Let's Stick Together

[calscot 0]

PS The first thing the banks ask you to do when they are squeezing you, is to put your prices up - so expect an increase in the summer.

[Bluedell 5,329]

PS The first thing the banks ask you to do when they are squeezing you, is to put your prices up - so expect an increase in the summer.

The club will find it difficult to justify any increase in prices given the financial position of most of their fans.

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see celtic coming out and decreasing their prices because they can afford to do it, but mainly to put pressure on us to follow suit, knowing we can't afford it.

[Super_Ally 0]

The 9M purchases of Miller, Lafferty, Edu and Velicka look more and more stupid every week.

 

Although the 8M invested in Bougherra, Mendes and to a lesser extent Davis looks more sound.

 

I'd have been more than happy if we'd signed none of the first 4, they have not really made a positive contribution between them. Ok Miller started well, but we won the OF because of Cousin and you will not convince me that Novo or Boyd would not have profited at least equally as well from Cousin's display.

 

The second band of players I am quite happy with, even if Davis is slightly off the boil atm, he's still contributing assists and goals and that wins games.

 

�£9m on 3 duds and a player who is a lesser version of a certain Spaniard already on the books. But because Smith has a hard-on for Kenny Miller we get lumbered with him anyway.

 

Instead of these donkeys we could have looked for one �£5mil player, retained �£4mil so not having to force out a star player and been better off financially and likely on the field too.

[craig 5,195]

How so Frankie?

 

Not only that SDM would have been aware.... EVERYONE should have been aware. Almost always the UK follows the US and we all know that the crisis had already hit the US in almost unprecedented ways. If SDM looked at the US (which he should have been doing with his other global businesses anyway) he would see that there was a solid chance that the UK would suffer to some extent too.

[craig 5,195]

The conclusion in basic terms I'm getting from the "need to sell one player" claim is that we're on our overdraft limit and with the state of the banks now, they are politely saying, "please don't try to increase your overdraft", but we are looking down the barrel of say a 3M loss and therefore 3M increase in overdraft.

 

We therefore need 3M to offset the loss to keep within our credit limit - and SDM is not going to stump it up.

 

I dont think it is as simplistic as that Cal. I would presume that if the banks want us to stay within their creidt limit then it is a matter of not further increasing it. That doesn't necessarily equate to 3M in losses but rather that we have cash commitments of 3M which, if we dont find the 3M cash, would push us over the credit facility limit. It doesn't necessarily equate to a loss but most probably is cashflow related (simplistically, cash is king which is what the banks are likely saying - but a profit and loss account includes non cash items too which skews things from that perspective). Sorry, accountant guff.

 

I think we can only assume that somehow the management didn't foresee the extent of the current credit squeeze back in the summer and were recklessly and arrogantly counting the CL chickens before they had hatched.

 

IMO either they didnt foresee the credit crunch or they were too arrogant to believe it would seriously impact on the club. Either way it looks to the layman like poor management. I am not sure I agree about the "CL chickens" - but only because we went on our major spending spree AFTER we were OUT of the CL. Seems to me that there was a level of arrogance that it wouldnt affect us.

 

The 9M purchases of Miller, Lafferty, Edu and Velicka look more and more stupid every week.

 

We have debated this extensively but I couldn't agree more. Just looking at just those players you have the following :

 

Miller - 2M - we already had Novo and on less wages who could undertake the same job (if the other night is anything to go by, Novo is a better option even for running the channels).

Lafferty - 3.5M - cant get a game up front so is put LM where he has been terrible. LM we already had Adam and McCulloch (not that I am suggesting that either of those two should be there but to then also buy someone who is a striker and play him LM is nothing short of financial mismanagement)

Edu - 2.5M - how many CM's do we need ? Not getting a game and was signed because he was recommended. Not convinced he will become a mainstay.

Velicka - 1M - not even quoted for a game. Waste of money.

 

SO when you lok at the above NOT ONE of them was needed. So 9M wasted. Why not buy 2 players at 3M who could improve the 1st team and then keep the rest of the cash in the bank ?

 

 

Although the 8M invested in Bougherra, Mendes and to a lesser extent Davis looks more sound.

 

Agreed. But even then, did we really need to buy Davis if we were going to play him RM ? We already had Thomson, BF, Hemdani and then Mendes too (if Davis was purchased first then swap his name for Mendes). Again, buying a player for the sake of it and not because it was a necessity.

 

In the end there was no way our cashflow could afford 17M, even with the 9.3M sales of Cuellar and Cousin.

 

The fact we didn't offload enough players and sent the wages through the roof is also very bad planning.

 

It is difficult to do this but we should have been focussing solely on the positions which were CRITICAL and, simultaneously, hawking the deadwood (if anyone would take them). We got caught with our pants down because we made all these purchases and then couldn't move the deadwood on and the increase in wages will be crippling.

 

I am, however, quite pleased to hear that we will (eventually, when we lose the deadwood through either giving them away, paying off their contract or letting their contract expire......) that we will be using a squad of 20 and augment it with youngsters. I believe this is the way to go.

[calscot 0]

I thought we decided that a smaller squad was the way to go during Eck's time and reiterated by PLG...

 

I think 20 is too few - I would say 24 and at a push I'd like at 2 players per position, but the squad is definitely bloated by some who never get a game which makes the re-signing of the likes of Dailly look crazy. Webster has also been a bad buy. And why sign a load of strikers when we were already well sorted there?

 

It's obvious that players such as Hemdani and Gow have caused us problems too.

 

So who would we have?

 

MacGregor/Alexander

 

Broadfoot/Whittaker

Weir/Webster

Bougherra

Papac/Smith

 

Davis

Ferguson/Thomson

Mendes/Edu

Beasley/Naismith

 

Boyd/Lafferty

Novo/Miller

 

That's supplemented by Fleck, Aaron, Furman, Lennon etc.

 

So we need to get rid of G.Smith, Hemdani, McCulloch, Adam, Gow, Velicka and Dailly and therefore the latter should never have been signed.

 

Looking closely it would seem we may need to replace Whittaker, Webster, Smith, Edu, Beasley and Lafferty as they are just not fitting in and contributing.

 

Barry and Weir also look to be on the decline with the latter due to have a very long career but is surely coming to an end.

 

That means we really on have about 12 players who are any good with a few of them not exactly being fantastic players, such as: Broadfoot and Papac as well as Miller.

 

So while our squad looks very strong on paper, a closer look and it starts to resemble a bit of a shambles - and Smith can't blame the previous managers now.

[calscot 0]

PS The only saving grace is that Celtic's squad doesn't look much better.

[Frankie 8,150]

Excellent post cal...

 

Celtic actually seem to be going down the same route as us - ie buying up ordinary players from other SPL teams.

[craig 5,195]

Excellent post cal...

 

Celtic actually seem to be going down the same route as us - ie buying up ordinary players from other SPL teams.

 

The only difference being that they seem to actually sign the decent ones and also use them.

 

Robson has done well for them and Flood is a decent wee player. Of course, they did sign Killen and Riordan too......