Should the cost cutting have started at the beginning of the season or now?

[Stavross CCFC]

It's nice to see the club trying to cut wages and live within it's means but isnt this just another example of the mismanagement at the club, particularly financially.

We splashed out £9m on 2 centre halfs in the summer, an area where we were already strong and probably as a championship club we shouldn't be spending that amount on players for a particular area. We also brought in Guerra who must have been on a decent packet, Macheda similarly. Also we spent £2.5m on Adam Le Fondre. We've also had a load of players on existing contracts which must carry decent salaries - Kimbo, Jones, Fabio etc.

Shouldn't the cull of players on high wages started in the summer, tighter controls put on spending on new players and we start to live as championship club again but with obvious ambition?

I appreciate Ole was the manager and managerial philosophies change and also we haven't progressed as much as the powers that be, thought we would but provisions for this should have been made at the start of the sesson not now.

Dalman and Tan have been present throughout this period and again for me, is just another example of how poorly run the club is.

[Optimistic Nick]

I imagine everyone, from Tan down, felt that we shouldn't have been relegated. I imagine they felt that the money spent meant we had "quality" players. Tan made MM the scapegoat, we said it was Ole's fault (we were both right). In any case, I imagine that at the start of this season, everyone thought that we were too good to be in the championship and spending a few £m on some new players to replace Medel, Caulker and Campbell would see us walking back to the premiershit. I imagine that Tan made funds available for this purpose because it made sense, financially, to spend a few quid to get back up there.

When it became clear that we'd bought the emperor's new clothes, I imagine that Tan decided to change strategy. To be fair, the club has always been clear that failure to get promotion was not an option, so as soon as it became abundantly clear that we were toss, I guess we had to become a new club.

And we are, fast. Since the start of the Dave Jones era, we've been a club moving forwards. We've seen a huge number of home wins, we have expected to compete in every game and get points from most. This all changed last season for obvious reasons. This season, we are like the other half of the football league in that we are the whipping boys. Teams will come here knowing that if they are competent they will do us over. When we go away, the home team expects to pick up 3 easy points.

It was like this for much of the 1990s, it's just taking a bit of time to re-adjust to our new status. I think it makes perfect sense that the cost-cutting started late this season. After all, we were hot favourites to go back up at the start. Spending £5m on a defender was never going to work in this division, but that was just a timing issue when we were expecting to go back up. Now we know that we are not, it becomes an affordability issue.

[A-team]

Of course. Its just really weird how ole bought a 5 mill centre back 1 week before he got the sack. Less than a month later Slade is told to cost cut. Surely Tan agreed upon the 5 mill centre back? Or the 3 mill centre back at the start of the season.? Everything smacks of lack of long term planning.

One month we are splashing out on centre backs like there is no tomorrow, next month its lets sell everyone. Tan himself said they had a transfer committee that had to authorise transfers. Tan easily could blocked oles spending spree if the issue really was that we couldn't afford it. Instead he allowed him to buy a bunch of new players only to change his mind less than 2 months into the season.

This kind of yo yo behaviour makes for an unstable club and its adding to the problems on the field. The players don't know if they will be here from one month to the next, no wonder they stopped caring.

[surge]

Of course. Its just really weird how ole bought a 5 mill centre back 1 week before he got the sack. Less than a month later Slade is told to cost cut. Surely Tan agreed upon the 5 mill centre back? Or the 3 mill centre back at the start of the season.? Everything smacks of lack of long term planning.

How much did we spend on Guerra when he wasn't wanted? How much did we spend on Ravel Morrison when we definitely weren't the club to sort his head out? Why did we spend 9 million on two defenders when we had decent ones already?

[Mabinogion]

It should have started three years ago!