Good to read the various points made and I think it’s pretty clear that for both clubs the ideal would be for AM to sign for you for an acceptable fee. What that fee is I don’t know but I would expect £500k to be very much top side. I’d expect around £300k but perhaps with add ons if you do get promoted but since we’re all guessing we don’t really know. What could change things from our side though is that there is speculation that Josh Sheehan may be sold and it’s Sheehan who was competing for Morley’s place so if he did go Morley would potentially come straight back into our first team as the playmaker again. He seems to have recovered his form in that department since he’s been with you as Evatt acknowledges so that could change things. From what’s been written though the balls still very much in your court, he’s available if the price discussed is agreeable and if not we keep him so there’s a clear decision for your side to make.
Not clever enough to do the survey thing but do we prefer loanees who are good at the footballing, give us half a season of quality only for our hearts to be broken when their parent clubs call them back (so there's no point playing them for the last few games) or run of the mill ones their original managers forget all about that we can keep for all season and save us all the fretting in January?
(This must be the first season we've had THREE loanees that we think are integral to our first team? Another reason to trust the management team I reckon.)
I do think PL loanees are a better bet for staying the season, like Potts, because if they are being loaned out to L1 they are certainly not seen as ready for the PL! The idea that a fellow L1 club would let us keep a fantastic player all season is a nice one, but was never perhaps realistic.
I think we are all agreed that ML’s priority is a world class academy. He has stated that WWFC as the attached club will be where he expects young academy players to initially play. So the question is, in what league does he want that club. It might be league one, meaning youngsters get a chance to showcase talent, rather than championship or above where they might find it harder to do so, until such time as the academy is producing the highest level of quality.
perhaps behind the scenes, ML and team would like a few more years in league 1 until the academy needs a championship club? In which case no Morley. Or maybe being ahead of schedule can be made to work. In which case Morley. Because Morley makes Scowen the best he’s ever been and the back 4 look like God’s annointed. He may truly be The Player.
Bottom line for me is not whether ML and co have the money, it’s about whether a big promotion push suits their long-term football goals which seem far bigger than WWFC.
you may be right Manboobs but I’d think that your owner and certainly your manager would want to get you up the league as soon as possible and let the academy look after itself. He’s not short of cash so I’m sure he knew when he bought Wycombe that he’d have to put his own money in because on gates of 5k the clubs never going to pay for itself. We’re averaging 22k and we still lose 6 to 8 million a year and we don’t throw cash around because we don’t have a lot. I’m split on it because I really like Morley and would have him back but we have other areas in the squad that need strengthening so it wouldn’t surprise me if we did do a deal for him. One aspect I’d overlooked is that we still owe Rochdale a sell on clause if we sell. I don’t imagine it’s huge considering we paid around £100k for him but it will still affect the price we expect to get.
Dan Rice in his initial interview talked about setting up a “ world class academy “ but he also stated that they want us to into the Championship , become an established club in that league and ultimately the plan was the Premiership!! Assuming Morley wants to stay ( we’ve seen no comment to that effect) , this is a real test of the ownerships ambitions in terms of league status.If we’d been half way down the league, the debate around Morley wouldn’t happen and Morley would go back to Bolton. But we’re in the automatic promotion, so this is a moment of truth for the owners.
I’m just as worried about losing Low, Taylor, Kone, Fred and Harvie in this window as well.
Humphreys will return to Ipswich in the next window unless we go up and Ipswich stay up.
One of them is replaceable but several of them could really derail us for a few weeks. Let’s hope whomever comes in hits the ground running and wish all the best to those that leave.
I suspect there will be a few surprises this window. Maybe even Jakki Degg on co-comms to cheer old glasshalfempty up!
They’re never going to say they don’t want to be promoted, but it could be possible that with the stricter financial rules in place in the Championship they’d rather we were in League One during the period they get the academy set up.
Another issue with Morley is wages - if we end up paying silly money for him, he’d have a reasonable expectation that he should be paid a silly wage too.
-Sure Dan. Always have time for you. New chinos? Nice.
-Ummm....I've just spoken to Lommy and he's really impressed with what you are doing but...ummm....we're getting promoted in 2026.
-To the Premier League!! Wow!!
-No. That's in 2030. 2026 is when we go into the Championship. 2025 is when we lose the playoff final. We've talked about this already.
-But...but...
-No buts. It's been decided. If you don't like it we can get you the Ipswich job. We'll get on it after we've finished getting Kone his Kazakhstan citizenship.
