Aren’t Birmingham and us well clear of the rest of the league since the turn of the year?
I don’t think the problem with our season was the January transfer window…
I think the failure to strengthen the squad in January is one of the problems with our season (the other being utterly tosh for large swathes of it). We’ve done well since the turn of the year because Jones has figured out a system that works for his best XI. Not strengthening in January means that when one or two of that XI are not available we look a shadow of ourselves.
The two teams that have spent the most are up. The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it.
There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will.
You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.
The two teams that have spent the most are up. The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it.
There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will.
You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.
No I think you’re right. Generally the clubs that spend the most tend to do the best.
What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.
We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?
The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.
Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…
Aren’t Birmingham and us well clear of the rest of the league since the turn of the year?
I don’t think the problem with our season was the January transfer window…
I think the failure to strengthen the squad in January is one of the problems with our season (the other being utterly tosh for large swathes of it). We’ve done well since the turn of the year because Jones has figured out a system that works for his best XI. Not strengthening in January means that when one or two of that XI are not available we look a shadow of ourselves.
I looked up the Wrexham numbers, and am astonished.
Our revenue last season (23/24) was £8.8m Wrexham's (in L2) was a staggering £26.7m, THREE times what we brought in. That included commercial revenue of £13m and retail revenue of £4.5m.
Yes they have owners prepared to spend money, but that's mainly because of the ridiculous sums they make from sponsors and selling shirts and merchandise on the back of the TV show.
Their wage bill was £11m in L2, when ours in L1 was £12.1. I bet this season their wage bill will be WAY higher than ours.
The two teams that have spent the most are up. The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it.
There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will.
You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.
No I think you’re right. Generally the clubs that spend the most tend to do the best.
What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.
We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?
The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.
Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…
My last say on this.
You are correct in saying that it was our form in Oct & November that killed us getting promoted automatically. And we have done tremendously well to get into the play offs 3 games before the end of the season.
But the arguement today, based on what we saw yesterday, is what follows next. And I'll say this again in case in 2 weeks time I'm accused of being Captain Hindsight.......
We appear to be going into the most important part of the season hampered by lack of depth and having to rely on players who are probably not up to the task. Now whether that is because we didnt organise our squad fully last summer or we didnt strengthen the squad in January.....or both.
But I'm sure a lot of people will agree that a side looking to win the play offs shouldn't be going into those matches with a bench that contains inexperienced youth players and players that can barely last 30 minutes.
The two teams that have spent the most are up. The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it.
There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will.
You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.
No I think you’re right. Generally the clubs that spend the most tend to do the best.
What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.
We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?
The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.
Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…
My post was more aimed at Fenaddick tbf.
I am focused on the Wrexham loss yes as it's fresh and extremely disappointing. It was extremely difficult to be on the wrong end of such a one way beating by a club who were in the National League in 22/23 and have been averaging crowds of 4k or so for about 20 years. To be done over like that was sickening.
For anyone saying 2nd was a pipe dream etc, it wasn't, if we had beaten them it would have come down to the final day. Instead we didn't rise to the occasion and now there's a bit of concern about the impact.
Those losses you mentioned earlier on may not have happened if we had more players of a higher quality.
I just hope we go up cause I genuinely don't think I can do another league 1 tour, especially after hearing all the whispers of losing TC, Small etc. These rebuilds are horrendous.
A rebuild is far easier in the league above where players want to play championship football compared to this pants league. Unless of course you do what those two have done and pay over the odds.
Rant over, hope they turn up in the play-offs cause that was genuinely as bad as any performance this season, regardless of how well drilled the opposition were.
The two teams that have spent the most are up. The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it.
There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will.
You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.
No I think you’re right. Generally the clubs that spend the most tend to do the best.
What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.
We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?
The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.
Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…
My post was more aimed at Fenaddick tbf.
I am focused on the Wrexham loss yes as it's fresh and extremely disappointing. It was extremely difficult to be on the wrong end of such a one way beating by a club who were in the National League in 22/23 and have been averaging crowds of 4k or so for about 20 years. To be done over like that was sickening.
