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The old FFP chestnut, which for L1/L2 amounts to the Salary Cost Management Protocol (“SCMP”), which is nothing like the rules for the Prem and Championship.
It can be dressed up however you like, but as far as I’m aware cash injections are still OK in L1/L2 (as long as they are not loans).
Now, it’s MrC’s money and he's entitled to do whatever he likes with it, just as we are entitled to our opinions on the matter. The fact that he has invested massive amounts is not in question, his generosity is quite staggering. He must love the club every bit as much as us.
If we put Col U aside and talk in general. Nowadays, I believe your average L1/L2 owner can expect to lose about £1M-£2M each year propping up their club. Now, if you can’t stand the heat, then stay out of the Kitchen. Anyone who wants to massage their ego by buying a superyacht, racehorse or football club can expect to lose money, otherwise we would all own one. The chances of running a club at this level that doesn’t make a loss is very, very slim. As far as I’m concerned, if you want to be the big ‘I am’ and own a football club, then have the common decency to chip the necessary funds, as and when required, otherwise leave it to someone else.
Now, you can look at this however you like, but if a generous owner thinks, instead of propping up the club each year, like I have been, I’m going to spend loads of cash on a great set up that will help the club in the future and make it self-sufficient, then that’s fantastic. ………. providing it works. If it doesn’t work it’s not hard to envisage a scenario whereby the money runs out and it’s bad for owner and club. The problem is, when do you know if it works or not? Do you get in so deep that there’s no escape? Do you cut your losses or stick with it? If it would work, why isn’t every club doing it? Obviously, everyone would have different opinions on each of those questions.
You can see how players would need to be sold because the owner cannot afford to prop up the club, because his/her cash has been spent elsewhere. You can only spend it once.
We can argue about which pocket the money belongs in, but the overall situation remains the same.
Let's just clarify something here, there are academies and there are academies.
If you sign up to provide a Cat 2 then you need all the staff and hassle that goes with it, you can't just scale it down a bit here and there. I think I'm right in saying that you are bringing in kids from 8 years old.
Whereas a Cat 4 is still an academy, but more like an old youth set up from 18+. That must be much cheaper and doesn’t it do the job we need and we are good at?
The original business model is questionable because of our geography. Can you imagine your average 8-year-old’s mum agreeing to send Jonnie to Colchester when they can see the bright lights of West Ham or Ipshite. That’s got even worse now that the binners are a top shite team.
Then as time has gone on it gets worse, “OK, so based on your past performance, how many of your former pupils have made the big time and bought their mum a villa in Tenerife?” …..eerm none.
“So, based on your past performance, if Jonnie comes to your academy, where can he expect to end up in 10 years’ time?” ….eerm on a building site probably, but he’ll still play football at the weekends.
I remember hearing Kevin Keen say that Gilbey would play in the Premiership one day. It’s just bollox. (Mind you if you’d told me Elokobi would be a regular in the Prem and score at Old Trafford, I would have said you had a screw loose).
Now everything will be fine if Bradley and/or Samson become the next Rashford.
It might happen, but what if it doesn’t? What's the point in it? We are a L1/L2 football club, let's just concentrate on playing football.
...but from what I've seen Danny can scream and shout louder and swear better than his brother.
In all seriousness, sometimes it only works as a double act, like Clough and Taylor, both hopeless on their own.
It is possible that nobody could have got last seasons players playing as a team, maybe the shouting and screaming comes from frustration that the players just didn’t do the simple things that were asked of them. Garner had Joe Taylor that made things far easier for him.
I agree in that so far, they haven’t shown any signs of being managers that have achieved numerous promotions. Had they gone to Bradford, 4 wins in 20 would most likely been more than enough reason for them to be shown the door.
It’s different here, we’ve run out of options, they will have their team, they will hopefully show why they have been so successful in the past. I just hope they are given enough time and understanding, because it may take a while and there’s not likely to be any credible options after them. In the meantime, this may be the last chance to change our fortunes, now is the time to make as much as possible available for the first team. Just one jump start and a little good fortune is all it could take to change our fortunes and the mindset and direction of the whole club. We need to ride the wave of the Cowleys enthusiasm, because that’s all we’ve got.
