Hob Nob Anyone?

Millsy wrote: ↑27 May 2026 16:09 To be fair, we were financially sound and stable when signed the likes of Murty, Butler et al whereas now we're quite screwed and the club needs a hell of a lot of fixing. I'd rather funds go into sorting out the infrastructure (aren't they spending millions on club improvements already), stabilising accounts etc. Apples and oranges situation.

And it's not fair to point out good expensive purchases like Murty without also pointing to awful expensive purchases. Or even more importantly good cheap purchases (Doyle, Long, Kitson etc). It's not liek there's an easy linear relationship between money spent and quality gained.

I criticised JM heaviily for not spending enough but older and wiser now I've gone the other way and prefer infrastructure, stability, and love Rob's approach of looking for relative bargains.

Sure, spend big if you just need one or two pieces of a jigsaw on the backdrop of a stable club. But a club as screwed as ours needing huge input in all areas on and off the pitch, I'm quite happy with a more cautious approach. We don't want another Dai do we.

RoyalBlue wrote: ↑27 May 2026 15:18

Mid Sussex Royal wrote: ↑27 May 2026 09:13

Marcel wrote: ↑27 May 2026 08:28 It amazes me that last time we were at this level under JMs chairmanship we were signing players like Murty, Curo, Butler and Forster.
Now people are wetting themselves over some nobody from Colchester.
Though saying that we did have a decent manager in Pards unlike the clown we’re stuck with now.

Agree, but easier to attract the top L1 players back then; we were the big fish in the pond with one of the first new grounds etc and SJM had the cash back then.

As an aside, pretty sure Murty and Forster were signed by Tommy Burns?

I'm not sure Tommy Burns survived for long enough after the Magnificent Seven to sign either of them.

Interestingly we paid £700K (when we finally coughed it all up) for Murty back in 1998. 28 years and insane transfer fee inflation later and it seems a budget of £750K for a player is likely to be an issue for our current owners!

Oh, and when we signed Murty he arrived 'broken' and took some time to fix!

WestYorksRoyal wrote: ↑27 May 2026 10:15 I suspect the budget we had under SJM, which was the biggest in the league at the time, would just be middling L1 losses now.

Looking at who has gone up automatically in the past few years, Birmingham and Wrexham blew everyone's out of the water financially. Lincoln were low spenders who were just smarter than everyone. Then Cardiff, Portsmouth and Derby are of similar size to us but I expect spent a bit more. Then play off winners like Charlton and Bolton had decent budgets too.

We should be able to replicate most of these with the right decision making, with Birmingham and Wrexham being the exceptions. But 7 or 8 teams will be saying the same, whether slightly larger clubs or smaller ones with ambitious budgets like Stockport.

Forbury Lion wrote: ↑27 May 2026 16:47

WestYorksRoyal wrote: ↑27 May 2026 10:15 I suspect the budget we had under SJM, which was the biggest in the league at the time, would just be middling L1 losses now.

Looking at who has gone up automatically in the past few years, Birmingham and Wrexham blew everyone's out of the water financially. Lincoln were low spenders who were just smarter than everyone. Then Cardiff, Portsmouth and Derby are of similar size to us but I expect spent a bit more. Then play off winners like Charlton and Bolton had decent budgets too.

We should be able to replicate most of these with the right decision making, with Birmingham and Wrexham being the exceptions. But 7 or 8 teams will be saying the same, whether slightly larger clubs or smaller ones with ambitious budgets like Stockport.

Maybe we need a weaker league to get promotion? By that I mean hope the big spending well run teams get promoted and get replaced with badly run clubs from the championship with the same issues we had when we got relegated.

Sutekh wrote: ↑27 May 2026 13:29

WestYorksRoyal wrote: ↑27 May 2026 10:47

Marcel wrote: ↑27 May 2026 09:31

Yes that maybe the case but they still chose Reading.

Similar to Stockport, smaller club with an ambitious budget. They gave Brannagan a new contract most L1 clubs wouldn't be able to afford.

Players will still choose Reading over a myriad of equally mired clubs. And a nobody he might currently be at the moment but so were Dave Kitson and Kevin Doyle at one point - and also every player just starting out.

Yes it was easier back in 2000 but in those days 750k was really serious money that barely anyone in the bottom 2 divisions could get anywhere near. Nowadays it’s pretty much a fee available to everyone so the club has to be able to sell itself and “the project” to convince players. Hope they have that charismatic “seller” in these dealings.

Millsy wrote: ↑27 May 2026 16:09 To be fair, we were financially sound and stable when signed the likes of Murty, Butler et al whereas now we're quite screwed and the club needs a hell of a lot of fixing. I'd rather funds go into sorting out the infrastructure (aren't they spending millions on club improvements already), stabilising accounts etc. Apples and oranges situation.

