Leonard's gone

[Leoblue]

Money never has been a problem for Ron ......... living in the real world has though ...................:tease:

With BL now a partner, money won't be a problem. Our debts won't be a problem to clear (by BL) and is a drop in the ocean to what they'll receive at the end of it. This project must be one of the biggest project a football club has ever entered into. The whole size of it is huge. And, at the end of it, we still own the land at RH (or Ron does) to clear any debts.

 

[Bobby dazzler]

In all honesty Lenny is our team. His defensive covering is immeasurable. His engine is superb. The rest of our midfield will be shown up without him. Looking over our shoulders without him. Looking up with him

 

[Stan33]

Sorry BD that can't b correct ,there r 10 other players in the team ,take them away & Lenny would b made 2 look very silly

 

[OldBlueLady]

You don’t see Blackburn, Charlton, Bradford and Scunthorpe as strong? Really?

To be honest, I don't see Charlton as strong. They've had a couple of bad losses this year already.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

To be honest, I don't see Charlton as strong. They've had a couple of bad losses this year already.

And so have we ........... sadly. Our excuse has been injuries but we still were tonked a couple of times. :sad:

 

[amsemp]

Normally I'm the first to say that he's still under contract and we should keep him etc etc. But with so many young players bedding in, a season of consolidation wouldn't be the worst thing. Ron would rightly expect more given his investment this season but receiving that sort of money for Lenny would almost certainly offset his investment and give us some money in the bank to play with next season too. We've got Wright and Wordsworth who are both excellent players and whilst we'd definitely be weaker, we wouldn't leave ourselves without a decent side.

On to Lenny, he's been a fantastic servant to this football club. Never moaned or downed tools and has always given 100%. He's got a chance to go to a club that stands a real chance of Premier League football and I would hate to see us deny him that chance as he definitely deserves it.

If £700k-£800k is what's been offered then I think it's a deal that suits all parties.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Now, I've had a think about your comment there 'Manor'. The one that says it's "a team full of over the hill veterans" and I immediately got my team of researchers on the case.

Let's have a closer look at the evidence they uncovered, shall we?

Turner and Fortune are 34 or over, but the rest from Saturday, bar one, are 30 and under (Six are 28 and under), plus youngsters like Dru, Kyps, Elvis and the like are coming through.

Nile is only 26.

So, about three or four I make that, in total. So, let's say, being generous, around a third at best. Which is distinctly less than full, by around 60-65%. In fact, I'd say closer to empty. Not full at all.

In fact, if it was a pint, I'd be on my way to the bar for a top-up. Yep, I'm there now, just waiting to be served.

Edit : I would have got you one, but you already had a full pint! :winking:

There was a study on Succession Planning I linked to a couple of weeks ago, which suggested that strikers peak at 25-26, midfielders similar and defenders slightly later at 27-28. All 3 positions (sample size was too small for goalkeepers) had a significant drop-off at around 31-32.

By that reckoning only Hendrie hasn't peaked and, other than Lenny who's off, the others have already or are soon to experience a significant drop-off. Of course there are going to be be outliers and we hope that more are Fortunes than Ferdinands, but it seems a tactic with a limited shelf-life.

Dru, Kyprianou, Elvis, Bridge and Ba combined account for just 6% of the total League minutes played by Southend players this season.

genuinely can't believe people want Lenny to leave.

If he wants to sign a new contract, then great. However he wants to play at a higher level than we can offer. If we receive a sizeable bid then we should reluctantly cash in.

In all honesty Lenny is our team. His defensive covering is immeasurable. His engine is superb. The rest of our midfield will be shown up without him. Looking over our shoulders without him. Looking up with him

He covers an awful lot of sins in the current set-up.

 

[AndyT]

Interesting point on succession planning 'Yorkshire'

 

[rlb999]

He clearly fancies a new challenge so why not now? Will force us to survive without him and will force PB to try something different. He's been a key player for us and I wish him the best - but I'm not convinced he'll cut it at a higher level and wonder if history might show £500k or whatever to be good business on our part.

 

[Floval Flyer]

With BL now a partner, money won't be a problem. Our debts won't be a problem to clear (by BL) and is a drop in the ocean to what they'll receive at the end of it. This project must be one of the biggest project a football club has ever entered into. The whole size of it is huge. And, at the end of it, we still own the land at RH (or Ron does) to clear any debts.