As if I need to make my point for the 756th time. That ‘First IX’ does not have a single player from our academy. To make it worse, the players we’ve sold this summer didn’t come through our academy.
I don’t know about anyone else, but if I’d run up debts of £30M whilst building first class facilities and then gave what seems like ‘jobs for life’ to a crazy number of staff, I would expect a little something in return. If they couldn’t give me a single player good enough to be in the First IX of the shittest team to remain in the football league, then I think I would be slightly miffed, possibly even a little annoyed.
We get rid of players at the drop of a hat and managers even more often, but the white elephant and all its staff seem to be ringfenced? It’s a fair question, what the f### do they do all day at Florence Park? Is it simply that they cannot get the raw materials?
Do we really have to sell the silver every year to pay for this shitshow? You can only get away with that for so long before your luck runs out.
We heap all our expectations on the Cowleys like they can perform miracles to get us out of this shitfest. Their hands are tied, yet we are going to expect them to do what King Canute couldn’t.
Last years goalscorers that we have said goodbye to, or haven’t resigned (figures from the BBC)
Taylor 12 McGeehan 10 Fevrier 4 Chilvers 4 Akinde 3 Cooper 2 Smith 2 Mitchell 2 Mingi 1 Dallison 1
That’s 41 goals that won’t be scored for Col U next year.
The replacements so far that the Cowleys have been able to afford Payne 6 Taylor 3 Goodliffe 2 Gordon 1 Hunt 1
That’s 28 goals less than we scored when we finished 90th in the league.
Stats don’t win matches, and it's more complicated than that, but unless there are big funds available for some more firepower, and to keep McGeehan/Chilvers then DC/NC aren’t getting much of a chance at the job are they?
Seriously, I’m hoping that’s not it for strikers, we’ve got one that’s past it, one that’s never got there, one with a disciplinary problem, one lightweight and young Bradley. Can’t see Goodman losing much sleep ahead of his debut at Wimbledon!
We need a Joe Taylor Mk 2.
There’s a way to go yet, but if this is the calibre of signings, then me must keep Read, McGeehan and Chilvers. Or at least Read plus one of the other two. We are going to need goals from midfield!
I understand your viewpoint and 100% respect your opinion, but is that impressive when you look at the bigger picture?
Surely the whole point of football is to make your way up the league in a sustainable fashion. Anything else is just fluff, we don’t get points for selling players. We’ve got £30M in debt and ended up 90th in the league by pursuing a policy of trying to develop our own players (and managers) and selling them on. It clearly isn’t working.
All it proves is that West Ham and Charlton have got good academies and that is the best place to get our youngsters from, when they are released. Out of Hall, Fevrier, Mingi, Junior and Ashley, only Junior had any significant connection with our academy, and he only arrived when he was 16.
Punchy started at Orient Academy. Only Noah and Bradley have ‘come through the system’. Is it worth the cost and hassle of a Cat2?
A Cat4 academy, from 18 onwards, must be a fraction of the cost and that is clearly the level where our recent transfer success has come from (and I would agree, that is very impressive recruitment). Every year there are hundreds of kids released by Prem academies that are more than good enough for us.
I appreciate the ideology is great and I desperately want it to work, but is it a case of 'there’s none so blind as them that don’t want to see'.
It could be more impressive if we found/developed good players and didn't sell them!
Yes, that's a good point and I guess a loan wouldn’t have been of interest, as it’s no good building a team around a player that could be recalled at any minute.
I hope it's not history repeating itself. Was it about 25 years ago when a new manager came in and disembowelled the team?
Replacements then included Fabrice Richard, Steve Germain, Brain Launders, Warren Aspinall and I think Jamie Moralee?
Hoping for a little better this time.
I fairness I think the replacements also included Thomas Pinault and maybe Joseph Keith? ...if you played darts blindfolded, I supose you'd hit the board occasionally!
I'm grateful for all his effort and wish him well, but never thought he was a captain. I don't even think he took control of the defence, never mind the whole team.
Maybe I would have been happier with him if he'd not been given the armband.
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