the club a benchmark if Glatzel goes mad in the next 18 months or so.

Those stats there are a reason why Young isnt worth the same as this other fella.

Before joining us Young hadn't done much all at, some might regard it just as hot streak while with us (i don't).  This other fella has come in and hit the ground running.

McKenna at Ipswich seems the real deal and given his previous job he will have done his homework on the Iraq fella.

The kid fled Saddam Hussain's Iraq and ended up in Toxteth, he'll be pretty mentally resilient I imagine!

Young reminds me of James Collins a little bit, I think he will develop slowly into a Championship/upper L1 player.

Al-Hamadi is also an absolute menace and a nuisance, offers so much more than goals and generally respected and valued much higher by those working within the industry. Striker scouting is well beyond the binary nature of goals scored, as we saw ourselves with Ajose.

Exeter sign a player on loan from a League 2 team

Mo Eisa left Franchise to join Exeter City on loan until the end of the season.

One of their other strikers Leko has also gone to Burton in league 1.

I remember the first game of the season both of them tore Wrexham a new one. It doesn't appear to have worked out for either of them at all.

Yeah, on paper Eisa and Leko looked like they should piss on L2 from a great height.

Gills fans convinced they are about to sign Nahki Wells from the Slavers despite him playing 18 of their 29 games so far this season and scoring last night. He would be on mega wages so that as unlikely as us getting Kemp and Young back IMO.

Luke Freeman has signed for Barnet. What a signing that is!

Seriously :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

15k a week at City

FGR sign Christian Doidge

Notts County take Charlie Colkett on loan from Crewe

Dale Vince does not fancy the national league.

he may be too late

They'll escape, Vince will throw more money at the problem

I'm not sure they have time

On paper hes a good signing, FGR is the only team that Doidge has ever really scored goals for, I have never rated him when I have seen him play but Vince is definately throwing money at the problem and I think they could survive as there are a lot of shite teams in this league.

Wrexham set to bid £500k for Rotherham midfielder Jamie Lindsay breaking their transfer record, if he does sign it will end their pursuit of Khan.

Wrexham sign Jack Marriott and Luke Bolton

Everything they have done this season has been a fail....luck has to change eventually.

Matt Olosunde, who we had on trial but he didn’t fancy us,  is expected to rock up at Grimsby.

How bad must we be if they’re a better alternative!

Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari

Efete has left Grimsby having had his contract terminated by mutual consent

Ex Town target left back Denver Hume signs for Grimsby on a free from Pompey.

if all we are prepared to offer is 6 months with a club-triggered option after that (as appears to be the case) then it is understandable if 18 months in Grimsby is better from a financial perspective.

The preference for 6 month contracts does pose some troubling questions. Hopefully we see some on longer term deals this afternoon.

I'd imagine the 6 months thing is because we can't afford to commit beyond that period at that rate - and we are getting them because we are taking on their contracts and the original club has already told the player they will be gone in the summer.  They get next to no financial hit to move to us, but do get some minutes.  It's all about what the Options we have entail - I suppose for some players, it will be worth the risk of being on less next season to be sure they have a contract, for others they may see it as an opportunity to invite bids from other places in the summer.

Honestly, i don't really blame the club for offering just a 6 month deal. The lad's spent most of his career injured.

We didnt get to offer him a deal, he left before any negotiations started because he wasnt happy with the way we do things.

To be fair to him, neither are most of us

Spoof in the Tap n Barrel bogs?

Tom Nichols on his way to Mansfield

Confirmed by Mansfield.

Money + league position talks.

Not too worried about missing out on him reminds a little of Elliot Benyon who was also a neat, tidy footballer but never a prolific scorer.

This is pretty basic stuff, but I thought there was elements of interest in what happens during the transfer window. It's not Swindon related but at Cambridge but some may find it interesting nonetheless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDK6PycfUww