Ollie Palmer

It makes you wonder how much of this is being pedalled by the impending salary cap at beginning of next season for the national league(s).

If you’ve got unlimited resources - on paper, this is your best chance to go up before the playing field is levelled out. It’s certainly a shít or bust approach but when has that ever stopped a football club before?

Lets not forget Stockwood and Petit are shrewd business people, if nothing else. Perhaps riding this COVID/salary cap enforced wave while investing heavily in infrastructure instead could be a clever move. Once things have calmed down, we “go for it” on the playing side. A walk before you run technique that would leave us in a much stronger position to return to the football league. It’s not necessarily what you want to hear as a supporter but you cannot deny it makes long term sense.

As for Palmer, a cracking signing for nothing short of crazy money!

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Lots of talk on here about we should have paid this 6 figure sum or that 6 figure sum and pay sill wages for a striker, can anyone tell me the last time we actually did that?

To answer your question, I would think Phil Jevons all the way back in 2001. He was a quarter of a mill, wasn't he? Of course, that was all based on ITV money which would never arrive, and that coupled with two decades of failing to deal with the fallout is probably why we've never done it since.

We'll have paid a fee for Sam Jones when we signed him from Gateshead the night Bogle left, but I'd be surprised if it was six figures.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Lots of talk on here about we should have paid this 6 figure sum or that 6 figure sum and pay sill wages for a striker, can anyone tell me the last time we actually did that?

Didn't Buckley spend £1m in the summer of 1997?

The £500k signing of Lee Ashcroft was one that didn't work out and the last time we spent big was at the beginning of the millennium under Lennie Lawrence; a contributing factor in our demise.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

Didn't Buckley spend £1m in the summer of 1997?

The £500k signing of Lee Ashcroft was one that didn't work out and the last time we spent big was at the beginning of the millennium under Lennie Lawrence; a contributing factor in our demise.

In 97 we sold Oster for £1.7m to Everton and Mendonca for £700k to Charlton. That allowed Buckley to then sign 4-5 players who were each between £100 and £300k. Nogan, Donovan, Groves, Smith, Burnett all come to mind.

McDermott’s book shows how much money Lawrence was throwing around, when players were offered renewed contracts on three times their previous deal.

Quoted from mimma

People point to Harrogate and Sutton that went up without spending money. They built promotion sides slowly, giving the manager time to build their squads. Their teams were put together when the right players became available instead of spending a fortune in one or two transfer windows. Halifax would appear to be doing the same this year, biding their time and picking up players when they are available to them.

It is not just about giving a manager time it is also about having the right manager.

There's not been that much building of a squad since Hurst came back, most contracts ending this season, sending loans back early, bringing in more loan players, getting rid of players recently signed.

Quoted from arryarryarry

It is not just about giving a manager time it is also about having the right manager.

There's not been that much building of a squad since Hurst came back, most contracts ending this season, sending loans back early, bringing in more loan players, getting rid of players recently signed.

But there’s literally plenty of reasons for that, and much like when we went down last time, it takes time to find the right players…signing lads on contracts for more than a year hasn’t gone well in the last 20 years in truth.

This is a long term plan and I stand by the comment that had town dropped £300k on Ollie Palmer people would’ve moaned. GTFC can’t win, even under Fenty, I never stick up for him but just spunking that sort of cash and then wages isn’t helpful or guarantees you anything. It can create sustainability issues and so forth. Under Fenty there was zero investment, but it went well beyond the playing budget, but still, caution was understandable to some extent, the same happening now. Just Becauee we have extremely wealthy folk in charge doesn’t mean we’re going to be moronic like Wrexham and drop that cash.

Our current owners have a long term plan and a lot of that focuses on ensuring the club remains for a very long time whilst also being competitive. At the minute we’re struggling, again for a catalogue of reasons…hence every man and his dog shitting their knickers. Things turn around though and if you compare this to the same season last time we went down, the club, the team, the ground (it is before anyone tries to be clever) and the relevance of the club is in much greater shape…

We were treading water for 17 years, we were the worst team in the football league…we weren’t going to become a top of the league team overnight…

Quoted from aldi_01

But there’s literally plenty of reasons for that, and much like when we went down last time, it takes time to find the right players…signing lads on contracts for more than a year hasn’t gone well in the last 20 years in truth.

This is a long term plan and I stand by the comment that had town dropped £300k on Ollie Palmer people would’ve moaned. GTFC can’t win, even under Fenty, I never stick up for him but just spunking that sort of cash and then wages isn’t helpful or guarantees you anything. It can create sustainability issues and so forth. Under Fenty there was zero investment, but it went well beyond the playing budget, but still, caution was understandable to some extent, the same happening now. Just Becauee we have extremely wealthy folk in charge doesn’t mean we’re going to be moronic like Wrexham and drop that cash.

Our current owners have a long term plan and a lot of that focuses on ensuring the club remains for a very long time whilst also being competitive. At the minute we’re struggling, again for a catalogue of reasons…hence every man and his dog shitting their knickers. Things turn around though and if you compare this to the same season last time we went down, the club, the team, the ground (it is before anyone tries to be clever) and the relevance of the club is in much greater shape…

We were treading water for 17 years, we were the worst team in the football league…we weren’t going to become a top of the league team overnight…

We weren’t the worst team in the EFL when Hurst took over.

Am actually hoping that 2 of wrexham/Stockport/chesterfield (if not us of course) go up this season as it’s looking likely, at the moment, that it’s going to be scunts/Oldham that will be coming down and they Haven’t got a pot to pi55 in at the moment. It would certainly level the playing field somewhat.

Quoted from WOZOFGRIMSBY

Am actually hoping that 2 of wrexham/Stockport/chesterfield (if not us of course) go up this season as it’s looking likely, at the moment, that it’s going to be scunts/Oldham that will be coming down and they Haven’t got a pot to pi55 in at the moment. It would certainly level the playing field somewhat.

My sentiments too, with regards to if not us then definitely Stockport and Wrexham .... I feel due to Oldham’s size and history plus the fact that their owner is now willing to sell they might not remain brassic for long. Scunts on the other hand are doomed.

Quoted from Poojah

To answer your question, I would think Phil Jevons all the way back in 2001. He was a quarter of a mill, wasn't he? Of course, that was all based on ITV money which would never arrive, and that coupled with two decades of failing to deal with the fallout is probably why we've never done it since.

We'll have paid a fee for Sam Jones when we signed him from Gateshead the night Bogle left, but I'd be surprised if it was six figures.

There lies one of the big problems at the moment the expectation is stuck 20 years into history.