Fin Stevens

[Brogue]

pince knows full well what the priorities are, as per his interview with the bbc yesterday

"We are light at the left-back position but more so in midfield, we need to prioritise that big time.

“We lost Josh Laurent to Stoke, Andy Rinomhota has gone to Cardiff, and Danny Drinkwater hasn’t come back. We need three or four midfield players and we haven’t got one at the moment. We’re just trying to get deals done and get the right players in. You don’t just want to take any player. You want a player who will fit into the culture.”

just cos we are linked to a RB doesnt mean we wont get the others in too.

[Snowflake Royal]

The point that people seem to be missing in my complaints about this, is that we know we have a very limited budget, and a lot of holes, so we can't really afford to plug those holes well, and get extra back up where we already have some.

Especially as we have yet to see any revenue raised or wages reduced from selling Puscas or finding anyone to take Millstone Moore.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I'd personally rather have Arbrefa playing games with the U23's consistently or going out on loan rather than potentially sitting on our bench. I know he can sit on our bench and play for the U23's, but if management don't feel he is ready yet for that kind of involvement then that's fair enough, I'd be happy enough with this.

I don't think it would detract away from our priorities either, it's just more of what is available at any time and I doubt he will be earning anything that will significantly impact our budget either. You can tell by the players we are linked with where most of our budget for the season will be going. For all we know, we might not be subsiding any wages for loan players depending on who it is from.

[Nameless]

The point that people seem to be missing in my complaints about this, is that we know we have a very limited budget, and a lot of holes, so we can't really afford to plug those holes well, and get extra back up where we already have some.

Especially as we have yet to see any revenue raised or wages reduced from selling Puscas or finding anyone to take Millstone Moore.

That point only holds good if you know what we are spending on the players coming in.
If you know what wages the keepers are on, or how much Hoilett is getting then fair enough.
Otherwise you are suggesting Ince, Bowen, Bryan Stabler and Sue Hewett are imcompetant and don’tunderstand the agreement with the EFL, the business plan or how to build a squad of players.

[Snowflake Royal]

The point that people seem to be missing in my complaints about this, is that we know we have a very limited budget, and a lot of holes, so we can't really afford to plug those holes well, and get extra back up where we already have some.

Especially as we have yet to see any revenue raised or wages reduced from selling Puscas or finding anyone to take Millstone Moore.

That point only holds good if you know what we are spending on the players coming in.
If you know what wages the keepers are on, or how much Hoilett is getting then fair enough.
Otherwise you are suggesting Ince, Bowen, Bryan Stabler and Sue Hewett are imcompetant and don’tunderstand the agreement with the EFL, the business plan or how to build a squad of players.

No it doesn't. Every penny spent away from our main priorities when we have one of the smallest budgets in the division is a waste, especially when we have a player sat in the squad contributing nothing but taking up roughly a 10th of our entire budget

[Nameless]

The point that people seem to be missing in my complaints about this, is that we know we have a very limited budget, and a lot of holes, so we can't really afford to plug those holes well, and get extra back up where we already have some.

Especially as we have yet to see any revenue raised or wages reduced from selling Puscas or finding anyone to take Millstone Moore.

That point only holds good if you know what we are spending on the players coming in.
If you know what wages the keepers are on, or how much Hoilett is getting then fair enough.
Otherwise you are suggesting Ince, Bowen, Bryan Stabler and Sue Hewett are imcompetant and don’tunderstand the agreement with the EFL, the business plan or how to build a squad of players.

No it doesn't. Every penny spent away from our main priorities when we have one of the smallest budgets in the division is a waste, especially when we have a player sat in the squad contributing nothing but taking up roughly a 10th of our entire budget

Ok, I’m sure the club will be asking for your expertise on this. I’m sure an armchair in Cambridge gives you amuch better insight than people with 100+ years of actually doing stuff and access to all the relevant info.
The additional cost of a cheap keeper really is not to going to tip the balance.

[Snowflake Royal]

Superb come back.

You could have just said nothing, if you've got nothing useful to add.

I'll trust the people who run the club to make good decisions when they can demonstrate a track record of doing so, and not nothing or the reverse.

[Wycombe Royal]

The point that people seem to be missing in my complaints about this, is that we know we have a very limited budget, and a lot of holes, so we can't really afford to plug those holes well, and get extra back up where we already have some.

Especially as we have yet to see any revenue raised or wages reduced from selling Puscas or finding anyone to take Millstone Moore.

That point only holds good if you know what we are spending on the players coming in.
If you know what wages the keepers are on, or how much Hoilett is getting then fair enough.
Otherwise you are suggesting Ince, Bowen, Bryan Stabler and Sue Hewett are imcompetant and don’tunderstand the agreement with the EFL, the business plan or how to build a squad of players.

