January - What will Ashley do?

[Slugsy]

He will f*** it up.

 

I didn't need to go past the second post of this thread to get the right answer!

[merlin]

Ashley has little room for manoeuvre - if he wants to sell the club he will be more likely to get what he wants if the club is in the prem. If he wants that to happen, he certainly has to hang on to the players he has, or replace them with better ones and we all know that he will avoid any outlay if he can.

 

Expect more loan signings or at the outside, one or two fairly cheap signings.

 

The trouble will start if he fails to sell after the club is promoted - he will NOT want to spend decent money unless he gets to the start of the new season and realizes that he HAS to unless he wants to see the club go down...by then, all the decent players will have joined other clubs and the cycle starts again....

[madras]

Ashley has little room for manoeuvre - if he wants to sell the club he will be more likely to get what he wants if the club is in the prem. If he wants that to happen, he certainly has to hang on to the players he has, or replace them with better ones and we all know that he will avoid any outlay if he can.

 

Expect more loan signings or at the outside, one or two fairly cheap signings.

 

The trouble will start if he fails to sell after the club is promoted - he will NOT want to spend decent money unless he gets to the start of the new season and realizes that he HAS to unless he wants to see the club go down...by then, all the decent players will have joined other clubs and the cycle starts again....

"he will not want to spend........" nor should we have to expect it. we may just have to put up with being one of the many clubs who have to survive without a sugar daddy.

 

 

 

[Lloydie]

Since there's no knowing what he will do, here's what he should do. Try to offload Barton, Geremi, Smith, Xisco and Colocinni, and try to keep the rest. Let Harewood's deal expire now Shola's fit and Lovenkrands is in.

 

It's unlikely we could get rid of all the players suggested, but they're all a big drag on the wage bill, and with the exception of Colocinni I don't see any of them playing a part in keeping us in the Premiership next year. Colocinni, sadly, is paid far too much to keep him around on his current contract.*

 

But outgoings need to be balanced by new arrivals. Hopefully by now we've actually identified some players we want who could do a job for us for the rest of this season, and into next. West Ham and Portsmouth may well be open to offers for players, and the players themselves might be looking for a way out. Other than that we should be scouring the Championship and below, plus the Nordic, Dutch, Scottish and Irish leagues. There is talent there, and players from those nations tend to adapt quickly to English football.

 

* This is 90 grand a week I think. Which is probably enough to hire 45 scouts full time. What would have been the better investment?

[Mowen]

Selling Coloccini right now would be mental, he's worth those wages if the defence is what's getting us promoted again. I'd hazard a guess at it being £20-30k lower p/w than that at the moment. I wouldn't mind a bit of overhaul but I just don't have the confidence in us bringing anyone in so I'd stick at the moment.