Mehmet Dalman's extraordinary meeting with City supporter representatives yesterday.

[Hilts]

For me, all this talk of "re-financing" the club is just a complete smokescreen for what's actually going on - the club is being stripped bare.

It's understandable given that Tan's businesses have probably struggled during the pandemic and the club is engulfed in legal battles, but if he's not able to properly support the football side of the business, he needs to admit that and walk away. Dalman keeps saying that Tan has had offers to sell and refused them, but for me that's not because of his commitment to the success of the club, it's because he wants to get his money back.

Since we were relegated the club has talked about cutting down the size of the squad and wage budget, making it sustainable. But in comparison to so many clubs at our level, we never had an oversized playing squad and we didn't have big earners. Some players who didn't play enough to justify their salary, yes, but no one earning a extortionate amount.

Over the past year we've cut back on our playing budget even further. With the players out of contract next summer, we're going to be extremely light on senior players. It's not "sustainable" for a Championship club to be so low on senior players.

Dalman's comment that he didn't think they would have to worry about the football side of things is extremely worrying. The board think that this level of investment in the playing squad is enough to survive comfortably in the league. Okay, McCarthy hasn't helped, but our best starting XI is full of gap-fillers, rather than players thriving in their favoured positions. That's not going to cut it for long at this level, especially once the out-of-contract players leave.

And finally, what manager is going to want to come to this club based on what Dalman has told the supporters groups? Moore is surely destined for the door in January to add to our problems, and there's likely no transfer budget for the next two windows.

There's no chance that Wilder comes in based on that arrangement, and it's unlikely that we'd offer him enough money. Dalman has said he's not willing to take the risk on an unproven young manager, and we're not going to be buying someone out of contract from another club. So who does that leave us with? Someone like Mark Bowen is looking most likely.

We're on the verge of being in dire straits, and it's absolutely essential that fans are putting pressure on the board to act differently, because they're clearly blind to how bad the footballing situation may soon become.

If the club is being stripped bare then why did we turn down offers for Kiefer Moore and Cieran Brown?

[wberksblue]

If the club is being stripped bare then why did we turn down offers for Kiefer Moore and Cieran Brown?

As much as I don't think the board has a lot of footballing nous, it's pretty blatant that Moore scoring goals is the only hope we have of staying up this season. Especially when the offers came so late, it would have been suicidal to sell him. They know the importance of the club avoiding relegation.

Marley Watkins signing for a couple of weeks and then leaving I think proves my point. The board didn't want to sign anyone that McCarthy couldn't guarantee was going to start regularly, so he wasn't signed. Same with Wintle and Murphy being loaned out - we clearly more options in the squad, but because they weren't guaranteed starters we shipped them out.