Scott's interview - The Squad

[SloughFlyer]

I thought rather than clogging up the Tonbridge and Torquay threads (and as it seems this maybe more than a 1 off topic) a separate thread was in order.

With regards to the players:

Leon - seems unlikely as whilst I'm sure he could get more money elsewhere, he only just signed a contract so, unlike the Pruti situation, I'd expect if he doesn't move on for us to get a good fee for him.

As for the injuries and general squad etc, I'd say if we can't find players to come in as they want too much money, then now is the time to give players like Noah Hay and the young lad from Dunstable (who looked decent for a half, got injured and then subbed off and disappeared) a chance.

It's a tough period with results not going our way and now the potential of losing 1/2 better players, but we have to look forwards and try to make the best of what we have and find some replacements as well.

[Reading Rebel]

Most of our players are on a contract so you would think a fee would be due if one of them decides to leave.

Unfortunately just like the Edon Pruti situation a contract is only of benefit to us if the other club agree to pay a fee.

No fee no move? would the club stand in the way of a player wanting to progress his career? I doubt it.

On which player/s are leaving:

The obvious suspects are Leon, Ochieng, Ogbonna and possibly Goddard. 

Either way, with our current injury situation having important player/s leaving at this time is a real blow.

 

 

[SloughFlyer]

Agreed RR. I would think the club being run as it is now, the Pruti situation doesn't happen  again. It was a different set of circumstances than sounds like the case now so hopefully the club does the right thing.

Of those listed, Henry and Leon provide the biggest blow IMO, but it's difficult to know exactly who would be involved in movement as I guess, regardless of contract, anyone could be on the way out.

[Sir Rebel1965]

1 hour ago, SloughFlyer said:

Agreed RR. I would think the club being run as it is now, the Pruti situation doesn't happen  again. It was a different set of circumstances than sounds like the case now so hopefully the club does the right thing.

Of those listed, Henry and Leon provide the biggest blow IMO, but it's difficult to know exactly who would be involved in movement as I guess, regardless of contract, anyone could be on the way out.

The club may welcome the release of a contract player to possibly get a fee, no matter how small, but also if they are one of the higher paid contract players, to reduce the overall wage bill and give Scott more options to bring in replacement players.

The other option is for the clubs owners to put their hand in their pockets and increase the playing budget - but can't see that happening unless Ashley gets someone else to pay!

Looks like Ashley has deep pockets and short arms.

[GlenSTFC]

3 minutes ago, Sir Rebel1965 said:

The club may welcome the release of a contract player to possibly get a fee, no matter how small, but also if they are one of the higher paid contract players, to reduce the overall wage bill and give Scott more options to bring in replacement players.

The other option is for the clubs owners to put their hand in their pockets and increase the playing budget - but can't see that happening unless Ashley gets someone else to pay!

Looks like Ashley has deep pockets and short arms.

I’d like to see more communication from the board as they seem very quiet or not keen on sharing any of their thoughts or updated plans for the club? If/when our best player departs wouldn’t it be great to hear some positive news from the board?

[Curtis]

1 hour ago, Sir Rebel1965 said:

The club may welcome the release of a contract player to possibly get a fee, no matter how small, but also if they are one of the higher paid contract players, to reduce the overall wage bill and give Scott more options to bring in replacement players.

The other option is for the clubs owners to put their hand in their pockets and increase the playing budget - but can't see that happening unless Ashley gets someone else to pay!

Looks like Ashley has deep pockets and short arms.

With the current league position the Club are in (little prospect of now making the play-offs & not in serious danger of relegation) very few owners are likely to be splashing funds on players, if anything they are usually looking to cut costs & accepting offers for players that are likely to be out of contract at the end of the season…… that way whatever funds they save or generate can be used for the following season.

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Sir Rebel1965 said:

The club may welcome the release of a contract player to possibly get a fee, no matter how small, but also if they are one of the higher paid contract players, to reduce the overall wage bill and give Scott more options to bring in replacement players.

The other option is for the clubs owners to put their hand in their pockets and increase the playing budget - but can't see that happening unless Ashley gets someone else to pay!

Looks like Ashley has deep pockets and short arms.

With us still 10/15 points from safety why would they welcome our best players leaving just to get a small fee.

Besides didn't Scott say he's talked to and tried to bring in players but the money they want is above what we are willing pay?

[Reading Rebel]

4 hours ago, Curtis said:

With the current league position the Club are in (little prospect of now making the play-offs & not in serious danger of relegation) very few owners are likely to be splashing funds on players, if anything they are usually looking to cut costs & accepting offers for players that are likely to be out of contract at the end of the season…… that way whatever funds they save or generate can be used for the following season.

Not sure that we are not in serious danger of a relegation scrap.

Lose a couple of our best players and it would be easy to get into a losing spiral.

Edited 12 hours ago by Reading Rebel

[Curtis]

45 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

With us still 10/15 points from safety why would they welcome our best players leaving just to get a small fee.

The bottom four have only got 20 points from 27/28 matches….. what do you really think the chances of any of them getting to 50 points is?

[SloughFlyer]

2 hours ago, Sir Rebel1965 said:

The club may welcome the release of a contract player to possibly get a fee, no matter how small, but also if they are one of the higher paid contract players, to reduce the overall wage bill and give Scott more options to bring in replacement players.

