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Oswald Cobblepot

The worrying truth . . . We need investment or it could all go tits up

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Ok, now Iet''s get one thing straight. What I''m about to say is information that I''ve been given by my one and only source to the club. I''m not gonna bother naming who that person is. If you''ve read my previous posts then you''ll know who i''m referring to. Likewise, I''m not one for rumour-mongering so I wouldn''t have posted this up if I didn''t believe he actually genuinely knew something.

I''ve been made aware that there is currently a lot of discontent at the club. The major reasons for this are firstly that there are still question marks over whether Lambert will stay or not, which has unsettled some of the players as it''s more than likely that Culverhouse and Karsa will go with him if he does leave. Lambert has been very tight-lipped to everyone, even his playing and coaching staff with regards to what''s going on, and the players don''t seem to know what''s happening. Villa are definitely after him, and one of the main reasons that Lambert may well decide to move on is that the Club are playing hardball with regards to funds for next season. Apparently they''re not giving him as much as he''d like and if he''s not backed, be sure that he will be off.

Secondly, a fair few of the players themselves are unhappy with the club''s contract dealings. All the squad are effectively still on Championship wages (even allowing for percentage increases for promotion) and there are a few of them wanting an increase. When you''re only on 10k a week in the Prem and playing week in, week out, comparing that to a bench-warmer on 25-30k+ at a comparable team you are bound to be disappointed. The problem here is that McNally and co are being stubborn and are point blank refusing to budge with any players that still have at least a year to run on their contract. We''ve already seen the first backlash with Holty, and it looks like there could be more such reactions to follow unless the Club start loosening the purse strings. Even those out of contract aren''t getting offered better terms which makes sense otherwise there really will be a backlash from the contracted players, hence Whitbread leaving on a free.

Now if you don''t want to believe any of this, be my guest. I appreciate some of it may seem a little vague but I''m just letting you know what I''ve been told by a truly reliable source. You can draw your own conclusions, but do me a favour, leave out all the "Oh he''s just making s**t up, just another attention seeker" comments as I''m not interested.

From the sound of things, there''s a few issues bubbling up underneath the surface as a result of the club''s hard-nosed stance. I appreciate they are trying to ensure the future of the club is secure and can be built upon, but I just hope it doesn''t backfire horribly and cause complete disharmony within the coaching/playing staff. We''ve had an amazing 3 years and come so far . . . let''s not waste that.

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The club cannot pay out money it doesn''t have, whether that be to Lambert for transfers or players for wages.If that means some move on then so be it.I expect football in general to be given a huge wake up call if the Euro goes tits up.

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I don''t disbelieve the OP although as we have extra income I''m sure the club can and will be able to pay more than in the championship. But as written below as we have 10m of debt and interest repayments next year we can not compete financially with other clubs next season. It is not a case of the club being difficult just simple economic reality.

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Thanks for sharing what you have heard Francesco. Its a shame that those that do make up rumours claiming to have knowledge actually lessen the chance that someone who does have some inside gossip will share for fear of the usual backlash. I have though a few times that paying off the debt, while important could be done a little slower giving us a better chance at stabalising the club in the top division. i appriciate this would mean renegotiating with lenders etc but then when I realise that even increasing the average wage from say £10k to £15k a week (based on 27 members in squad) would cost £7million a year and still wouldnt make our wages competitive with other clubs in this divison.

 

 

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I’m sure you realise it’s not going to do your source any favours by making it blindingly obvious who he is. Unless of course he also wants a pay rise or out.

 

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Nothing here beyond the blindingly obvious that any of us could have made up themselves.

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renegotiating the debt cost 1m last time and in the current debt crisis the financial institutions have to recapitalise their balance sheets in order to comply with the requirements of Basel III banking regulations so very unlikely that rescheduling the debt is an option.  

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[quote user="ricardo"]Nothing here beyond the blindingly obvious that any of us could have made up themselves.[/quote]

The posters link to the club has remained consistant and while the information is as you say fairly obvious, more often than not the obvious answer is the correct one. I for one am surprised how far behind other clubs we are with our wage stucture and it seems wrongly assumed our top performers would be on £20k per week this year but it seems we wont/cant pay this even in our second premiership year.

 

 

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[quote user="Francesco Volpe"]Ok, now Iet''s get one thing straight. What I''m about to say is information that I''ve been given by my one and only source to the club. I''m not gonna bother naming who that person is. If you''ve read my previous posts then you''ll know who i''m referring to. Likewise, I''m not one for rumour-mongering so I wouldn''t have posted this up if I didn''t believe he actually genuinely knew something.

