Londonlisa2001 said:
I’m genuinely struggling to see the point of this. From a financial perspective I mean.
I’m sure he’s a lovely player but the chance of us achieving the playoffs must be remote and I’d assume that finding permanent deals that can aid our longer term aspirations would be a better use of our limited funds,
We are desperately short in key areas for the longer term and yet can’t seem to find the funds to do much about it. Spending money on a short term loan with no prospect of it turning permanent appears odd to me.
This isn’t a great window to date. Assuming each window should be a step to shaping a squad I’m not sure what we are doing save trying to deal with the goalkeeping situation.
The thing is, nobody knows exactly what the financial situation is within the club or what this deal has cost us (i.e. what else we could have got for the same price). Neither does anybody know what the financial impact of losing Laird and Williams has had on funds. I am assuming it has helped with the wage bill. Did we pay a loan fee? Is some of that refunded if the loan is cut short?
Martin has talked a lot about long term aspirations and building something, however he seemed very excited to have Wolf here. He also said it was within our budget. That's good enough for me.
I have read a lot of things on us utilising the loan market most of which are very black or white. Whilst I am generally in the camp that we should be relying on our own players, what a lot of people have failed to take into account is that one or two good loans (i.e. miles better than what we had already... so a Laird rather than a Williams) can have a positive financial impact further down the line.
1. If Wolf helps us to finish higher in the league, we become a more attractive proposition next season which might help us attract better players or encourage some to take a wage cut to come here. Maybe he'll have an impact whereby we sell some more season tickets or have larger gates between now and May
2. If having him in the team allows Piroe to score X more goals than he otherwise would have done, perhaps we get more money for him when he is inevitably sold.
3. Perhaps having Wolf in the team will improve some other players.
4. If he has a successful loan spell and gets a good move in the summer, it is another feather in the cap for Martin, another example he has of why a player should come here and play instead of going to Stoke on an extra £5k a week.
5. Perhaps a successful loan spell will open the door to us taking another player from the club/agent next season who could be the difference between us going up and not.
6. If there is nobody else out there who fits the bill for what we need, surely it is better to get someone in for the short term, on a financial basis we are happy with? Perhaps there is someone we are confident of getting cheaper in the Summer than now? Maybe Wolf now plus X player in the summer works out cheaper than X player now.
Plenty of our fans are critical of the board for not spending and "speculate to accumulate" is a phrase I read a lot and I think this can apply to loan signings too. For all we know as fans, the club feels confident that spending £X on Wolf now may give us a financial yield in the future.
For what it's worth, I think the Playoffs are probably gone whatever we do in January and definitely gone if we don't get a defender or two in. However, we do have a lot of games in hand, some excellent players and far stranger things have happened.
