How much will we spend in the summer? (1 Viewer)

shmmeee · Dec 22, 2025

SBT said:
Money and squad places aren’t infinite, even in the Premier League. I want to maximise our chances after promotion.

Offloading your dross is easier when you’re a PL team tho. I think most of those who have played would get a loan or permanent move back to the championship. Basically everyone in contract next season bar Bidwell, Brau and Bassette. And Brau might change that. If we wanted to we could loan out a KKH or a similar signing at LB/wing. Simms, Eccles, Latibeadiere, Woolf would all go for a few million as a PL team if needed. Dovin would get a loan.

Who would we actually be stuck with? Maybe we lose some cash but in the grand scheme it’s not likely to be huge amounts.

Ideal signings would be top class loans or experienced pros dropping down on a short deal. But even just decent champ level players won’t necessarily be dead weight. What’s important is we get over the line.

skyblue025 · Dec 23, 2025

Ipswich spent 120 million and never got close too staying up.
Sunderland close to 150 million this season and look like they will stay up comfortably, though they will struggle during AFCON having lost 6 or 7 players too it.

Lamps · Dec 23, 2025

shmmeee said:
We are a skint club. We lose millions a year. Obviously we need to spend well and not hang ourselves with stupid contracts but that doesn’t mean you don’t go for it.

You may be happy to jeopardise our future and spend 100m plus to have a chance of staying up. I'd prefer to keep our best players and strengthen from there. Why isn't that going for it? They keep improving under the guidance of Lampard & co.

Lamps · Dec 23, 2025

shmmeee said:
Ideal signings would be top class loans or experienced pros dropping down on a short deal. But even just decent champ level players won’t necessarily be dead weight. What’s important is we get over the line.

The only Championship players we should be looking at should be these amongst the best of them. Someone to offer us something and not just taking up a place in the squad.

clint van damme · Dec 23, 2025

shmmeee said:
Because we lose millions a year on the hope of promotion. Because the financials work in the PL but not the championship due to the disparity in TV money.

3-4 “savvy” signings you may as well save your cash. I really don’t think people get quite how big the gap is. Much bigger IMO than L1 to champ. We have a 32k stadium to pay for. We have the 15th largest home attendance. We are set up to be a PL club. I’m not sure if it’s Stockholm syndrome or something but this is what we’ve been working for decades towards.

It's not Stockholm syndrome, its common sense.
Again, I'll repeat, it's like you've learned nothing from the last 20 odd years.

Get relegated with the sort of wage bill you're on about accruing and we're 2 seasons away from being right back in the shit if we dont bounce back.

Sky Blue Pete · Dec 23, 2025

quinn1971 said:
Think the main question is if we go up what does Doug do, keep funding losses or sell up for a very tidy profit,

My head says he allows some investment for a small something of the club
I wonder if he can continue to get the majority of decisions right

TomRad85 · Dec 23, 2025

Sky Blue Pete said:
My head says he allows some investment for a small something of the club
I wonder if he can continue to get the majority of decisions right

I think he'd sell a percentage. I don't agree with what many seem to think about him walking away altogether, my opinion is he actually enjoys it.

Sky Blue Pete · Dec 23, 2025

TomRad85 said:
I think he'd sell a percentage. I don't agree with what many seem to think about him walking away altogether, my opinion is he actually enjoys it.

Who wouldn’t enjoy getting so much right and getting some success

TomRad85 · Dec 23, 2025

Sky Blue Pete said:
Who wouldn’t enjoy getting so much right and getting some success

I think there's things you can't put a price on in life sometimes. If he's enjoying himself why would he leave. Could easily see someone joining him though.

clint van damme · Dec 23, 2025

TomRad85 said:
I think there's things you can't put a price on in life sometimes. If he's enjoying himself why would he leave. Could easily see someone joining him though.

He's also a businessman with an ego, flipping the club for a fortune and telling people about it would also appeal to him I'd imagine.

Though that's just a counter view, none of us know his real intentions.

quinn1971 · Dec 23, 2025

Sky Blue Pete said:
My head says he allows some investment for a small something of the club
I wonder if he can continue to get the majority of decisions right

I hope he stays, we’re in good hands

Lamps · Dec 23, 2025

TomRad85 said:
I think there's things you can't put a price on in life sometimes. If he's enjoying himself why would he leave. Could easily see someone joining him though.

