This budget crap really gets my goat. With the crowds we have, and the commercial operation, why should we be at the bottom of the table if we didn’t have Trivela on board? Are we a smaller club than Fleetwood, Accrington, Harrogate, Newport etc? We used to compete in League 1, why did we suddenly slip to being barely able to compete in League 2? Why is it that other clubs get foreign owners who pump millions in, where as we get American owners who don’t seem to have any money for real investment? Even if we had gone up, would we have even been able to compete in League 1, and would have been facing a relegation battle?
I have worries about next season: we have signed some decent prospects, but we are very short on tried and tested quality League 2 players. We need at least 3 more quality signings, possibly 4 if Big Dave goes, to be challenging at the top end. I’m thinking 11th to 14th at the moment- to match our budget!!
We are mid table budget wise which with our average crowd is about where we are maybe slightly low top 10 budget would be about right but we did make a big loss last year so trivela won’t want that again and as much as id love someone to come in and do a Wrexham for every Wrexham there’s a Carlisle and like mk dons if they don’t go up this year they are screwed
The answer to this is always: Maybe don’t come in and call yourself accelerators and say silly things like watch out Villa and Wolves then.
But the other issue with it is … that’s what we were told before Trivela got involved. We were told it was a top 10 budget then. They claim to have increased it … to what? Because we don’t seem to have moved up that pecking order.
When ISSA had meetings with Pomlett he said we had a top 7 budget, which was quickly changed to a top half budget when he realised ISSA were going to release the minutes of the meeting.
I don’t know what was true, but it is clear Walsall don’t pay well, I don’t think it is that hard to work out or any big secret.
We seem to be willing to pay a fee for a player nowadays, but we won’t compete with a lot of clubs on our top wage for a player in my opinion, which is why we never get top strikers in unless they are loans, because they demand the highest wages.
Those are just my views, I have no evidence of any of it.
To what, indeed.
I’m not doubting that they have increased the budget, but so has everyone else, some much more than we have. We’ve switched from paying rent to Boner, to paying a mortgage, which at least has an end point. That’s where the commercial income must still be going.
At least they’ve been transparent with their model regarding recruitment and sustainability, I suppose.
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I can live with that.
Yep, what that extra ‘accelerator’ budget can do is give you the two or so players that can elevate a decent team into a good one or a good team into a promoted one. Vale showed just that.
We probably have increased ours but not to the same level as some of the other teams teams like chesterfield and gillingham are taking huge risks that might work and I’d actually like us to take a couple swings this window and we still might but most likely we will rely on high potential younger players and hope we can get them to a point where there value is enough to continue on this Peterborough model
But is it really working if we can’t keep a team together long enough to get promoted? Is it really working if despite the transfer income we’re still unable to compete on wages even in League 2?
The problem with that is … that’s football. They can sit on a stage and say “football is broken, the money is crazy” all they wish … that’s the industry you have invested in lads. I have no sympathy with them.
When you say 5K is the point things change, the fans achieve it, you put the prices up, and then say 10K is the point things change … it’s time for things to actually change, I’m afraid.
We almost got lucky last season, gambling on the same profile of player. When the lottery ticket went back to his parent club, the rest of them were found seriously wanting. They talk about learning lessons but to me this summer has looked exactly the same.
Ah yes, how could I forget.
If we cop half a million a season on transfers it should go a long way to making us competitive in this league, with all the other income streams.
Allen and Dave should yield us that.
Had Jellis continued his early season form, I think that would have been another 500k. Seems like we turned down a few bids in January for different players, which is understandable. I mean we are angry now, imagine if we had sold a few, that would have gone down like a lead balloon.
I think Phil makes a good point though, you still have to at some point get a team together that can achieve something. I guess that should have been last season.
I also get the feeling, despite it being a right cock up, January cost us quite a bit of money.
Agreed, and it’s clear to me that it will be through a mix of young, unproven players that we can make money on, together with a few wise old heads like Jamma and Albert.
