the bad news just keeps getting worse

[yapper1901]

just been watching Shaun pre Norwich press conference

the headlines

1< no money what so ever for any loan deals
2< oconner and woods unless they sign in next few days will be leaving till christmas contract wise(says to me they may look to offload at Christmas if he wont sign deal)

3< and possibly the biggest stockys contract negations are on hold till Christmas now shaun says it so he can concentrate on games but why when he can sign a pre contract agreement in january would we leave it

now for me next year could look very bleak without oconner stocky and woods

what you all think, also it really concerns me we have no money what so ever to sign anyone

[Chrisd_123]

It sounds bad but SOD always makes things sound a lot worse than they actually are i find. We'll be fine.

[VikingJames]

I don't understand why they have to delay the talks with Jimmy and Woods until January. I can understand with Stocky with his current on and off injury situation, but it doesn't seem to make sense with the other two. Surely the club want to make a statement of intent that they want the players to stay by trying their hardest to sort something out?

I think SOD needs to become more ruthless with offering contracts, and try to thrash out the terms with the important players. I feel this is what has led us to lose good players on frees in the past. I remember when we were after Tom Kennedy, and SOD was quoted as saying that he didn't want to put too much pressure on the player to sign. It seems to me that we let players slip away too easily, and I really fear the worst for the end of this season when I read things like this. It would be a huge blow to lose Stock, Jimmy and Woods, even more so if we didn't get a penny for them!

[Keith Myath]

I think there would have been money available had we got increased gates, but in reality that was never going to be the case. £28 for a ticket in what was cat C last year is a joke in all honesty. Theres no way in this world we can pull in the floating punter with that outlay needed, not when they can watch man u in the pub have eight pints and a kebab and still have change in their pockets.

My only concern with what is being reported is our wage bill, £7 million currently, how exactly?, either i am missing something or we have a lot of average players earning big bucks.

[JonWallsend]

Having watched the interview, I'm not overly concerned. Woods appears to be close to signing and Jimmy is obviously in negotiations. Stock on hold until christmas seems sensible given his recent injury problems.
 The players will be aware that they get more money elsewhere, afterall they are all established Championship players, and so naturally its not going to be an easy process. Sean indicates that money has been earmarked to try to get players on new contracts and until he's aware of how things are panning out he can't spend that money elsewhere.
Not worried think they will all resign but at least one of Jimmy or Brian will be away next season- this way at least we get a fee.

[VikingJames]

Keith Myath wrote:

I think there would have been money available had we got increased gates, but in reality that was never going to be the case. £28 for a ticket in what was cat C last year is a joke in all honesty. Theres no way in this world we can pull in the floating punter with that outlay needed, not when they can watch man u in the pub have eight pints and a kebab and still have change in their pockets.

My only concern with what is being reported is our wage bill, £7 million currently, how exactly?, either i am missing something or we have a lot of average players earning big bucks.

Spot on. I think it works out at roughly £5.5k per week for each player (on average.)

We will obviously have the high earners (Sharp, Stock, Oster, Woods) but for it to average out at £5.5k per player per week, the likes of Locky, Wilson, Webster and Dumbuya (with all respect to those players) must be earning more than they are worth, surely?

[yapper1901]

for me i dont know about anyone else but is stocky really that important
for me if we can get 1/2 million for him in transfer window take it
oster fits right in, frees up wages to offer jimmy and woods a bit more money and maybe enough left over
to sign a decent defender

i dont think stocky is as important as he use to be but what annoys me is why not let him go in the summer when we could have got real good money from swansea

[JonWallsend]

My only concern with what is being reported is our wage bill, £7 million currently, how exactly?, either i am missing something or we have a lot of average players earning big bucks.[/quote]

Thats the nature of the league we are in. Many of our players could get more elsewhere and you would struggle to find suitable replacements on the existing wages. We were the third lowest wage payers in this league last season. Three teams with bigger wage bills, admittedly not much bigger, were relegated.

