This Is A Massive Day For The Board And Chairman.

[And Its Smith]

First of all I'd like to give my opinion that if I was Steve Lansdown I'd have done exactly the same thing as he was done today. £2million for an unproven 18 year old is crazy money and if I knew any Wigan fans I'd be laughing in their faces now!!

What has happened today doesnt show that the club has no ambition - what happens next will determine that. I want to see at least 1.5 million of this money going on players. 500k can buy you a very, very good player at this level. Who in our team is worth 500k? Maybe Brooker but thats about it. If we were to sign 3 x 500k players then we would have a much better team and squad.

The 3 positions we need, I reckon, is a right winger, a left winger and a striker. I have given this board and chairman the benefit of any doubt and have supported them thus far. If we don't spend a substantial amount of money on new players and desperately try and get out of this hell hole then my opinions will change drastically.

[BCFC_Dan]

Well they've got 34 minutes to do it or we're stuck till January. Then we can spend the rest of the season playing catch-up again, narrowly miss out on the playoffs and do it all again next year. Woo.

[samo]

First of all I'd like to give my opinion that if I was Steve Lansdown I'd have done exactly the same thing as he was done today. £2million for an unproven 18 year old is crazy money and if I knew any Wigan fans I'd be laughing in their faces now!!

What has happened today doesnt show that the club has no ambition - what happens next will determine that. I want to see at least 1.5 million of this money going on players. 500k can buy you a very, very good player at this level. Who in our team is worth 500k? Maybe Brooker but thats about it. If we were to sign 3 x 500k players then we would have a much better team and squad.

The 3 positions we need, I reckon, is a right winger, a left winger and a striker. I have given this board and chairman the benefit of any doubt and have supported them thus far. If we don't spend a substantial amount of money on new players and desperately try and get out of this hell hole then my opinions will change drastically.

agreed, although i'd stop at two wingers and ive williams, brooker and enoch the nod up front. rovers have just moved to replace Agogo with the money from his forest move. i agree with your post and i'd suggest the same should action should be taken by us with cotts, albeit on loan with a view to a permenant move. we should survive brighton (its not like we'd have cotts anyway) then the transfer/loan fun will begin for us!

[ciderup]

Didn't Forest take players on loan between the close of the transfer deadline and January with a view to permanent deals?

Surely this is the best scenario. We get player / players in on a loan deal with a view to a permanent deal until January. If the player /players want to be here, how fired up will they be?

Yes, good luck Cotts,hope the move really works out for you,but, we are surely in a strong position now aren't we? Or am I being daft here?

My one concern is a real lack of pace. Time for SL to back GJ and GJ to show what he can do with some real money. Show us you are as good as people think GJ.

[samo]

Didn't Forest take players on loan between the close of the transfer deadline and January with a view to permanent deals?

Surely this is the best scenario. We get player / players in on a loan deal with a view to a permanent deal until January. If the player /players want to be here, how fired up will they be?

Yes, good luck Cotts,hope the move really works out for you,but, we are surely in a strong position now aren't we? Or am I being daft here?

My one concern is a real lack of pace. Time for SL to back GJ and GJ to show what he can do with some real money. Show us you are as good as people think GJ.

top points. just cause the transfer window for the premiership has passed doesn't mean we can't go hunting. have people forgotten the nobel loan-to-transfer deal already?

[Ian M]

Much as I would love us to spend the money I can honestly only see us spending a small proportion of it.

When Lita was sold you could argue that with us offering him a new contract we were planning for him to stay and NOT receive £1m. In fact, that Summer, Tinnion brought in over £1.5m in transfer revenue when you add in Miller/Heffernan/Coles. How much did we spend? £150k on Dave Partidge.

Now under Gary Johnson we have slashed the wage bill in letting some serious high earners leave the club (Wilkshire alone saved around £250k a year) and have also received money for Golbourne (£250k) and a few undisclosed fees. All the while we have spent just £75k (Noble £20k, Fontaine c£50k, McCombe £5k).

At most I can see GJ being given £200k of the Cotterill money and unless someone like Wring steps up and excels then I can see yet another "promising season" fall by the wayside.

This club under the current board is on a major downsizing initiative which may be required to stay alive but whilst this happens I am afraid I can't see how we'll trouble the teams at the top of the table.

Oh for a Russian billionaire to discover us

[samo]

Much as I would love us to spend the money I can honestly only see us spending a small proportion of it.

