Just now, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

If I remember rightly, we were in for him when he moved to Bournemouth from Liverpool. May have legs.

Still think i would prefer Cunningham. Just he would require a fee and by the looks of it we are trying to do the defence as cheaply as possible.

Just now, Herbie6590 said:

If that happened, the new owners would either have to cut costs by c.£17m p.a. or put c.£17m new money in each season for us to stand stock still. Add COVID income depletion into the mix and that £17m needs another £5m p.a. to make up for gate/hospitality revenue lost.
Should the12 point deduction result in relegation then the new owners would need to find another c.£5m to make up for lost TV money.
Also, unless & until FFP rules post-COVID are clarified, it’s unclear as to whether any additional investment to buy new players would be allowed.
All in all...I’m not sure how you would sell that prospect to a potential new owner.

Which raises the question of why there is no urgency to get promotion?

The only way for Venky's to cut costs and sell us is to get promotion and stay in the premier league for 2 to 3 years.

A 12 point deduction is still not a foregone conclusion of relegation, just increases the chances. We are always living with the fear of Venky's next relegation decision anyway.

Just now, Admiral Nelsen said:

Made me chucke, that.

On a serious note though, whilst clearly the days of Nixon having the inside track on what goes on at Rovers are behind him, it's not like him to commit himself to anything which could make him look silly in the near future, much prefers to keep it vague or not answer questions when he really doesn't know. I suppose 'decent, but not mad' could mean anything, but at least it might rule out some of the doomsday scenarios that might've seemed possible towards the end of last season.

Up until we start making signings we don't really know.

He may have been told his budget is half of the funds he raises from player sales. As we already have a £10m offer on the table, he knows he has a £5m budget etc.  This scenario still matches with what everyone is saying. 

If we start signing players for cash before we sell anyone then it would indicate he has a budget.

Just now, roversfan99 said:

Like thats not exactly what he wants to feed his ego ?

Ive got my fingers crossed for that 50m warchest.

They possibly should have spent that £50m war chest that summer. Although i don't think i would have given that manager and agents £50m either. I would have loved to have known what Sam would have done with £50m.

Instead they have ended up spunking £140m+ since relegation up the wall.

12 minutes ago, rigger said:

But it makes it more likely 

Venky's are just as likely to make decisions which will relegate us as a 12 point deduction for entering administration

Just now, rigger said:

What has that got to do with a twelve point deduction?

A 12 point deduction is not a foregone conclusion that we would be relegated. Also the loss of Venky's is also not a foregone conclusion that we would not be able to compete with other teams, infact probably quite the contrary

1 minute ago, Bigdoggsteel said:

Madness. One way ticket to League 1 and possibly below. Unfortunately. 

Brentford have shown that it is not a foregone conclusion that we would be relegated to League 1. What will we be saying next year if Ainsworth gets Wycombe into the playoffs and Tony improves us to let's say 9th. Would we all be happy with that?

Bring in a new manager who can wheel, deal and motivate and we stand half a chance.

If we look at our history, no manager we have employed has ever needed 3 years and a slow build to get us no where. The last 2 season have been missed opportunities to get into the playoffs, with a slightly better manager we would have been in the playoffs both seasons.

If we look at all the issues following relegation that Bowyer had to deal with, it took him 1 season to create a promotion chasing squad with less funds than Tony has received. I just don't get this slow build mentality at all as it never works. Cardiff and Swansea were both below us at Christmas, how did they both finish in the playoffs this season?

Just now, LeftWinger said:

Absolute sacrilege to even mention Fettis and Filan in the same breath.

Fettis was a terrible keeper. Filan was a very good one. He replaced Flowers in 97/98 and was very good and was player of the season the year after (albeit in a relegated side).

Apologies, i was just trying to explain how far we have fallen. Maybe a better example is he is on a similar level to Frank Fielding.

The overdraft used to be secured against Gate Receipts and TV income, not sure what it is secured against now.

Every time so far we have hit the £15m limit, there is a £5m to £10m share issue which pays most of it off. So long as Venky's can continue to do that there is no issue. If they can't then player sales are required. Looking at it so far this summer, not renewing the out of contract players is probably saving us £50k+ per week. I would expect a few player sales before we bring in our first signing.

i think the occasion got to Brentford players. They will be stronger for it next season.

Getting promotion next season is going to be difficult. I can see of those coming down, Norwich and Watford competing for automatic promotion. Brentford being very strong. Then you can guarantee Middlesbrough being in the playoffs. I can see Cardiff and Swansea being back up there and i have a feeling Stoke will be very strong this season. 

We really need to get our transfers to be perfect this season to have any chance of getting into the playoffs.

Just now, Sparks Rover said:

I called him a shit keeper plenty last season and last night vindicated me....he's a disaster waiting to happen.  Looks nice with easy shits to stop, but he's got a mental block.

I think a lot of the errors will go with more experience and more coaching.

He will now know he has to work on that part of his game, especially when Fulham say they identified the weakness and spent the last week working on set pieces to exploit it. To be honest i didn't think Parker had that sort of intelligence.

Just now, Dreams of 1995 said:

What?

How had he stagnated? It was his 2nd full time season for us really., his first in the Championship. He continues to make them mistakes but as you allude to yourself: he isn't a Premier League goalkeeper yet, which is the only reason he wouldn't have featured 10-15 years ago.

I'm boggled by the thought he was stagnating at us. If you think only 1 full season at any given level resembles stagnation then you mustn't have any patience whatsoever.

