03-11-2021, 06:59 PM
When Cook was here (I wasnt a huge fan personally) and we were fan owned, he used to find lower league/non league players and out of contracts and coach and train them into better players. We would then sell them on for profit and so it continued. Jacket did the Gordon Brown school of economics and sold all the gold and bought overriced crap. Marquis is the prime example. Top price for a mediocre striker. One of my contracts managers was from Doncaster and said, thank you for paying over the odds for a bloke who needs 4 guilt edged chances to take one. So at the end of last season we had a squad of bloated waged dross and Eisners wanted to cut the wage bill. Unemployed Cowley is drafted in with the remit of trying for play offs... failed and then ganfully employed, is offered a contract extension knowing he was losing half the squad because contracts were never negotiated 18 months before expiry. So anyone of any quality walks out the door last summer and we have no income. He then has to build a squad on reduced overall budget with no incoming cash and some bloated wages in the form of Marquis, Jacobs and all of the other bench warmers and has to build a squad around them with no money. It is no surprise we are abject this season. I am not sure it is entirely Cowleys fault. You would be better pointing the finger at Mark Catlin for the terrible contract management which has been employed over the past four years which I see is a primary cause of our position. We havent capatlised on departing assets for years and the inpexperienced Yanks have been lulled into buying "big names" in League 1 in the misguided hope that it would get us over the line. What we need to get back to is buying good non league/lower league players who have potential and can be coached into better players and forgetting Premier league youngsters who are shit. Harry was guilty of buying crap on occasion but if Hirst is a premier league striker, I will eat my hat.