by Agent Balti »
14 Aug 2009 12:39
For a club like ours, success will come in cycles. We had our days in the sun, but we had to pay for them...all the contracts of Doyle, Hunt, Lita, Murty, Hahnemann...all of those players that have since gone HAD to leave once we spent more than a season in the Championship - it's financial sense. It took me a while to see this point of view too, but the club are taking a sensible approach...and it's highly necessary, especially in todays climate.
That doesn't mean that we can't spend money, we can - it's the wages that are the killer. For the transfer money we get back from the likes the Doyle, Hunt and Bikey means we can compete when it comes to shelling out for transfers but we can't pay Premiership wages anymore because we're not there. That's the simple fact of it. We can afford a couple of high earners, but not a whole squads worth. (Those players who's contracts expired were not going to dramatically reduce their earnings by staying either.)
All the players that have been sold also 'want' to leave for various reasons. Like most managers, I agree with them when they say that you can't keep an unhappy player. Hunt wanted to leave because he wanted Premiership football (and a Ferrari), Bikey wants to leave to play in the World Cup. RFC had to sell players whilst their stocks are high, it's the nature of the business.
To say we are selling these players when we could keep them, would cripple the club financially, and be less likely to succeed because the old 'clique' of players aren't hungry for success. Brendan could no doubt see that from a far and more so when he became manager. It comes down to more than sheer ambition - but I stand by what the club are trying to do now. Relying on parachute payments is not the way to do it.