And it's not fair to point out good expensive purchases like Murty without also pointing to awful expensive purchases. Or even more importantly good cheap purchases (Doyle, Long, Kitson etc). It's not liek there's an easy linear relationship between money spent and quality gained.

I criticised JM heaviily for not spending enough but older and wiser now I've gone the other way and prefer infrastructure, stability, and love Rob's approach of looking for relative bargains.

Sure, spend big if you just need one or two pieces of a jigsaw on the backdrop of a stable club. But a club as screwed as ours needing huge input in all areas on and off the pitch, I'm quite happy with a more cautious approach. We don't want another Dai do we.

MR. CYNICAL wrote: ↑27 May 2026 20:07

Millsy wrote: ↑27 May 2026 16:09 To be fair, we were financially sound and stable when signed the likes of Murty, Butler et al whereas now we're quite screwed and the club needs a hell of a lot of fixing. I'd rather funds go into sorting out the infrastructure (aren't they spending millions on club improvements already), stabilising accounts etc. Apples and oranges situation.

And it's not fair to point out good expensive purchases like Murty without also pointing to awful expensive purchases. Or even more importantly good cheap purchases (Doyle, Long, Kitson etc). It's not liek there's an easy linear relationship between money spent and quality gained.

I criticised JM heaviily for not spending enough but older and wiser now I've gone the other way and prefer infrastructure, stability, and love Rob's approach of looking for relative bargains.

Sure, spend big if you just need one or two pieces of a jigsaw on the backdrop of a stable club. But a club as screwed as ours needing huge input in all areas on and off the pitch, I'm quite happy with a more cautious approach. We don't want another Dai do we.

We've been bought out. Why are we screwed? Thought we were only screwed until Dai sold the club.
if we're not financially sound now, will we ever be?

Marcel wrote: ↑27 May 2026 08:28 It amazes me that last time we were at this level under JMs chairmanship we were signing players like Murty, Curo, Butler and Forster.
Now people are wetting themselves over some nobody from Colchester.
Though saying that we did have a decent manager in Pards unlike the clown we’re stuck with now.

RoyalBlue wrote: ↑27 May 2026 15:18

Mid Sussex Royal wrote: ↑27 May 2026 09:13

Marcel wrote: ↑27 May 2026 08:28 It amazes me that last time we were at this level under JMs chairmanship we were signing players like Murty, Curo, Butler and Forster.
Now people are wetting themselves over some nobody from Colchester.
Though saying that we did have a decent manager in Pards unlike the clown we’re stuck with now.

Agree, but easier to attract the top L1 players back then; we were the big fish in the pond with one of the first new grounds etc and SJM had the cash back then.

As an aside, pretty sure Murty and Forster were signed by Tommy Burns?

I'm not sure Tommy Burns survived for long enough after the Magnificent Seven to sign either of them.

Interestingly we paid £700K (when we finally coughed it all up) for Murty back in 1998. 28 years and insane transfer fee inflation later and it seems a budget of £750K for a player is likely to be an issue for our current owners!

Oh, and when we signed Murty he arrived 'broken' and took some time to fix!

stealthpapes wrote: ↑28 May 2026 09:06

Marcel wrote: ↑27 May 2026 08:28 It amazes me that last time we were at this level under JMs chairmanship we were signing players like Murty, Curo, Butler and Forster.
Now people are wetting themselves over some nobody from Colchester.
Though saying that we did have a decent manager in Pards unlike the clown we’re stuck with now.

At the time, Pards was a complete unknown. My memory is that PANTS day was under his watch.

Murty, signed from York, relegated to bottom tier in 98-99.
Cureton, signed from Bristol Rovers, top scorer League 1 98-99 but they finished beneath us in our worst season of that era.
Butler came from Cambridge, recently promoted from fourth tier.
(Forster, yeah, fair, dropped down from Birmingham city.)

But most of these signings were astute ones from around our level, backed up with picking up talented players jettisoned by much higher clubs. Either way, AT THE TIME, these players were not necessarily big names, but at most stand-out talents at appropriate levels.

Two seasons in this tier wasted due to Dai but our form under Selles once he got going was play offs. Hunt missed out by a game. For all the criticism, Richardson kept us in the hunt to the very end of the season. We are not that far off with a club that is slowly turning around.

The difference here is going to be 1 or 2 wins every handful of games. The rest is vibes.

skipper wrote: ↑28 May 2026 16:17

stealthpapes wrote: ↑28 May 2026 09:06

Marcel wrote: ↑27 May 2026 08:28 It amazes me that last time we were at this level under JMs chairmanship we were signing players like Murty, Curo, Butler and Forster.
Now people are wetting themselves over some nobody from Colchester.
Though saying that we did have a decent manager in Pards unlike the clown we’re stuck with now.

At the time, Pards was a complete unknown. My memory is that PANTS day was under his watch.