For anyone saying 2nd was a pipe dream etc, it wasn't, if we had beaten them it would have come down to the final day. Instead we didn't rise to the occasion and now there's a bit of concern about the impact.
Those losses you mentioned earlier on may not have happened if we had more players of a higher quality.
I just hope we go up cause I genuinely don't think I can do another league 1 tour, especially after hearing all the whispers of losing TC, Small etc. These rebuilds are horrendous.
A rebuild is far easier in the league above where players want to play championship football compared to this pants league. Unless of course you do what those two have done and pay over the odds.
Rant over, hope they turn up in the play-offs cause that was genuinely as bad as any performance this season, regardless of how well drilled the opposition were.
That was then, the current Wrexham sell out 12k every match and have commercial income (as per my post above) most Championship clubs can only dream of.
They have United Airlines on the front of their shirt and Meta Quest, i.e. one of Mark Zuckerberg's companies, on the back. Ludicrous sponsors for this level, paying big bucks to be associated with the feelgood TV show. Money which enables them to bring in the likes of Sam Smith.
The two teams that have spent the most are up. The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it.
There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will.
You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.
No I think you’re right. Generally the clubs that spend the most tend to do the best.
What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.
We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?
The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.
Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…
My post was more aimed at Fenaddick tbf.
I am focused on the Wrexham loss yes as it's fresh and extremely disappointing. It was extremely difficult to be on the wrong end of such a one way beating by a club who were in the National League in 22/23 and have been averaging crowds of 4k or so for about 20 years. To be done over like that was sickening.
For anyone saying 2nd was a pipe dream etc, it wasn't, if we had beaten them it would have come down to the final day. Instead we didn't rise to the occasion and now there's a bit of concern about the impact.
Those losses you mentioned earlier on may not have happened if we had more players of a higher quality.
I just hope we go up cause I genuinely don't think I can do another league 1 tour, especially after hearing all the whispers of losing TC, Small etc. These rebuilds are horrendous.
A rebuild is far easier in the league above where players want to play championship football compared to this pants league. Unless of course you do what those two have done and pay over the odds.
Rant over, hope they turn up in the play-offs cause that was genuinely as bad as any performance this season, regardless of how well drilled the opposition were.
That was then, the current Wrexham sell out 12k every match and have commercial income (as per my post above) most Championship clubs can only dream of.
They have United Airlines on the front of their shirt and Meta Quest, i.e. one of Mark Zuckerberg's companies, on the back. Ludicrous sponsors for this level, paying big bucks to be associated with the feelgood TV show. Money which enables them to bring in the likes of Sam Smith.
Exactly. That's my point.
It was extremely difficult to watch a club who were without being rude, nothing, non-league, only 5 years ago, to turning us over and securing promotion. All the talk was about them, we were just an extra, a non-entity billed as underdogs.
The half and half scarves, the build up of the game at the Valley, and then this.
Their average attendance was just 4k in 19/20.
So it's not really a case of "that was then". It's still very recent, they were a national league side in 2022/23.
To see a club overtake us in such a short span of time, while also seeing what is meant to be our rivals secure a FA cup final, and the others make serious strides towards a championship play-off place, was genuinely vomit worthy.
I'm at a point where I'm cheering on an oil club to stop a club that is so far ahead of us from lifting a trophy, and hoping our ex- Snake of a player, Scott Parkers team turns over our rivals just to not lose any more credit.
There's a scenario that exists where we lose the play-offs, Palace win an FA cup, and Millwall will be in the play-offs.
Quite a few at the start of the season wrote off Wrexham , we’ve got a better squad then them , they won’t go up , they won’t keep this up , It’s just all hype with them etc they've gone up 3 seasons on the bounce , which even with dough is some feat . fair play to them We’ll just continue to be the laughing stock of south east London football as we have been for years now , will it ever end .
