PeteG

I agree with you. My concern is we've thrown a good few quid at it and been shit, if the budget is down considerably, the club may well be thinking along the lines of consolidation which is unacceptable imo.

That was my initial thought, we could be way off of course but if that is the case we are in the shit as it really does mean we (and i really means Unsworth et al) have spunked the budget up the wall!

Less than £800 a week?? I doubt that, unless Wigan are feeling like a charity. I do think Wigan will be looking at getting him involved in their matchday squad this season providing he's recovered from his injury over the summer.

Agreed but it's the budget that worries me. Fondop can't have been on more than £800 a week so is it possible we can get better than him for less than that. If we have to shift out Norwood then it may help but we also lose our best player in the process. I guess the key to this summer is trying to offload the likes of Nuttall, Reid etc. without it actually costing us too much which then gives us some ammo but that's going to prove quite tough given the reported wages some of these players are on. I doubt we are able to just pay them off and if for example Nuttall is on £2k a week and only gets an offer for £1k a week we aren't going to get the best available. It may be a year of consolidation and then go again in 12 months when these players are off the wage bill.

Forget what I said about a long term plan, DoF for recruitment etc. I'd suggest that will all have to wait until some of the dross are out of contract. No point putting in place a proper recruitment strategy if we have no proper budget to recruit. Mellon has to stay now and do his very best to wheel and deal which may mean losing some of his better players in order to bring in some. I don't envy him one bit. It's such a shame we have lost 2 years, blown the budget on Unsworth and his pals and will very likely lose all momentum the takeover should have given us. If i'm wrong the club need to speak up quickly whilst the early bird is still active or people will make their own minds up based on that retained list today.

Fair enough but i'd have thought they knew weeks ago who they wanted to keep and in previous years they have told us who had extended their contract or who was in negotiation. Obviously the club is not obliged to tell us anything.

The out of contract players could sign pre-contract deals with any other interested parties though. I'd like to think if wanted to keep any of the players we'd have the decency to tell them and make them an offer now rather than keep them in limbo. It may well be that they have made some offers but shouldn't they let the fans know?

Either way it's somewhat worrying. It does appear the budget has been shot and unless we can offload the biggest earners such as Norwood etc. we aren't going to bring anyone in of any real quality. I hope the season just gone wasn't our 1 and only proper shot at promotion.

He said the budget was already taken up by players under contract. Doesn't mean he didn't want to keep some out of contract players but probably its a 1 out 1 in situation. Knowing our luck the players he may want to keep will have found new clubs by the time we get rid of some of the contracted players and if the budget is really tight, do you think we will find a striker much better than Fondop on less money than he was?

My season ticket expired last week, thanks.

I'd rather have took our chance in extra time and penalties. We had a potential home tie v Wigan in the next round for a place at Wembley, plus i've seen us play at Goodison numerous times.

Is it? Tell me yours then, because he certainly inherited an absolute mess of a football club. He provided decent budgets in the early days and i'd still argue that the squad that got relegated from League 1 was far superior to some of the ones in the previous few years that had stayed up. If we had stayed up, it may have worked out differently but i suspect not. He never really endeared himself to the fanbase for whatever reason, the crowds never went up when he took over which i still find strange given how many have turned out and supported Frank 2 divisions lower down.

Budget is only half the battle but without it you are most certainly struggling. Our recruitment over the past 2 seasons reminds me of United and Chelsea for our level. Throwing loads at it with no real plan or thought to what is really required. Then you have City who generally replace like for like and players just fit straight into a system that is settled. We need to go back to the drawing board as i've said numerous times, employ a good DoF who works closely with the manager, who is involved in the recruitment of the manager so they are singing from the same hymn sheet and who oversees all aspects of football at the club. Do not just sign players because they have become available regardless of how good they may seem if they are not what you need or don't fit into the system we have adopted. Lots of work to do.

No we aren't a big club but we certainly are at this level. Let's start acting like one and bully our way out this shithole and back into the EFL. Once we are back in League 2 we can reassess and take it from there. What I will say, in today's game in takes a monumental amount of money in most cases to climb the pyramid. At some point the Rothwells will either need help or hand over the reigns to someone with more resources.

He was unable to reverse the decline that's obvious. He should never have bought the club unless he was buying the ground, it was a foolish move. Too many outside influences were working against him from day 1 and his biggest mistake was leaving his brother in situ and giving him too much influence and power. His intentions were ok, he never set out to try and destroy the club like some people say, why would he having invested so much of his own money. Running a football club and turning this thing round is clearly a massive task as seen by the current regime. So easy to get recruitment wrong etc. which can hold you back for years unless you have limitless funds. We can go back to the days of Lees Brewery, Moore, TTA and Abdallah but it's all history now, we need to get this thing moving forward and quickly.