Murty, signed from York, relegated to bottom tier in 98-99.
Cureton, signed from Bristol Rovers, top scorer League 1 98-99 but they finished beneath us in our worst season of that era.
Butler came from Cambridge, recently promoted from fourth tier.
(Forster, yeah, fair, dropped down from Birmingham city.)

But most of these signings were astute ones from around our level, backed up with picking up talented players jettisoned by much higher clubs. Either way, AT THE TIME, these players were not necessarily big names, but at most stand-out talents at appropriate levels.

Two seasons in this tier wasted due to Dai but our form under Selles once he got going was play offs. Hunt missed out by a game. For all the criticism, Richardson kept us in the hunt to the very end of the season. We are not that far off with a club that is slowly turning around.

The difference here is going to be 1 or 2 wins every handful of games. The rest is vibes.

Spot no. My fear going into the new season is, we don't actually have a squad do we? A few stand out players, subject to some of those going... I'm not sure we really have a cohesive team. And that worries me.

linkenholtroyal wrote: ↑28 May 2026 23:01

skipper wrote: ↑28 May 2026 16:17

stealthpapes wrote: ↑28 May 2026 09:06

At the time, Pards was a complete unknown. My memory is that PANTS day was under his watch.

Murty, signed from York, relegated to bottom tier in 98-99.
Cureton, signed from Bristol Rovers, top scorer League 1 98-99 but they finished beneath us in our worst season of that era.
Butler came from Cambridge, recently promoted from fourth tier.
(Forster, yeah, fair, dropped down from Birmingham city.)

But most of these signings were astute ones from around our level, backed up with picking up talented players jettisoned by much higher clubs. Either way, AT THE TIME, these players were not necessarily big names, but at most stand-out talents at appropriate levels.

Two seasons in this tier wasted due to Dai but our form under Selles once he got going was play offs. Hunt missed out by a game. For all the criticism, Richardson kept us in the hunt to the very end of the season. We are not that far off with a club that is slowly turning around.

The difference here is going to be 1 or 2 wins every handful of games. The rest is vibes.

Spot no. My fear going into the new season is, we don't actually have a squad do we? A few stand out players, subject to some of those going... I'm not sure we really have a cohesive team. And that worries me.

The cohesive team bit is what is interesting, the 106 side was built on good scouting and having a manager that galvanised lower league and youth team players casted aside by there clubs. A lot of them had a point to prove either way and that brought them together. There lies the problem as players theses days all have big egos and are harder to manage due to this as they are looking for the next big move rather then trying to build something. I think the only way to do it is to throw money at it or build from the lower levels. We are doing neither.

linkenholtroyal wrote: ↑28 May 2026 23:01

skipper wrote: ↑28 May 2026 16:17

stealthpapes wrote: ↑28 May 2026 09:06

At the time, Pards was a complete unknown. My memory is that PANTS day was under his watch.

Murty, signed from York, relegated to bottom tier in 98-99.
Cureton, signed from Bristol Rovers, top scorer League 1 98-99 but they finished beneath us in our worst season of that era.
Butler came from Cambridge, recently promoted from fourth tier.
(Forster, yeah, fair, dropped down from Birmingham city.)

But most of these signings were astute ones from around our level, backed up with picking up talented players jettisoned by much higher clubs. Either way, AT THE TIME, these players were not necessarily big names, but at most stand-out talents at appropriate levels.

Two seasons in this tier wasted due to Dai but our form under Selles once he got going was play offs. Hunt missed out by a game. For all the criticism, Richardson kept us in the hunt to the very end of the season. We are not that far off with a club that is slowly turning around.

The difference here is going to be 1 or 2 wins every handful of games. The rest is vibes.

Spot no. My fear going into the new season is, we don't actually have a squad do we? A few stand out players, subject to some of those going... I'm not sure we really have a cohesive team. And that worries me.

The cohesive team bit is what is interesting, the 106 side was built on good scouting and having a manager that galvanised lower league and youth team players casted aside by there clubs. A lot of them had a point to prove either way and that brought them together. There lies the problem as players theses days all have big egos and are harder to manage due to this as they are looking for the next big move rather then trying to build something. I think the only way to do it is to throw money at it or build from the lower levels. We are doing neither.

linkenholtroyal wrote: ↑28 May 2026 23:01 the 106 side was built on good scouting and having a manager that galvanised lower league and youth team players casted aside by their clubs

WestYorksRoyal wrote: ↑01 Jun 2026 11:37 How much do you bet that, whoever wins the race to sign him, he's a massive let down?

Royalwaster wrote: ↑01 Jun 2026 12:40

WestYorksRoyal wrote: ↑01 Jun 2026 11:37 How much do you bet that, whoever wins the race to sign him, he's a massive let down?

Knee injury 10 minutes into his debut.