General Jan transfer window

[Oufcrealist]

But I think the only thing they could have done differently is to not sell which would have been negative. By all accounts offers were made and not accepted. So when the offers for Fosu and Baptiste come in, you either sell and try and reinvest wisely, or you refuse to sell. Better to not spend the profits than to spend for the sake of it and end up with liabilities.

As I said in a thread on Friday. It seems obvious to me that the sales were agreed weeks ago. We signed Browne and Holland to replace Fosu and signed Kelly and Thorne to cover/replace Baptiste early in the window. We were well stocked to cover Baptiste anyway. The annoying thing for me was that we clearly needed cover in other areas and that didn't materialise. It's down to us whether we believe the reasons given.
Post match driving home KR stated that Forde is nearly ready and he would be the RB cover. Browne for me showed why he and Taylor should now be the two that rotate for the striker role. I was championing Browne for that role last season he has all the attributes for it.
We just have to get on with it now!!

 

[Foley]

Again. Responding purely to a question asking why dont we just go with loans. Nothing to do with the academy or anything else. I dont really understand the relevance of this response to that as i totally agree..?

Edit: Apologies, I do see your point. But again, purely relying on the academy puts it under a lot of pressure. Id say a balance of all three - academy, clever recruitment and loans - is the ideal. The real skill is getting the balance right.

I was responding to the question as to how borriwing players all if the time would help the model.
You cant simply forget the very clear strategy (and to be fair to Tiger, he has invested for the medium term?)
I totally agree that there needs to be the balance of academy recruitment and loans and hopefully in what 2 years time, Jones , Lopes Spasov will be ready for the first team squad/ team.

 

[LondonRoader]

Penny pinching!
Don't you realize we are losing 2m a year? Since Firoz Kassam all owners have run the club knowing they have to subsidize us?

Maybe the cup run has paid the “rent” for a year..

 

[Fred]

Maybe the cup run has paid the “rent” for a year..

I should think your correct! Hopefully losses covering this period will be less than typical.

 

[jayhi1810]

We are OUFC Tiger, plus expectations are more so as we at a higher level, generally more investment is needed the higher up the pyramids you go, I’m convinced you work for the club, you seem so sensitive when anyone (be it paying customers) question anything.

But mate we continue to go up the pyramid with this model
We were 2nd earlier in the season and are in striking distance of the same spot of it weren’t for the cup success....again another area we’ve been shocking in recent years.
If the business model of the last 5 years caused us to plummet down the pyramid then you’d have a point.

You’re right we’re OUFC who we all love equally, but a club that is a loss making enterprise with no real assets but for developing and selling players.

Over investment will screw us.
Look at the # of clubs in free-fall who have over leveraged themselves.

 

[Gregortheox]

I was convinced that we had our pants pulled down on Fri night. But after a bit of cooling off I came to a new conclusion.

We are in a good place. Fosu is very good, and then non existant. That will also be the case at Brentford, and Baptiste will probably make it to the prem. Right now, it's possible that Browne is better than Fosu and Kelly is a strong replacement for SB. I wish we still had Cadden but maybe it's time for Long to take charge finally.

 

[Foley]

Maybe the cup run has paid the “rent” for a year..

I reckon we have made circa £1m from cup runs.
With a running loss of around £2m. It has helped an awful lot but wont have covered the losses.

 

[Fred]

I suspect based on what Zaki said the next financial results will be near 3m due to paying off the settlement with the stadium company and costs relating to training ground setup.

 

[Bigfella72]

I was convinced that we had our pants pulled down on Fri night. But after a bit of cooling off I came to a new conclusion.

We are in a good place. Fosu is very good, and then non existant. That will also be the case at Brentford, and Baptiste will probably make it to the prem. Right now, it's possible that Browne is better than Fosu and Kelly is a strong replacement for SB. I wish we still had Cadden but maybe it's time for Long to take charge finally.

Browne is so much better than Fosu, no question.
Shandon is and will be a quality player too good for Div1 but we are overstocked in the CM Dept including Browne who again I would say is better than SB

 

[Yellows1]

But mate we continue to go up the pyramid with this model
We were 2nd earlier in the season and are in striking distance of the same spot of it weren’t for the cup success....again another area we’ve been shocking in recent years.
If the business model of the last 5 years caused us to plummet down the pyramid then you’d have a point.

You’re right we’re OUFC who we all love equally, but a club that is a loss making enterprise with no real assets but for developing and selling players.

Over investment will screw us.
Look at the # of clubs in free-fall who have over leveraged themselves.

Fair enough, think everyone will be happy when we get the stadium situation sorted out once and for all.

