After tonight's meeting I suspect a wholesale clearout of experienced pros in January & us hoping the younger (cheaper) squad members can be galvinised to keep us up in the second half of the season.
I love De Barr's passion and fight, but at times he does look a bit like Morias, who for us looked more interested in bundling and wrestling, than playing football.
The opportunity to nudge them out was in summer when they still had a decent enough reputation to retrieve comparable wage elsewhere. Horgan was out of contract! Those ships have sailed.
Horgan's problem is he doesn't really fit into the way GA sets the team up to play, so has always looked a bit like a fish out of water...I was a tad surprised we renewed him
I don't expect anyone to leave in January. Given the need to get promoted to get access to the TV money to cover these ridiculous debts, they will need to continue to roll the dice to get into the play-offs.
At the end of the season if we don't make it, then there will be a huge upheaval.
I wonder how the players are feeling after this news...
Never been convinced. Never been disappointed. Re-signing him in the summer was an act of madness. IF GA pushed for that to happen then clearly he is out of touch with the finances. If it came from elsewhere then my suspicion that Pete was too friendly with the squad is pretty much bang on. He wanted to be the rock and roll friend to everyone and he is a really decent and nice guy. And exactly NOT the person who should be in charge of the purse strings.
Let’s not be overly presumptuous. It could be that Horgan accepted a pay cut in order to stay. We don’t know if the rumoured wage for him is factual either.
The sales of Forino and Mehmeti in January would hopefully cover most of the shortfall this season. However God knows how we will deal with next season's deficit
How about we flog Anis and Forrino to clubs who are willing to pay all or most of the fee upfront and then kindly loan them back to us for the rest of the season so that we can get into the playoffs and go up
My preferred option would be; a good value sale of Anis and Forino, to clubs higher up the pyramid, helping JJ find a new club and offering out our highest paid under performers, not necessarily for a fee, but just to get them off the wage budget.
Ideally we'd do this in the first 10 days of the window so we can take stock of what we've got and what we need.
Even if we were to get into the playoffs it’s still less than a 1 in 4 chance of promotion (assuming we’d be underdogs in both the semis and the final.)
Sunderland were always more likely to win the playoff final - although one of the great things about football is that the better team loses fairly often, unlike chess or tennis.
I think at the start of the play offs our chances of going up were greater than one in four, to answer your original point.
Were we to reach the playoffs this season, it will be on the back of an incredible secind half to the season and so I'd imagine I would believe that again we had a greater than one in four chance of going up
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After tonight's meeting I suspect a wholesale clearout of experienced pros in January & us hoping the younger (cheaper) squad members can be galvinised to keep us up in the second half of the season.
Far from shutting down the B team it sounds like they’ll be the starters come February.
In Taff's youtube doc, he suggest that de Barr is a big deal and that kids should emulate him. I'd like to see more of him to be fair.
Maybe time to blood some youth in time for next year.
I see it with him. I’ve seen a lot more from him in his limited cameos than I’ve seen from Mellor - who I believe is on a first team contract ….
Hopefully not a big deal in the way Muller was!
I love De Barr's passion and fight, but at times he does look a bit like Morias, who for us looked more interested in bundling and wrestling, than playing football.
Pendlebury has gone. But add Parsons to that list and you might be right. All look to have something, just not near L1 standard yet.
How do you think we're going to ship out the experienced pros? They'll all be on decent whacks.
The opportunity to nudge them out was in summer when they still had a decent enough reputation to retrieve comparable wage elsewhere. Horgan was out of contract! Those ships have sailed.
Someone quoted Horgan as being on 7k a week.
I can't believe that, especially not upon relegation, but I'm probably basing that on my perception of what he delivers.
I wonder if all of those who steadfastly insist he's brilliant despite hardly ever assisting or scoring might change their opinion :D
Horgan's problem is he doesn't really fit into the way GA sets the team up to play, so has always looked a bit like a fish out of water...I was a tad surprised we renewed him
I've never been convinced at all.
But I'm still wondering why we don't get back to the format where we played 2 centre mids, then Horgan ahead of them, flanked by Mehmeti and McCleary.
Especially while we have our centre mid issues. Horgan's unarguable high workrate would surely help out.
I don't expect anyone to leave in January. Given the need to get promoted to get access to the TV money to cover these ridiculous debts, they will need to continue to roll the dice to get into the play-offs.
At the end of the season if we don't make it, then there will be a huge upheaval.
I wonder how the players are feeling after this news...
Completely agree.
Never been convinced. Never been disappointed. Re-signing him in the summer was an act of madness. IF GA pushed for that to happen then clearly he is out of touch with the finances. If it came from elsewhere then my suspicion that Pete was too friendly with the squad is pretty much bang on. He wanted to be the rock and roll friend to everyone and he is a really decent and nice guy. And exactly NOT the person who should be in charge of the purse strings.
Let’s not be overly presumptuous. It could be that Horgan accepted a pay cut in order to stay. We don’t know if the rumoured wage for him is factual either.
The sales of Forino and Mehmeti in January would hopefully cover most of the shortfall this season. However God knows how we will deal with next season's deficit
But if it's Championship or bust we need to be signing players, not selling them.
How about we flog Anis and Forrino to clubs who are willing to pay all or most of the fee upfront and then kindly loan them back to us for the rest of the season so that we can get into the playoffs and go up
then I woke up…,,
My preferred option would be; a good value sale of Anis and Forino, to clubs higher up the pyramid, helping JJ find a new club and offering out our highest paid under performers, not necessarily for a fee, but just to get them off the wage budget.
Ideally we'd do this in the first 10 days of the window so we can take stock of what we've got and what we need.
I think this £7,500 figure seems to be based on a 25% relegation deduction on 10k, which some random website published last year.
The chance of it being accurate is probably zero at best.
I agree with @Commoner. If we are within touch of the play offs in January I can’t see anyone leaving.
RC will surely keep pushing for promotion this season. If that doesn’t happen Anis and Forino will be sold in the summer.
Next season would then see us going back to a more sustainable wage budget and possibly RC putting the for sale sign up
Even if we were to get into the playoffs it’s still less than a 1 in 4 chance of promotion (assuming we’d be underdogs in both the semis and the final.)
That flat final against Sunderland looks worse and worse in retrospect.
And now we have more of an explanation for why things went so flat and quiet afterwards: they knew they'd f****d it.
Bookmakers' odds do not equal actual probability of something happening
But one team is more likely to win than another in reality, irrespective of the bookmakers odds.
Sunderland were always more likely to win the playoff final - although one of the great things about football is that the better team loses fairly often, unlike chess or tennis.
It's okay - I expect our team will show up at Wembley any minute now.
I think at the start of the play offs our chances of going up were greater than one in four, to answer your original point.
Were we to reach the playoffs this season, it will be on the back of an incredible secind half to the season and so I'd imagine I would believe that again we had a greater than one in four chance of going up
Curtis Thompson has implied on his Instagram that he will be "back soon"