We need a new goalkeeper, whatever league we are in . Mannion is calm and patrols his box quite well, but his shot stopping isn’t good enough . Whatever division we are in , we will need to strengthen in every position , which will likely include having to replace 2/3 key players as well. We have benefitted from having very few injuries this season but there’s nothing beyond the first 11. We need better options in midfield and will need a couple of new forwards if TC, Leaburn and Aneke are all off .
I am confident and whilst this weekend was awful, it could help us in that a win against Wrexham and they win next weekend and we would be going into the play offs not fully ready IMO. The question is who do we rest against Burton? Is it more important to try to secure 4th place or ensure our players are as fit and fresh as we can get them. I doubt any of our players with minor knocks will be playing against Burton. I think Jones will look at the team on a player by player basis. I doubt very strongly we will see Berry, Small and Jones. Gilly had stiffness recently so may be rested also. Then you are starting to look at a reserve team apart from those who will benefit from a run out. We have not been making many changes through our great run so I suspect we will see a much changed team. I don't think this will have a negative impact on us. Using the time to get our main players ready surely will have a massive positive impact.
I find it mildly irritating looking at the negativity. We have to be very happy with our form since Christmas and there are no need for recriminations. As has been said, we lost out because we had a relegation form run earlier in the season. Our season isn't over by any means and we have a couple of weeks now to get ourselves right for a bit of glory. It will be quite interesting to see how Stockport and Wycombe approach their game. Reading and Orient have to give everything they have.
Aren’t Birmingham and us well clear of the rest of the league since the turn of the year?
I don’t think the problem with our season was the January transfer window…
I think the failure to strengthen the squad in January is one of the problems with our season (the other being utterly tosh for large swathes of it). We’ve done well since the turn of the year because Jones has figured out a system that works for his best XI. Not strengthening in January means that when one or two of that XI are not available we look a shadow of ourselves.
????? We had to streamline the squad we had to many players sitting in their hands on match days earning good wages .. this is a process NJ said people need to remember we are 12 months in the project so we are ahead where we expected to be .. we did strengthen in January we brought players in that actually are involved on match days ……..
We need a new goalkeeper, whatever league we are in . Mannion is calm and patrols his box quite well, but his shot stopping isn’t good enough . Whatever division we are in , we will need to strengthen in every position , which will likely include having to replace 2/3 key players as well. We have benefitted from having very few injuries this season but there’s nothing beyond the first 11. We need better options in midfield and will need a couple of new forwards if TC, Leaburn and Aneke are all off .
Yes, we will never keep a clean sheet with Will Mannion in goal 🤷🏻♂️
However disappointing it was to get to tonked by Wrexham, it’s Important not to overreact, we need to put it to one side, move on quickly, and carry on getting behind the lads.
We can’t pick the team, buy players, or fix players that are injured, but we can quit moaning, be positive and help get us out of this division with noise and support,
I won’t go quietly, and just let things happen to us, this is the best shot in years we’ve had of getting out of this poxy division.
Let’s make sure we give the lads our full support on Saturday, get stuck into the ref and Lino’s, and give it our all vocally.
The two teams that have spent the most are up. The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it.
There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will.
You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.
No I think you’re right. Generally the clubs that spend the most tend to do the best.
What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.
We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?
The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.
Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…
My post was more aimed at Fenaddick tbf.
I am focused on the Wrexham loss yes as it's fresh and extremely disappointing. It was extremely difficult to be on the wrong end of such a one way beating by a club who were in the National League in 22/23 and have been averaging crowds of 4k or so for about 20 years. To be done over like that was sickening.
For anyone saying 2nd was a pipe dream etc, it wasn't, if we had beaten them it would have come down to the final day. Instead we didn't rise to the occasion and now there's a bit of concern about the impact.
Those losses you mentioned earlier on may not have happened if we had more players of a higher quality.
I just hope we go up cause I genuinely don't think I can do another league 1 tour, especially after hearing all the whispers of losing TC, Small etc. These rebuilds are horrendous.
