Pre-Season 2016/17 Season

[Johnny75]

What the $#@! are those Preston odds about? They had a good season last time out.

All shows the bookies know $#@! all about the Championship. We will be boring lower mid-table but we won't be in danger.

Do you think both Preston and Wolves have a chance of winning the Champ?

I think our odds are a bit on the weak side to be honest. I would have us at 100/1 as I think we have no chance of winning it.

 

[lemonjelly]

Do you think both Preston and Wolves have a chance of winning the Champ?

I think our odds are a bit on the weak side to be honest. I would have us at 100/1 as I think we have no chance of winning it.

Agree with Johnny. Plus when you look at 4 wins out the last 20 (the final one being an on the beach win) with tepid uninspiring football, then I understand why we're amongst the favourites to go down.

 

[YoungWolf]

In the article up on today - Jackett has talked about how looking at the squad he took to France on tour wasn't good enough to challenge for a top six place. Is that him going on about the youngsters not being good enough (seeing as they were the ones who excelled in that tour - Ronan, Bright) or the likes of Jacobs and Rowe?

 

[Langers]

We won't go down.

A lot obviously depends on the ins and outs this summer. I believe Jackett regressed to the style of football partly due to a bizarre lack of trust with the players he had at his disposal. Get Dicko and Graham back, make some astute signings in other areas and maybe we'll see him revert to the kind of football we saw in plenty of games during 2014/15?

A few problems with that of course:

1. I have very little faith in the recruitment policies within the club
2. We have a lot of shit still here who I think need to be cleared - and I don't think they will leave
3. I have an awful feeling that Jackett has lost it a bit, and has taken us as far as he can, regardless of the personnel at his disposal. We won't be bringing in anyone of the calibre of Sako or Afobe this summer, unless we get very very lucky or the recruitment team manage to grow some eyeballs
4. It remains to be seen whether any of the development squad will be able to 'do an Iorfa' and cement a spot in the first team

Depending on what the squad looks like in August, I think we will still be a midtable side and I don't think Jackett is going anywhere.

 

[Kenny]

In the article up on today - Jackett has talked about how looking at the squad he took to France on tour wasn't good enough to challenge for a top six place. Is that him going on about the youngsters not being good enough (seeing as they were the ones who excelled in that tour - Ronan, Bright) or the likes of Jacobs and Rowe?

Both from that article. They thought the younger players were better placed to step up but were wrong.

“It’s bad luck and bad planning, a bit of both,” he told the Express & Star.

“Some of that has been things we should have seen, some things that we couldn’t have done anything about.

“I feel we (now) need to address the imbalance in the squad.

“We need to address that during the summer and that’s very important for us.”

“We have to take responsibility and say we should have read things, maybe some faith in some young players that hasn’t quite materialised as well, in terms of them being ready,” he added.

“That’s not to say they won’t be ready in the future.

At least the short comings and bad planning have been admitted (a load of managers would stubbornly stick by what they did regardless of what the evidence shows). That is the easy bit though, addressing those issues is the hard bit.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

It does add to the strange lack of younger players being used in the dead games at the end of the season though, he's seen the problem of putting faith in untested youngsters last summer but then passed up an ideal opportunity to blood a few of them and see how they cope, perhaps he's just written some of them youngsters off already or given up on that idea completely?

 

[YoungWolf]

He does seem to have come away from that idea. He seems to think we struggled because of the age of our group rather than his huge underperformance and lack of ability (tactically and technically) in the squad. Maybe this is how he is trying to keep hold of his job.

 

[Johnny75]

The whole article is embarrassing for Jackett. It shows his shockingly bad judgement as when the kids were put in they were very good and you could argue that the worst performers were the senior pros (McD, Golbourne, ALF, Henry, Coady and Batth).

I just wish he'd go now as he's clearly lost it.

The recruitment was shocking and at least they've admitted that now but it's easy to do with hindsight and at no point have they sought to address this, in fact the recruitment has got worse over the last year. I wouldn't trust any of them to address a letter correctly.

 

[Langers]

The whole article is embarrassing for Jackett. It shows his shockingly bad judgement as when the kids were put in they were very good and you could argue that the worst performers were the senior pros (McD, Golbourne, ALF, Henry, Coady and Batth).

I just wish he'd go now as he's clearly lost it.

The recruitment was shocking and at least they've admitted that now but it's easy to do with hindsight and at no point have they sought to address this, in fact the recruitment has got worse over the last year. I wouldn't trust any of them to address a letter correctly.

