sendorange
27 Oct 2003, 11:28 AM
http://www.thisislondon.com/sport/football/articles/7382735?source=Evening
Losing 7 million is heavy, but considering the signings we've made will be there for years and have considerable resale value (if they don't pan out) and the players we chopped out for peanuts, it's not so bad. The worry is that this figure doesn't include the spending on Postiga, Zamora and Kanoute (!). Certainly it's insignificant though compared to Leeds crippling debts. Or even Everton's 30 million pound debt, for example.
But the raising of our debt from 3.1 million to 10 million is still a cause for concern. Really we should thank Sugar for being such a skinflint in his time in charge, he made sure we were financially one of the healthiest clubs in the league, apart from ManYoo. I credit Levy's ambition, but we need to get back on a fairly more even transfer keel unless we can get the investment plan sorted out. No more chopping players out for nothing while spending millions on replacements until then.
The team doesn't need a lot more money thrown at it yet. We can sell Carr in January if he won't sign a new deal, as we've got youngsters who can play right back to a very high standard (Kelly, Marney and Ifill) and senior defenders who can also play there to give them time (King could play there, Mabizela used to play there and we could move Tanno over from the left). So that's ready income of about 5 million right there.
Apart from that I'd look to let loose about 1.5 million in January to sign Reo-Coker from Wimbledon, so he can be groomed into the box-to-box tackling midfielder role. No need to pay over the odds for the finished article. A*senal didn't when they got Viera, and Liverpool didn't when they groomed Gerrard into the role all the way up through the youth ranks. Then I'd also let loose whatever it takes to get Konchesky from Charlton, let them have Perry in part exchance. Apart from that we're not desperate for reinforcements in any other area, if anything we should be out to chop Poyet, Toda and Doherty. Only Doherty will get a fee, probably about 750,000. But the saving on wages will be good as well.
Losing 7 million is heavy, but considering the signings we've made will be there for years and have considerable resale value (if they don't pan out) and the players we chopped out for peanuts, it's not so bad. The worry is that this figure doesn't include the spending on Postiga, Zamora and Kanoute (!). Certainly it's insignificant though compared to Leeds crippling debts. Or even Everton's 30 million pound debt, for example.
But the raising of our debt from 3.1 million to 10 million is still a cause for concern. Really we should thank Sugar for being such a skinflint in his time in charge, he made sure we were financially one of the healthiest clubs in the league, apart from ManYoo. I credit Levy's ambition, but we need to get back on a fairly more even transfer keel unless we can get the investment plan sorted out. No more chopping players out for nothing while spending millions on replacements until then.
The team doesn't need a lot more money thrown at it yet. We can sell Carr in January if he won't sign a new deal, as we've got youngsters who can play right back to a very high standard (Kelly, Marney and Ifill) and senior defenders who can also play there to give them time (King could play there, Mabizela used to play there and we could move Tanno over from the left). So that's ready income of about 5 million right there.
Apart from that I'd look to let loose about 1.5 million in January to sign Reo-Coker from Wimbledon, so he can be groomed into the box-to-box tackling midfielder role. No need to pay over the odds for the finished article. A*senal didn't when they got Viera, and Liverpool didn't when they groomed Gerrard into the role all the way up through the youth ranks. Then I'd also let loose whatever it takes to get Konchesky from Charlton, let them have Perry in part exchance. Apart from that we're not desperate for reinforcements in any other area, if anything we should be out to chop Poyet, Toda and Doherty. Only Doherty will get a fee, probably about 750,000. But the saving on wages will be good as well.