Firstly, whether people believe it or not, we sold Gavin Whyte for much nearer £3m PLUS add ons. If he achieves all of the milestones in place, we will have gained around £3.5m for a player who cost peanuts and only had one year in the EFL. That's really not a bad deal.
Secondly, there are no plans to sell in January. We stayed within budget in the summer by making some clever deals. Cadden saved £200k+ by coming on loan, Taylor gives us the striker we wanted but without paying upwards of £300k as similar players would have cost, Woodburn is mainly paid by Liverpool. In addition, Gorrin, Forde and Ageyi were relatively cheap and whilst we paid a bit for Moore his wages are significantly lower than Nelson. Overall, our wage bill has been cut this year but with much better value.
We also have a very happy camp with a clear, single aim. Tiger, Zaki, NMW, KR have all said openly that promotion is our target this year. The players are very much focused on promotion too. After the draw against Accrington, Brannagan was pissed because he saw that as two points dropped for a team wanting promotion. The feeling around the club is very positive, Ben Woodburn travelling with the team instead of putting his feet up at home, the likes of Long, Sykes, Baptiste etc all happy to play bit parts waiting for their chance. This only happens at a very well structured club, and usually only when everyone buys in to the same goal.
Players are attracting interest. Baptiste, Dickie, Brannagan and Fosu are all being watched. Conversations take place and I wouldn't be surprised if more conversations happen as January approaches. But it will take really silly bids to get any of our players, and by silly I would guess at upwards of £5m. I know that there will be those who will cling to the idea that Tiger and co. are in it for the money and will cash out early, but that honestly isn't the case.
I'm sure I'll attract the usual comments of being the mouthpiece of the club, or being some disilusional idiot, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But like when I was saying in the summer that wait until our business is done before judging, I would also ask that people wait until the end of January before speculating on things that a very unlikely to happen.