Signing free agents usually means paying a signing on fee, sometimes spread over a period, as well as a wage. I don't know the details of Maguire's contract of course but if he is on a hypothetical £7K a week and Oxford want to pay him a hypothetical £4K a week, he is going to want something close to £3K multiplied by number of weeks left on contract to go. No small amount. A similar deal might have been done with White, and we might have to do the same to offload Halford, Bowery, maybe Buxton, maybe Collins, maybe others. We might not have paid transfer fees in the summer but we committed a lot of money to players who have done little or nothing for us. The only easy out might be if they can get similar money with new clubs, but are any of them likely to get deals with clubs who would pay the same? None of them are exactly going to be fighting off offers from other Championships teams are they, and none of them have enhanced their reputation with us? When people talk about Evans leaving us in a state and Redfearn having one hand behind his back because of sorting out Evans' mess, this is the sort of thing they are talking about.

You can't just blame Evans though Exeter as I doubt very much that he signed the cheques or negotiated the contracts.
Someone at the club must have approved the expenditure and they must at least be partially accountable for the financial mismanagement which was allowed to happen at that time.
After all, who do we think has overall control of financial matters at the club? Bet your life it wasn't Steve Evans!
Despite what has been said about the reason for its formation, I think the main purpose of the Technical Committee is probably to prevent further financial mismanagement at the club.

mellowmiller wrote:

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You can't just blame Evans though Exeter as I doubt very much that he signed the cheques or negotiated the contracts.
Someone at the club must have approved the expenditure and they must at least be partially accountable for the financial mismanagement which was allowed to happen at that time.
After all, who do we think has overall control of financial matters at the club? Bet your life it wasn't Steve Evans!
Despite what has been said about the reason for its formation, I think the main purpose of the Technical Committee is probably to prevent further financial mismanagement at the club.

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 Mellow, do you not think that Evans leaving may in no small part be due to the fact that Evans was to be reigned in on his spending by the Technical Committee and that the major chunk of the 2015/2016 budget was blown on playing staff not adequate for the division before we even kicked a ball in anger ? I do agree that there are other parties involved in the chain, the ones that sign the cheques, but were they too not under the spell of Steve Evans ?

mellowmiller wrote:

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Gaz, I'm not suggesting for a minute that Evans wasn't responsible for wasting money on dross but I still can't understand why he was allowed to do it so easily.
Surely someone other than the football manager is responsible for controlling the purse strings and that's a really important job when the budget is on the small side to begin with.
I have an idea that the person responsible may have been reluctant to say too much to Tony Stewart because the chairman always said he would back the manager completely. And then, maybe the money ran out and something had to change.
But I could be completely wrong of course!

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 As I said Mellow, under Evans spell, in awe of, within his confidant circle etc. I do however agree some one within the club must have given the green light. I do however to a certain degree hold Sir Tony, I know i will take flack for this, to a level responsible for our current recruitment and further NYS development. He has without been the saviour of this football club, however i do belive he has big time underestimated the commitment financially to keep us in this division. If we are to compete at this level on a regular season to season basis We/He needs to bite the bullet and allow investor(s) into the club even if this means relinquishing complete control of the club.

Sad statement i know but realistally our only option ?

Tony Stewart may be at the crossroads in terms of his ownership of the club and probably has a real dilemma about which way to go next.
I'm pretty sure he will be desperate for the club to stay in the Championship because there is a sizeable financial prize on the horizon from increased tv revenue next season.
The problem seems to be can we avoid relegation within the current modest budget and if we do, what then, because we are likely to face another season of struggle unless there are some fundamental changes to the financial structure of the club.
The increased tv money will certainly be a boost next season but it won't give the club a competitive advantage because the rest of the league will benefit similarly.
So there is the dilemma. Does Tony Stewart carry on attempting to swim against the tide by competing with a modest budget, and would supporters be happy with perpetual struggle anyway?
Or does he look for a major investor which may mean reducing his family's overall ownership?
Or does he look to sell the club and let someone else have a go?
Whatever he decides to do I'm pretty sure he won't jeopardise the financial future of the club by spending beyond its means.
Who'd be a football chairman eh?