When Lita was sold you could argue that with us offering him a new contract we were planning for him to stay and NOT receive £1m. In fact, that Summer, Tinnion brought in over £1.5m in transfer revenue when you add in Miller/Heffernan/Coles. How much did we spend? £150k on Dave Partidge.

Now under Gary Johnson we have slashed the wage bill in letting some serious high earners leave the club (Wilkshire alone saved around £250k a year) and have also received money for Golbourne (£250k) and a few undisclosed fees. All the while we have spent just £75k (Noble £20k, Fontaine c£50k, McCombe £5k).

At most I can see GJ being given £200k of the Cotterill money and unless someone like Wring steps up and excels then I can see yet another "promising season" fall by the wayside.

This club under the current board is on a major downsizing initiative which may be required to stay alive but whilst this happens I am afraid I can't see how we'll trouble the teams at the top of the table.

Oh for a Russian billionaire to discover us

as of this moment we have no idea how much GJ will get to spend on his squad. in anycase GJ might have only spent a fraction of the money we have made recently, but you forget the 300k he had to spend on Hayter. that was there and ready to spend, and at that point we'd only sold Goldbourne for the intial fee of his transfer.

this time round the money is bigger, the wage budget already more streamlined and the squad arguably better and more together than before. to write off our season is a touch premature in my eyes, considering we are but 5 games in.

as for ambition shown by the board, i have to dissagree too. the same boards stumped up the funds for Stewart's wages, Bridges' wages, Parto's fee and wages and more since this time last year. these risks might not have paid off, but i'm sure they accounted for a fair share of the lita transer fee, thus showing reinvestment.

I think it is unwise to use this one event to castigate the board's running of the playing side of our beloved clubs finances. what did we expect from young David anyway? was Cotterill going to win us the league all by himself? it's team spirit, graft and no little amount of luck which wins teams promotion from our division. look at the last two seasons teams to go up. i doubt you'll find any of them drew their resolve from a 18 wonderkid.

anyway, why forget all the other players we have in the team, just cause one got a move to the premiership? scotty brown, williams and all the others must be rubbing his hands together at the news. they now get their chance, and believe they will gasp it with both hands.

in light of all this i think we should wait a bit longer before we break out the violins of self ptiy, my dear madger, don't you?

[NickJ]

I want to see at least 1.5 million of this money going on players.

If we don't spend a substantial amount of money on new players and desperately try and get out of this hell hole then my opinions will change drastically.

Reply to first comment - be prepared to be disappointed. Very disappointed.

To the second comment - save time, start changing your opinions now.

Oh for a Russian billionaire to discover us

That would benefit the shareholders far more than it would Bristol City, in the long run, though I have to admit, at least it might be a bit of fun for a few years.

[Ian M]

as of this moment we have no idea how much GJ will get to spend on his squad.

I am going on the way this club has been increasingly cost cutting since Wilson's departure.

in anycase GJ might have only spent a fraction of the money we have made recently, but you forget the 300k he had to spend on Hayter. that was there and ready to spend, and at that point we'd only sold Goldbourne for the intial fee of his transfer.

You could claim that we knew the bid would fail as it was based on an extremely small up-front fee and a hell of a lot of conditional add-ons that may never have been met. I didn't expect Hayter to sign at the time because of this.

this time round the money is bigger, the wage budget already more streamlined and the squad arguably better and more together than before. to write off our season is a touch premature in my eyes, considering we are but 5 games in.

I agree that the squad is more together than before but don't agree that it is better. In certain positions I would agree but before Dave's departure it was clear that we needed a left-winger. Now, with Murray's age getting the better of him we need a right-winger as well.

as for ambition shown by the board, i have to dissagree too. the same boards stumped up the funds for Stewart's wages, Bridges' wages, Parto's fee and wages and more since this time last year. these risks might not have paid off, but i'm sure they accounted for a fair share of the lita transer fee, thus showing reinvestment.

and equally, all have since left in what even in footballing terms is a very short period of time.

I think it is unwise to use this one event to castigate the board's running of the playing side of our beloved clubs finances. what did we expect from young David anyway? was Cotterill going to win us the league all by himself? it's team spirit, graft and no little amount of luck which wins teams promotion from our division. look at the last two seasons teams to go up. i doubt you'll find any of them drew their resolve from a 18 wonderkid.