No it doesn't. Every penny spent away from our main priorities when we have one of the smallest budgets in the division is a waste, especially when we have a player sat in the squad contributing nothing but taking up roughly a 10th of our entire budget

The club will have a list of positions they want to fill with an assigned budget to each of them. Just because we have signed players in positions you think we don't need does not mean it is taking away budget from the other positions that we also need to fill.

Have you ever produced a business plan? Or do you just go spending money out of your budget and see what is left when you have a £1k left out £200k to get the remaining 50% of you items.....

[Hound]

The point that people seem to be missing in my complaints about this, is that we know we have a very limited budget, and a lot of holes, so we can't really afford to plug those holes well, and get extra back up where we already have some.

Especially as we have yet to see any revenue raised or wages reduced from selling Puscas or finding anyone to take Millstone Moore.

That point only holds good if you know what we are spending on the players coming in.
If you know what wages the keepers are on, or how much Hoilett is getting then fair enough.
Otherwise you are suggesting Ince, Bowen, Bryan Stabler and Sue Hewett are imcompetant and don’tunderstand the agreement with the EFL, the business plan or how to build a squad of players.

No it doesn't. Every penny spent away from our main priorities when we have one of the smallest budgets in the division is a waste, especially when we have a player sat in the squad contributing nothing but taking up roughly a 10th of our entire budget

The Moore point is fairly irrelevant here, stuck with him and that’s it

The keeping spot is massively important to get right. Know you like Southwood but his errors cost so many points - take just the Derby and Hull ones and that’s us 4 points better off, and Derby wouldn’t have even got near us

Can’t afford to make mistakes like that this coming year, and if Bouzanis is a step up, and he will be cheap, then fine by me. Last thing we want to do is make emergency keeper signings because we don’t trust our number 1 again like last year

[Nameless]

Superb come back.

You could have just said nothing, if you've got nothing useful to add.

I'll trust the people who run the club to make good decisions when they can demonstrate a track record of doing so, and not nothing or the reverse.

And maybe you might say nothing if you aren’t ever prepared to take note of anyone else’s thoughts....

[Snowflake Royal]

That point only holds good if you know what we are spending on the players coming in.
If you know what wages the keepers are on, or how much Hoilett is getting then fair enough.
Otherwise you are suggesting Ince, Bowen, Bryan Stabler and Sue Hewett are imcompetant and don’tunderstand the agreement with the EFL, the business plan or how to build a squad of players.

No it doesn't. Every penny spent away from our main priorities when we have one of the smallest budgets in the division is a waste, especially when we have a player sat in the squad contributing nothing but taking up roughly a 10th of our entire budget

The Moore point is fairly irrelevant here, stuck with him and that’s it

The keeping spot is massively important to get right. Know you like Southwood but his errors cost so many points - take just the Derby and Hull ones and that’s us 4 points better off, and Derby wouldn’t have even got near us

Can’t afford to make mistakes like that this coming year, and if Bouzanis is a step up, and he will be cheap, then fine by me. Last thing we want to do is make emergency keeper signings because we don’t trust our number 1 again like last year

Doesn't have to be Southwood. There's also Andresson. Both are plenty capable of sitting on the bench. Both played at a higher level than our new back up keeper last season. And both were already a cost, not an additional one.

Moore is relevant in that he's eating up the budget of 3-4 players and isn’t likely to contribute, so we have to stretch the remainder of the budget further for the positions we need. He's not going anywhere, and neither is his wage.

Lots of players cost us points last season. Drinkwater, Holmes and Laurent easily as many as Southwood.

[Nameless]

Ince obviously wants 2 experienced keepers, competing for the shirt. It’s not one inthe team and one on the bench, it’s two competing for the place. He’s done that for very little cost. Having one on loan and one on lower end wages means he’s done it quite smartly. We can cut short the loan if need be, if we don’t find Southwood a new club we can offer him out on emergency loans any time during the season.
He’s wrong, obviously, because a bloke in Cambridge says he’s wrong.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

No it doesn't. Every penny spent away from our main priorities when we have one of the smallest budgets in the division is a waste, especially when we have a player sat in the squad contributing nothing but taking up roughly a 10th of our entire budget

The Moore point is fairly irrelevant here, stuck with him and that’s it

The keeping spot is massively important to get right. Know you like Southwood but his errors cost so many points - take just the Derby and Hull ones and that’s us 4 points better off, and Derby wouldn’t have even got near us

Can’t afford to make mistakes like that this coming year, and if Bouzanis is a step up, and he will be cheap, then fine by me. Last thing we want to do is make emergency keeper signings because we don’t trust our number 1 again like last year

Doesn't have to be Southwood. There's also Andresson. Both are plenty capable of sitting on the bench. Both played at a higher level than our new back up keeper last season. And both were already a cost, not an additional one.

