Seasider99
Well-known member
My first post on here and it’s unfortunately a rant! I have seen some similar posts on here, but thought I’d throw my opinion out there also. It’s one that I have put off for a long time, always trying to give Sadler the benefit of the doubt, but after the last few games it now feels the right time. I appreciate everything Sadler has done so far and he’s clearly investing large sums off the pitch in both the East Stand and the Training Ground, but why does the investment on the field seems to have dried up over the past year or so? I've only included players below that we reportedly paid a fee for and all transfer fees I've used are rough estimates based on what I remember hearing at the time of the transfer, so feel free to let me know if any look wildly wrong!
It looks as though over £2m was spent in transfer fees between 2019 and 2021 before our promotion to the Championship, with the club paying fees for:
So why has the amount of players being bought for a fee fallen so much? In the time frame in which the amounts invested appear to have fallen, we’ve also sold Jerry and Bowler and received compensation for Critchley which at the time was reported to be almost seven figures. That leaves an amount of perhaps £6m. Of course, there is a huge loss to an owner when running a club, especially one such as ours where we aren’t getting 30 or 40 thousand fans along every week, and this money will likely be received across the next few years in instalments rather than all at once, but all of this additional income makes the fact that less money seems to have been spent on transfers than previously even more puzzling.
It’s very easy to blame both the players and Critchley for the fairly underwhelming start to the season, and Critchley certainly hasn’t helped the situation with his team selections, formations and dull brand of football, but there simply hasn’t been enough investment to compete at the top of the table in my view. How are we expecting to compete with the likes of Bolton, Derby and Portsmouth and achieve promotion when we’ve almost exclusively signed players for free?
I don’t think Morgan has done too badly for us so far, but it seemed a very strange signing after not even being offered a new deal by Charlton (a mid-table team last year). Oakley Boothe is another one, if he performed so well in pre-season, why did we wait until 2 weeks of the season had elapsed before signing him? The answer is simple, he’s received no other offers and we got desperate. He was also apparently largely unimpressive last year at Lincoln.
It has been obvious to us supporters for weeks that a striker should have been at the top of our shopping list, we’ve failed to sign one (excluding Joseph who is still on the treatment table while we throw points away due to our failure to create and take chances). Instead the midfield has been overloaded with bang average players, so why haven’t we invested in signing a couple of quality creative players and a striker? I don’t see why signing a further 2-3 players for six figure sums (say perhaps anywhere between £300k and £600k each) hasn’t happened, it doesn’t seem an unrealistic expectation.
What are everybody else’s thoughts on this? Am I missing something?
It looks as though over £2m was spent in transfer fees between 2019 and 2021 before our promotion to the Championship, with the club paying fees for:
- Hardie (£250K)
- Nuttall (£500K)
- MacDonald (£100K)
- Thorniley (£200K)
- Husband (£200K)
- Howe (£100K)
- Garrity (£50K)
- Yates (£200K)
- Hamilton (£200K)
- Lubala (£300K)
- Gretarsson (£150K)
- Gabriel (£750K)
- Casey (£500K)
- Lavery (£200K)
- Carey (£150K)
- Dale (£200K)
- Beesley (£150K)
- Thompson (£300K)
- Lyons (£300K)
- Norburn (£250K)
So why has the amount of players being bought for a fee fallen so much? In the time frame in which the amounts invested appear to have fallen, we’ve also sold Jerry and Bowler and received compensation for Critchley which at the time was reported to be almost seven figures. That leaves an amount of perhaps £6m. Of course, there is a huge loss to an owner when running a club, especially one such as ours where we aren’t getting 30 or 40 thousand fans along every week, and this money will likely be received across the next few years in instalments rather than all at once, but all of this additional income makes the fact that less money seems to have been spent on transfers than previously even more puzzling.
It’s very easy to blame both the players and Critchley for the fairly underwhelming start to the season, and Critchley certainly hasn’t helped the situation with his team selections, formations and dull brand of football, but there simply hasn’t been enough investment to compete at the top of the table in my view. How are we expecting to compete with the likes of Bolton, Derby and Portsmouth and achieve promotion when we’ve almost exclusively signed players for free?
I don’t think Morgan has done too badly for us so far, but it seemed a very strange signing after not even being offered a new deal by Charlton (a mid-table team last year). Oakley Boothe is another one, if he performed so well in pre-season, why did we wait until 2 weeks of the season had elapsed before signing him? The answer is simple, he’s received no other offers and we got desperate. He was also apparently largely unimpressive last year at Lincoln.
It has been obvious to us supporters for weeks that a striker should have been at the top of our shopping list, we’ve failed to sign one (excluding Joseph who is still on the treatment table while we throw points away due to our failure to create and take chances). Instead the midfield has been overloaded with bang average players, so why haven’t we invested in signing a couple of quality creative players and a striker? I don’t see why signing a further 2-3 players for six figure sums (say perhaps anywhere between £300k and £600k each) hasn’t happened, it doesn’t seem an unrealistic expectation.
What are everybody else’s thoughts on this? Am I missing something?