That might be a fair point SR1965 and would also lean into my comment about giving the younger players a chance as you never know how good they might be and how well they'll take the step up. If we are struggling to get more established players in financially, that's the beauty of having the A23 as owners with the access to younger players.

I wonder in the short term if a couple of loans would also be an option to get us through the injury issues.

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Curtis said:

The bottom four have only got 20 points from 27/28 matches….. what do you really think the chances of any of them getting to 50 points is?

Teams in the bottom 4 have started to pick up points as per Aveley getting 3 points yesterday against Farnborough and the other 3 getting a point each.

With possibly 1 or 2 of our best players leaving, injuries to key players and no sign of replacement players coming in what are the chances of us getting to 50 points.

[SloughFlyer]

10 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Teams in the bottom 4 have started to pick up points as per Aveley getting 3 points yesterday against Farnborough and the other 3 getting a point each.

With possibly 1 or 2 of our best players leaving, injuries to key players and no sign of replacement players coming in what are the chances of us getting to 50 points.

We 100% need to get to 50 points to guarantee safety, the sooner we get there, the better.

[Curtis]

11 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Teams in the bottom 4 have started to pick up points as per Aveley getting 3 points yesterday against Farnborough and the other 3 getting a point each.

And yet none of them have averaged more than a point a game in their last six matches…. so if that’s them picking up points they’ll get to 38.

[Reading Rebel]

Looking at the next 6 games we've got:

Weston (H), Dorking (A) Maidstone (H) St Albans (A) Worthing (H) and Truro (A)

Bearing in mind our current situation with possibly 2 of our best players leaving and injuries to our 2 center backs how many points do we think we'll pick up from those games?

I hope I'm wrong but I'll go for 3 points.

Edited 12 hours ago by Reading Rebel

[Curtis]

February is a very tough sequence of matches & some people may start panicking, but in March in six matches we play 5 of the bottom 8…. and we should pick up a decent number of points then.

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, SloughFlyer said:

That might be a fair point SR1965 and would also lean into my comment about giving the younger players a chance as you never know how good they might be and how well they'll take the step up. If we are struggling to get more established players in financially, that's the beauty of having the A23 as owners with the access to younger players.

I'm not convinced that relying purely on A23 players is a good long-term option, though it may be our only option if we're really that penniless.

It's a big step up to National League South and a lot of players have gone out on loans of dual-registration e.g. Noah Hay went to Southall in the Isthmian South Central (Step 4) but has now gone out to Virginia Water in the Combined Counties league (Step 5) and Jack Timberlake to Badshot Lea also in the Isthmian South Central (Step 4), which to me signals that there's no immediate prospect of them becoming National League South regulars.

18 minutes ago, Curtis said:

And yet none of them have averaged more than a point a game in their last six matches…. so if that’s them picking up points they’ll get to 38.

Don't rule out one or two teams making a late dash for safety, particularly if they're playing sides with nothing left to play for. Do you remember Cheshunt 2 years ago? If they'd started their run 2 weeks earlier we'd have been in serious trouble.

[SloughFlyer]

3 minutes ago, Nathan said:

I'm not convinced that relying purely on A23 players is a good long-term option, though it may be our only option if we're really that penniless.

It's a big step up to National League South and a lot of players have gone out on loans of dual-registration e.g. Noah Hay went to Southall in the Isthmian South Central (Step 4) but has now gone out to Virginia Water in the Combined Counties league (Step 5) and Jack Timberlake to Badshot Lea also in the Isthmian South Central (Step 4), which to me signals that there's no immediate prospect of them becoming National League South regulars.

Don't rule out one or two teams making a late dash for safety, particularly if they're playing sides with nothing left to play for. Do you remember Cheshunt 2 years ago? If they'd started their run 2 weeks earlier we'd have been in serious trouble.

I agree Curtis, but we have to have a plan and for me, giving these guys the opportunity when perhaps we don't have much choice is as good an option as we have. 

It doesn't seem to me like we are "penniless", it just seems like we have an amount we think players are worth and won't go above that, which, IMO is 100% correct. If other teams wish to do that, good luck to them but a good sustainable team at this level is what we need.

I think the worst thing was how brilliantly we did last season😂. It accelerated people's expectations of what we could achieve and the levels we were at. Realistically, we are a mid-table club in this division currently, and that's were we need to be for now.

[Sir Rebel1965]

I think we are safe for this season as there is a 10-point gap between 20th and 21st and there are 6 teams between us and the relegation zone. we will pick up enough points to be safe.

The question going forward is planning for next season.

There are a number of players whose contracts end at the end of this season (including Scott).

There needs to be some big decisions made about who stays and who goes, and what next season’s team looks like.

And the biggest elephant in the room is what next seasons budget will be.

Will it be the same or less than this season - which will give any manager a headache.

Or will it be bigger and how will that be funded, and will it even then be big enough to be competitive.

And the very long term question is what level is Slough’s true level to be competitive and financially viable?

[Russ_Rebel]

4 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

I’d like to see more communication from the board as they seem very quiet or not keen on sharing any of their thoughts or updated plans for the club? If/when our best player departs wouldn’t it be great to hear some positive news from the board?

I agree with Glenn I do think that we should have more communication from the board like about where we are, where were going ,ambitions etc , current issues 

Edited 13 hours ago by Russ_Rebel

[Markskelton]

Well This thread is thoroughly depressing 😅😒