[wing commander]

Well if its financial,offer O'Conner half of Woods money...If we lost Jimmy we would be in big trouble,for me he is the most important player we have (including Sharp).Wood's is good but would we miss him?not that much...
  If we really intend to wait till January when there agents can talk to anyone(Green&Roberts agents started talking to clubs in Jan)then we deserve to lose them for our stupidity.However if the players themselves have requested this theres little we can do and will have to get what we can in January....

[irishcontingent]

JonWallsend wrote:

My only concern with what is being reported is our wage bill, £7 million currently, how exactly?, either i am missing something or we have a lot of average players earning big bucks.

Thats the nature of the league we are in. Many of our players could get more elsewhere and you would struggle to find suitable replacements on the existing wages. We were the third lowest wage payers in this league last season. Three teams with bigger wage bills, admittedly not much bigger, were relegated.[/quote]

There are close to 100 people taking from the pot at DRFC, Yes the majority of the wage bill is Players, but when management, coaching staff, Admin, Sports scientists, dietitiians, Marketing, Shop, Groundsmen, etc are thrown in the average salary would be 1300 per wk, across the club as a whole.

Even the most menial Full Time post at DRFC will command a salary equivelent to Minimum wage ( here thats 8.65 euro /hour, or £7.00) so that in itsself is £280 / week.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Exactly what I was going to post.  Lots of other staff who'll be on decent wages from SOD right through to the kitman and club scouts.  The wage bill will also include the bonusses, signing on fees and added on extras such as match tickets given to players or executive tickets for families etc.  It all adds up.  Not to mention agents fees added on aswell.

[gavuez1723]

BALANCING THE BOOKS...
...Other clubs have to deal with it so why shouldn't we...For me the biggest loss would be Jimmy he's Doncaster's answer to Steven Gerrard for me...Stop tossing it off sign him up, if we lose the others so be it. We've survived losing better players than Stock in the past & we will find someone else to replace him...Lets not forget its SOD that have turned these players from 50k noones to 2m rated players.

It is quite clear the club need new investment & to get that you need people through the turnstiles on a regular basis & to achieve that you need a decent marketing department & THAT IS WHERE WE AS A CLUB FAIL MISERABLY!!!

[ravenrover]

gavuez1723 wrote:

BALANCING THE BOOKS...
...Other clubs have to deal with it so why shouldn't we...For me the biggest loss would be Jimmy he's Doncaster's answer to Steven Gerrard for me...Stop tossing it off sign him up, if we lose the others so be it. We've survived losing better players than Stock in the past & we will find someone else to replace him...Lets not forget its SOD that have turned these players from 50k noones to 2m rated players.

It is quite clear the club need new investment & to get that you need people through the turnstiles on a regular basis & to achieve that you need a decent marketing department & THAT IS WHERE WE AS A CLUB FAIL MISERABLY!!!

What's a noone ?  :S

[gavuez1723]

Sorry English must not be my first language...my native tongue is goobledygook  

[irishcontingent]

gavuez1723 wrote:

BALANCING THE BOOKS...
...Other clubs have to deal with it so why shouldn't we...For me the biggest loss would be Jimmy he's Doncaster's answer to Steven Gerrard for me...Stop tossing it off sign him up, if we lose the others so be it. We've survived losing better players than Stock in the past & we will find someone else to replace him...Lets not forget its SOD that have turned these players from 50k noones to 2m rated players.

It is quite clear the club need new investment & to get that you need people through the turnstiles on a regular basis & to achieve that you need a decent marketing department & THAT IS WHERE WE AS A CLUB FAIL MISERABLY!!!

There is not one club in the country balancing the books, thats why DRFC are different, were it not for JR and co, or because of JR and co ( depends on your perspective ), DRFC try to balance the books. I bet there are clubs within the championship with 4 or 5 times the wage budget of DRFC, there are also clubs who quite possibly spend 4 or 5 times what DRFC do on transfers, without having attendances of 4 or 5 times DRFC. Which is right , DRFC or the others. Depends on what you want from your club i suppose.