I''ve been made aware that there is currently a lot of discontent at the club. The major reasons for this are firstly that there are still question marks over whether Lambert will stay or not, which has unsettled some of the players as it''s more than likely that Culverhouse and Karsa will go with him if he does leave. Lambert has been very tight-lipped to everyone, even his playing and coaching staff with regards to what''s going on, and the players don''t seem to know what''s happening. Villa are definitely after him, and one of the main reasons that Lambert may well decide to move on is that the Club are playing hardball with regards to funds for next season. Apparently they''re not giving him as much as he''d like and if he''s not backed, be sure that he will be off.

Secondly, a fair few of the players themselves are unhappy with the club''s contract dealings. All the squad are effectively still on Championship wages (even allowing for percentage increases for promotion) and there are a few of them wanting an increase. When you''re only on 10k a week in the Prem and playing week in, week out, comparing that to a bench-warmer on 25-30k+ at a comparable team you are bound to be disappointed. The problem here is that McNally and co are being stubborn and are point blank refusing to budge with any players that still have at least a year to run on their contract. We''ve already seen the first backlash with Holty, and it looks like there could be more such reactions to follow unless the Club start loosening the purse strings. Even those out of contract aren''t getting offered better terms which makes sense otherwise there really will be a backlash from the contracted players, hence Whitbread leaving on a free.

Now if you don''t want to believe any of this, be my guest. I appreciate some of it may seem a little vague but I''m just letting you know what I''ve been told by a truly reliable source. You can draw your own conclusions, but do me a favour, leave out all the "Oh he''s just making s**t up, just another attention seeker" comments as I''m not interested.

From the sound of things, there''s a few issues bubbling up underneath the surface as a result of the club''s hard-nosed stance. I appreciate they are trying to ensure the future of the club is secure and can be built upon, but I just hope it doesn''t backfire horribly and cause complete disharmony within the coaching/playing staff. We''ve had an amazing 3 years and come so far . . . let''s not waste that.[/quote]That''s the bit I find hard to believe.  Considering the number of players we signed in total for the EPL campaign.

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Long term the club has to live within it''s mean, investment is only real business investment if at the end of it those investors are making a profit and football has failed to do this for along time. If that means players not signing or leaving and us being relegated, then i''d take that aslong as our club is still here in 5, 6, 20 years time.

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[quote user="T"]renegotiating the debt cost 1m last time and in the current debt crisis the financial institutions have to recapitalise their balance sheets in order to comply with the requirements of Basel III banking regulations so very unlikely that rescheduling the debt is an option.  [/quote]

 

To be honest, I try not to think too much about the ins and outs of the clubs finances, i prefer to leave that up to PurpleCanary as the mans a whizz with numbers and would be my vote for chancellor of the exchequer. If your out there PC, can we increase our wage structure by say an average of £5k please sowe can keep our better players and manager?

 

 

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Yeah they are all pissed off not getting enough other than Ryan Bennett and Howson noone has more than two years on their contracts those that feel they deserve more which from Championship are probably Wes, Russell M, Tierney, Ruddy, Holt, Jackson etc. Are likely to be able to leave end of next season which may be preferable if relegation if we stay in Prem contracts will have to be renegotiated unless to leave for nothing at end of contracts.  If they perform as this season they will most probably get new contracts or lucrative moves.  The club should stick by its guns and only pay what it feels we can afford under the present circumstances.

 

Investment would be nice but looks just as far away as it was this time last year, we must live within our means.  I am sure PL understands this as he has stated this is the case on a number of occasions.  

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Fact is, speculate all you want, no one knows what wages we pay, other than the individual player involved and certain club officials.I suspect the players don''t even discuss it amongst themselves.Its no different to the industry I work in, people strike their own deals and keep their mouths shut.

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[quote user="norfolkchance1"]Why have you suddenly changed your name in the last 10 minutes to an anagram of Volpe?[/quote]

 

All I did was search for the OP’s original name on the forum and found some other posts associating him with his source as I’d no idea who it was. Search under the new name and I’m assuming it won’t be found. Maybe he or she is either not very clever or has suddenly realised this after posting. Or I’ve put two and two together and made five.

