With so many 'big' teams in L1 now, will getting good players prove to be impossible?

[seany t]

We should have some nice away days this year, but truth be told League One is looking a very tricky prospect for Tilly & team. Whereas before we just had to worry about teams in the Championship snaffling up all the talent, now it seems that due to their sheer ineptitude, loads of former big name clubs have infiltrated our cushy little league and are sniffing around all the treats.

With Charlton, Leeds, Southampton, Norwich, Millwall and a few other decent League One sides now fighting for promotion / survival, do you think we'll have to continue relying on loanees, youth players and bargain risks to move up the leagues?

I wonder if a move for Clarke to Charlton is personally one that'll do him any good given their woeful side last year, but time will tell...

 

[manor15]

Charlton, Norwich and Southampton all have very small budgets due to credit crunch and if anyone is going to affect us it will be Norwich, we have been competing with Millwall and Leeds before and it shouldn't be too different

 

[Norfolkshrimp]

Think you are spot on, the big boys will snap up any available talent, even if they can't afford big transfer fees they will wipe the floor with us when it comes to the level of wages they can offer.

I wonder how Tilly is playing it with Theo and Dorian, is it softly, softly with gentle but constant pressure to sign or is it a case of that's our best offer and we want an answer soon. Whichever it is we can't waste time on unrealistic targets then find that even the next level player below has been taken by someone else, which is what seems to have happened last summer.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

I think this will be the toughest L1 has ever been. Not too sure how Leeds will fare if they lose Beckford and Delph, ok they will probably get a fair bit of cash for them both but you never know how well a replacement is going to do.

Be interesting to see when the teams start making transfers, then I feel we will get a better idea of how things will shape up.

I think we will have our fair share of loanees again next season .... unfortunetly.

 

[yogi bear up the cagire]

I think that, at this moment in time, Norwich and Leeds present the biggest threat in League One. Will be interested to see whether Millwall can maintain their promotion push, following the disappointment of last season.........or will they fall away?
In truth, I don't think it is possible to say too much until the end of July, when we shall start to see how sides are going to line up. As for us ...........will it be mid- September before we get an inkling of what lays in store for 2009/10???.........when we've sorted out our loan signings!

 

[BrettieAngell]

The fact we haven't got nay money makes signing any players impossible!

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

Millwall or MK will do a Carlisle and struggle next year after their playoff misery I suspect.

 

[leeblue]

we have no money from the off so makes no difference anyway

 

[canveyshrimper]

Millwall or MK will do a Carlisle and struggle next year after their playoff misery I suspect.

Here's hoping that will be Franchise FC and the following year they crash out of the League for good.

Currently Southampton haven't got a pot to **** in and they haven't paid their staff and players in May, plus they'll also start with a 10 point deficit.

Charlton by all accounts have a massive level of debt, and isn't Delia Smith trying to flog her interest in Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrwich?

 

[turkishm]

The fact we haven't got nay money makes signing any players impossible!

In a nutshell really. I fear it dont really matter who is in our div, if you cant afford the players, and cant pay the wages,they wont come here anyway.

 

[maninasuitcase]

Southampton are having to sell to pay their current players wages. I think they will try and off load as many as possible to try and balance the books. Charlton are heavily in debt and not too far from administration if you believe some of the press. For Leeds it will be a third year in L1. Norwich still have players from the PL days, so I expect they are carrying a debt as well.

We might not have a lot of money to spend, but we rarely do anyway. We managed to persuade JFC and Grant on the back of first regular football, and we may do so again with the likes of Sawyer, Robinson, DD and Harding.

Yes, wages can be an issue, but some players will put that aside in order to play.

 

[Shrimpersfan]

I do worry that we literally cannot compete financially with some of the other teams in this division. I fear next season maybe even more of a struggle than this season, especially as we have pretty much lost our player of the season and anyone half decent seems to already have a club linked with them who can offer more than us.

 

[Jedi Shrimper]

I think everyone is in the same boat so it'll even out. Some of the bigger teams coming down will be having to tighten their belts because of the debt they're in, the economic climate & reduced income from relegation so won't be used to the smaller budgets. Wheras Tilly has been on a shoestring since he got here 5 years ago, he's made it work before, he'll make it work again. Just as many players will be leaving those 'big' clubs as going into them - possibly more as they reduce squad size to save cash, players will be desperate for contracts, we can take advantage. It'll be the usual combination of bigger clubs cast-offs, lower or non league talent & young loan players. What's changed?

 

[seany t]

I think everyone is in the same boat so it'll even out. Some of the bigger teams coming down will be having to tighten their belts because of the debt they're in, the economic climate & reduced income from relegation so won't be used to the smaller budgets. Wheras Tilly has been on a shoestring since he got here 5 years ago, he's made it work before, he'll make it work again. Just as many players will be leaving those 'big' clubs as going into them - possibly more as they reduce squad size to save cash, players will be desperate for contracts, we can take advantage. It'll be the usual combination of bigger clubs cast-offs, lower or non league talent & young loan players. What's changed?

