Leonard's gone

[tommy tucker]

If you look at what happened in the summer The bidding war started and continued until the season kicked off .And Ryan for a while was the shadow of the 2 year player of the season because his head was all over the place .It took a few games for him to settle down and get back to being the player we knew he was .If this is going to kick off again in January with the same results .Our playoff hopes are going to be shot to bits .So maybe its in the best interests of Ryan Leonard and the team if he was sold .

 

[Thundersley Blue]

I disagree with the above thoughts on Ryan Leonard. The whole dynamics of the midfield were changed when we lost Will Atkinson and failed to replace him with a similar type of player. All of a sudden Lenny became the only defensive minded player in the midfield and this was compounded by the injury to Ben Coker. He simply had too much ground to cover in every game for a while. Lenny is one hell of a player but what he was being asked to do wasn't possible.

 

[SeaSideDoughnut]

Ron has some balls! Rejecting £700k for a player with 6 months until he walks for free... I can see this ending in tears for Ron.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

What we should be doing is scouring the leagues below us and identifying the best talent from there - any fees will be nominal.

That's fine but let's not forget that it can be a "hit and miss" strategy (a la Flood) ........... and let's remember that players who have been in the higher leagues also bring quite a lot to the team - MAF for instance has been fabulous in certain matches.

Another concern is we don't look at what we had already. Harry Kyprianou did really well as a makeshift centre half earlier this season after he'd taken a couple of games to settle in. But he only got the chance due to injuries - he was about 5th choice. What ever our current management team's strengths I think they could look more carefully at the younger players and see if there's any potential there. I think Yearwood has potential for instance in the right team set up. Also Jack Bridge - can't get anywhere near our first team, but can get a trial at Northampton - either us or them are misjudging things on a fairly major scale.

Overall I agree but I do think it is more difficult to bring through players than it used to be due to how competitive each and every league game is. That is the value of the L.D.V. competition to me. It allows "fringe" players to show what they can do.

 

[TTS]

Ron has some balls! Rejecting £700k for a player with 6 months until he walks for free... I can see this ending in tears for Ron.

Why ? He knows what hes rejecting !!!

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

It’s interesting that we all see it as a gamble re selling Lenny, but few seewho we might buy with that money ( fees or salary) to be a gamble. Who is to say that if we sold him to fund a push next year that we would be as high as we are now. We could be in a far worse position,

another point is is that if he stays, and we are going n with a shot of the playoffs, then crowds will go up ( with out this would they fall?) plus if we got to the playoffs it’s a guaranteed 10,000 plus crowd. This won’t make up for the fee we will have lost out in, but I would expect Ron to be fracturing it in.

to me football is all about hopes and. Dreams, one year the dream is promotion, another year it could be avoiding relegation. I want to carry on dreaming for as long as possible this season and so choose to keep him ( unless Dec is a nightmare)

I'm sure Ron is already fracturing our dreams as we speak....

Of course there's risk with new signings. A transfer fee of £700,000 allows us to mitigate this risk by re-investing on more than one player, giving us a better chance of strengthening the squad than if we allow Lenny to leave for free in the summer.

Indeed. Aren't we losing £1M+ a year? That'll plug a hole and keep us afloat for a few more years.

^months

 

[Barry.C]

This is how Peterborough go about signings

Da Siva Lopez age 19 signed local equiv of Sunday league Powerleague colts
Calum Chettle age 21 " Nuneaton
Junior Morias age 22 " St Albans
Idris Kanu age 18 " Aldershot
Gwion Edwards age 24 " Crawley
Jack Baldwin age 24 " Hartlepool
Danny Lloyd age 26 " Stockport
Chris Forrester age 25 " St Patricks Ath IRELAND
Ryan Taffazolli age 25 " Mansfield
Hughes age 25 " Newport
Alex Penny age 20 Free
Andreas Borg age 18 " MALTA/DUBAI
Jack Marriot age 23 " Luton Town
Ricky Millar age 28 " Dover
Maddison age 24 " Gateshead Known as the "assist king " plus 25 goals in 100 appearances

Anybody care to comment about ages and lower leagues ??

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

This is how Peterborough go about signings

Da Siva Lopez age 19 signed local equiv of Sunday league Powerleague colts
Calum Chettle age 21 " Nuneaton
Junior Morias age 22 " St Albans
Idris Kanu age 18 " Aldershot
Gwion Edwards age 24 " Crawley
Jack Baldwin age 24 " Hartlepool
Danny Lloyd age 26 " Stockport
Chris Forrester age 25 " St Patricks Ath IRELAND
Ryan Taffazolli age 25 " Mansfield
Hughes age 25 " Newport
Alex Penny age 20 Free
Andreas Borg age 18 " MALTA/DUBAI
Jack Marriot age 23 " Luton Town
Ricky Millar age 28 " Dover
Maddison age 24 " Gateshead Known as the "assist king " plus 25 goals in 100 appearances

Anybody care to comment about ages and lower leagues ??

I bet their wage bill is not that big as well looking at where those players have come from.

 

[Barry.C]

I should add that the 15 Peterborough players mentioned are all relatively recent signings. However because it is and was in that clubs business approach to start to take the risks with players lower down the leagues they have made millions (£28m from 8 sales, not all lower league though in that figure ) But huge sums to enable them to buy. Yes there are plenty of players lower down for free but sometimes you have to lay out a bit for the best, I note 9 out 10 of Peterboroughs current squad were purchased as undisclosed fees. Their largest fee paid and declared was the £500k for current captain Baldwin. They had to start the plan somewhere . So hopefully Ron might shell out a little to get a good one ior two to replace Lenny?

