Diehard Si
New Member
A club like Coventry is too small and un-profitable NOT to have to sell its players.
Take Ray Ranson. He got slated when he was here, although I guess much of that was mis-directed rage which should of been at SISU. But he had the right idea and to start with was implementing it. That idea was making money for the club with player trading.
We invested in the likes of Westwood, Dann, Fox, Gunnarsson. Even just those 4 for 1 season were a great start. To achieve it you need good scouts and good coaches, which to be fair we did.
You also need to be open and honest with the supporters. There would inevitably be some backlash when come the summer you sell 2. But if you spend a million on each, and sell them for £3 to £4m each and you sell 2 of them then it funds your £4m losses for the year. Use the additional capital to fund the next good additions to the squad for the following year, again sell a couple of them in the summer.
“Is that all we are, a selling club?” is the question that you’d get constantly. But I’m sure if they’d just opened some dialogue with the fans and said, “ look... we’re losing £4m a year. We’ve just sold 2 players for a total of £7m. £5m of this is profit on what we paid for them. £4m of the player sales covers the losses, leaving £3m surplus. We will be investing £2m of the surplus into some more youngsters and £1m will go to repay our loan to the club for the others players we put in”.... then the fans of Coventry would of understood, they would have supported the moves and it would have probably generated a much happier feeling about all things Sky Blue.
It would be a kick in the teeth losing the star players from the season, but that’s sadly the best time to sell them... when they have a high transfer value and probably are knocking on the door asking for more money on their contract.
Now we’d already have 2 of the good crop of players left ( as it happened Westwood and Gunnar ), and we add 3 or 4 more in ( Jack Cork, Jordan Henderson, Andy Carroll as was lined up). Over the course of 3 seasons we’re breaking even, but have retained enough quality players to be pushing for play off places. Other players see what we are doing, a great club to join to develop their career. They want to join too. Bigger clubs are looking at the positive environment, think about sending their good players on loan there.
Ray Ranson and SISU so nearly got this right... but something went wrong.. SISU lost their nerve perhaps? Panicked when the first season lost more than planned? Went on a drastic cost cutting strategy that ripped the core out of the business?... Sending us on an ever downward spiral. Is this why Ranson left?
They’ve lost more now than they would ever have before, players worth millions left for nothing because we couldn’t offer them more money!!. I hope the “mistakes” Joy Seppala talks about include this and if SISU don’t do us all a favour and leave then they take a long hard look at it.
One thing is certain, the club needs the stadium, if we get reduced rent then that would help short term. But even if we get reduced rent and own the stadium, we’re still going to fall short making ends meet, which is where this comes in. It’s so bloody obvious. Players are the one thing clubs can really trade in, you set up the scouting network and a great learning infrastructure for them and you will make good on some of them. Not every player would be a gem, some would be duds but you should still get something back for them.
We don’t have the youth academy like Southampton which have generated millions for them ( mainly from Arsenal as it happens ). But there will be players out there near the end of their contracts, or at a league 2 side struggling for cash that a cheeky £300k could tempt them away. The only way we could get out of this mess we are in is putting down some money for players, their wages and the staff around them. The added 'draw' next season should be a promotion chasing side, not part of a hopeless relegation battling team.
Take Ray Ranson. He got slated when he was here, although I guess much of that was mis-directed rage which should of been at SISU. But he had the right idea and to start with was implementing it. That idea was making money for the club with player trading.
We invested in the likes of Westwood, Dann, Fox, Gunnarsson. Even just those 4 for 1 season were a great start. To achieve it you need good scouts and good coaches, which to be fair we did.
You also need to be open and honest with the supporters. There would inevitably be some backlash when come the summer you sell 2. But if you spend a million on each, and sell them for £3 to £4m each and you sell 2 of them then it funds your £4m losses for the year. Use the additional capital to fund the next good additions to the squad for the following year, again sell a couple of them in the summer.
“Is that all we are, a selling club?” is the question that you’d get constantly. But I’m sure if they’d just opened some dialogue with the fans and said, “ look... we’re losing £4m a year. We’ve just sold 2 players for a total of £7m. £5m of this is profit on what we paid for them. £4m of the player sales covers the losses, leaving £3m surplus. We will be investing £2m of the surplus into some more youngsters and £1m will go to repay our loan to the club for the others players we put in”.... then the fans of Coventry would of understood, they would have supported the moves and it would have probably generated a much happier feeling about all things Sky Blue.
It would be a kick in the teeth losing the star players from the season, but that’s sadly the best time to sell them... when they have a high transfer value and probably are knocking on the door asking for more money on their contract.
Now we’d already have 2 of the good crop of players left ( as it happened Westwood and Gunnar ), and we add 3 or 4 more in ( Jack Cork, Jordan Henderson, Andy Carroll as was lined up). Over the course of 3 seasons we’re breaking even, but have retained enough quality players to be pushing for play off places. Other players see what we are doing, a great club to join to develop their career. They want to join too. Bigger clubs are looking at the positive environment, think about sending their good players on loan there.
Ray Ranson and SISU so nearly got this right... but something went wrong.. SISU lost their nerve perhaps? Panicked when the first season lost more than planned? Went on a drastic cost cutting strategy that ripped the core out of the business?... Sending us on an ever downward spiral. Is this why Ranson left?
They’ve lost more now than they would ever have before, players worth millions left for nothing because we couldn’t offer them more money!!. I hope the “mistakes” Joy Seppala talks about include this and if SISU don’t do us all a favour and leave then they take a long hard look at it.
One thing is certain, the club needs the stadium, if we get reduced rent then that would help short term. But even if we get reduced rent and own the stadium, we’re still going to fall short making ends meet, which is where this comes in. It’s so bloody obvious. Players are the one thing clubs can really trade in, you set up the scouting network and a great learning infrastructure for them and you will make good on some of them. Not every player would be a gem, some would be duds but you should still get something back for them.
We don’t have the youth academy like Southampton which have generated millions for them ( mainly from Arsenal as it happens ). But there will be players out there near the end of their contracts, or at a league 2 side struggling for cash that a cheeky £300k could tempt them away. The only way we could get out of this mess we are in is putting down some money for players, their wages and the staff around them. The added 'draw' next season should be a promotion chasing side, not part of a hopeless relegation battling team.