-Christ...I should never have left Colchester.....
I hope when you say next window you mean the summer one.
I hope also that I have the support of @LDF and @OakwoodExile (!) when I say that I don’t understand the use of whom in “whomever comes in” or indeed the random use of whom by @EwanHoosaami in a recent post.
I thought of googling Jakki Degg but decided the excitement might be too much at my age.
I know we’ve recently been described as physically tough by no less a judge than Ian Evatt but I don’t think we’ll ever aspire to join the “Premiership”.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year all , Let's hope we don't sign anyone in January as it's inevitable we will lose them in May.
It's amazing we can actually field eleven players let alone win games given so many were apparently hopeless and the rest are about to be poached, and given we have a manager who went from one category to the other in 12 months and an owner who only cares about youth football in a different country.
We won’t want to be held to ransom over Morley, but he’s Bolton’s asset so you can understand their position. Aaron Morley is an outstanding Champ level player that suits the team and the way MB wants to play. You could say that there are equally good players out there that could fill that position, but it’s not quite as simple as that. Great teams are more than the sum of their parts, so finding the right combination isn’t always a predictable thing. I suspect that an equivalent proven Champ level player could well cost much more than the £500K being bandied around on here. Morley appears to be settled here and enjoying his football, so to me keeping Aaron is a no brainer. Promotion is one thing, making it stick is another. Much bigger clubs than us have struggled to stay in the Championship, so this is proper test of ML’s ambitions. We’re already way, way above the clubs ability to pay our outgoings, so we may as well go for it and worry later.
Comments
Beautiful.
I’m like Chemi Badenough, I never make a gaff.
I never suspected that being at the top of the table would be so divisive and nerve-wracking.
Good to read the various points made and I think it’s pretty clear that for both clubs the ideal would be for AM to sign for you for an acceptable fee. What that fee is I don’t know but I would expect £500k to be very much top side. I’d expect around £300k but perhaps with add ons if you do get promoted but since we’re all guessing we don’t really know. What could change things from our side though is that there is speculation that Josh Sheehan may be sold and it’s Sheehan who was competing for Morley’s place so if he did go Morley would potentially come straight back into our first team as the playmaker again. He seems to have recovered his form in that department since he’s been with you as Evatt acknowledges so that could change things. From what’s been written though the balls still very much in your court, he’s available if the price discussed is agreeable and if not we keep him so there’s a clear decision for your side to make.
Genius
It’s the hope that kills yer.
I’m backing off from expectation, speculation, justification, and any other cation you care to name.
Can we just take a moment to applaud all the L1 clubs who have managed to eke out a win here and there without Morley in their teams?
Not clever enough to do the survey thing but do we prefer loanees who are good at the footballing, give us half a season of quality only for our hearts to be broken when their parent clubs call them back (so there's no point playing them for the last few games) or run of the mill ones their original managers forget all about that we can keep for all season and save us all the fretting in January?
(This must be the first season we've had THREE loanees that we think are integral to our first team? Another reason to trust the management team I reckon.)
Good point well made.
I do think PL loanees are a better bet for staying the season, like Potts, because if they are being loaned out to L1 they are certainly not seen as ready for the PL! The idea that a fellow L1 club would let us keep a fantastic player all season is a nice one, but was never perhaps realistic.
So Humphreys is here to stay. Until May (?) at least. Can’t remember when the season ends.
I think we are all agreed that ML’s priority is a world class academy. He has stated that WWFC as the attached club will be where he expects young academy players to initially play. So the question is, in what league does he want that club. It might be league one, meaning youngsters get a chance to showcase talent, rather than championship or above where they might find it harder to do so, until such time as the academy is producing the highest level of quality.
perhaps behind the scenes, ML and team would like a few more years in league 1 until the academy needs a championship club? In which case no Morley. Or maybe being ahead of schedule can be made to work. In which case Morley. Because Morley makes Scowen the best he’s ever been and the back 4 look like God’s annointed. He may truly be The Player.