Just the sheer amount of teams in our league with a reputation for winning things in the past, something that seems to have a lot of clout for a few.

These are essentially big brands, and people tend to like big brands.

 

[Suffolk Blue]

FFS people - Cheer up!

There'll always be bigger clubs than us who can pay more in wages; there're a lot of smaller ones too.

We are a club that's been either in the CCC or else near the top of L1 for 4 years now. We have some half-decent players, and a more-than-half-decent management team.

We're not situated in some grimy pit town, or the ar$e-end of London, Liverpool, Manchester etc.

We have a reasonable fan-base and can at least afford to pay the players we have what's due to them.

At some point in the not too distant future (please Ron). we'll haver a nice shiny new stadium.

So if you're a footballer, and you're not totally motivated by cash (like Bailey?), and you're looking for a decent wage, playing for a decent club (who play decent football, and have a decent fans set of fans), surely you'd consider joining Southend if you were lucky enough to be asked wouldn't you?

 

[Southampton Shrimper]

Southampton remember are in administration. The administrator told staff yesterday they were not receiving their salaries for May and has asked them to continue to work out of goodwill until next Friday while he tries to raise the cash to pay them.

Nathan Dyer will be sold to Swansea, but it is likely that some of the intial £200,000 they will receive for him will be kept by the Football League and paid to other clubs that are owed money by Saints. So, further selling of players will be needed to boost the fund for wages.

So I don't know how you can claim that Southampton will be snapping up all the best available talent.

 

[toellandback]

It should be a more even leaguethis year. Even the bigger clubs coming down are going to have smaller budgets, look at Leeds. We are having to make huge costs because it is worth so little being in this league. Our wage bill is rumoured to be £10 million, expect Beckford etc to go and not to be replaced.

Expect teams with alot of squads and more youngsters pushing on

 

[seany t]

Southampton remember are in administration. The administrator told staff yesterday they were not receiving their salaries for May and has asked them to continue to work out of goodwill until next Friday while he tries to raise the cash to pay them.

Nathan Dyer will be sold to Swansea, but it is likely that some of the intial £200,000 they will receive for him will be kept by the Football League and paid to other clubs that are owed money by Saints. So, further selling of players will be needed to boost the fund for wages.

So I don't know how you can claim that Southampton will be snapping up all the best available talent.

My initial post wasn't trying to be overly negative, just more of a talking point.

But I do think that due to the sheer size of the grounds, likelihood of being on TV, past glories etc many of those teams I listed will be above us when players are looking for a new home. Whether or not those are the kind of players that would fit in here... I'm not sure. But I still feel that the fact they've soared to heady heights will give these clubs an instant advantage over us.

I fully expect lots of them to struggle and some to go downwards within 2 seasons yet again, but it was just a point I was trying to make bearing in mind Tilly's recent comments.

Before this year there were arguably 2 or 3 large clubs in this league. There's now 5+.

 

[DTS]

It should be a more even leaguethis year. Even the bigger clubs coming down are going to have smaller budgets, look at Leeds. We are having to make huge costs because it is worth so little being in this league. Our wage bill is rumoured to be £10 million, expect Beckford etc to go and not to be replaced.

Expect teams with alot of squads and more youngsters pushing on

I fear it will go the other way.

If you take clubs like Leeds, Saints, Norwich etc they might have smaller budgets than they are used to - but compared to us I would imagine it would be huge.

If were in for the same player as say you, Norwich etc even if we can match the wages the chance to play infront of 40,000 fans etc will swing it.

I also fear even if the wage budget is slashed of the top sides there accademy players will still be good standard.

Until we get FF I dont really see how we can ever compete.

 

[turkishm]

My initial post wasn't trying to be overly negative, just more of a talking point.

But I do think that due to the sheer size of the grounds, likelihood of being on TV, past glories etc many of those teams I listed will be above us when players are looking for a new home. Whether or not those are the kind of players that would fit in here... I'm not sure. But I still feel that the fact they've soared to heady heights will give these clubs an instant advantage over us.

I fully expect lots of them to struggle and some to go downwards within 2 seasons yet again, but it was just a point I was trying to make bearing in mind Tilly's recent comments.

Before this year there were arguably 2 or 3 large clubs in this league. There's now 5+.

Your post has merit,no doubt about it,players might prefer to go to bigger more high profile clubs,but at the end of the day its about us. If Ron Martin either cant or wont release funds for better players,then we will not be in compition with them anyway, which i fear might be the case. Another season of lonees me thinks.