Bank or speculate transfer money?

[slippers]

Its looking like we could bank alot of cash in Aberdeen terms if Ferguson and Ramsay are to be sold. The question is if you would bank majority of money or we speculate and split the pot between 3 years and try and make 2/3 big signings on 3 year deals and hope we can sell at least 1 player for decent money every season. A couple quality signings in attacking third could see us net 3-5m if we were to make the European groups stages. Say we got 8m combined for the 2 players that would be an additional 50k a week in wages across 3 seasons for example. Or if we spent 4m on 2 players we could still afford to pay them 12.5k a week each on a 3 year deal. Is it worth speculating in hope we could sell at least 1 of them within the 3 years for millions? Worse case scenario we waste 8m over 3 years. Best case scenario it puts the club on a massive upward trajectory.  

All hypothetical but what's your thoughts?

 

[aberdeen1970]

 

If we do shell out transfer fees and decent wages it should be to players who are on an upward trajectory. Ideally under 25.

I'm against giving big wages to any more players in their 30s. We've got enough of them and if we want to regenerate we need to start bringing in younger guys again. 

[StandFree1982]

I don't think we'll have a lot of choice if we're going to be haemorrhaging money through the ridiculous 500 capacity cap put in place. Most of any transfer fees will go straight into keeping us out of debt and Glass will get a small percentage of that plus wages from the rest. 

[slippers]

Just now, aberdeen1970 said:

 

If we do shell out transfer fees and decent wages it should be to players who are on an upward trajectory. Ideally under 25.

I'm against giving big wages to any more players in their 30s. We've got enough of them and if we want to regenerate we need to start bringing in younger guys again. 

Yes it would have to be players that we believe have a huge upside. Look at Morelos as an example. Absolute cretin but he was only 1m I seem to remember and doubt he was on much more than 10k a week when signed. Regardless of what people think of him hes been a big success at Rangers. Biggest doubt id have is if id trust our recruitment to source such talents. I remember the club saying that Atlanta have identified 2 or 3 players that could emulate Morelos success but funnily enough nothing has ever came of it....

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

Speculate. We have been playing it safe for 25 years and have nothing to show for it other than several consistent seasons. 
 

just fucking go for it. At worst it goes horrible then you are skint but a few years later you’ll be back where you were

scottish football is boring as fuck isn’t it 

[slippers]

1 minute ago, StandFree1982 said:

I don't think we'll have a lot of choice if we're going to be haemorrhaging money through the ridiculous 500 capacity cap put in place. Most of any transfer fees will go straight into keeping us out of debt and Glass will get a small percentage of that plus wages from the rest. 

Its a valid point. Its typical that the club have finally managed to get decent transfers fees and its been swallowed up by covid. 

[Ten Caat]

We won't be breaking our wage structure anytime soon. So we won't be paying any more than £1million for any single player. More likely we'll pay fees of £250k or so for players we really want who are 6 months from going out of contract at their present clubs in order to get them in immediately (and possibly fend off interest from other clubs).

If we sold the 2 players for a hypothetical combined £8million, considering our need to relocate and build a new stadium, it would only be prudent to bank the vast majority of it. But re-investing say £2million of it over an 18 month period on a few transfer fees, ideally for young players who might have a future profitable sell-on value, plus offering one or two of our current squad who we might want to keep long term new improved contracts ( ? McCrorie.......??? McGeouch) would only be fair to the manager having lost his 2 best players.

[slippers]

1 minute ago, Byrne Baby Byrne said:

Speculate. We have been playing it safe for 25 years and have nothing to show for it other than several consistent seasons. 
 

just fucking go for it. At worst it goes horrible then you are skint but a few years later you’ll be back where you were

scottish football is boring as fuck isn’t it 

If we were to net anywhere near 8m id be disappointed if we didn't brake our transfer record at least once or certainly see 1 or 2 foreign prospects come in.

[aberdeen1970]

1 minute ago, Ten Caat said:

We won't be breaking our wage structure anytime soon. So we won't be paying any more that £1million for any single player. More likely we'll pay fees of £250k or so for players we really want who are 6 months from going out of contract at their present clubs in order to get them in immediately (and possibly fend off interest from other clubs).

If we sold the 2 players for a hypothetical combined £8million, considering our need to relocate and build a new stadium, it would only be prudent to bank the vast majority of it. But re-investing say £2million of it over an 18 month period on a few transfer fees, ideally for young players who might have a future profitable sell-on value, plus offering one or two of our current squad who we might want to keep long term new improved contracts ( ? McCrorie.......??? McGeouch) would only be fair to the manager having lost his 2 best players.

Agree with most of this but offer McGeouch a new improved contract? 

He's been here 2 years and has barely managed double figures in appearances. 

[Ten Caat]

3 minutes ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Agree with most of this but offer McGeouch a new improved contract? 