Bottom line for me is not whether ML and co have the money, it’s about whether a big promotion push suits their long-term football goals which seem far bigger than WWFC.
you may be right Manboobs but I’d think that your owner and certainly your manager would want to get you up the league as soon as possible and let the academy look after itself. He’s not short of cash so I’m sure he knew when he bought Wycombe that he’d have to put his own money in because on gates of 5k the clubs never going to pay for itself. We’re averaging 22k and we still lose 6 to 8 million a year and we don’t throw cash around because we don’t have a lot. I’m split on it because I really like Morley and would have him back but we have other areas in the squad that need strengthening so it wouldn’t surprise me if we did do a deal for him. One aspect I’d overlooked is that we still owe Rochdale a sell on clause if we sell. I don’t imagine it’s huge considering we paid around £100k for him but it will still affect the price we expect to get.
Dan Rice in his initial interview talked about setting up a “ world class academy “ but he also stated that they want us to into the Championship , become an established club in that league and ultimately the plan was the Premiership!! Assuming Morley wants to stay ( we’ve seen no comment to that effect) , this is a real test of the ownerships ambitions in terms of league status.If we’d been half way down the league, the debate around Morley wouldn’t happen and Morley would go back to Bolton. But we’re in the automatic promotion, so this is a moment of truth for the owners.
I’m just as worried about losing Low, Taylor, Kone, Fred and Harvie in this window as well.
Humphreys will return to Ipswich in the next window unless we go up and Ipswich stay up.
One of them is replaceable but several of them could really derail us for a few weeks. Let’s hope whomever comes in hits the ground running and wish all the best to those that leave.
I suspect there will be a few surprises this window. Maybe even Jakki Degg on co-comms to cheer old glasshalfempty up!
They’re never going to say they don’t want to be promoted, but it could be possible that with the stricter financial rules in place in the Championship they’d rather we were in League One during the period they get the academy set up.
Another issue with Morley is wages - if we end up paying silly money for him, he’d have a reasonable expectation that he should be paid a silly wage too.
-Matt, can I have a quick word with you?
-Sure Dan. Always have time for you. New chinos? Nice.
-Ummm....I've just spoken to Lommy and he's really impressed with what you are doing but...ummm....we're getting promoted in 2026.
-To the Premier League!! Wow!!
-No. That's in 2030. 2026 is when we go into the Championship. 2025 is when we lose the playoff final. We've talked about this already.
-But...but...
-No buts. It's been decided. If you don't like it we can get you the Ipswich job. We'll get on it after we've finished getting Kone his Kazakhstan citizenship.
-Christ...I should never have left Colchester.....
I remember when losing Chris Forino was a disaster that we would never recover from. And when relegation beckoned after Mehmeti’s departure.
No one said either of these things.
Aaron Morley, you have a lot to answer for.
I hope when you say next window you mean the summer one.
I hope also that I have the support of @LDF and @OakwoodExile (!) when I say that I don’t understand the use of whom in “whomever comes in” or indeed the random use of whom by @EwanHoosaami in a recent post.
I thought of googling Jakki Degg but decided the excitement might be too much at my age.
I know we’ve recently been described as physically tough by no less a judge than Ian Evatt but I don’t think we’ll ever aspire to join the “Premiership”.
To hear that Bolton are losing £6-8 million a year with gates averaging 22,000 is one of the most disturbing things I’ve heard for a long time.
“And we don’t throw cash around” is a very funny statement to make when you’re losing £8m a year
Only quoting Dan Rice’s comments.
Best stick to Aimi MacDonald
I think the comment was referencing the use of the word ‘Premiership’ as opposed to the ‘Premier League’.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year all , Let's hope we don't sign anyone in January as it's inevitable we will lose them in May.
It's amazing we can actually field eleven players let alone win games given so many were apparently hopeless and the rest are about to be poached, and given we have a manager who went from one category to the other in 12 months and an owner who only cares about youth football in a different country.
Youth football in a different country: Buzzcocks demos 1976-79
LPs that should exist
We won’t want to be held to ransom over Morley, but he’s Bolton’s asset so you can understand their position. Aaron Morley is an outstanding Champ level player that suits the team and the way MB wants to play. You could say that there are equally good players out there that could fill that position, but it’s not quite as simple as that. Great teams are more than the sum of their parts, so finding the right combination isn’t always a predictable thing. I suspect that an equivalent proven Champ level player could well cost much more than the £500K being bandied around on here. Morley appears to be settled here and enjoying his football, so to me keeping Aaron is a no brainer. Promotion is one thing, making it stick is another. Much bigger clubs than us have struggled to stay in the Championship, so this is proper test of ML’s ambitions. We’re already way, way above the clubs ability to pay our outgoings, so we may as well go for it and worry later.
@micra you always have my support!