Someone else might have joined him already as there's been a lot of investment.

JSL · Dec 23, 2025

Who actually owns the stadium? From losing approx £6m a year, I cant see the club actually owning it which means investment from somewhere. Doug personally or someone else?

Speedie's Head · Dec 23, 2025

JSL said:
Who actually owns the stadium? From losing approx £6m a year, I cant see the club actually owning it which means investment from somewhere. Doug personally or someone else?

The club essentially owns the ground but has a loan to pay. Almost certainly, in my view a few months ago, that is to Frasers.

JSL · Dec 23, 2025

Speedie's Head said:
The club essentially owns the ground but has a loan to pay. Almost certainly, in my view a few months ago, that is to Frasers.

Given how the club is now a tight ship and no ITKs able to get info, maybe we will never know. Just enjoy it for what it is. We are on the crest of wave and still standing up

Cally Fedora · Dec 23, 2025

shmmeee said:
Because we lose millions a year on the hope of promotion. Because the financials work in the PL but not the championship due to the disparity in TV money.

3-4 “savvy” signings you may as well save your cash. I really don’t think people get quite how big the gap is. Much bigger IMO than L1 to champ. We have a 32k stadium to pay for. We have the 15th largest home attendance. We are set up to be a PL club. I’m not sure if it’s Stockholm syndrome or something but this is what we’ve been working for decades towards.

Sorry but that’s just ridiculous. We haven’t been working towards that for decades. We’ve spent most of that time on the edge of survival and in the lower reaches of the league system. We lose millions a year. Yes. That’s precisely why we can’t just cut loose IF we go up. Can you not see that the very course of action you are advocating is why we spent decades in real trouble. Of course we’ll spend. But putting the club on a stable footing has to be the main consideration

Legia Sky Blue · Dec 23, 2025

If we make it up I would expect at least half the current team to be regulars next season, and the remainder retained as squad players still likely to play their part. We are in a different situation than Sunderland and Forest who had to spend loads to have any chance of survival. Sunderland were not particularly good and were fortunate to make it up, while the Forest team that went up were heavily reliant on loan players. Both made it up through the play offs, whereas we hopefully go up automatically, therefore with a better team and a strong bond which we would be stupid to throw away.

Whatever we do and however much we spend, the odds will be against us staying up. Even with the PL money we will still not be able to compete financially with current PL clubs for players and who will have much deeper pockets, so the importance of retaining a united team ethic will be paramount, and provide a quality that might help us bridge the gap in the 1st season in the PL at least, but also give us the best opportunity of staying up.

Grendel · Dec 23, 2025

Lamps said:
Someone else might have joined him already as there's been a lot of investment.

It’s funded through his hedge fund

blunted · Dec 23, 2025

The key is the spirit in the club and the background checks on the players we buy. That is why we have done so much better since we invested in players who are for the team and not just themselves. Obviously, gets much harder from here onwards as ability sometimes comes with ego.
Expect us to spend big in the future if we get promoted, but also sensibly looking at resale value if the worst happens. Contracts that mean if relegated the wages drop to a sustainable level.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, we seem to have people in charge at every level in the club who know what they are doing. The potential problem is if King sells up which he has made clear is his intention. Unless he has changed his mind, as he is enjoying himself so much. Better sing his song on Boxing Day.

CovRes · Dec 23, 2025

Lamps said:
Someone else might have joined him already as there's been a lot of investment.

Didn't he make a comment about having to move money about? I can't remember his actual words, but I took it to mean the new money was his own and was taken from elsewhere.

Besides, unless he's got an astronomical valuation on the club, he'd have to declare anyone with the sort of significant share holding that you'd expect that money to warrant. 15% and above of the company shares is the threshold, IIRC.

shmmeee · Dec 23, 2025

Lamps said:
You may be happy to jeopardise our future and spend 100m plus to have a chance of staying up. I'd prefer to keep our best players and strengthen from there. Why isn't that going for it? They keep improving under the guidance of Lampard & co.

