We are NOT in dire straits

[Stephen Frys Evil Twin 0]

We are NOT in dire straits, that would be the situation the club down the road are in (Selling all their best assets, replacing them with distinctly average signings (their Fors-kin strike-partnership for example).

We, on the other hand, are replacing the dead wood with decent squad players who cost us nothing.

We will have at least £2m to spend on transfers:

Helveg out - £170k in + £400k in wages saved.
Svensson out - £100k in + £250k in wages saved.
Jonson out - £700k in + £286k in wages saved.
Mulryne, Crow, Stuart, Edworthy out - in excess of £500k in wages saved. Probably negated by the 3 new signings wages and signing on fees.

And that''s not taking into account any funds we had already in the bank (probably in excess of £500k).

That gives us a minimum of £2,406,000 to spend. Obviously, we won''t go shouting about it because it will bump up the asking prices of any players that we target.

Also, we''ve held onto Francis and Green, who will excel at this level again.

There really is no reason to panic.

[Northern Canary 0]

fanstastic post! someone had to point this out. Worthy does not go round saying he has loads of money, therefore clubs dont demand it off him.

[rieg77 0]

Lets all calm down and just be patient.

At this stage, most of the players that our targets are also reported to be targets of ''bigger'' clubs, so it inevitable those players would want to ride it out a bit and see whether any of the bigger clubs come in for them.

Worthington has a track record of signing players before anyone has heard he''s in for them and I''m sure he''s working his guts off to bring the best players he can to the club.

There is obviously going to be some money in the bank but he''s got to make the most of the cash he has which means being prudent with it and not being held to ransom.

The key thing is to get the right players. We have a very strong first 11 (albeit jonsons left) we need to add depth to the squad in key areas which I''m sure is what he''s working on.

[Splendid Rush 0]

SF - your maths aren''t particulary sound - you have included freed up wages in accumulating the estimated amount, but not taken into accound new player wages.  Also, a £500k transfer kitty seems optimistic, especially since Worthy has stated the need to ''raise some money''.

Unforunately at this stage it seems that unless we sell Francis and/or Green, our summer transfer expenditure will not exeed around £700k.  Which shouldn''t be too much of a surprise, we were told 7 months ago that part of Ashton''s transfer would be covered by parachute payments.

Agreed, we are not in Dire Straights (although since purchasing Jonson and Doherty, Worthy must be familiar with their song ''Money for Nothing'') but we have to be realistic.  We need a couple more frees and a couple of bargains to flesh the squad out - but the backbone of the team remains very strong.

[Saint Canary 0]

That is very true, we are NOT in dire straits but we are far from being in an ideal position either though.

It is a good point that we have a very good starting 11 minus a good right winger but the depth of the squad is just not there.  Worthy still has time but it is running out day by day and IMO all the new players should be in place before the season starts.

[Stephen Frys Evil Twin 0]

[quote]SF - your maths aren''t particulary sound - you have included freed up wages in accumulating the estimated amount, but not taken into accound new player wages. Also, a £500k transfer kitty seems optim...[/quote]

Maths are perfectly sound if you read it again.

"negated" means to cancel out BTW.

The £500k from the release of Eddy, Crow, Stuart and Mulryne would probably be enough to cover next years contracts for the 3 new signings.

If not, I''m only £100k or so out.

Worthy is making noises in the media to try and get the best deal for our future incoming transfers, and that''s a fact.

If Worthy was to say "Right, we''ve got 500k to spend on a central midfielder", I wonder how long it would take for Reading to ask for £500k for Andy Hughes? Answer: Not very long. (Not that I want us to sign that jack of all trades, master of none anyway!)