As we got put to the sword yesterday again by a former player - i begin to question why we lose out on so many free transfers of ex players. We have lost out on the likes of McArthy (who i rated), Hiwula, O’Connel, O’Donnel - and im sure there are shed loads more over the years that have not come back to us for whatever reason. Is it the money, is it the club, or is it the manager ?? I can understand when we lose out to clubs in higher leagues - Oztumer going to Bolton appears to have backfired, but i cant get to grips with losing players to the likes of Bury ???
Is it because even clubs in the division below pay more than us, Tone? 
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£££££
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Money no question.keates wanted hiwula couldnt compete with the wages Coventry offered.
Easy to say only money is to blame, but I don’t think all clubs can offer more. I would say it is more stubbornness, not to change one detail that could work years ago. Maybe because agents’ payments, maybe because not good sprinkler system, or lack of hot water in the bathroom. Hard to tell, but there is something, that has detrimental effect on all transfer dealings. But please, don’t say owner uses outdated methods, how to run footy club. No no, that would be way too easy. This explanation is too simple.
Sometimes this simplest answer is the correct one, and I buy into that 100%.
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Well when you have a massive squad the wages are spread more thinly. We have 36 players on the books at the minute including loanees. Cut that in half and lift the maximum wage is my take on it. Both Keates and Whitney lost out on some targets and I am sure it is because we have some sort of limit at the top end. I would rather have fewer but better players supplemented from time to time by youth team players who often make up in enthusiasm what they lack in experience.
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Hiwula - went to Huddersfield, a championship club, then Wigan, an ex premier club, now Coventry, a much bigger club than us
McCarthy - went to Barnsley, a championship club. Would be interested to know why he ended up at Wycombe though
O’Donnell - went to a championship club and was superceded by etheridge, who was better
O’,connell - signed by bury, who signed up all and sundry on high wages, got relegated and are regularly in court for failing to pay the tax man.
Of course, there are other reasons such as our refusal to pay agents and a salary cap, but sometimes there are very valid reasons.
I’d even cite Wilson - he may have gone to a 4th division club, but they regularly get over 9k watching them, something we’re never going to do. So, yes, they are a bigger club.
The budget is insufficient to compete regardless of how its spread. I agree it doesn’t help, but the margin for error is zero with continual money restrictions.
Our luck has ran out. It could have easily happened under 3 managers before Keates, its only by some miracle that it’s taken so long.
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Nailed it
I don’t agree with you on that. I agree that its needs clever management but it can be done as several of our previous Managers proved most notably Dean Smith who managed to sign numerous players of real quality. Where the club have been careless is in appointing Managers who, lacking in experience, have not used the funds to the best advantage.
Several? I’ll give you Dean Smith. Who else has managed it in the current market? Keates? No. Whitney? No. O’Driscoll? Didn’t sign anyone but struggled to get anything out of the “quality” players Smith developed/used to full effect (Have a look where some of those players are now, I’m not sure his success was all down to the players Smith was allowed to sign). Chris Hutchings? Jimmy Mullen? Nope.
We needs to stop using one manager we chanced upon managing way below his level to justify the boards spending and criticise current managers.
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Smith - a genuinely good manager with a fantastic plan.
Whitney - signed oztumer, who was of sufficient quality to keep us in the division for two seasons, and got some excellent players in on loan at times but ultimately not experienced enough to keep doing it
Keates - just a shambles I’m afraid. Quantity over quality.
But yes, all that said, money is of course an issue, not helped by the fact we pay £400k in rent but also not helped by perpetually low crowds with little chance of increasing them significantly.
Because we’ve got a League Two budget so that’s what we attract, at very best.
This is why we end up bringing back former players. We can’t tempt people here for the money so we pull at the old affection they have for the club and people.
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And also John Guthrie, Nicky Devlin, Leahy, Shaibu, Ngoy, Butterfield and other assortments of disasters.
I mean you’ve just defended Whitney who was very much on a par with Keates? Cook his Oztumer signing. The one that worked. Ginnelly his Joe Edwards Signing. Jarvis his Bielik signing, Blackett-Taylor his Ngoy signing. Ferrier see Shaibu. Ismail see Ismail. Musa see Moussa.
Yes he spread it even thinner because he wanted to have cover for every position. Isn’t that a further indictment of the budget? That it isn’t big enough to have even the basic amount of cover for a 22 man squad and include real quality?
5 managers have failed with this budget. One succeeded. And there’s a good chance he will be managing in the Premier League next year. We need to stop pretending that because Smith did it we will luck into somebody else that can.
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Does appear to have been some sort of mental block in regards to Whitney’s signings. Keates made plenty of of crap permanent and loan signings but christ so did Whitney.
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I’m not even knocking the bloke, I’m pointing to the fact Whitney/Keates isn’t the only one to struggle with this budget.
In fact Smith is the only one that hasn’t.
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He did - 2011/12 and 2012/13. 15 game winless runs.
Nowhere near as bad as this, but Smith was afforded a lot of rope.
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Cook his oztumer??? Oh my, oh wow. One was the focus for our whole style of play and had enough talent in his little toe to keep us in the division, the other is…well I shan’t go on.
And, no, I haven’t forgotten the bad signings at all. There were some excellent loan signings at times (Wilson, Roberts, O’Connell), and then there was shaibu and others who were abysmal. I’ve already stated that he wasn’t the man to rebuild a whole squad. But keates? That’s on a whole new level I’m afraid to say, clearly evidenced by the fact we’re being relegated and by the fact he’s signed something like 19 players and still hasn’t found better ones than the previous manager signed in defence.
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No more than Keates. Lots of draws in those winless runs and a plan, which ultimately paid off.
It’s one thing I will give Boner credit for, he knew he’d found a gem.
Smith hasn’t been sacked in a decade. Not too many can claim that.
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