Scotchegg
Well-known member
- Joined
- 14 Dec 2017
- Messages
- 13,832
I think the exact opposite to what you are saying, although I can understand your point of view completely and there is a fine balance between what is the right strategy to take.
At the moment the club are displaying an attitude that the need to mitigate potential future liabilities so that they are minimised beyond June 2026 is a greater need than protecting current investment and asset value. If the liabilities don't materialise then there could be significant future asset loss. So conversely it may actually prove irresponsible to not protect the assets now.
If the club did enjoy success and gets a promotion, 2.5 year contracts are no good for FFP compliance either because the transfer fees are amortised over a shorter period. The +1 doesn't count as it is not a guaranteed extension. So it makes living with FFP much more difficult too.
The club is showing a degree of weakness with these contract policies and it could start to harm the club in the future especially as it is not exactly hidden from the competition and we could be losing players in the Summer if they are unsettled because we can't offer deals beyond another 2 years maximum, and we could struggle to recruit the right players if we only offer 2 years.
That is all true, but I would hope that we have a much better indication on the stadium position by the summer when these things will become more relevant.
At this stage 2.5yrs +1 would be considered "long term" and it would need something exceptional to look beyond that. In the summer there will be clubs offering 3yr contracts and we will need to compete then, or accept that our recruitment will be much harder.
There will always be a gamble until the stadium is all signed off and the diggers are in. My approach could see us losing players or paying significantly more for the ones we have, yours could see us in the brown stuff if the stadium isn't ready for 2026. *
* I appreciate that there are far more nuances to this and neither of us are advocating financial ruin!