A rebuild is far easier in the league above where players want to play championship football compared to this pants league. Unless of course you do what those two have done and pay over the odds.
Rant over, hope they turn up in the play-offs cause that was genuinely as bad as any performance this season, regardless of how well drilled the opposition were.
That was then, the current Wrexham sell out 12k every match and have commercial income (as per my post above) most Championship clubs can only dream of.
They have United Airlines on the front of their shirt and Meta Quest, i.e. one of Mark Zuckerberg's companies, on the back. Ludicrous sponsors for this level, paying big bucks to be associated with the feelgood TV show. Money which enables them to bring in the likes of Sam Smith.
Exactly. That's my point.
It was extremely difficult to watch a club who were without being rude, nothing, non-league, only 5 years ago, to turning us over and securing promotion. All the talk was about them, we were just an extra, a non-entity billed as underdogs.
The half and half scarves, the build up of the game at the Valley, and then this.
Their average attendance was just 4k in 19/20.
So it's not really a case of "that was then". It's still very recent, they were a national league side in 2022/23.
To see a club overtake us in such a short span of time, while also seeing what is meant to be our rivals secure a FA cup final, and the others make serious strides towards a championship play-off place, was genuinely vomit worthy.
I'm at a point where I'm cheering on an oil club to stop a club that is so far ahead of us from lifting a trophy, and hoping our ex- Snake of a player, Scott Parkers team turns over our rivals just to not lose any more credit.
There's a scenario that exists where we lose the play-offs, Palace win an FA cup, and Millwall will be in the play-offs.
Dreadful.
It reads like you need to take a step back and get a bit of perspective in what is really important in life.
Charlton are a massive part of my life and always will be, but at the end of the day if it’s making you so unhappy & stressed, then you need to remind yourself it’s only a game.
I won’t quote because the post is too long but I don’t think the teams I mentioned are anomalies necessarily. There are teams in every division who have spent heavily and not hit their targets, I just plucked a few names I could think of.
My point wasn’t that you don’t just need to spend money but that you need to have the structure around it correct anyway. It’s why Peterborough have punched above their weight for a decade, why Birmingham were able to get a good hit rate with their transfers (Stansfield doesn’t fit the pattern), it’s why Stockport keep finishing in the play offs at least. We’ve had some of that right, the manager is right, the medical department is right, the pre season seemed right, 80% of the transfers are right but we’ve had issues. The striker we reportedly spent the most on has been poor and the club captain goes through patches where he underperforms and there has been the debacle with the pitch. Some of the people responsible for those things have gone in an attempt to get that structure right.
There are always going to be teething issues. Wrexham didn’t get promoted first season under their owners, Birmingham appointed Rooney and went down. The important thing is how we react. We’ve don’t want to become a (seeming) basket case like Huddersfield, a stable club underperforming their spend like Gillingham or a sinking stone like Carlisle.
We need a new goalkeeper, whatever league we are in . Mannion is calm and patrols his box quite well, but his shot stopping isn’t good enough . Whatever division we are in , we will need to strengthen in every position , which will likely include having to replace 2/3 key players as well. We have benefitted from having very few injuries this season but there’s nothing beyond the first 11. We need better options in midfield and will need a couple of new forwards if TC, Leaburn and Aneke are all off .
Defenders - Ricardo Santos (off form this season but a giant) - Paudi O'Connor (Mitchell's partner at Lincoln) - Liam Bennett (prob too small for Jones). - Euoghan O'Connell (was ok for us last time, done well at Wrexham). - Semi Ajayi (ex Charlton youth, may know Jones. 6ft4) - Amadou Mbengue (lots of energy, can play multiple positions).
I won’t quote because the post is too long but I don’t think the teams I mentioned are anomalies necessarily. There are teams in every division who have spent heavily and not hit their targets, I just plucked a few names I could think of.
