SENTINELCELTS

Yesterday my partner in crime highlighted the fact a large turnover is not necessarily a hindrance to on-field success, evidenced many times.
I happen to believe the spine of a good team was already in situ on those occasions, such as Martins 21 point turnaround.
I wish I could state that now with any degree of conviction.
 
 
This is probably the biggest squad rebuilding job I have seen at the club, something very exciting in normal circumstances. A rebuild should be carried out from a position of strength, that’s not the case here, and it certainly shouldn’t be forced upon a club, but a planned for event. Again, not so and we are simply reacting to the circumstances we find ourselves in.
 
 
A massive rebuild should have a direction, the semblance of a plan.
Whether that’s going young and hungry, experienced and first team ready, mostly Bosman captured with big wages and a large chunk of the sell on fee, or maybe a little sprinkling of everything to balance the squad, the purchases should be pieces of the jigsaw deemed necessary.
There’s zero indication of that, still no Director of Football and Head Coach, or just Manager.
 
 
As well we know the outgoing CEO with over two decades of transfer dealings has finally decided to shift, which while welcome news due to his penny pinching, leaves none at all who knows about closing deals.
 
 
As we stand the rebuild is fully needed, can be mostly self funded through the wantaways, but we as a club are in no way well positioned or set up to approach the transfer market confidently. The quality of those incoming will be a large part in swaying wavering Tim’s to sign up again, which puts even more importance on a splurge we are Ill prepared for.
 
 
We’ve all read the list of those signed who played less than thirty times for the Club, a fair and decent benchmark of a hit or miss signing. The reason Peter kept trying to unearth a diamond in the rough was because he previously had actually found a few whetting the appetite, and their selling fees had more or less covered all those frogs we kissed. The Midas touch fizzled out of course, no one can be that lucky or a bigger club than ours would snap him up, but the ‘kissing frogs’ policy is the main reason we have such a disjointed squad, it has failed.
 
 
Now we look for a new policy to approach our biggest ever spend, but without any collective know-how, without acquisition experience, without a cohesive plan, without qualified people in the footballing department calling the shots.
And with a Euros the window is double hard, if shopping in that arena.
Having seen how easy it is to squander hundreds of millions on projects, we look set embark on the most important process for decades, with collectively little more than cash to spend. An agents dream but supporters nightmare?
 
 
Even the selling process could see us taken advantage of, easily so, school of hard knocks for new guy at the helm. Now we know what an unhappy player delivers (see Odsonne all season) it’s imperative we shift on rather than keep and hope. Some of these players should bring in proper transfers fees, yet are being touted for much less than possible worth, an International in his prime years should be at least five million not the paltry couple Tom Rogic may leave for.
Kris, Odsonne, Ryan sales should deliver a sizeable warchest,with Frimps ten or so still to come in.
Fifty or Sixty million isn’t actually that much in relative terms, not when you’ve an entire squad to build. Look what 36 million poorly spent just delivered, next to nothing, showing there’s zero guarantee a decent fee leads to a decent player.
 
 
Dominic himself will be heavily scrutinized, and making a horlicks of our squad rebuild would be a nightmare start, he should publicly absolve himself by leaving that hiring in other more qualified hands and stating as much to the world. Showing the CEO isn’t involved would help all move on from Peter, reassure us we aren’t on the same frog kissing projects trajectory, and give him time to focus on other important issues. This time next year, he should be reviewing the new hires for pay rises and contract extensions, not being held responsible for any flops.
 
 
This upcoming splurge sets the tone, for the CEO, for the current Champions, for the current players.
It’s huge and could make or break some reputations.
The next couple seasons, and any goodwill left for this PLC, depend on it.
The spend of all spends must go well.
 
 
By Mahe.