Interesting side topic

Regarding Fossetts Farm, and the British Land tie in. BL manage £18.1 billion worth of property, of which £13.5 billion is shareholder owned - that is some portfolio ! Those figures do make the 700k for Lenny seem irrelevant - let’s just keep our golden goose for a while longer.

http://www.britishland.com/about-us

 

[Pubey]

If he wants to sign a new contract, then great. However he wants to play at a higher level than we can offer. If we receive a sizeable bid then we should reluctantly cash in.

Why should we cash in while we have half a chance of promotion? We can't replace him and I don't think we can get promoted without him

 

[mattitouk]

The question we must all be thinking is "What would Ron sell him for"?

Clearly, £700,000 and as some else reported earlier in this thread £750,000 didn't cut the mustard so to be speak.

Maybe £850,000?.. I can't see Ron demanding £1 million for him though, considering the time frame.

 

[geoffmundo]

Maybe he just fancies playing in a cup run before he retires........................

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Interesting point on succession planning 'Yorkshire'

Yeah, it surprised me a little. Apparently players are getting paid on the reputation rather than performance by 28 (having typically impressed at 25-26). There's typically a drag between perception/recognition of performance and reality. I'd have put the peaks at a couple of years later than that but that would have been based upon no more than the seemingly flawed conventional wisdom.

I suppose looking back the early peak was true on the best forwards I've seen - Freddy peaked by 25 (like so many his career was basically downhill after us); Stan peaked at about 25 (at Forest); Brettie Angell peaked with us, he'd have been about 25; Corr's most prolific season was his first with us, aged 25; Barnard peaked with us/Southampton and that would have been around 25; Otto had his career season aged 25/26 with us; Ryan Hall would have been 23/24.

Even someone like Graeme Jones who had one good goalscoring season did so at age 25/26! Leon Constantine had his prolific seasons aged 24/25 with us and 28/29 with Port Vale. Carruthers was 27 his most prolific season.

There are of course outliers: Gavin Tomlin had his good season at 28/29; going back to the 80s Crown (another converted winger) would have been about 30 whilst at the other end Cadette would have only been about 21.

I've probably already said too much and should keep quiet in case Sheff Utd are reading up on Lenny to increase their bid.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Why should we cash in while we have half a chance of promotion? We can't replace him and I don't think we can get promoted without him

Being realistic, automatic promotion is beyond us.

To make the play-offs we'd have to leapfrog at least 3 teams (more if someone leap frogs us) and make up 8 points. That's possible but not probable. Let's say a 25% chance.

If we reach the play-offs we then have a 25% chance.

So that would be 25% x 25%.

You're a science man by background, do you think it is good business to gamble £500,000+ on those odds?

 

[Danshrimper]

Why should we cash in while we have half a chance of promotion? We can't replace him and I don't think we can get promoted without him

We should cash in because we don’t have anywhere near half a chance of promotion.

 

[mattitouk]

Regardless of opinion of whether we have half a chance or promotion or not. We won't succeed or fail by just selling one man. All of our successes or failures so far this season has to be put down to the other 10 players on the pitch also, not just Leonard.

 

[TTS]

You don’t see Blackburn, Charlton, Bradford and Scunthorpe as strong? Really?

You could have said that they were strong before the season started ... wow ... give up ... the amount of grief given to certain people in the club and we have a thread of people giving up, at Christmas ! Shocking !!!

Disagree with me as much as you like , but, until we don't have a chance, I'm a believer !

 

[Danshrimper]

You could have said that they were strong before the season started ... wow ... give up ... the amount of grief given to certain people in the club and we have a thread of people giving up, at Christmas ! Shocking !!!

Disagree with me as much as you like , but, until we don't have a chance, I'm a believer !

There’s a difference between being realistic about what we can achieve and giving up.

 

[Suffolk Shrimper In Dorset]

DON'T sell.

I applaud RM for so far declining all bids.

Yes there is more than Ryan in the team but he rarely pus in a less than 7/10 performance and often much more. With him we have a chance of play-offs, without it is certainly less likely.

But above all even if we got a huge offer I wouldn't be excited about the cash coming in - past experience tells it will just get lost in the complexities of running a club, other clubs will know we've got money and put up their asking prices for inferior replacements, and we'll end up getting someone who is half as good who gets paid twice as much and that then upsets the rest of the squad.

Ryan has been superb in the way he has kept his focus this season, lets keep him and use him right up to the end and give us all a little hope that something might then just happen re our league position. And if he then does leave at the end of the season lets applaud him for his service.