Jump to content
Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

Eddie

Members
  • Posts

    4,860
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    22

Everything posted by Eddie

  1. Not looking to take anything away from him… but there’s a massive deflection on it
  2. I’d forgotten. I’ll still be renewing. I reckon there will loads in a similar boat / waiting for this month’s pay.
  3. Eddie

    Good Omens

    The thing that has given me a renewed sense of optimism is the fact that previous games in hand were generally difficult and so were never likely to equal 3 points per game in hand - our game in hand on Derby now is Shrewsbury at home, which if we’re being completely honest is as close to a banker as you’re ever going to get. Realistically (and accepting we could very well get 1 or 0 points) we should now only be 1 point behind Derby with 6 other games to play. In those 6 we’ve both got 3 relatively easy games and 3 that appear tougher and so a 1 point swing could very easily happen. Add in that they have an older squad that has form in running out of steam and are piling up with important injuries / bans and I have some confidence back that we can do it. Bookies have us pretty much equal with them as well.
  4. To be fair Masi, I do see your point in terms of it looking like we’re working through every source of funding, which in some cases could look worrying (and certainly would have done under the old ownership). When you take each in turn though I think they all make sense, and again this is against the backdrop that the alternative is Sharon’s own cash which she quite rightly just won’t do: Gov’t - pay us back £[5]m or we’ll accept 8% of your business instead. It valued us at about £60m from memory, which is mental (and shows how uncommercial our government is). I don’t expect the original plan was to have the gov’t as shareholders but when someone offers you at 2 or 3 times the true value of something then you’d be crazy to turn it down. Fan bond - normal borrowing routes are closed, and even if you could find someone willing to lend us £4-5m then they’d be charging 15-20% interest due to the risk. The bond is a way to borrow money, which can be invested into the club to improve it (as all businesses do) when more conventional routes aren’t available. It’s also a way to reduce the cost of that debt by playing on supporters’ goodwill. Again, it makes financial sense to do so and supporters are happy because they’re getting more than they would if the cash was in the bank (albeit more risk) and helping the club. Swiss investors - mentioned it before but if you’re happy to dilute your own shareholding then why not accept outside investment if it’s on terms you’re happy with? Other points - naming rights. Finding a fan who has an emotional attachment is probably your most lucrative deal worldwide. No matter how big a company is, the market value of sponsoring a league 1 stadium is exactly that, market rate. If you have a fan that can afford market rate, but is also happy to pump more money into the club because of the emotional aspect, then you’re probably going to get more than if you got Coca Cola or Amazon to sponsor it. No issue with you having a different view on the ownership by the way, nobody should have to agree just because the majority do and it’s actually good to have a level of scepticism and scrutiny to keep everyone honest. I’m just pointing out a few areas from a strictly financial perspective which I don’t see why they would do it any other way.
  5. Good shout and he was definitely starting to show what he can do. Even more question about where Dan fits then, as for me he’s 5th choice even if we stay in this league.
  6. By ‘better business model’ what you actually mean is more money that they’re willing to pump into a loss making L1 football club? There will be no stone left unturned from Sharon with regards to the business model, we’ll be exploring every avenue of how we are more sustainable as a club - it benefits both her and the club to do so. She’s clearly not going to chuck all of her eggs (cash) into our basket, she’s not daft enough to do so. Most businesses in a market that actually makes financial sense would be borrowing money from banks and other lenders in order to invest and improve the performance, loss making football clubs don’t have that option so she’s instead found willing investors with the acceptance that she dilutes her shareholding. I don’t see the problem in that? Clearly we need either to produce kids that we can sell on for a tidy profit (easier said than done