Our future has only been close to threatened by scurrilous owners and L2 football. This is just chicken little nonsense. Clubs our size at this level don’t go out of existence.

Lamps · Dec 24, 2025

CovRes said:
Didn't he make a comment about having to move money about? I can't remember his actual words, but I took it to mean the new money was his own and was taken from elsewhere.

Besides, unless he's got an astronomical valuation on the club, he'd have to declare anyone with the sort of significant share holding that you'd expect that money to warrant. 15% and above of the company shares is the threshold, IIRC.

Per person yes.

Lots of people are now investing in British football. Even Swansea are getting investments from where you would least expect it. That's why I said it wouldn't surprise me.

We now have our own ground. 40m? Player values? Very close to the Prem? It could even be he moved money around to keep us on course and the investments were to top it up and pay for the ground.

Lamps · Dec 24, 2025

shmmeee said:
Our future has only been close to threatened by scurrilous owners and L2 football. This is just chicken little nonsense. Clubs our size at this level don’t go out of existence.

Who said out of existence? There's no need to make up a story to try and prove a point.

So you think it's wise to spend 100m plus on players with big wages to go with it and do a Leicester, Sheffield United and others? Many don't. It's a slippery slope we've already been on and has taken us 25 years to recover from. And the luck of buying 2 players for not much and selling them for enough to buy a good squad.

procdoc · Dec 24, 2025

So let me get this straight, some of you want to follow Luton’s model? They are 8th in league one a couple of years after getting promoted to the premier league. Quite frankly I hope we do the opposite to the Luton approach.
The money you get for promotion means we can easily spend a lot of money without jeopardising the clubs future. Doug King isn’t stupid.
He doesn’t just want promotion, he wants to stay there. He’s said all along he wants us to be an established premier league club. If the likes of Brighton, Fulham, Brentford and Bournemouth can compete at that level why can’t we?

Sick Boy · Dec 24, 2025

procdoc said:
So let me get this straight, some of you want to follow Luton’s model? They are 8th in league one a couple of years after getting promoted to the premier league. Quite frankly I hope we do the opposite to the Luton approach.
The money you get for promotion means we can easily spend a lot of money without jeopardising the clubs future. Doug King isn’t stupid.
He doesn’t just want promotion, he wants to stay there. He’s said all along he wants us to be an established premier league club. If the likes of Brighton, Fulham, Brentford and Bournemouth can compete at that level why can’t we?

The club has clearly started putting infrastructure in place with a view to becoming an established PL club.

Luckily that’ll be the aim rather than following the likes of fucking Luton. Both Lampard and the club will have more ambition than that.

ovduk78 · Dec 24, 2025

We will need a LB, CH, goalkeeper, a couple of wide players and maybe a midfielder & a striker and there won't be much change if any from £100m for those.

Earlsdon_Skyblue1 · Dec 24, 2025

procdoc said:
So let me get this straight, some of you want to follow Luton’s model? They are 8th in league one a couple of years after getting promoted to the premier league. Quite frankly I hope we do the opposite to the Luton approach.
The money you get for promotion means we can easily spend a lot of money without jeopardising the clubs future. Doug King isn’t stupid.
He doesn’t just want promotion, he wants to stay there. He’s said all along he wants us to be an established premier league club. If the likes of Brighton, Fulham, Brentford and Bournemouth can compete at that level why can’t we?

If we go up, I give it about two months until we hear 'take me back to the Championship, at least we will win some games there'.

Lamps · Dec 24, 2025

Sick Boy said:
The club has clearly started putting infrastructure in place with a view to becoming an established PL club.

Luckily that’ll be the aim rather than following the likes of fucking Luton. Both Lampard and the club will have more ambition than that.

Luton did it so they could afford a new ground. You can't blame them really. They didn't expect it to go so wrong back in the Championship though. We finally have our own ground so there's no comparison.

I remember the first time I went. Walking along a road of terraced houses to find you went into the ground in the middle of the terrace . It's nearly as bad as walking through someone's front door and going up the stairs to bed.

clint van damme · Dec 24, 2025

procdoc said:
So let me get this straight, some of you want to follow Luton’s model? They are 8th in league one a couple of years after getting promoted to the premier league. Quite frankly I hope we do the opposite to the Luton approach.
The money you get for promotion means we can easily spend a lot of money without jeopardising the clubs future. Doug King isn’t stupid.
He doesn’t just want promotion, he wants to stay there. He’s said all along he wants us to be an established premier league club. If the likes of Brighton, Fulham, Brentford and Bournemouth can compete at that level why can’t we?