My point wasn’t that you don’t just need to spend money but that you need to have the structure around it correct anyway. It’s why Peterborough have punched above their weight for a decade, why Birmingham were able to get a good hit rate with their transfers (Stansfield doesn’t fit the pattern), it’s why Stockport keep finishing in the play offs at least. We’ve had some of that right, the manager is right, the medical department is right, the pre season seemed right, 80% of the transfers are right but we’ve had issues. The striker we reportedly spent the most on has been poor and the club captain goes through patches where he underperforms and there has been the debacle with the pitch. Some of the people responsible for those things have gone in an attempt to get that structure right.
There are always going to be teething issues. Wrexham didn’t get promoted first season under their owners, Birmingham appointed Rooney and went down. The important thing is how we react. We’ve don’t want to become a (seeming) basket case like Huddersfield, a stable club underperforming their spend like Gillingham or a sinking stone like Carlisle.
Exactly. We are basically in our first year of being a club that’s reasonably sensible and have a good manager. We are up against teams that are multiple years into their journeys when we are just starting ours. Look how much the team have progressed in the first year of Jones, it’s remarkable
Some people seem disappointed we didn’t go from being the 16th best team in the league to the 2nd best overnight. That just doesn’t happen, it’s a process. I think we win the play offs but if we don’t we will get top 2 next season
Aren’t Birmingham and us well clear of the rest of the league since the turn of the year?
I don’t think the problem with our season (which might still turn out to be a successful one btw) was the January transfer window…
I don't think our squad was 'oven ready' for the season to begin. Way too many players were needing matches to get fit or play into form. That did happen but too late (for auto's). NJ has got a tune out of my players, that showed very little promise, so I'm guessing he did get it right in his picks in the summer, albeit he was unlucky that too many didn't start to play well for 3 months, and others have had injuries. His idea for a lean stripped down squad has been incredibly successful. He looked at what he had, and many of who were not contributing to the cause was let go of in January. We now have a trimmed squad, so there should be rook in the summer for additions that are only about quality, not squad numbers.
We may have some kind of a rebuild, simply down to the marquee players being out of contract. If Jones has another summer window, I think he gets us up next season, if not this.
Right now this team needs to get it's stars and fringe players all fit and working flat out for the playoffs. Unfortunately there are at least two other clubs in very good form.
We need a new goalkeeper, whatever league we are in . Mannion is calm and patrols his box quite well, but his shot stopping isn’t good enough . Whatever division we are in , we will need to strengthen in every position , which will likely include having to replace 2/3 key players as well. We have benefitted from having very few injuries this season but there’s nothing beyond the first 11. We need better options in midfield and will need a couple of new forwards if TC, Leaburn and Aneke are all off .
Defenders - Ricardo Santos (off form this season but a giant) - Paudi O'Connor (Mitchell's partner at Lincoln) - Liam Bennett (prob too small for Jones). - Euoghan O'Connell (was ok for us last time, done well at Wrexham). - Semi Ajayi (ex Charlton youth, may know Jones. 6ft4) - Amadou Mbengue (lots of energy, can play multiple positions).
I would love George Wickens as keeper but he signed for 4 years at Lincoln last season so no chance.
Ajayi, yes, unless injury has slowed him down Wickens, yes, but as you say, under contract
A definite if we can possibly get him, I don't know his contract status, is Malik Mothersille, Posh midfielder, he'll cost
Problem we have is that unless we go up, I reckon we'll lose the cream of our team .. Small, Jones Gilleshpey, Edwards, could all be in demand from Championship clubs.
As I have said before, Berry and Godden are getting no younger and will need careful management. What we REALLY need and will be very hard to find, is a big 15/20 goal a season striker, and whoever he is, he'll be expensive
Comments
The two teams that have spent the most are up.
The marquee signing of January ripped us a new one. All there is to it.
There will always be anomalies (Huddersfield/Reading), that's what happens when multiple teams spend a lot, they can't all be succesful, but when it's all said and done, over time, cash wins. Always will.
You think Leeds and Burnley have gone up through good spirits and a chicken George van, have a word.
What I don’t get is all the catastrophising over a defeat to a team who’ve proved themselves to be second to only Birmingham over the course of 46 games.
