Agreed. But we still definitely need a striker!
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Summer 2019 - Possible signings
- Thread starter The Proper Chap
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IndoMike
Very well known Exeweb poster
Spunking implies that the money would be wasted. I assume if we sign a recognized goalscorer the money will not be spunked. Have you heard of an asset? Have you seen that what stopped us from getting probable promotion was losing Stockley? Have you seen that even with Stockley we were around 10th in the goalscoring dept ? Do you want to stay forever in Div 2 ? To give ourselves a chance of promotion we need a goalscorer. If we don't sign one, you can write off any chance of promotion. Strange that you're scared of it and find reasons NOT to get promoted. If people never took any risks we'd still be living in caves. We have a bit of money to spare : let's give Matt a chance
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STURTZ
Very well known Exeweb poster
I agree with SRJ that we do seem to have it right when it comes to spending and developing youth and picking up stalled youth prospects elsewhere has proved succesful. The problem being that no sooner do we find a new talent then he's snapped up by someone with disposable money, there can be little doubt that if we'd kept all the talent we have sold over the last four or five years we'd be a higher end league 1 club at least by now. 'Course we'd be skint though unless we found another source of income and could hang on to those players.
We all love being a trust run club and sustainability but, as Indo points out, the thought of going into a season without the possibility of going into the league above is a bit depressing.
We all love being a trust run club and sustainability but, as Indo points out, the thought of going into a season without the possibility of going into the league above is a bit depressing.
A couple of years later we were back in L2 with reduced attendances and a wage bill we couldn’t afford. Loans from the PFA and various others to keep us ticking over until we sold Matt Grimes to wipe out the debts.
The trouble with settling for L2 is that in one of the coming seasons we will have a bad start, the players and fans will panic and we will end up in a relegation scrap, possibly dropping out of the league again.
An ambitious attitude and investment may hopefully keep us out of trouble in the lower half of the division and if we do eventually go up can afford a bad season without the nightmare scenario of losing league status again.
One look at the non league tables confirms what a graveyard of ex league teams the National Leagues have become.
An ambitious attitude and investment may hopefully keep us out of trouble in the lower half of the division and if we do eventually go up can afford a bad season without the nightmare scenario of losing league status again.
One look at the non league tables confirms what a graveyard of ex league teams the National Leagues have become.
It’s not a case of settling for L2, rather it’s a case of how we can plan properly for L1 with a realistic chance of staying there for more than a few years. Our current use of windfall income is right as far as I’m concerned. A third for the playing budget is necessary to keep us competitive. A third for the academy is right as that’s our model and maximises our chances of producing new assets. A third on capital spend and infrastructure is also right, we need decent facilities to attract the best players and some corporate £££.
Spending extra now to maximise immediate on-pitch gain is foolish imo. In essence that reduces our ability to sustain any on-field success for the medium term. We don’t have a magic money tree and our cash in the bank is a finite resource.
The bigger conversation of course is how we increase revenue to allow us to compete where we all want to be. Should we seek outside investment?
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Temporarily Exiled
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The same way Lincoln did, probably - growing support for the club in the city. If we had weekly gates of 8,000 and a season ticket waiting list, this wouldn't even be a conversation. I think the club is improving in community outreach, and it's starting to pay off. It doesn't help that our name was mud not too long ago - lots of local businesses were forced to accept pennies in the £ when we escaped insolvency - but time is healing those rifts too.
West Ham loaned out plenty of players to lower-league and even non-league clubs while he was at the helm there (although he may not have had control over that aspect) - I wouldn't be overly worried. If West Brom aren't keen, our club is earning a good reputation for developing young players, and I'm sure that a fair few clubs would be keen on sending their youngsters down here for the season.
it's rather been a pattern with us, 1981, led to crushing debts in the mid-eighties, promotion in '89 led to near bankruptcy with silly wages being paid to blokes more interested in going to the pub than playing football.
In the end IndoMike says give Matt a chance, then says Forte won't play. Well I'm afraid Forte was one of Matt's chance and it hasn't worked out, he's been giving Bowman to replace Stockley. that'better than many managers get.
He needs to work with what he has, Forte and the young uns, in the end, we can look at loan options, but if we get anyone in I'm afraid it'll be a makeweight in the Watson/Simpson/Morrison envelope.
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