by Burnley Shrimp » Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:22 pm
How will our directors and management play it next season?
We are arguably fairly sound financially (unlike a lot of other clubs).
A large proportion of the Sainsburys cash will obviously go towards the new development, however the influx of this cash potentially overcomes the salary cap obstacles of this season (despite crowd size reductions) and may well give us the spending power to obtain the quality signings (possibly being released by 'larger' clubs who are feeling the financial squeeze).
This all of course depends on how the Directors decide to play it and how they play the balance between the new development and the playing resources .
If we were to look at increasing the overall quality of the squad to make a push next season then the harsh realities would dictate that certain players would have to be released. There is no room for sentimentality if a club is to progress.
For me I'm afraid Michael Howard (injury prone recently and never in the same class as Adams), Blinky ( very good in the Conference but out of his depth in Div 2), Twissy (on the whole has struggled this season and another who may have a couple of good seasons left in the conference but overall not Div 2 standard).Also Diarmuid O'Carroll (hasn't really cut the mustard at Div 2 level). All of these would probably be amongst our higher wage earners who in my opinion should be released (contracts permitting). There are others of course but it all depends on how much is available to spend and whether the quality replacements are available to us to raise the overall standard of the squad.
I'm sure all at the club in a position to steer the club forward are committed to that exact cause (finances permitting) and the club is currently delicately poised in what are to say the least turbulent times generally. We just have to trust that the directors and management achieve the balance to improve the infrastructure and playing staff all at the same time. They haven't failed us to date to my knowledge so I guess we can look forward with optimism on all fronts.