We are what, 2.3, 2.4 points per game since January? Are we really focusing on yesterday’s one off loss when the real thing that killed us was our Oct/Nov/Dec form before the window?
The same people who came out of January saying we hadn’t strengthened enough to maintain a playoff push are the same ones now disappointed that we haven’t taken automatics to the last day of the season.
Think people are looking in the wrong places. The problem isn’t losing at Wrexham in April. It’s losing at Bristol Rovers, at Exeter, at home to Crawley…
Our revenue last season (23/24) was £8.8m
Wrexham's (in L2) was a staggering £26.7m, THREE times what we brought in. That included commercial revenue of £13m and retail revenue of £4.5m.
Yes they have owners prepared to spend money, but that's mainly because of the ridiculous sums they make from sponsors and selling shirts and merchandise on the back of the TV show.
Their wage bill was £11m in L2, when ours in L1 was £12.1. I bet this season their wage bill will be WAY higher than ours.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ce92zk757vlo
https://www.wrexhamafc.co.uk/news/2025/march/31/annual-report-and-financial-statements---record-turnover-of--26-7-million-announced/
You are correct in saying that it was our form in Oct & November that killed us getting promoted automatically. And we have done tremendously well to get into the play offs 3 games before the end of the season.
But the arguement today, based on what we saw yesterday, is what follows next. And I'll say this again in case in 2 weeks time I'm accused of being Captain Hindsight.......
We appear to be going into the most important part of the season hampered by lack of depth and having to rely on players who are probably not up to the task. Now whether that is because we didnt organise our squad fully last summer or we didnt strengthen the squad in January.....or both.
But I'm sure a lot of people will agree that a side looking to win the play offs shouldn't be going into those matches with a bench that contains inexperienced youth players and players that can barely last 30 minutes.
I am focused on the Wrexham loss yes as it's fresh and extremely disappointing. It was extremely difficult to be on the wrong end of such a one way beating by a club who were in the National League in 22/23 and have been averaging crowds of 4k or so for about 20 years. To be done over like that was sickening.
For anyone saying 2nd was a pipe dream etc, it wasn't, if we had beaten them it would have come down to the final day. Instead we didn't rise to the occasion and now there's a bit of concern about the impact.
Those losses you mentioned earlier on may not have happened if we had more players of a higher quality.
I just hope we go up cause I genuinely don't think I can do another league 1 tour, especially after hearing all the whispers of losing TC, Small etc. These rebuilds are horrendous.
A rebuild is far easier in the league above where players want to play championship football compared to this pants league. Unless of course you do what those two have done and pay over the odds.
Rant over, hope they turn up in the play-offs cause that was genuinely as bad as any performance this season, regardless of how well drilled the opposition were.
They have United Airlines on the front of their shirt and Meta Quest, i.e. one of Mark Zuckerberg's companies, on the back. Ludicrous sponsors for this level, paying big bucks to be associated with the feelgood TV show. Money which enables them to bring in the likes of Sam Smith.
It was extremely difficult to watch a club who were without being rude, nothing, non-league, only 5 years ago, to turning us over and securing promotion. All the talk was about them, we were just an extra, a non-entity billed as underdogs.
The half and half scarves, the build up of the game at the Valley, and then this.
Their average attendance was just 4k in 19/20.
So it's not really a case of "that was then". It's still very recent, they were a national league side in 2022/23.
To see a club overtake us in such a short span of time, while also seeing what is meant to be our rivals secure a FA cup final, and the others make serious strides towards a championship play-off place, was genuinely vomit worthy.
I'm at a point where I'm cheering on an oil club to stop a club that is so far ahead of us from lifting a trophy, and hoping our ex- Snake of a player, Scott Parkers team turns over our rivals just to not lose any more credit.
There's a scenario that exists where we lose the play-offs, Palace win an FA cup, and Millwall will be in the play-offs.
Dreadful.