The Mason signing is the one that worried me the most. It's obvious that we don't have a lot to spend, so any 'significant' signings HAVE to be the right ones, and they HAVE to make a difference to the side. Jackett stating that he doesn't know where Mason fits into the side totally baffled me and is a clear indication that head coach and DoF aren't reading from the same hymn sheet. Even if he's got one eye on next season, it still makes little sense.

We don't have the resources to sign a player for that sort of fee and not play them when fit.

 

[Lord Knows]

I thought it was reasonable to assume that the season review would focus inwardly from the head coach with bizarre team selections and unusual systems of play being the key reasons for abject performance. If Kenny dont get his own failings there is no future for the bloke.

 

[Penk Wolf]

We will be boring lower mid-table but we won't be in danger.

It depends, really. Take last years accounts, we made £2.5m profit, included in that was £6.5 provisions and £8m parachute money. Wages were £17m, realistically we could knock that down to £10m. On that basis we'll be looking to make a loss of £5m.

As we have an owner that won't put money in and our cash position is zero, then the only way that can be gapped is by selling some of our players.

Our form this year is slightly over a point a game, so with the same manager and a weakened squad a relegation battle could be a strong possibility.

 

[Norman Deeley]

The one stat that for me points to a struggle against relegation is the number of goals we scored in the second half of the season. If you only have eight shots at goal and only score one goal per game then you're going to be in trouble. I don't think we'll go down, but I do think Jackett will mire us in the bottom half.

 

[Johnny75]

It depends, really. Take last years accounts, we made £2.5m profit, included in that was £6.5 provisions and £8m parachute money. Wages were £17m, realistically we could knock that down to £10m. On that basis we'll be looking to make a loss of £5m.

As we have an owner that won't put money in and our cash position is zero, then the only way that can be gapped is by selling some of our players.

Our form this year is slightly over a point a game, so with the same manager and a weakened squad a relegation battle could be a strong possibility.

I wouldn't be surprised if the provisions were lower and the wage bill sub £10m. Afobe was sold for £8m so that should negate any loss even with the purchase of Mason. I would think that we will be in equilibrium and I would expect some players to be sold for the 2017/18 season in August or Jan this season if a new owner is not on the horizon to take over in the next 12 months.

I am fairly sure that with a much better CEO and management staff the club could operate as Walsall and Brentford do with a different approach but this will not happen as long as the current regime is in charge. The board are currently too weak to institute change so your last point is sadly accurate.

 

[Penk Wolf]

I wouldn't be surprised if the provisions were lower and the wage bill sub £10m. Afobe was sold for £8m so that should negate any loss even with the purchase of Mason. I would think that we will be in equilibrium and I would expect some players to be sold for the 2017/18 season in August or Jan this season if a new owner is not on the horizon to take over in the next 12 months.

I am fairly sure that with a much better CEO and management staff the club could operate as Walsall and Brentford do with a different approach but this will not happen as long as the current regime is in charge. The board are currently too weak to institute change so your last point is sadly accurate.

The provisions were adding back the bomb squads wages, loan fees, transfer fees, etc. so won't be included in this seasons accounts. The Afobe sale will have gone into last seasons accounts, so will need to see a similar figure in sales to try to break even.

Wages of anything less than £10m will mean that we will be similar to the likes of Preston, Bristol and well below Brentford (£17m) and Huddersfield was (£13m). The writing will be on the wall if we are pissing in the same pot as Preston.

 

[Johnny75]

Have this season's accounts been published yet? I would've thought that was pretty quick as the season only ended two weeks ago!

I really wouldn't be surprised if we are in the same pot as the bottom 3rd of the champ in terms of wages and with McD likely to leave too I would say that's a stick on certainty.

 

[Penk Wolf]

Have this season's accounts been published yet? I would've thought that was pretty quick as the season only ended two weeks ago!

No.

 

[Lord Knows]

Have this season's accounts been published yet? I would've thought that was pretty quick as the season only ended two weeks ago!

I really wouldn't be surprised if we are in the same pot as the bottom 3rd of the champ in terms of wages and with McD likely to leave too I would say that's a stick on certainty.

I wouldn't have thought the likes of Nouha Dicko would sign new contracts on terms such as Preston, Rotherham would offer.

 

[Johnny75]

No.

Then surely the Afobe sale would be in this season's accounts?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Our accounting year runs to 31st May so this season isn't even finished yet from that point of view.

What is left from the sales of Afobe and Stearman is going towards filling the gap left by not having parachute payments any more.

 

[Penk Wolf]

Then surely the Afobe sale would be in this season's accounts?

Yes. When I say this season I'm referring to 16/17.