Why are we in this mess? How long have you got? It's down to over 30 years of mismanagement and a whole host of other factors. We need to turn that around and i've no issue if we do start acting like billy big bollocks, we might just start playing like it too because accepting of shit has got us exactly where we are. Bradford are the one bigger club in League 2.

You are of course correct, however, it's a mentality thing. We haven't acted like a bigger club over the last 30 years, we've talked ourselves down, we've been accepting of being an also ran in whatever division we've played in. It needs to change. The players and staff should be standing proud to pull that shirt on and willing to run through brick walls to show what it means. We shouldn't be embarrassed to say we shouldn't be in this division but we need players to go out and prove they shouldn't. It's basically leadership. Keep telling yourself you are shit and this is where we are and this is where you will stay.

You are correct on some aspects in that a player will nearly always sign for a club in a higher division because they have a short career and they are thinking about the here and now. However, don't think the likes of Wealdstone and Fylde don't give a shit because they do, they see us a scalp and raise their game accordingly. It's down to us to show them we respect them but show them what we are about and make these sides fear us rather than relish coming to BP and getting 3pts. We should also be attracting the best talent available in this division due to the size of the club. Players at National league level should be walking over broken glass to play for us regardless of the wages on offer and if they aren't then frankly we shouldn't be signing them. That's the one thing that annoys me about the Nuttall signing, once he turned us down we should have gone nowhere near him. Also, we aren't just bigger than some clubs in League 2, we are the 2nd biggest without a doubt.

We are a bigger club than Bournemouth.

There is much more than crowds or league position that defines the size of the club. They are obviously part of it but it's history, fanbase overall, perception from football fans nationally and further afield, potential. It's what draws players to sign for certain clubs. I've followed us for over 40 years and i'll never accept playing 2nd fiddle to Chesterfield, Salford, Rochdale or even the likes of Stockport. It's this mindset that has played a part in us being where we are. We keep going further down and then accept that's our level, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. I want someone to lead the club who talks us up, starts acting like we are a big club for this level and the one above and starts dragging people with them. All successful sports teams and individuals have a degree of arrogance about them, it's about time we did.

Chesterfield had bigger crowds because they were romping away with the league. There is absolutely no way they are a bigger club than us. The size of the club is determined by many things, crowds being just one. We are the biggest club in the National League and there is currently only 1 club in League 2 bigger than us. I'm sick of hearing people say we need to be humble and accept where we are, that's nonesense. We need to start acting like the size of club we are, get people in the building with the character to stand up and say we are Oldham Athletic and go out and prove we are the biggest club down here. Teams should be fearful of us and we should be imposing ourselves all over some of these clubs. That's not arrogance, it's just what bigger clubs do. If the staff and players can't handle that then they shouldn't be here. We must strive to make BP a fortress where we are 1 nil up before we have even kicked off. It needs a total change of mindset and stop accepting shit.

Problem is, out of the 18 players contracted, i'm guessing it includes all of the big earners. However, if you offload Norwood that should in theory free up budget to bring in 2/3 decent players. Should be able to offload a couple of more so we should be looking at bringing at least 5/6 players getting only 3 out. You could then look to make up the squad with some youths and loans. However, it doesn't really scream we are going for promotion in a big way does it?

I'm not sure whether you get this thread? It's titled - Let the inquest begin! We are discussing what went wrong this season and i'm actually referring to the recruitment during last summer. I've not mentioned 1 signing during the season and also cited other reasons imo why it went so badly wrong.

I'm also in the minority here tbh, i'm not sure replays are necessary. The FA Cup has lost a lot of it's magic with so many sides including Championship sides fielding weakened sides. I don't think replays are the money spinner they once were, with the exception of drawing a Man United, Arsenal or Liverpool. Underdogs have a much better chance of winning in one off game. Just think when Matt Smith scored v Everton, would we have had a better chance with an extra 30 mins at home and potential penalties than a replay at Goodison? Even when we played Fulham it was reduced admission and despite us taking over 4000 fans I think the gate was in the region of 12000 or so. (someone will correct me) I doubt we made a great deal from the gate receipts but made more from TV even though it wasn't live. It's sad but it is what it is. I would also like to see Semi Finals moved away from Wembley, it takes something away from reaching the final and the Semis were magical at Villa Park, Maine Road, Highbury etc. Not going to happen, we are governed by the big 6 or 7 and the game is now a business all about money.

If we had a team good enough to win promotion we would be ready for a return to the EFL, we are still a much bigger club than most sides in League 2 and we would gain a lot of momentum. The problem is, the team isn't good enough hence why we are where we are. There is no blessing in disguise in this season's failure. We've thrown a lot of the budget at it and I honestly believe the longer you are down here the harder it becomes. We were 2nd favourites last summer, i can't see us being in the first 6 in the betting for the title this time around. Obviously the bookies prices are only a guide and we may well do much better next season but realistically we are looking at managing expectations once again.