ross hannah

Quoted from Grim up north

Great cup win Billy , I was at a wedding with your goalkeeper Duke (he was Hulls keeper at the time) what a top bloke didn't know he had ended up with your lot.Hopefully that win means your loaded and we can keep Ross for free.  

You never know. I think we'll agree on a modest fee and let him move on. I certainly don't think we'll play hardball over it, and he clearly wants to sign for you so good luck to him.

The cup win was massive for us - it could be the platform for (hopefully) our longer term revival. We all thought that the Arsenal game was our jackpot - no one genuinely thought we'd get through for an even bigger pay day. Our Board pushed the boat out in the summer and took the risk of setting a player budget that was 600k beyond our projected break even point as a club. The intention was that by investing a bit extra we'd give ourselves a chance of earning more revenue by doing well in the cups, and hopefully finish top 7 which would either earn us more money via promotion, or at least a decent wedge from the play-offs. If we were falling short in January we'd have been forced to sell players such as Wells and Doyle. We apparently made 300k from the Arsenal game and the semi is worth around £1m. So we can cover our budget gap this season, put some aside for next season in case we don't go up, AND have some cash to spend in January. So its been massive for us. We've made some massive strides off the pitch over the last 12 months - most of which i'm sure you won't give a stuff about, but we're looking like a professional outfit for the first time in nearly 10 years, so the future's finally starting to look brighter again.

For anyone who is interested, there's a great interview with our Director (front man for the club) about some of the stuff we've been doing to recover as a club, here:

http://widthofapost.com/2012/11/27/speaking-to-david-baldwin-part-one/

Quoted from Billybantam

You never know. I think we'll agree on a modest fee and let him move on. I certainly don't think we'll play hardball over it, and he clearly wants to sign for you so good luck to him.

The cup win was massive for us - it could be the platform for (hopefully) our longer term revival. We all thought that the Arsenal game was our jackpot - no one genuinely thought we'd get through for an even bigger pay day. Our Board pushed the boat out in the summer and took the risk of setting a player budget that was 600k beyond our projected break even point as a club. The intention was that by investing a bit extra we'd give ourselves a chance of earning more revenue by doing well in the cups, and hopefully finish top 7 which would either earn us more money via promotion, or at least a decent wedge from the play-offs. If we were falling short in January we'd have been forced to sell players such as Wells and Doyle. We apparently made 300k from the Arsenal game and the semi is worth around £1m. So we can cover our budget gap this season, put some aside for next season in case we don't go up, AND have some cash to spend in January. So its been massive for us. We've made some massive strides off the pitch over the last 12 months - most of which i'm sure you won't give a stuff about, but we're looking like a professional outfit for the first time in nearly 10 years, so the future's finally starting to look brighter again.

For anyone who is interested, there's a great interview with our Director (front man for the club) about some of the stuff we've been doing to recover as a club, here:

http://widthofapost.com/2012/11/27/speaking-to-david-baldwin-part-one/

Its this the reason why clubs are struggling financially.....sorry to sound like an behind  oh and well donw vs Arsenal love it when the big boys get spanked.

Quoted from Meza

Its this the reason why clubs are struggling financially......

To a point, but it was a calculated risk. We have a number of appearance clauses built into the contracts of promising young players who've sold on, including Andre Wisdom at Liverpool. So the view was that any budget exposure would be underwritten by a combination of these clauses, cup revenue, player sales (if needed) and failing all those - the chairmen would cover the gap and trim back the budget for next season or provide funds until further revenue could be realised.

So there's a level of risk, but not to the point of being reckless and so far its paying off.

It's only the same as here at GTFC anyway. Our Chairman (not officially as he stepped down but he's still performing the role of Chairman and is the man putting money in) sets our budget knowing it means making a big loss over the season that he will assist with making up.

Again that's johns choice and we are greatfull but sometimes it gets thrown in our faces as an excuse to make us feel guilty. But enough of that like some one else said its nice for fans from other clubs coming on here and talking sense.

Quoted from Billybantam

To a point, but it was a calculated risk. We have a number of appearance clauses built into the contracts of promising young players who've sold on, including Andre Wisdom at Liverpool. So the view was that any budget exposure would be underwritten by a combination of these clauses, cup revenue, player sales (if needed) and failing all those - the chairmen would cover the gap and trim back the budget for next season or provide funds until further revenue could be realised.

So there's a level of risk, but not to the point of being reckless and so far its paying off.

Billy, whom do you see as being the final top seven in your league?  Your boys are a very generous 8/11 to finish in the top 7 and I can't see how you don't do that with the team you have available and the people returning from injury.  Can you see any team from stopping you making the play offs?  Do you think you have enough to go up automatically?

Quoted from Devonmatt

Billy, whom do you see as being the final top seven in your league?  Your boys are a very generous 8/11 to finish in the top 7 and I can't see how you don't do that with the team you have available and the people returning from injury.  Can you see any team from stopping you making the play offs?  Do you think you have enough to go up automatically?

Good question. I think we'll be top 7. Right now I think we're 50/50 to finish top 3. I honestly haven't seen a better side than us this season - we were beaten 4-0 by Rotherham, but it was a misleading scoreline. And by this time last season 70% of the sides id seen were clearly better than us. We've been missing key players like Andrew Davies and Kyle Reid for the last couple of months and they're both due to return soon. We've had awful luck with injuries so far and our fixture schedule has been manic given that we've done well in the cups - we've played more games than any other side in England so far. We've gelled as a side now, so I'd expect us to improve in the second half of the season. The key for us is hanging on to Nakhi Wells in January, hopefully adding another player or two of quality and not having any more serious injury problems. If we do that, I think we'll finish top 3. I also think Gillingham will be top 3, though I think they'll be pegged back from the comfortable lead they have now. I don't think Port Vale are as good as their position suggests and I think they'll fall out of the top 3 but probably finish top seven. I'd say the top 3 will be made up from Gillingham, us, Rotherham and Southend, with the other 3 in the play offs being Port Vale, Cheltenham and Fleetwood - if they spend big again in January.

Thanks Billy.  I think you are spot on and look forward to you continuing to do the business in the second half of the season.  Going to be a difficult match day squad for Parkinson to pick when most of your players are back......and Hannah certainly will not be part of it.  Might as well gift him to us to do the business  .

UTM

Quoted from Devonmatt

Thanks Billy.  I think you are spot on and look forward to you continuing to do the business in the second half of the season.  Going to be a difficult match day squad for Parkinson to pick when most of your players are back......and Hannah certainly will not be part of it.  Might as well gift him to us to do the business  .

UTM

Cheers. Here's hoping we both have successful seasons and can be celebrating promotions at the same time!