Can you link the posts where people have said follow the Luton model?
Not one person's said that.

If you want to start making such tenuous links do you want wasps back? Because you want to follow the model that lead to them being here.

And it's not about spending the money initially, it's about ending up back in the championship
With an unsustainable wage bill.

shmmeee · Dec 24, 2025

Lamps said:
Who said out of existence? There's no need to make up a story to try and prove a point.

So you think it's wise to spend 100m plus on players with big wages to go with it and do a Leicester, Sheffield United and others? Many don't. It's a slippery slope we've already been on and has taken us 25 years to recover from. And the luck of buying 2 players for not much and selling them for enough to buy a good squad.

Id rather do a Sheff Utd and just miss out on autos and finish’s midtable than do a Luton in L1.

“slippery slope” nothing from the last 25 years is from overspending you’re just talking nonsense.

procdoc · Dec 24, 2025

clint van damme said:
Can you link the posts where people have said follow the Luton model?
Not one person's said that.

If you want to start making such tenuous links do you want wasps back? Because you want to follow the model that lead to them being here.

And it's not about spending the money initially, it's about ending up back in the championship
With an unsustainable wage bill.

JulianDarbyFTW said:
I can see 3 interesting options amongst the many.

One is to barely spend a penny (in PL terms), expect to come down, and have a secure future. All those years of Sisu have scarred me, so this is probably my preferred option.

On the other hand, King could spaff £50m - £100m on the hope of staying up. Expensive risk, and we've been there before (in relative terms).

Third choice is Doug plays the game and tries to sell up and make a profit. Probably the long-term plan anyway. But if he sold to some Saudi fund, or some American egomaniac, I don't think I'd enjoy it. There's something about the struggle, about being the underdog, about trying to beat the odds that really appeals to me.

Lots of other options in amongst it, but those are the 3 that stand out to me.

Point number one is basically what Luton did. Fuck that. If we get there we can’t have the mentality that we are just happy to be there. I’m sure Doug and Frank are far more ambitious. I get that decades of mismanagement makes everyone nervous but as I say King isn’t stupid

Brighton Sky Blue · Dec 24, 2025

Lamps said:
Who said out of existence? There's no need to make up a story to try and prove a point.

So you think it's wise to spend 100m plus on players with big wages to go with it and do a Leicester, Sheffield United and others? Many don't. It's a slippery slope we've already been on and has taken us 25 years to recover from. And the luck of buying 2 players for not much and selling them for enough to buy a good squad.

You get around 100 million guaranteed in that one season, before adding in ticket sales, merchandise, matchday revenue and so on. If you go straight back down it’s another 90 million over the following two seasons.

The club could spend £100 million net on transfer activity without endangering its future. I find it a bit weird debating this when we’re only halfway through the season though.

clint van damme · Dec 24, 2025

procdoc said:
Point number one is basically what Luton did. Fuck that. If we get there we can’t have the mentality that we are just happy to be there. I’m sure Doug and Frank are far more ambitious. I get that decades of mismanagement makes everyone nervous but as I say King isn’t stupid

OK, so one person.
And there's a difference between ambition and recklessness.

You've said why can't we do Brighton or a Fulham, and hopefully we can but we could also mess up like plenty of other teams.

Bournemouth is a poor example, they had several years absence where the billionaire owner kept bankrolling them.

I agree King isn't stupid, which is why I'm sure he'll have a contingency plan, and that will include measures to ensure the scenario that concerns me doesn't happen.

clint van damme · Dec 24, 2025

shmmeee said:
“slippery slope” nothing from the last 25 years is from overspending you’re just talking nonsense.

What?!

Sick Boy · Dec 24, 2025

The clubs had been mismanaged for years prior to our relegation from the PL and we also got relegated at the worst time possible with the collapse of ITV Digital and before the big money came along.

How much will we spend in the summer? (1 Viewer)

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