 

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[quote user="Yellowbeagle"]Long term the club has to live within it''s mean, investment is only real business investment if at the end of it those investors are making a profit and football has failed to do this for along time. If that means players not signing or leaving and us being relegated, then i''d take that aslong as our club is still here in 5, 6, 20 years time.[/quote]

Agreed, and if players such as Holt want ridiculous wages that bench-warmers are on at other clubs then let him go and be a bench-warmer. Financial Fair Play is the wake-up call and the sooner it is implemented the better. There are many talented players in lower divisions that would just love the money that our guys are on, so let''s keep finding them.

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Funny thing with all this is that nobody had mentioned any of the players being unhappy about wages until the Holt transfer request. Since then, we''ve got snippets from his agent saying that it isn''t all to do with money and that Holt believes "some things that have been said" have been unprofessional, at least according to the newsreports on the pinkun.

Why didn''t your source mention these things before Holt''s transfer request? If he has managed to find out that "quite a few" of the other players feel similarly, then surely he must have known about Holt too? And if he only kept quiet due to professionalism, not wanting to spread the muck to the public etc. then why has he done so now? Just to add further fuel to the flames? Seems a bit silly if he''s an employee of the club. And if it''s true why would Holt''s agent hint that the main reason behind the transfer request was not solely about wages?

It also seems interesting that players such as Howson and Bennett (Howson in particular being captain of and one of the best players at a fairly large championship club such as Leeds) were willing to come to us if we were offering wages significantly lower than the rest of the premiership. And if those players are on premiership wages, then you''d have thought that hardened business people such as McNally and Bowkett would have realised that before they can splash bigger wages on other people they needed to bring the wages of current players into line with those sums.

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Yes I have read your posts before and know your source is genuine. Kind of confirms what we''ve been thinking. Just wish the Lambert situation could be sorted out sooner rather than later.

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[quote user="Tim Allman"]

[quote user="norfolkchance1"]Why have you suddenly changed your name in the last 10 minutes to an anagram of Volpe?[/quote]

 

All I did was search for the OP’s original name on the forum and found some other posts associating him with his source as I’d no idea who it was. Search under the new name and I’m assuming it won’t be found. Maybe he or she is either not very clever or has suddenly realised this after posting. Or I’ve put two and two together and made five.[/quote]

I reckon a quick name change was the only solution if he did the same search as us which would have brought this gem up.......

[quote user="Francesco Volpe"]Take my word on this . . . We will not be

signing Steve Morison. I work with his step-father in North London, who

told me that a number of Championship clubs have been sniffing around

him. When I asked him who, and whether Norwich were one of them, he said

no. Apparently Leeds, Reading and Cardiff are the 3 main teams really

showing serious interest. And Les (Steve''s step-dad) told me that he has

no intention of leaving Millwall at the moment.

Personally, I''d rather see us go for Billy Sharp and Nicky Maynard.

Think those two would add a lot more to our attacking options than

Morison.[/quote]

[:S]

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[quote user="Eplov"]Ok, now Iet''s get one thing straight. What I''m about to say is information that I''ve been given by my one and only source to the club. I''m not gonna bother naming who that person is. .[/quote]i did... i put your name in the search function on the main part of the message board and nothing came up...what was your old user name Good news Gordon?

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Do you not see morty and lappinitup that the posts researched there are providing a farly good indication that he does in fact have a connection to the club via a players family. While the information may have turned out to be incorrect, the fact that it did turn out incorrect in many ways makes the probablitlty of the OP having a connection vastly more likely.

 

 

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Tim, you can dig up the old posts as much as you like, it isn''t going to change anything. Yes I made the post at that time because at that point there was no indication of a transfer to NCFC. I hold my hands up to the fact that it later transpired that we did go in for him and he subsequently signed. My change of name is nothing to do with covering anything up. I''ll quite happily change it back if it bugs you that much . . . I just felt like changing it as I don''t see anyone else on here with their actual name as their username, so why should I??

Anyway to the point in hand, if you don''t believe me, like I said it''s fine and I don''t care whether you do or not. This is genuine as far as I''m aware.

Re: Aggy''s reply, I only spoke to him a couple of days ago when I saw him at work (We work different shifts/teams) which happened to be 2 or so days after the GH news came out. I''d been debating the last couple of days whether to even bother putting it up on here for the inevitable stick people get for this sort of thing, but I thought it much more worthwhile to share the little insight I actually have. I have no idea what the other issues mentioned by the agent are, and neither does the person who told me. I''m not going to lie about that, if I knew then I''d say so.