He's been here 2 years and has barely managed double figures in appearances. 

That's why I put 3 question marks against his name. When he has been fit, he's been one of our better performers. But as you say, keeping him fit appears to be a problem. If there's a genuine problem causing his frequent absences then I'm sure the club's medics will have sussed it out by now and he won't get a new deal. If he's just been unlucky then he's probably worth another couple of years

[Guest milne_afc]

11 minutes ago, Byrne Baby Byrne said:

 

Speculate. We have been playing it safe for 25 years and have nothing to show for it other than several consistent seasons. 
 

just fucking go for it. At worst it goes horrible then you are skint but a few years later you’ll be back where you were

scottish football is boring as fuck isn’t it 

 

+1

AFC are stale af

[aberdeen1970]

28 minutes ago, Ten Caat said:

That's why I put 3 question marks against his name. When he has been fit, he's been one of our better performers. But as you say, keeping him fit appears to be a problem. If there's a genuine problem causing his frequent absences then I'm sure the club's medics will have sussed it out by now and he won't get a new deal. If he's just been unlucky then he's probably worth another couple of years

Ah I see. Gotcha. 

 

I just think we can get better value than offering good money to a 29 year old guy who has been injury prone most of his career and starts less than 10 games a season on average over the last 5 years. 

 

[slippers]

22 minutes ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Ah I see. Gotcha. 

 

I just think we can get better value than offering good money to a guy who has been injury prone most of his career and starts less than 10 games a season on average over the last 5 years. 

 

Yeah I agree. But I always think we can do better than alot of our signings. Then get linked to some average English based midfielder from Lincoln and start to wonder what the point is. We just seem to do the same thing every year and wonder why we cant progress. Fingers crossed the club can pull a few rabbits out the hat and surprise us.

[Bournemouth Gee]

Need to get into Europe again so...

[Ten Caat]

17 minutes ago, Bournemouth Gee said:

Need to get into Europe again so...

Offer bribes to Hearts, Dundee United, Motherwell and Hibs to throw their matches against us?

[Bournemouth Gee]

Exactly

[WesthillWanderersFC]

To answer the opening post, it should be a bit of both.

For example, if we sold Ferguson, Ramsay & Hedges for a combined £8m, we should bank at least £5m. 

Re-invest a chunk in replacements, and ideally on players 25 or under, with future sell on value.

My issue would be trusting Stephen Glass’s judgement on spending a significant sum, albeit I know there’s a Head of Recruitment in place now.

 

[slippers]

15 minutes ago, WesthillWanderersFC said:

To answer the opening post, it should be a bit of both.

For example, if we sold Ferguson, Ramsay & Hedges for a combined £8m, we should bank at least £5m. 

Re-invest a chunk in replacements, and ideally on players 25 or under, with future sell on value.

My issue would be trusting Stephen Glass’s judgement on spending a significant sum, albeit I know there’s a Head of Recruitment in place now.

 

yeah I think that's the sensible fit. 3m is still almost 20k increase a week in wages over the course of a 3 year deal. Other issues is that id guess we are already above our normal wage budget. The likes of Brown, Ramirez and even Gallagher will be on big wages for a club of our size. 

[Hoofball]

If it was broken up over three years I’d like a chunk of that kept until the Januarys and use it on wages for free transfers. Would mean waiting six months after that but would then end up with better players who can be sold and profit to be reinvested 

[strachanmcgheegoal]

Surely we put it all on red? 

[Andy_123]

We’ll need to reinvest a chunk of the money if Ramsay, Hedges and Ferguson all go. We’ve been bad enough at times with them this season, can you imagine how bad we’d have been without them?

We should be always be holding enough money in the kitty to pay small fees for the next Shinnie, McLean, Ferguson etc whenever the opportunity arises as well. 

 

[Bournemouth Gee]

3 minutes ago, Andy_123 said:

We’ll need to reinvest a chunk of the money if Ramsay, Hedges and Ferguson all go. We’ve been bad enough at times with them this season, can you imagine how bad we’d have been without them?

We should be always be holding enough money in the kitty to pay small fees for the next Shinnie, McLean, Ferguson etc whenever the opportunity arises as well. 

 

100% this.

We needed to invest WITH those guys in team

 

 

[Millertime]

4 hours ago, Ten Caat said:

We won't be breaking our wage structure anytime soon. So we won't be paying any more than £1million for any single player. More likely we'll pay fees of £250k or so for players we really want who are 6 months from going out of contract at their present clubs in order to get them in immediately (and possibly fend off interest from other clubs).

If we sold the 2 players for a hypothetical combined £8million, considering our need to relocate and build a new stadium, it would only be prudent to bank the vast majority of it. But re-investing say £2million of it over an 18 month period on a few transfer fees, ideally for young players who might have a future profitable sell-on value, plus offering one or two of our current squad who we might want to keep long term new improved contracts ( ? McCrorie.......??? McGeouch) would only be fair to the manager having lost his 2 best players.

