1 month ago
I’m not losing any sleep over Jon Shaw
City have not gone for Jon Shaw the Halifax striker who ended up going to Rochdale for £60,000 and I’m more than happy about that.
Stuart McCall made it clear that he would have Shaw as a squad man but not for that price and I could not agree more. For the cost of buying Shaw Rochdale could have paid a good League Two players wage.
That is the reality of football in 2008 in League Two. You don’t pay transfer fees anymore cause there are loads players who want jobs and at least one of them will be out of contract so rather than giving his club the cash you might as well give some of it to him as a signing on fee. Football has been like that since Bosman in most divisions.
We all know this so we can ignore the moronic calls that City should have paid for Shaw and that Rochdale are more ambitous than we are. The £35,000 we paid for Billy Topp might come to something in the future but as a rule if you are paying for players you are wasting money.
It is not amibition that makes a club spend £60,000 on a player it is gambling. Gambling on promotion, gambling on a resale, gambling that they have found the difference between a good season and a bad one it is a chance that I’m glad that City are not ready to take especially not on a kid forward who despite some noisey City fans saying was a proven goalscorer has only got goals outside the league and was rejected by Sheffield Wednesday.
Good look to Rochdale and that but I’m glad that City are putting the money we have into senior professionals like Graeme Lee and Paul McLaren and not throwing it after the latest kid to bang in a few goals outside the pro-leagues.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:04
Lower league managers are given a single budget; this includes wages for the whole season. If Stuart were to pay for a signing, it would come out of this budget. Although City have a ‘top 3’ budget, it does not necessarily mean Stuart will choose to buy players, this would limit his ability to offer players like Bruno and Boulding competitive contracts. I think we have already made three £60,000+ signings in Brandon, Lee & McLaren. Good work Stuart!
Furthermore, on completing this, I have just remembered Shrewsbury’s Guy Madjo!!! He was the most exciting player I saw at VP last year, only cost £20,000 from Crawley Town! So hope in lower league prolific goal scorers is not all lost!