It wasn't so much that Dave was that much better than other players in the side but more to do with the fact that he gave the side more "balance" than we have without him. As I said above, before he left we still needed a left winger to give us a balanced look, now we need both wingers

anyway, why forget all the other players we have in the team, just cause one got a move to the premiership? scotty brown, williams and all the others must be rubbing his hands together at the news. they now get their chance, and believe they will gasp it with both hands.

We'll forget "all the others" as I don't disagree that other positions are well covered but I believe if you are going to go with one CM on a flank (Brown) that on the other flank you will need a "proper" winger. Whilst JW will probably turn out to be that player in time, I think it is unrealistic to expect him to provide the goods immediately with just 2 or 3 senior appearances behind him, no matter how highly I rate him.

in light of all this i think we should wait a bit longer before we break out the violins of self ptiy, my dear madger, don't you?

Oooh, get you

[samo]

I am going on the way this club has been increasingly cost cutting since Wilson's departure.

it's true, i do agree. but is that isn't a totally negative thing. colchester and southend didn't spend huge amounts yet are where we want to be. as has been said elsewhere, speanding money doesn't buy us points, take swansea last term for example

You could claim that we knew the bid would fail as it was based on an extremely small up-front fee and a hell of a lot of conditional add-ons that may never have been met. I didn't expect Hayter to sign at the time because of this.

yes , you could, but why would GJ do that with a player he wanted? that is pure conjecture. You could 'claim' anything you want, but you don't actually have anyway to prove it. the money would haveto e there at somepoint. we also bid £300k for Reddy and why bid for players you don't avtually want

I agree that the squad is more together than before but don't agree that it is better. In certain positions I would agree but before Dave's departure it was clear that we needed a left-winger. Now, with Murray's age getting the better of him we need a right-winger as well. true.

and equally, all have since left in what even in footballing terms is a very short period of time.true.

It wasn't so much that Dave was that much better than other players in the side but more to do with the fact that he gave the side more "balance" than we have without him. As I said above, before he left we still needed a left winger to give us a balanced look, now we need both wingers or none at all, but that's a whole other debate!

We'll forget "all the others" as I don't disagree that other positions are well covered but I believe if you are going to go with one CM on a flank (Brown) that on the other flank you will need a "proper" winger. Whilst JW will probably turn out to be that player in time, I think it is unrealistic to expect him to provide the goods immediately with just 2 or 3 senior appearances behind him, no matter how highly I rate him.

true, but thats how you find the David George Best Cotterills and Leroy Litas of this world. but i do agree with your point. i just don't see, a few hours after making a good deal, we have to write off our season. we wouldn't have Cotts on saturday anyway and then we can get loans. at least give GJ a chance to shpw his hand!

Oooh, get you

sorry, that was childish on my part. i just cannot understand the rampent negativity over all this! we should start looking forward and stop looking back. this just might not be a terrible thing.

[Olé]

Well they've got 34 minutes to do it or we're stuck till January. Then we can spend the rest of the season playing catch-up again, narrowly miss out on the playoffs and do it all again next year. Woo.

Fantastic business though the 2 million clearly is, this remark just about sums it up for everyone other than the club's bank manager.

[Guest Brian S]

G J Signed Pablo Bastinini when he was at Yeovil for a Club Record Fee. He was a total failure and shipped back to Argentina. He rejected Rory Fallon who he could have signed on a free after 3 month on loan at Yeovil. We need a striker he could not reconised one and all we get is Mrs Jevons from Yeovil and Yeovil get Marcus Stewart - Someone has got to question the knowledge of our ex Nationwide standard Manager.

[newboy]

G J Signed Pablo Bastinini when he was at Yeovil for a Club Record Fee. He was a total failure and shipped back to Argentina. He rejected Rory Fallon who he could have signed on a free after 3 month on loan at Yeovil. We need a striker he could not reconised one and all we get is Mrs Jevons from Yeovil and Yeovil get Marcus Stewart - Someone has got to question the knowledge of our ex Nationwide standard Manager.

Yeah, you're right. Alex Ferguson has never made any mistakes in the transfer market. Nor did Brian Tinnion or Danny Wilson.

And all of his signings have been ineffectual? Take a look at the evidence and also take a look at what he's done to the wagebill whilst bringing in McAllister, Fontaine etc.

On another note, personally I'd take Phil Jevons over Marcus Stewart anyday.

Normally I wouldn't respond, but comments like 'ex Nationwide standard Manager' expose you as a bit of an idiot. It's a cheap childish shot.