Eales put the budget up by nearly a million quid on the previous season when Appleton left. Clotet merely spunked it all, but it was VERY good. Appleton left because yes, he did get a very good pay rise, but more than that the club had been ripped apart. Craig Dean was crucial to our scouting and recruitment and had left for Leeds, and that was pretty much the end of the line once he moved on. Believe me or not, doesn’t matter, it’s true on all fronts. I’ve got nothing to gain by making it up, especially when my identity is freely known. Eales yanked the playing budget up as a final gamble at getting us into the Championship so that the sale was more valuable, but it didn’t really matter as he was off either way, and was going to get his money no matter what while the club foot the wage bill. Unfortunately by the time he did this Appleton was gone and Clotet had set about doing his own thing and paying a fortune for duds, leaving us right in the s**t, but anyone suggesting Appleton left solely for money is wrong. It wouldn’t have hurt, but he saw he’d gone as far as he could with the club being wound down and sold to god knows who. He left while his stock was high.
And as for the comments about Lincoln being a small club, behave. They sold out of season tickets in 48 hours back in June - almost 6,500 of them, which is more than our total attendance v Tranmere including over 600 away fans - and sell out the home ends most games. Their attendance was over 8,700 when we had 6,200 last weekend and they’ve won trophies every year for the last three seasons. Their backroom staff is set up nicely, especially recruitment wise, and they’ve got a brand new training facility. Live in the now, not in the past. They’re on the up however long that lasts, and while that’s the case they’re at least equally as attractive as a club like ours. Probably more so - they’ve got everything we have just with bigger crowds in a stadium not owned by Firoz Kassam.