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Sorry, forgot to add ''apart from you Tim, the only other person I''ve seen with their actual name?? as username." There, I''ll change it back just to keep you happy!

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I''m pretty sure you were the first person to mention anything about Morison''s injury - no-one believed you then, until it came out in the press and your source was vindicated. Surprised no-one else remembers this.

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[quote user="Son Ova Gunn"]

Do you not see morty and lappinitup that the posts researched there are providing a farly good indication that he does in fact have a connection to the club via a players family. While the information may have turned out to be incorrect, the fact that it did turn out incorrect in many ways makes the probablitlty of the OP having a connection vastly more likely.

 

 

[/quote]

Am i having a senoir moment here or does this post turn on its head and contradict itself halfway through ?[*-)]

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This thread has been running for over an hour and i am amazed that with the title it has Tangible and Cluck have as yet not swarmed all over it like bees round a honey pot with their anti Delia bile.[:''(]

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Ok I''ve come up with a squad we could realistically aim for for the start of next season, based on links with possible players and rumours we need to start paying players more.  Given the rumour that we need to start paying players more, I took a look at Swansea''s squad - because they are the most appropriate club to compare us with currently.  I make them out to have around 20 players on, probably, roughly similar wages to our players: Vorm, Williams, Taylor, Tate, Monk, Rangel, Situ, Bodde, Britton, Orlandi, Sinclair, Dyer, Routledge, Allen, Agustien, Gower, Graham, Lita, Moore, Donnelly.  I have left out youngsters as they will be on much less wages.  Our squad is similar, with 21 players in what I would imagine to be a similar wage range: Ruddy, Martin, Drury, Barnett, Ward, Tierney, Ayala, R.Bennett, Johnson, Crofts, Surman, Pilkington, Hoolahan, Fox, Bennett, Lappin, Howson, Morison, Vaughan, Holt, Jackson.  (Again leaving out youngsters such as Steer or Adeyemi).Most people want us to sign some players this summer, as will Lambert.  But given the rumours that our players are not being paid as much as they think they should, we probably should aim to have roughly the same number of squad players being paid a substantial amount as Swansea.  So let''s say that a good number of players to have on substantial wages for the start of next season is 20.  This way we could probably afford to pay our better players better wages, as Holt is probably asking for and as Whitbread probably asked for too.  So we would have to get rid of players to bring in players.Let''s say we manage to bring in K.Naughton, a left back/defender, Snodgrass, Rhodes, and Rodriguez.  This is an ambitious list of 5 players, but I am making a calculated guess that it is the sort of players Lambert will be requesting.  If we bring in these 5, 6 of our current squad will have to go to get our squad down to 20 - (20 because as I said before this is a number that might allow us to pay some players higher wages, as they might be demanding).  My guess as to who those players to leave would be is: Drury, Barnett, Tierney, Crofts, Lappin and Jackson.  But I could be wrong.  I personally would like to keep Drury and Jackson. Anyway, this new squad would look like this:  Ruddy, Martin, Ward, Ayala, R.Bennett, Naughton, L.B., Johnson, Surman, Pilkington, Hoolahan, Fox, Bennett, Howson, Snodgrass, Morison, Vaughan, Holt, Rodriguez, Rhodes. 6 defenders, 8 midfielders, 5 strikers.   This squad might allow higher wages to be given to our better players as it is a squad of only 20, when before we got rid of Wilbraham and Whitbread our squad was 23 players.  It would add quality while narrowing (though increasing) the wage bill.  Over the next week or so I therefore hope and expect to see quite a few of our players to leave so that we can make the signings Lambert wants, presuming he stays.

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[quote user="Son Ova Gunn"]

Do you not see morty and lappinitup that the posts researched there are providing a farly good indication that he does in fact have a connection to the club via a players family. While the information may have turned out to be incorrect, the fact that it did turn out incorrect in many ways makes the probablitlty of the OP having a connection vastly more likely.

 

 

[/quote]

Did I tell you that I''ve got a source at the club too? He says Lambert is staying. If Lambert stays then it proves I have actually got a source. But if Lambert goes, it means in many ways that I am much more likely to have a source at the club, because he, erm, gave me some wrong information.

Good logic :/

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Tilly - Not sure what you mean about the post contradicting itself? in what way?

Yellow Lorry - Thanks for actually noticing/remembering that. Certain people clearly only like to pick holes rather than take what they''re being told at face value. I only post on this forum when I actually have something to contribute . . . apart from that I just tend to read the rest of the stuff that gets posted.

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