Warne is an idiot. Just been on radio Sheffield saying David ball best player at club. Really? Well you don't play your best player very often then. He makes it up as he goes along.
Not only was their wage bill and cost of players far greater than ours - and by far as far as I'm concerned. BUT and it's a big BUT - our players that NW left us were :
1...On decent wages.
2... NOT fit for purpose.
Whereas Huddersfield players were "championship" players and ours were has beens.
The "adiquate" budget was also woeful compared to Huddersfield.
And due to NW messing us about and our chief scout going AWOL made our shopping late for bargains.
-- Edited by Bornamiller on Monday 11th of December 2017 04:34:59 PM
-- Edited by Bornamiller on Monday 11th of December 2017 04:36:18 PM
Their Chairman Hoyle had also put £42m into the club in loans according to some figures out there (before they got the Premier League). That won't show in turnover numbers. I know TS and his companies have supported us, but probably not to that extent. They had some real capital behind them. Not a criticism of TS at all. But it just makes a mockery of the comparison. Plus they had players brought in (like Wells) for proper money in previous seasons, so they had more to build on.
Football finances are never simple. Any comparisons have to be taken with a pinch of salt. You often see Brentford quoted as a small club who punch above their weight, but they have also had huge amounts pumped in by their owner (Matthew Benham I think he is called). Like something close to £80m. And they have sold players like Andre Gray, signed for about £1m and sold for about £9m.
We were always likely to struggle in the Championship. Just like Burton Albion and Barnsley will. You can scrap it out for a season, maybe two, but in the end it is a struggle. It is difficult to break through the 'small club' barrier without some massive outside influence, and even harder still following the introduction of FFP.
The Evans policy of signing predominantly older players and bringing hardly any youngsters through meant that we didn't add much if any value to the stock of players. There was always going to be an upper limit to the gates we would get. I agree with Ex that our Championship ambitions had to be based on increasing revenue, and were probably based on developing the site to generate non-football income, and unfortunately we weren't able to get there in time.
Warne is an idiot. Just been on radio Sheffield saying David ball best player at club. Really? Well you don't play your best player very often then. He makes it up as he goes along.
Warne may or may not be a good manager, but he is no idiot.
I would say that David Ball, Joe Newell and Lee Frecklington are our best footballers.
Newell is a bit of an enigma but lots of ability.
Frecklington is rarely fit. I would guess that you would have to go back to the Warnock spell to find when he last played five full games in a row, which is probably what you need to be truly match fit, and even then if I remember right he was playing through an injury.
It was a blow when Ball was injured and ill at the start of the season. I think Warne probably intended to play 442 with Proctor and Ball as the 2. Ball wasn't available, then Proctor got his injury, and the best laid plans were in tatters. That Moore stepped up as he did was a real bonus. We are probably only just beginning to see a fully fit David Ball. He is a really good footballer. I don't think you can blame Warne for not picking him regularly before now- he hasn't been ready. If we can find a way to play to his strengths and pair him with someone who he can link with effectively, we shouldn't miss Moore too much.
The slight issue with Ball is that to get him in the side behind or alongside a front man you have to go with two in central midfield, and we risk getting overrun in there then and leaving our very wobbly defence exposed. That is probably the circle that Warne has got to try and square. Better players is the obvious answer, but at the very least better organisation and decision making as a unit is needed.