 

[Ian]

KR has made it clear as to why he brings players in on loan. The alternative would be players of less quality and that would probably result on a far lower position in the league table, and shorter runs in the cups - reducing income...

There is also the possibility of needing players, paying over the odds and paying them off or selling them for less. It's not so long ago that we were paying off a lot of players - terminating contracts by mutual arrangement. Is there a player in the first team squad we'd pay to leave? Perhaps if Hansen was sold now, we'd make a transfer loss on him, and it's unfair to say this about him, but every other play, you'd expect us to make a profit - excluding the few older players.

The claim we are not making money because of loan players is nonsense.

 

[LondonRoader]

I reckon we have made circa £1m from cup runs.
With a running loss of around £2m. It has helped an awful lot but wont have covered the losses.

So we can assume that the unbudgeted cup runs have paid the rent and a bit more, and thats a big bonus to cash flow. That makes Zaki's tweet about the need to sell the players for operational costs more confusing.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

So we can assume that the unbudgeted cup runs have paid the rent and a bit more, and thats a big bonus to cash flow. That makes Zaki's tweet about the need to sell the players for operational costs more confusing.

Does it?

Not saying you are wrong, but maybe the 2-3 million we are being lent every year to cover operating costs needs to be repaid to whoever that is being borrowed from?

Maybe the operational cost issue isn't the clubs per se, but is one for those propping up those costs?

Always wondered where from and on what terms Tiger is bringing in the wonga to fund our ongoing existence....[emoji848]

 

[Brahma]

The only confusion for me was the claims all month Karl had money to strengthen his squad if needed, let alone our bids......., for Cadden and O'Donnell.

That's the bit that now MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER & is now at odds to Zaki sustainability statements.

 

[LeftSideBoy]

The only confusion for me was the claims all month Karl had money to strengthen his squad if needed, let alone our bids......., for Cadden and O'Donnell.

That's the bit that now MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER & is now at odds to Zaki sustainability statements.

Having money to spend and then spending it badly is what is at odds with the clubs sustainability. We made bids for top targets and didn't panic buy. Sensible, in my opinion.

 

[Brahma]

Having money to spend and the spending it badly is what is at odds with the clubs sustainability. We made bids for top targets and didn't panic buy. Sensible, in my opinion.

No one was asking to spend money wrecklessly.

But selling to be or to attempt to be sustainable is at odds with the previous messages. That's my point.

I'm very happy we're aiming for sustainability. The Oxford Mail article this morning was pretty reasonable

 

[horseman]

Everyone understands the financial situation and nobody has asked for a spending spree BUT as Zaki himself said, we did not have to sell we "chose" to and at a time when we had failed to recruit in 2 key areas and our manager informed it was unlikely we would get anyone in the remaining 24 hours or so.
if we are to believe that offers were made in those 2 key areas then at best the board subsequently "chose" to Gamble with our promotion prospects which from a board consisting of shrewd people who had stated ambition and promotion the aim was a rather bizarre decision.

I recall a similar scenario with uncle firoz and Ian Atkins and like then let's hope it does not come to bite us on the backside.

 

[Foley]

So we can assume that the unbudgeted cup runs have paid the rent and a bit more, and thats a big bonus to cash flow. That makes Zaki's tweet about the need to sell the players for operational costs more confusing.

He seemed to clarify it by saying that the current operating loss is £3m ( not sure whether that includes the paying off of the service charge backlog and the training ground additional costs).
So there have been additional costs. The £3m operating loss is pretty worrying g in itself I would think though.

 

[Frankie]

Everyone understands the financial situation and nobody has asked for a spending spree BUT as Zaki himself said, we did not have to sell we "chose" to and at a time when we had failed to recruit in 2 key areas and our manager informed it was unlikely we would get anyone in the remaining 24 hours or so.
if we are to believe that offers were made in those 2 key areas then at best the board subsequently "chose" to Gamble with our promotion prospects which from a board consisting of shrewd people who had stated ambition and promotion the aim was a rather bizarre decision.

I recall a similar scenario with uncle firoz and Ian Atkins and like then let's hope it does not come to bite us on the backside.

re you last paragraph I thought exactly the same. Kassam did offer the existing players a holiday somewhere instead of bolstering the squad iirc.

 

[southcoastyellow]

Maybe the board are understandably nervous about going to the championship and the costs/debt this would create, assuming our current player budget is c2m per season,this would need to rise four fold to give us any chance? Brentford have just spend c3m on two players who are probably not considered starters- i think this demonstrates the gap between lge 1 and championship running cost? Just a thought?