and needs material investment in the academy in the first place) or we need the whole ‘moneyball’ buy potential low and hope we sell high to start kicking in for the club to stand on its own two feet, but it’s not something you can just assume in a business model because it’s unknown to an extent (you could make an argument that it’s something you can improve, I’d agree with that). I’d put a lot of money on the club now having a 3-5 year forecast / business model which has varying eventualities and supporting financial options for each. The idea that the ‘Swiss guys’ (aren’t they Nick Luckock’s brother?) would have a better model by chucking more cash at it just puts us back at square one. Bigger losses, more reliant on our owner to pump in cash every year and therefore more likely to go bump and drop down the leagues to start it all again (ring any bells?).
  7. Dan’s a funny one. He’s not really shown anything so far that suggests he can be a genuinely contributing part of a strike force that is challenging for promotion from L1 (I’m not having it that his cameos in 2 games pre injury count - they’re getting the Joe Riley treatment), although Evatt has nailed his colours to the mast and we know how stubborn he is when he’s done that and so if we do stay down I think he’s genuinely seen as 1 of the 4. If that’s the case, and we do stay down, then unless a bid comes in for Charles or Vic then I’d say we’ve got our 4 for next season - Charles, Vic, Collins, Dan. I just can’t see a scenario where either Bod or Jerome are with us next year. If we go up though, what the hell happens to Dan? We’ve paid good money for him not too long ago, Evatt has backed him to the hilt with some slightly over the top quotes, but it’s questionable as to whether he could even cut it in the current league, never mind the Championship (personally I don’t think he’s good enough from what I’ve seen). You either let him go, but I’d be surprised if we even recouped what we paid, never mind made a profit on him which will have been the aim at the outset, or we continue to stick with him and take up a space in the squad with what will likely be a player that just isn’t at the level and everybody knows it. You never know, he could prove us all wrong and we do go up and it somehow clicks and he becomes this player that Evatt has told us he can be, but it’ll be a big risk to assume that he will. I’m not sure I’d be wanting to go into the Champ with Charles, Vic, Collins and Dan as our striking options!
  8. Pay a decent fee for anyone and you’re paying them well - you’ve shown your hand in terms of value to you and they’re not therefore going to accept being paid less than their ‘fair share’. That means Collins and Vic will be big earners. I reckon Johnston will have known his value when signing his new contract and so he’ll be up there, santos as club captain should be up there, Baxter will likely be up there considering he was on a free and therefore in a competitive market and JDB being an international who dropped a division (although he got a new contract in the summer didn’t he, and so might have had to accept lesser terms to stay).
  9. Pretty stark reading that. Not in terms of our financial stability, there are clearly plans in place and funding secured / identified, but just football in general (which is not really a surprise to be fair). We’ve got owners and Management that have a lot of business acumen, they have plans in place for us to become self-sustainable, they have managed to double considerable chunks of our revenue streams, we’re one of the biggest clubs in the league and therefore footballing revenues will reflect that, and despite all that we can’t break even. The key reason will be player wages and running costs of the stadium, so what do you do? Reduce the wage bill which likely means a worse team and therefore accepting you won’t likely get promoted (which then has a knock on negative impact on revenue and becomes a vicious circle) or you have a smaller stadium, which isn’t a possibility, but if it was would also mean lower revenue generation both in the current league and ability to maximise revenue if you were to get promoted. It’s a completely broken industry and is wholly reliant on supplementing your trading revenue with profit on player sales (which is easier said than done) or being propped up by your owner. I suppose as long as there are enough people that want to fund the losses of a club in the hope they can get it to the Prem and cash out for profit then it will carry on, it just goes against any other normal industry.
  10. Eddie