Moore is relevant in that he's eating up the budget of 3-4 players and isn’t likely to contribute, so we have to stretch the remainder of the budget further for the positions we need. He's not going anywhere, and neither is his wage.

Lots of players cost us points last season. Drinkwater, Holmes and Laurent easily as many as Southwood.

Our recruitment team have obviously judged Bouzanis and Lumley to be good enough to be competing for the spot regularly though and better/better developed than both Andresson and Southwood right now, which I can't really disagree with either. They both need experience, sitting on the bench for us because we are "not likely" to need a back up goalkeeper is just irresponsible squad management for me personally.

I don't think there is much that can be done about Moore, we gave him the contract 4 years ago and we are now stuck with him, we stick to that mistake but there isn't much that can be done there. It doesn't help, but we can't use him as an excuse to not build a competitive squad regardless of how tight are budgets may be, we aren't going to get the ideal scenario's given the situation we are in unfortunately.

[Snowflake Royal]

The fact there is nothing that can be done about Moore is precisely the point.

We have less money to use on the squad because of him. Which means what we do have has to be used extremely well.

[Nameless]

We had more than 5 previously and it didn't work out particularly well.

Let’s avoid doing anything we’ve ever done before then.....

Probably best we avoid the things that didn't work and aren't very sensible, yeah.

But being creative and maximising the number of players we can have available and minimising what they cost doesn’t fit either of those.
It’s eccentric to not do Something because in different circumstances it wasn’t done sensibly
Although obviously it must be wrong if you say so….

[Jinx]

The point that people seem to be missing in my complaints about this, is that we know we have a very limited budget, and a lot of holes, so we can't really afford to plug those holes well, and get extra back up where we already have some.

Especially as we have yet to see any revenue raised or wages reduced from selling Puscas or finding anyone to take Millstone Moore.

I'm pretty sure we get the point, we've read it at least 75 times now

[Snowflake Royal]

The point that people seem to be missing in my complaints about this, is that we know we have a very limited budget, and a lot of holes, so we can't really afford to plug those holes well, and get extra back up where we already have some.

Especially as we have yet to see any revenue raised or wages reduced from selling Puscas or finding anyone to take Millstone Moore.

I'm pretty sure we get the point, we've read it at least 75 times now

YR seems to be struggling.

[From Despair To Where?]

I guess telling a player with 1 year left that he's surplus to requirememts and him deciding he wants to stay put doesnt help.

[URZZZZ]

Seems daft to use up a loan on a back up RB when we used Abrefa there and he looked promising, plus we have Holmes.

Meanwhile, the promised LB where we have literally none is yet to materialise and we still haven't signed a single midfielder, despite losing our first 4 from recent seasons.

But we signed 2 keepers so we now have 4 with league experience!!

If this is true, we seem to continue to have a nonsensical approach to transfers and squad management.

Agreed that other places should be a priority (although I’m sure management are aware of that) but the aim should roughly be two players for each position and we have one RB. Hence so many players having to fill in at RB last season, Holmes, Yiadom, Tetek, Rinomhota, Ashcroft, Abrefa, Thomas etc etc

Personally think part the reason for Holmes’ run of poor performances last season was not being allowed to settle in one position so by that reckoning, would look to avoid playing him at RB at all costs

Is Abrefa not a RB then? Because surely our promising teenage RB > someone elses, for bench warming

Thought he was a CB but not entirely sure. Can’t imagine he’ll be in the frame this season though, considering Ince shifting CB’s and CM’s there at the back end of last season

Overall though there’s a fine balance and touch choices between keeping the youngsters as reserves or loaning them out. For example, in hindsight, Dorsett would have featured a fair amount last season for us given the injury problems at CB for a while but by all accounts, had a very good loan spell at Rochdale (after a rocky start). If he had a slow start to L2 football, you’d imagine he’d have really struggled in the Champ, which would have led to the usual of people writing him off before he’s even really started and you’re potentially looking at a player finished here before he’s even started

Given Yiadom had recurring injury problems for successive seasons (although not last season) you’d be running a huge risk all round to rely on someone so inexperienced as the backup IMO

[Snowflake Royal]

You may be thinking of Abbey, I could maybe see Abrefa as a winger, but not a CB , and we've got loads of those.

For some reason whoscored has him listed as Kelvin Opoku... got 3 sub appearances.