 

[mattitouk]

Some great and promising names in that line up. I'm not familiar with all of those names, but I've read or being told about that Kanu, Forrester, Baldwin, Marriot, Millar & Maddison all show a possible lot of promise and a decent return on sell on fees.

 

[flangejackrabbit]

I should add that the 15 Peterborough players mentioned are all relatively recent signings. However because it is and was in that clubs business approach to start to take the risks with players lower down the leagues they have made millions (£28m from 8 sales, not all lower league though in that figure ) But huge sums to enable them to buy. Yes there are plenty of players lower down for free but sometimes you have to lay out a bit for the best, I note 9 out 10 of Peterboroughs current squad were purchased as undisclosed fees. Their largest fee paid and declared was the £500k for current captain Baldwin. They had to start the plan somewhere . So hopefully Ron might shell out a little to get a good one ior two to replace Lenny?

They still make a loss year to year at the moment as they recruit a lot of blanks as well with zero resale value. Fees and wages aren't negligible if you want to have your pick of the non leagues.

 

[londonblue]

Ron has some balls! Rejecting £700k for a player with 6 months until he walks for free... I can see this ending in tears for Ron.

I doubt it. He's very aware that Lenny will leave for nothing at the end of the season. He's obviously prepared for that should it happen.

 

[KiwiRob]

I think the Chairman has calculated that interest in Ryan Leonard is not confined to Sheffield United. If that is case - and the Chairman may, of course, have misjudged the situation - Sheffield will either increase their bid or another club or two will join the race for his signature. Personally, I will be surprised if Leonard is still with Southend at the end of the window in late January.

 

[rlb999]

Peterborough are the obvious example these days whereas 20 years ago it would have been Crewe. They've got someone who has developed really good contacts at grass roots level throughout his career as did Crewe. Equally if you're a player who's playing at a low level and wanting to make it in the game -and you hear Peterborough and Southend are watching you - surely you'll fancy Peterborough more as they have a track record of giving kids a chance?

That said, I don't know much about Peterborough's youth setup whereas we have obviously put a lot of faith in ours in recent years. Maybe they scrape the local leagues instead of training their own. We always seem to have a few kids with potential but very few make that final step - not sure if that's based on talent or a reluctance at first team management level to blood them.

 

[Jai]

There's a lot to admire about Peterborough's policy. It's not necessarily that they always get the diamonds - although they do get more than their fair share - it's that they actually have a transfer policy which is more than most clubs at this level. They are only one point above us in the league (although clearly man-for-man a better side than us as last night proved) so it's not like they rip up the league every year. But they identify the type of player they need well in advance and they accept they are going to lose good players. They transfer list all players in the last year of their contracts, including the likes of Maddison.

This means they have an idea who is going out and they have one eye on who will come in to replace them. Not always successful and their fans are just as fickle and demanding as us (I've seen many a comment on Twitter asking why they don't sign more experienced players who know the leagues, or moaning about selling another striker), but they are unlikely to drop like a stone on the loss of one key player. They'll be roughly in and around the play-off picture again next year regardless of who they sign or lose. They're not going to sink without trace like Orient any time soon.

Do i think we should sell Lenny? Yes. Am I confident we are going to find the right replacement for him? Absolutely not.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

I doubt it. He's very aware that Lenny will leave for nothing at the end of the season. He's obviously prepared for that should it happen.

Making sure Phil doesn't have the "Oh you sold my best player" excuse when we don't reach the play offs

 

[Norwichshrimper]

I should add that the 15 Peterborough players mentioned are all relatively recent signings. However because it is and was in that clubs business approach to start to take the risks with players lower down the leagues they have made millions (£28m from 8 sales, not all lower league though in that figure ) But huge sums to enable them to buy. Yes there are plenty of players lower down for free but sometimes you have to lay out a bit for the best, I note 9 out 10 of Peterboroughs current squad were purchased as undisclosed fees. Their largest fee paid and declared was the £500k for current captain Baldwin. They had to start the plan somewhere . So hopefully Ron might shell out a little to get a good one ior two to replace Lenny?

Despite their business approach being different, they are in an almost identical league position to us. So maybe that isn't the way to go.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Despite their business approach being different, they are in an almost identical league position to us. So maybe that isn't the way to go.

Eh?

If the two approaches result in an almost identical league position in the short term, surely the better approach is the one that has a net transfer income rather than Brown's net transfer spend? This puts them in a far better position to invest for the future.

 

[kaymac]

Precis of both clubs filed accounts (in 2016) below. Doesn't seem to suggest P'boro are flush with cash, so where did all this 'nett income' they made go ?

Southend:
Cash £137.8k
Nett Worth -£15.8m
Total current assets £1m
Total current liabilities £18.2m

P'boro:
Cash £13.9k
Nett Worth -£7.8m
Total current assets £646.9k
Total current liabilities £8.7m

 

[Barry.C]

Interesting question Kaymac, I think I would still prefer their financial position over ours. I think they have also reduced their liabilities from, £13.3m in 2011 to £8.7m, whereas our liabilities are £18.2m. I suppose if they have paid undisclosed fees for 10 players in recent times and £500k for their Captain then a tranche has also presumably gone on signing their next batch to possibly sell on. Their assets also stood at £3.2m in 2014