newyddion
Well-known member
The Woodgate season was treading water.. we did not tread water last season nor was it an absolute embarrassment. Fine margins and we just missed out. Last season was a good season. Three teams did better than us.
Deloitte Financial Report
- Thread starter NorthStand95
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newyddion
Well-known member
Unfortunately there is no promotion button we can press. All players come with risks on whether they fit into the team, stay fit and improve. We do pretty well overall. Enough to keep us in the fight.
A lot has been placed on this mystery striker that we didn’t sign.. nobody else signed him I’m guessing.
What about all the other players that got us to the playoffs final? It’s a shame Castledine got injured when he did.. he might have been the difference.
We’re not far off.. we have been going in the right direction and it looks like we’re making moves to give ourselves the best possible chance. Fringe players offloaded, stadium sponsored.. even opting for template kits for our 150th!
Hellburg will have the summer with the squad and the club will be keen to bring in what he needs.
Redbaron16
Active member
It was embarrassing, regardless of the spin some people are trying to put on it.
The stadium is NOT getting a sponsor name. They are changing the lettering/font on the sign. 100% it will still be the Riverside.
TeaCider
Well-known member
Wage bill for 2024/25:
Leeds - £102.7m
Burnley - £82.3m
Sunderland - £53.8m
Norwich - £48.1m
Sheffield United - £40.2m
Luton - £39.5m
Cardiff - £38.9m
West Brom - £37.1m
Hull - £36.7m
Middlesbrough - £36.4m
Bristol City - £35.9m
Stoke - £33.2m
Derby - £31.5m
Swansea - £29m
Millwall - £28.6m
Blackburn - £28.2m
Watford - £28.1m
QPR - £27.5m
Coventry - £26.5m
Preston - £26.4m
Oxford - £21.7m
Portsmouth - £17.4m
Plymouth - £16.8m
Sheffield Wednesday - N/A
So we had the 10th highest wage bill in the Championship in 2024/25, promotion bonuses boosted the top 3 massively, but
Sunderland's was already equal to ours in the previous season, so might have been higher anyway.
Redbaron16
Active member
17 out of 18 season’s in the championship is treading water, im afraid.
1finny
Well-known member
I get frustrated at those wholeheartedly defending the club over the January window.
No one is saying it is easy.
I would say though it will have been possible to strengthen our forward line.
It always is - money talks.
We didn’t do it for a variety of reasons and I can guess at a couple (there may be others)
* They thought we had enough to get over the line with what we had
* They weighed up the option (for instance of £10m plus wages) against failure and didn’t want to take the financial risk
I can understand the thinking - especially the latter as it is SG’s money.
But, in the context of how the season played out, it isn’t unreasonable to think a better forward would have got us over the line without the playoffs.
These kinds of opportunities don’t come along often - hence the frustration.
Redbaron16
Active member
I really hope you're right and im wrong but I dont think Gibson will back Hellberg. Some of the players we are being linked with look bang average imo.
We scored 14 league goals in January - including putting 4 past Southampton and Preston. We won every league game. We had real momentum. I really didn't want us to take a gamble on a striker that might not knock us off course, Remember Iheanacho or Connolly or even Balogun for that matter. They were all strugglking to some extent, in Balogun's case he was a young player needing first team experience. I thought we made prudent signings. Sarmiento should have been almost nailed on, he had twice previously helped clinch Championship promotion.
I thought in January a big gamble could have destroyed the momentum, potentially bruised team spirit and looking at Strelec, Hanson and Kaly Sene wasn't that a further warning that you can be asking too much for a player to hit the ground running,
How do we know what Kim Hellberg felt about matters. Perhaps he also thought that his squad had what it took to win promotion. Perhaps he also thought a new signing was a risj that could potentially knock us off course,
This was my feeling at the time. Not with the benefit of hindsight. I thought about Iheanacho and Connolly and Sene and Strelec. Surely a big signing was the risk that could derail our Championship hopes. A risk on the pitch frather than a risk with money.
Ravshoutsatbeck
Well-known member
I agree we didn't do enough - as we did not go up.
But - I also think there was not an obvious answer in January.
Redbaron16
Active member
Not taking a risk ultimately cost us promotion. Thats not hindsight either. Plenty of people were saying it in January. It was pretty obvious that Conway and Strelec weren't going to score enough goals to get us over the line. If you want to be successful in sport then sometimes you have to gamble, especially from a position of strength. We didn't and hey presto, yet another season in the championship beckons.
This post above..a large chunk of the fanbase, thought we didn't have enough goals in our CFs, Conway wasn't prolific enough, Strelec was still struggling to come to terms with the championship and Sene didn't look good enough and yet we found our selves well clear in second.
Many of us pointed out we need Whittaker to keep his run going (improbable) and we were lacking pace and physicality in forward areas, we ended up running Conway into the ground(we had nobody to rotate with him) strelec got injured for a period, the goals dried up and we had no other CFs, it was an incredible piece of self sabotage by the club.
Spending a big chunk of money on Sarmiento, Castledine and Munroe, and we hardy used them.
newyddion
Well-known member
That’s a bloody waste of money! scrimping on the kits and then changing the lettering/font on the sign.
We might as well have signed Rudy Gestede again!