January 2021 Transfer Targets (last minute swoop for Jaiyesimi p184 - NOW it's all over.)

Ladies and gentlemen I feel your pain. You are all of course entitled to your footballing opinions. I am not going into all of that though I confess to being somewhat amused at some of the double standards. Apparently you are all entitled to vent your spleen at all and sundry while Bowyer cannot express his professional views of the same performances.

You are also entitled to your expectations. Whether they actually align with the stated targets set by the new owner is a matter for you. Your expectations - your pain. Whether your expectations are in anyway realistic is also a matter for your thought processes.

What we are seeing today is for me far from unexpected. It sort of reflects the narrative I have felt obliged to follow for far too many years.

While I  do concede Covid has exacerbated the challenges the business has been failing for 6yrs.

- It has operated on skeleton operations and survival budgets for 3yrs.

- It has operated with zero executive participation for that same period.

Clubs at a County League Level had a greater executive participation than evidenced in SE7. It matters. It is not normal. The executive represent what the club is about. There has been no one there. You denude the fabric of organisational infrastructure at you peril. 

In Pre Covid times such absence was overcome when Bowyer sparked a dwindling crowd to raise a new momentum and a special relationship between the players and the crowd. Now for nearly a year there has been no crowd. Nothing to relate to. Just a job to do.

- 3yrs of inadequate budgets has seen the guts of the clubhouse ripped out for 3 seasons in a row. It has consequences.

- 9 months of utter chaos operating on the verge of oblivion has consequences.

- Trying to rebuild under a trading embargo only lifted 2 weeks before the transfer window closed has consequences.

- Trying to rebuild under a Covid 19 cloud has consequences    

- Trying to rebuild after a hastily restructured 2019 campaign, truncated close season and no pre season has consequences.

- Operating within a rapidly imposed Salary Cap has consequences.

63 debuts since August 2018 (23 months of active football) speaks to such consequences.

If you believe Messrs Gallen & Bowyer have YET been empowered to deliver to the club I respectfully disagree.

In a business which has resembled a footballing version of the Marie Celeste they have represented the only functioning stability needed to keep the club trading. In a stumbling business bereft of any other stability if you wish to remove such personal you are sending entirely the wrong message to the entire industry. It merely perpetuates the insanity of recent years. No brave new world there - new CAFC as flaky as ever.

Are Messrs Gallen and Bowyer above reproach? Of course not but I am not going to ignore their service of the past 2 1/2 yrs on the basis of the past 6/7 weeks.

If you think you can literally throw together a new squad involving 10 signings in a matter of 2 weeks without challenges then I suggest your expectation is beyond any realistic interpretation. 

Something like 15 players are playing for contract (with us or elsewhere) for next year but you simply cannot keep rotating 15 players into/ out of the club every year

I believe we have just 5 senior players on which to build next year. Gunter, Inniss, Gilbey, Schwartz, Washington with hopefully Barker, Davison, Morgan and Vennings able to progress

You would like to think the performances of Amos, Shinnie, Watson, Williams would warrant an extension of their time with us.

If we are able to  add 1 or 2 more senior contracts now it would be extremely helpful. When I say senior contracts I mean for experienced players over the age of 21 on 2 - 3yr contracts.

We have to move away from these stop gap solutions. Under the new ownership if we cannot offer a new player a 2-3yr contract then why are we signing them at all? Can it be done within this salary cap I simply do not know.

I understand and applaud Mr Sandgaards' management style but he still has some work to do. He needs to rebuild the club infrastructure with a few industry wise non executive directors to represent the club alongside the operational executive of Roddy and Mumford. Maybe Mr Peacock, Mr Curbishley, Mr Varney, the right Mr Elliott, maybe an interim fan representative, a CACT member to represent the club to the players, the supporters and the industry. It is not a one man job. Every management team needs an informed sounding board.

We also need voices in ears against the restraint of trade under the Salary Cap   We have to lobby for 5 changes to the Cap.

The extension of the;
a) U21 exemption to U23 in line with industry development squad disciplines
b) Senior squad size to 25 in line with PL industry standards
c) Overall cap limit by £500k
d) Permissible financial excess by £500k subject to comparable financial penalties

and e) the addition of an injured reserve

As it stands you can make your own determination as to whether is a good or bad thing when come seasons end under the cap many hundreds of players out of contract will be out of work. On an employment level there is simply no capacity for late developers like Lapslie, or the injury profiles of Aneke, Pearce, Forster-Caskey, Williams.

It facilitates endless stop gap solutions, restricts the strategic development of a business and degrades the quality of the League 1 product to the level of non league football. It is no accident the likes of Crewe, Lincoln and Accrington all worthy clubs very well used to operating within such a business environment are progressing well. I applaud their progress but this is their territory their business model and such commercial restraint will increase the divide with the upper echelons of the game.

Ladies and Gentlemen I recognise the fervent desire to secure promotion this year but it is not and never has been a god given right.  Do Hull, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Sunderland have that same right? There is much work to be done on and off the field of play.

In the interim it is entirely a matter for you if you wish to panic and lash out wildly throwing abuse in every direction but please recognise much of the unrelenting self serving negativity renders this board all too often as unreadable and that serves nobody.