    Injuries

    Charlton away?
  11. Good topic this Gonzo - more suited to a Saturday in the pub rather than a day when I could do with getting plenty of work done though 🥴.
  12. Boro over Norwich for me. There’s definitely someone bigger than Palace too but I’m not sure who. Possibly Pompey or Wolves? Slight aside but in terms of similarity, my mates a Boro fan and when you compare us with them, which we’ve done many a time over a few pints, we’re incredibly similar in terms of size, time in the prem, foreign stars, European trips, local lad done good owner (theirs with deeper pockets than ours) even the same League Cup final!
  13. At the time I thought that Gayle’s injury was a positive, takes a player out of the game who is probably their biggest goal threat (and likely for a few games to come). Actually though, we had been dominating so much to that point that it was probably the worst thing that could happen, Gayle was hardly a threat because they couldn’t get near enough to our goal (and Rico was bossing him in the centre of the pitch) but it gave Warne chance to make that tactical change so early. Clearly he’s not afraid of making some big in game calls, with his triple sub at half time, but I doubt he’d have been making any as early as the 25th minute. Fingers crossed the benefit is that Gayle isn’t scoring any more goals for them this season (as shitty as it is to wish an injury on someone) but in hindsight that injury definitely worked against us.
  14. Not directly answering the question but I think of it more like categories rather specifically bigger than a single club. I’d have Brum very much in the same category as us.
  15. There’s absolutely no doubt about it. After the Wigan defeat I deleted twitter, stayed off here for a week (which is unheard of) and did my best to avoid football at all costs. It’s the thing that can dictate my mood probably more than anything! I agree that just saying the same criticism after every defeat and not commenting after a win is a strange habit, I do however disagree that everything should be positive, there should never be any questions etc etc. It’s a football forum, you discuss football, both sides of it, otherwise it’s just a place for Bolton propaganda. The inability of people to listen and accept other people’s opinions, or at least discuss them (balanced stuff, not sensationalist), is just as much of an issue as people sensibly highlighting the deficiencies of the team and set up after yet another loss. There also seems to be an argument that everyone should see where we end up before we pass any comment - again, that would make for a very boring forum for 11 months of the year. Of course losing to Derby doesn’t mean that 100% definitely won’t get automatic promotion, but just because there’s still a chance I don’t think it should mean that you can’t discuss the potential of us not getting it, and what happens if not.
  16. Rico was the blocker for attacking corners vs. Oxford. Our 6ft 6 monster of a centre half was sacrificed to be the man take an opposition player out. The point about Evatt’s inability to change a game in play is so so true. You watch what Warne did yesterday and there is no way on this earth that we would ever do such a thing. He is so unbelievably rigid and I really do think it’s his achilles heel - it never feels like he’s spotted something and gone with a gut feel, everything is pre planned, scripted, backed up by stats and there’s no moving away from that plan unless we’re forced into it with something like a red card.
  17. My thoughts exactly, regardless of the fact Lincoln are in a bit of form, we’d do them over two legs and same with Oxford (wouldn’t fear either of the away legs) - Blackpool on the other hand…
  18. I was doing the same last night, first time I’ve genuinely thought that it will end in the play offs, despite our record over the last 10 games I still thought we could find a way to do it - that hope’s gone now though. Finishing 3rd or 4th is critical for me. Completely agree that a one-off game at Wembley id fancy us against any of the other teams in the mix but in the semis I think we have to be playing at home 2nd leg. I think we’d do them all over 2 legs (Barnsley would be toughest) but having to go away in the second leg would make me far less confidence. Pick up a bit of form for the last few games, get Baxter and Charles back, have a home 2nd leg and then play our beautiful Brazil like flowing football on a sunny day in Wembley to destroy whoever we face. They do say that going up through the play offs is the best way to do it!
  19. We haven’t, correct. If we don’t go up this season then we have.
  20. You’re spot on, take the emotion out of it and the results / facts speak for themselves. There’s clearly a long way to go but we aren’t getting automatic now so if we want to achieve this year’s objective then we have to go up through the play offs. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens if we don’t go up. Both from the board - targets were clear and very public and they have backed Evatt, it’s all been very nicely nicey so far but we’ll find out if they have a ruthless side, and from Evatt himself - it’ll be essentially the first season he has underachieved and from how he has been in the press for a while now I personally don’t think he’ll take it very well.
  21. If we’re being honest, he was awful today. Not an overall verdict on him, he was brilliant on Tuesday and I think he’ll be very good for us, but he was probably our worst player today. The rest of it has been said, Derby were awful, we were the better team, we were also toothless for the most part, we didn’t deserve to lose but it’s oh so fucking predictable that we would do. Another big game, another loss. In isolation it’s just unfortunate, but it’s not in isolation, it’s a genuine trend of this team. Blackpool, Wigan, Derby - we all hoped we would find a win or two, we probably deserved a win or two, but we have 0 points. This team is unbelievably predictable, we win the games we win and we lose the games that we know deep down we just will do. At least in the play offs, assuming Pompey and Derby go up, I don’t think there will be any teams in there that are in that bracket over 2 games - although Barnsley will probably find a way to beat us.
  22. Eddie

    Injuries

    It was meant to be 23rd. It’s been postponed to next month as a pre-emptive measure based on expected international call ups. I can’t tell if you genuinely didn’t know or are taking issue with the wording of Casino’s statement
  23. It’s one thing discussing Maghoma, but fucking hell Mounts, Kieran Lee was amazing off the ball - to the point that Evatt actually called him out in the press for being so good at pressing and hoping the others would learn from him! “His game intelligence of when to press, how to press and how aggressively to press is fantastic. Just the way he glides and drifts into space throughout the game is so intelligent“
  24. They really were shite. Didn’t really press but also didn’t sit and drop deep - they also didn’t man mark Sheehan out of the game. If you get 2 out of 3 of those right against us then we tend to be fucked, don’t do any and we’ll batter you (i.e last night)
  25. I was trying to figure this out this morning. I’ve only got money on title, so didn’t have the context of the others but after last night we have moved ahead of Derby into slight second favourites for the title, despite being a point behind and having to go to them which surely the bookies would price in as being a favourable fixture to Derby vs us. Couldn’t really understand it.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.