In any case it is irrelevant because now Brentford are benefiting from our 'poor coaching set up' that from academy level has developed a ball playing shot stopper that needs some work to develop into a senior. Goalkeepers play until they are 35, you think he stagnated at 23. I don't get it. David Raya is a modern goalkeeper and losing him for £3m is another of Tony's shockers, however which way we want to revise history.

Our academy goalkeeping coaches did a very good job developing Raya and are more experienced than our first team goalkeeping coach, who we have recruited on the cheap.

Just now, Dreams of 1995 said:

Nah, nah. I said important stats. Why do I need to see his season before last stats? Is that because this seasons stats doesn't back you up?

He won the golden glove because he kept the most clean sheets this season. That is the only stat that counts for a goalkeeper.

Joe, you don't help yourself at all. You go on tirades about why we shouldn't sign players using an assemblage of graphs, stats and so on - which is fine, by the way - but then in another argument, when it suits, you use out of date stats and don't provide the actual meaningful ones. 

The fact remains that last season David Raya was an exceptional Championship standard goalkeeper. In fact, a post on the Brentford forum perfectly sums my thoughts up and to paraphrase: this is the glass ceiling for Championship keepers, and until we get promoted we won't get better. 

 

 

That's his last season with us and our poor defence and coaching department.

A good goalkeeping coach, good defenders infront of him and a manager who believes in him and doesn't critize him and we are seeing what a good keeper he can be. 

Can we all agree, 10-15 years ago, Raya would never have made a first team appearance with us, with the strength of goalkeepers we used to have. I think he is probably of the same level as Alan Fettis or John Filan and shows how far we have fallen under Venky's.

Raya had started to stagnate with us, wasn't learning from his mistakes and our coaching set up now is nowhere near where it needs to be to develop or rehabilitate any players. For all concerned it was probably best he left, but our issue is we didn't replace him and used the funds for another part of the team.

1 hour ago, 1864roverite said:

To be fair Simon that email does not mention anything about fans who wanted money back nor does it say they cannot afford to repay it!

has anyone on here asked for a refund? Has anyone proper evidence of the club saying they cannot afford to repay money?

A chap with your background should know about speculating, presuming and assuming without facts.

 

The email was a response to those asking for an update on a refund

1 hour ago, Sparks Rover said:

Absolutely its not clear. Had the pandemic not hit, Wigan would not have 12 points deducted 

They would have been, if true he had to get rid of Wigan due to not being able to renew his casino license if he had a ownership of a sports team

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

I suspect that money will be very tight but you do say this every single time to be fair.

At any normal club with normal owners these things would be true.

I still struggle to see why Venky's keep us and if they want to get promotion why they haven't gone for it.

2 hours ago, mhead said:

Got his silver tongue round all the academy players he produced and how he had to solve the financial problems(thought he caused them?)

Of course he loves travelling and managing Clubs in new Countries. Blah blah blah

Thanks for coming on, Steve mate, says his old Glasgow "in crowd" buddy

Plus ca change.....

What financial problems? We were around breakeven when he was appointed with a £12m overdraft. I bet Venky's dream of those numbers now.

They only had to keep us in the premiership for one more season and we would have been a £10m + profit per season club similar to Burnley. We were relegated at the worst possible time.

Why do we have the clamour for Damien to be appointed? 

How many coaches have gone on to be great managers? If we were looking for a coach to have a go who is an old player, surely Jason Wilcox would be the better bet?

For the next manager, we need a wheeler dealer with experience. Not someone learning the ropes

Just now, JacknOry said:

Is that for real?

Apparently so, he saved them for free and the fun of it as he was missing the game.

Just now, m1st said:

I've never been 'in the know'; so I've no names to put forward.

But I'd give my eye teeth for a Premier League player coming towards the end of his playing career - a sort of latter-day Howard Kendall - to re-shape the squad and, ideally, have the same sort of effect that he did in the early 1980s. Imagine, for example, finding a good keeper from the National League [North]!

We should probably be looking bringing in Gareth Ainsworth. This could be the only summer we can get him. 

Can you imagine if he gets Wycombe into the playoffs next season with a promotion bounce and the shrewd investment he showed last season. We'll never get anywhere near appointing him again.

Otherwise Karl Robinson could be a good option.

2 hours ago, Richard Oakley said:

Warnock wouldn't be cheap!

He is staying at Middlesbrough on £0 wage and £2m promotion bonus.

I know everyone says we improved on last season, but last season included one of our worst ever losing runs. So if anything last years points total was far lower than we would have expected. In that context we have regressed substantially this season.

58 minutes ago, JHRover said:

Yes I thought so. I don't expect Mowbray will have his budget in time for the meetings with players. I've also seen on Instagram that one or two players have holidays booked for the end of the week which suggests they will be off straight after tonight's game.

In terms of those out of contact I'm not going to lose sleep if they depart but expect Mowbray to basically say:

"Sorry lads I can't offer you a deal at the moment, maybe I will in a few weeks but if not you're welcome to come to Brockhall and train until you get a deal elsewhere" is pretty much what I expect. Then Mowbray will offer them new deals if India approves or if we free up some cash to allow it.

Have the EFL decided on FFP rules as of yet for next season?

If they haven't, budget for us to comply with FFP, is a loss of £4m to comply with the £39m loss over 3 seasons.

That equates to player sales and operating savings of £13m to comply.