We had all suspected that the news that came earlier this week about there being no more money to spend at the club. The rumour had been around for a while. Coupled with Doughty resigning his position as chairman it seems that he has reached his watershed of fees he is willing to invest in the club.
I saw an interesting analogy over on LTLF forum the other day, that basically your career gambler will have a maximum amount he will go to before cutting his losses. It seems Doughty has reached that point too. £70 million appears to have reached a zenith where he has decreed no more.
And with that was the pre match news that the club although not directly up for sale, Doughty would be willing to listen to a good offer, from someone he would see fit as moving the club forward. He has appointed Seymour Pierce to assist in this.
That to me rules out foreign investors. The legacy of these in English football is that outside of the very top clubs they largely are merely investment opportunities, a chance to invest in a club to be promoted to sell off. That they aren't really acting in the clubs interests. The Dispatches program summed it up. Thats also ruling out the vaguely illegal activities some of these may well be up to, like happened with Carson Yeung at Birmingham, or indeed the insanity that occurred a few hundred yards away over the Trent at Notts County.
But now we have nothing. What now? Well the first question might happen very soon. QPR are talking about recalling Clint Hill, what would we replace him with? Lynch is the only real choice, perhaps Gunter. But it leaves us so so short in other places. With no young left back banging on the door,it leaves us bare.
The reality is that we will have to become a selling club. We haven't had to do this for a long time. If we had to sell the likes of McGugan, or Camp to bring in some cash, and fund maybe 2 or 3 other players. Doughty has said he will honour all existing contracts. There are some key contracts up for renewal next summer. Would it be best to cash in on these players whilst we can, like in the dark days post Platt after ITV Digitals implosion.
One asks whether the protesters who wanted Doughty out and got their way are now happy. They will no doubt point out that this is exactly the kind of thing that they wanted to show up, that Doughty needs to be replaced. Well that isn't our decision as fans so is largely a useless debate. What we can do, is debate the facts of whether his tenure was any good. Doughty pulling out may or may not be a good thing. Many have suggested he held us back with bad appointments and failing to invest at the right time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course and can always make the fool look wise.
The reality is that now we cannot cover the losses the club makes. Many of the anti Doughty brigade suggest the club must be run badly to have such losses. But hang on, save for selling players regularly or forcing up ticket prices, which would both be unpopular decisions what other income streams could we really have to make the money back? it's a ridiculous argument. Do you want quality players to get us up, or do you want cheap rubbish players. Your damned if you do and damned if you don't at times.
We will have to look for youngsters on loan from the Premier League,for free transfers from around the world, and to sell any player who shows enough about them to sell off. That might see Arsenal sniff around Jamal Lascelles again. McGugan I am sure will attract attention again, and to be honest maybe he will want to go.
I saw an interesting analogy over on LTLF forum the other day, that basically your career gambler will have a maximum amount he will go to before cutting his losses. It seems Doughty has reached that point too. £70 million appears to have reached a zenith where he has decreed no more.
And with that was the pre match news that the club although not directly up for sale, Doughty would be willing to listen to a good offer, from someone he would see fit as moving the club forward. He has appointed Seymour Pierce to assist in this.
That to me rules out foreign investors. The legacy of these in English football is that outside of the very top clubs they largely are merely investment opportunities, a chance to invest in a club to be promoted to sell off. That they aren't really acting in the clubs interests. The Dispatches program summed it up. Thats also ruling out the vaguely illegal activities some of these may well be up to, like happened with Carson Yeung at Birmingham, or indeed the insanity that occurred a few hundred yards away over the Trent at Notts County.
But now we have nothing. What now? Well the first question might happen very soon. QPR are talking about recalling Clint Hill, what would we replace him with? Lynch is the only real choice, perhaps Gunter. But it leaves us so so short in other places. With no young left back banging on the door,it leaves us bare.
The reality is that we will have to become a selling club. We haven't had to do this for a long time. If we had to sell the likes of McGugan, or Camp to bring in some cash, and fund maybe 2 or 3 other players. Doughty has said he will honour all existing contracts. There are some key contracts up for renewal next summer. Would it be best to cash in on these players whilst we can, like in the dark days post Platt after ITV Digitals implosion.
One asks whether the protesters who wanted Doughty out and got their way are now happy. They will no doubt point out that this is exactly the kind of thing that they wanted to show up, that Doughty needs to be replaced. Well that isn't our decision as fans so is largely a useless debate. What we can do, is debate the facts of whether his tenure was any good. Doughty pulling out may or may not be a good thing. Many have suggested he held us back with bad appointments and failing to invest at the right time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course and can always make the fool look wise.
The reality is that now we cannot cover the losses the club makes. Many of the anti Doughty brigade suggest the club must be run badly to have such losses. But hang on, save for selling players regularly or forcing up ticket prices, which would both be unpopular decisions what other income streams could we really have to make the money back? it's a ridiculous argument. Do you want quality players to get us up, or do you want cheap rubbish players. Your damned if you do and damned if you don't at times.
We will have to look for youngsters on loan from the Premier League,for free transfers from around the world, and to sell any player who shows enough about them to sell off. That might see Arsenal sniff around Jamal Lascelles again. McGugan I am sure will attract attention again, and to be honest maybe he will want to go.
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