What IS our wage structure?

I assumed Lewis would have been highest on maybe 5k a week, but I would be stunned if Ramirez isn't on close to 10k

You're the ideal guy to ask!

[Ten Caat]

25 minutes ago, Millertime said:

What IS our wage structure?

I assumed Lewis would have been highest on maybe 5k a week, but I would be stunned if Ramirez isn't on close to 10k

You're the ideal guy to ask!

You are a grand shy of what Lewis is on. He got the deal that Shinnie was offered and turned down to join Derby.  Brown on a good bit more....

Hedges was rumoured to have been offered a deal that would have made him our highest paid player. I'm not sure that's entirely true

I'm sure we would go to £10k per week for the right player (ahem Mr Brown) but that's why I reckon a million is the most we'd pay for a player....if we paid £2million then I'm not convinced a £10k/week would be enough of a wage to match the transfer fee. 

Ramirez was supposedly on the equivalent of about £13k/week in the States. I can't imagine he would choose to move 6000 miles for the privelige of losing money so my suspicion is he's been bunged a decent signing on fee to cover the difference so we don't bust through our wage structure

[afc1903mad]

7 minutes ago, Ten Caat said:

Ramirez was supposedly on the equivalent of about £13k/week in the States. I can't imagine he would choose to move 6000 miles for the privelige of losing money so my suspicion is he's been bunged a decent signing on fee to cover the difference so we don't bust through our wage structure

The other consideration is that he always wanted to play in Europe and this give him and his family a base to go on regular short jaunts around Europe.

Its a big thing for Americans to come across the pond, so he may have been willing to take a wage cut to have that opportunity.

 

All that said, I don’t know any specifics, so just a hypothetical potential factor

[Watson Oh The Bar! Scanlon Yes!]

6 hours ago, Ten Caat said:

We won't be breaking our wage structure anytime soon. So we won't be paying any more than £1million for any single player. More likely we'll pay fees of £250k or so for players we really want who are 6 months from going out of contract at their present clubs in order to get them in immediately (and possibly fend off interest from other clubs).

If we sold the 2 players for a hypothetical combined £8million, considering our need to relocate and build a new stadium, it would only be prudent to bank the vast majority of it. But re-investing say £2million of it over an 18 month period on a few transfer fees, ideally for young players who might have a future profitable sell-on value, plus offering one or two of our current squad who we might want to keep long term new improved contracts ( ? McCrorie.......??? McGeouch) would only be fair to the manager having lost his 2 best players.

Yep, agreed with this. This is pretty much spot on for me.

I’d love it if it worked out for McGeouch was a success for us. The regular injuries are a concern though.

invest in the academy, with the aim of it being THE destination of talent for young talent here in Scotland. You won’t pick up every gem, but we should aspire to have more than our fair share. That’ll only come from unearthing more Ramsays and Fergusons and moving them at the right time and see there careers develop.

[Redtillimdead]

Cormack's stated aim is to make us a top 100 UEFA club. To do this we need to get into Europe regularly which requires investment. 

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

1 hour ago, Redtillimdead said:

Cormack's stated aim is to make us a top 100 UEFA club. To do this we need to get into Europe regularly which requires investment. 

I just had a look at this and the rankings are a disgrace. Burnley are ranked at number 79. They accumulated 2.5 points for their Euro "run", their only ever Euro run, which somehow puts them ahead of us with 9 points. They get an extra 19.42 points just for being in England... being in Scotland gives us 6.7

You are right though. To break in we will definitely need to make the group stages. We don't even look like making the qualifiers these days though

[aberdeen1970]

57 minutes ago, Byrne Baby Byrne said:

I just had a look at this and the rankings are a disgrace. Burnley are ranked at number 79. They accumulated 2.5 points for their Euro "run", their only ever Euro run, which somehow puts them ahead of us with 9 points. They get an extra 19.42 points just for being in England... being in Scotland gives us 6.7

You are right though. To break in we will definitely need to make the group stages. We don't even look like making the qualifiers these days though

Will be a monumental effort to become a top 100 club whilst things are so heavily weighted towards country coefficients

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

1 hour ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Will be a monumental effort to become a top 100 club whilst things are so heavily weighted towards country coefficients

Not really to be fair. There's a lot of teams around our level who accumulated points from 1 Europa campaign. Thats where we need to get... but I think this team are further away than ever. We will seriously need to pick up to finish 3rd or win the Scottish Cup.

There's a few teams we could realistically match within the top 100... Rosenborg, Rijeka, BATE, Steaua, APOEL, Molde.

I wouldn't fancy us to take any of them though. I suppose we need to get to a level where we are even better than we were around 2014-17.... can't see it under Glass anyway