Joking aside we look very short on quality with just 3 weeks until kick off.
The worry I have is the length of time it may take some last minute signings to settle in, which could well result in a slow start to the season.
We seem to be making the same mistakes all over again.
Think itās going to be loans to be honest from now on realistically. And that might not be until end of August.
They keep crowing about budget, as they did last season, which tells me they thought they were ācompetitiveā then to, considering we havenāt moved off many players and weāve brought in Cook Ismail, Ginnelly, Dunn, 2 extra coaches and a scout that has apparently also had to come out of the playing budget I donāt see where the wages come from. Certainly not for Darren Bent or Greg Halford lol.
I think thatās pure speculation , no way could we pay those type of wages.
I think Dean may need a miracle to keep the club up this year.
Yep and while I donāt agree with some of the moves heās made, I also question what he, or any manger, could do with one of the smallest budgets in the league inheriting a team that barely scraped safety last year.
I donāt think any manager on the planet could do an effective job here given the restraints. If we finish anywhere above 21st itāll be a miracle.
Things are slow this year, not just media talk or BS; most teams have been very quiet at all different levels.
Confuses me how some fans seem to think signing a player is as easy as Championship Manager! SO many different connotations and facets to a transferā¦a transfer of anyone decent that is.
I know things are slow and I understand why theyāre slow. I also know that itās not as easy as signing someone on a computer game, thanks. Iām talking about the budget which is obviously not competitive. Then again it doesnāt help that we have an owner who takes 400k a year out of the club or whatever it is.
I think we need @saddlersstats to do some lower league āMoneyballā.
Donāt get me wrong, I still think there is plenty of time, but thatās a terrible excuse for not making transfers.
There have been over 150 transfers in the premier league alone already and that not even accounting for releases and free transfers. Benik Afobe has joined ā ā ā ā ā ā , left and signed for Stoke this summer alone. Itās got nothing to do with being naive about how long transfers.
Exactly I refuse to buy into the same old excuses that are wheeled out every season.
With a more competitive budget Iām certain weād have made more signings by now. Bonsers 400k a year in rent is probably the difference between having a Wrexham reject on trial and signing someone like Halford/Bent.
Iāve already asked the same question on the transfer rumours thread. We ālostā around 9-10 players (including 4 loan players and 3 first team players: Jackson, Cuvelier and Ozzy who must have been earning about 7- 8 grand a week between them) from a squad that just about managed to avoid relegation. So far, we have signed 3 non-League players and one player who has played at League 1 level recently. Their wages donāt add up to 7-8 grandā¦so whereās the money gone?
Weāll probably sp*nk it on Halford just to prove me wrong
Jackson was out on loan himself to be fair so thereās a chance we werenāt paying his wages either, plus Iād be amazed if we were paying ALL of Fitzwater, Bielik and Ngoyās wages considering they came from premier league clubs. Cuveliers wage was also subsidised by some kind of pay as you play element apparently, but that was total rumour and could be incorrect to be fair.
Plus heās bolstered the coaching and the scout comes out of the already tight budget too
It all comes back to the fact that the budget isnāt big enough and there are ways the club could increase it but they donāt want too.
Whitney wasnāt a great manager and thatās generous and I have to say I havenāt been enthralled by all of Keatesā decisions so far but Iāll never hold a manager accountable for the terrible way our budget is calculated and the players they manage to acquire through it because they are handcuffed from the start.
Canāt disagree with your sentiments about how difficult it is for Walsall managers to sign decent players given how little money they have to play with. Itās asking a lot to be still assembling the squad 2-3 weeks before the season starts - weāve got very little chance of getting off to a good start. The only recent season when we did make a good start was 3 seasons a go when ended up finishing third. We already had most of the squad in place and just brought in 3 players to finish it off. There are some pretty big holes in the current squad and we probably need at least 4 new players.
Chances are that, as risky a strategy it is, heās planning a Smith like overhaul of the whole structure. Setting up the scouting system and getting coaches in, the money has had to come from somewhere. Ideally, and probably everywhere else, this would come from a separate pot, but the way Bonsor and the club run, we shouldnāt have expected anything less.
Dean has identified players that he sees as key to our fortunes this season (Cook and Zeli) with the remainder going on āfillersā (Ginnelly and Dunn). I only expect us to make one more permanent signing at centre half. Any money left will be used to negotiate loan deals of what Dean sees as āwould like to haveāsā (another CB, cover in CM prior to Edwards being fit, and a striker)
I imagine this to be the business model until dean has got his team behind the scenes in place, and we are relatively stable in the league. Then weāll have a season where we give it a real go, much like Smithās tenure
Exactly this. Gillespie probably tops it up close to 10k a week.
It just doesnāt add up.
Decent English Players in demand will have numerous offers on the table, it is a waiting game which sometimes will pay off - and other times it wont. Like most things there is alot of luck involved. We have no idea how difficult these negotiations are.
Would Whitney have been sacked if that Striker hadnt changed his mind on the journey up to sign on deadline day?
Fine lines folks.
Out of interest, whilst relative to us 400k is HUGE, it doesnāt make a massive difference in the league. If you think that spending 400k on 1/2 players would be a good idea - it wouldnāt. It would massively dirupt the harmony of the team.
I do agree however it would allow us provide greater depth at the 2k/week level.
A wider issue, is that Bury and Scunthorpe etc have spent way above their means and distorted the value of players at this level. I would suggest Zeli Ismail took a hefty pay cut to come here.
True, as have the likes of Mansfield in League 2 and Salford in the Conference.