(don't really disagree with the rest of your post by the way)
they've gone up 3 seasons on the bounce , which even with dough is some feat .
fair play to them
We’ll just continue to be the laughing stock of south east London football as we have been for years now , will it ever end .
I find it mildly irritating looking at the negativity. We have to be very happy with our form since Christmas and there are no need for recriminations. As has been said, we lost out because we had a relegation form run earlier in the season. Our season isn't over by any means and we have a couple of weeks now to get ourselves right for a bit of glory. It will be quite interesting to see how Stockport and Wycombe approach their game. Reading and Orient have to give everything they have.
Dirty Den has let himself go !
Yes, we will never keep a clean sheet with Will Mannion in goal 🤷🏻♂️
We can’t pick the team, buy players, or fix players that are injured, but we can quit moaning, be positive and help get us out of this division with noise and support,
I won’t go quietly, and just let things happen to us, this is the best shot in years we’ve had of getting out of this poxy division.
Let’s make sure we give the lads our full support on Saturday, get stuck into the ref and Lino’s, and give it our all vocally.
Mike Bassett speech over and out.
COYR!
Charlton are a massive part of my life and always will be, but at the end of the day if it’s making you so unhappy & stressed, then you need to remind yourself it’s only a game.
My point wasn’t that you don’t just need to spend money but that you need to have the structure around it correct anyway. It’s why Peterborough have punched above their weight for a decade, why Birmingham were able to get a good hit rate with their transfers (Stansfield doesn’t fit the pattern), it’s why Stockport keep finishing in the play offs at least. We’ve had some of that right, the manager is right, the medical department is right, the pre season seemed right, 80% of the transfers are right but we’ve had issues. The striker we reportedly spent the most on has been poor and the club captain goes through patches where he underperforms and there has been the debacle with the pitch. Some of the people responsible for those things have gone in an attempt to get that structure right.
There are always going to be teething issues. Wrexham didn’t get promoted first season under their owners, Birmingham appointed Rooney and went down. The important thing is how we react. We’ve don’t want to become a
(seeming) basket case like Huddersfield, a stable club underperforming their spend like Gillingham or a sinking stone like Carlisle.
Curious if the Wrexham owners will stick with him if next sesson doesn't go well. A big step up for their squad which has quite a few aging players.
...Please, there are limits...🤦♂️
Some out of contract players this summer...
Goalkeeper
- Dillon Phillips (no intro needed)
- Nathan Baxter (local lad)
Defenders
- Ricardo Santos (off form this season but a giant)
- Paudi O'Connor (Mitchell's partner at Lincoln)
- Liam Bennett (prob too small for Jones).
- Euoghan O'Connell (was ok for us last time, done well at Wrexham).
- Semi Ajayi (ex Charlton youth, may know Jones. 6ft4)
- Amadou Mbengue (lots of energy, can play multiple positions).
Midfielders
- Sonny Carey
- Hector Kyprianou
- Mamadi Camara (winger)
Forwards
- Ricky Jade Jones
I would love George Wickens as keeper but he signed for 4 years at Lincoln last season so no chance.
Some people seem disappointed we didn’t go from being the 16th best team in the league to the 2nd best overnight. That just doesn’t happen, it’s a process. I think we win the play offs but if we don’t we will get top 2 next season
We may have some kind of a rebuild, simply down to the marquee players being out of contract. If Jones has another summer window, I think he gets us up next season, if not this.
Right now this team needs to get it's stars and fringe players all fit and working flat out for the playoffs. Unfortunately there are at least two other clubs in very good form.
Wickens, yes, but as you say, under contract
A definite if we can possibly get him, I don't know his contract status, is Malik Mothersille, Posh midfielder, he'll cost
Problem we have is that unless we go up, I reckon we'll lose the cream of our team .. Small, Jones Gilleshpey, Edwards, could all be in demand from Championship clubs.
As I have said before, Berry and Godden are getting no younger and will need careful management.
What we REALLY need and will be very hard to find, is a big 15/20 goal a season striker, and whoever he is, he'll be expensive