Stickied League 2 Transfer Rumours/Confirmed Transfers 2024/25

[Laker]

Because we're fucking clever.

 

[SVH]

Where do your revenue streams come from then? If you have such a stellar business model which allows you to punch way higher than your attendances suggest you should be, without dipping into the FA cup fund, why is Cambridge United the only club to do this?

Lucrative sponsors right from our youth team to the first team, our youth development scheme which recently passed the EPPP audit which is a million pound business within a business itself, gates increasing from an average of 2,500 to 5100, our community programme now sees us coach in more than 60 primary schools with 90 clubs every week.

All of the above plus cutting the majority of our squad from last season has allowed us to target players we have never been able to target before. If you care to read all interviews with the players that have joined, they all state they are sold by Money and Jez on the players we are targeting along with the project that is going on off the pitch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-32780798

Yes Manchester United has helped bring on more revenue quicker in terms of sponsors, because we got to talk to people in and around Cambridge who are very wealthy to sponsor us for the FA Cup game. The good news for the club, they decided to stay on and sponsor us for this season, hence the bigger budget

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Womble98]

I don't buy it I'm afraid.

Lucrative sponsors right from our youth team to the first team, our youth development scheme which recently passed the EPPP audit which is a million pound business within a business itself, gates increasing from an average of 2,500 to 5100, our community programme now sees us coach in more than 60 primary schools with 90 clubs every week.

recently passed the EPPP audit

So has ours and many other clubs.

gates increasing from an average of 2,500 to 5100

We aren't that far from 5000. Quite a few clubs are around that, yet you are seemingly outspending most of the league, at the same levels as Pompey who have 15,000 gates.

Our community programme now sees us coach in more than 60 primary schools with 90 clubs every week

That doesn't bring you money, surely it does the opposite, unless you are banking on it producing wonderkids for the future.

Essentially you are saying the reason you are outspending other ~5000 gate clubs by a fair bit is just because of sponsors?


I am of course no expert on this so I may be talking bollocks but it seems a bit puzzling.

 

[SVH]

All of the above plus cutting down our playing squad has given us a fresh start. From the outside it would be easy to suggest we're paying way above the average wage to League 2 players but the simple thing is we aren't.

The fact the club is run so well from the bottom to the top and we have ambition to get promoted and really push on as a club on and off the pitch is very attractive to the players we have signed. Of course we may have offered a slight better wage than others but nothing crazy that puts the club at risk, or the fact we have to dip into the Manchester United money. We're signing Barry Corr, not Wayne Rooney.

We need to make it clear we're not saying we have the biggest budget in this league, however, we are certainly in the top 5. With that and our off the field plans, along with the respected management team we have have, has proved priceless in getting players in over clubs like yourselves.

Edit - I see our average gate was 1035 more than yours last season. With an average cost of a ticket at £12, that gives us an extra £285,660 over a season. That's enough to pay for Barry Corr plus 2 other players on £2000 a week.

 

[Vanni]

I heard that we also made a little bit of money during the 13/14 season, but the club chose not to spend it all on players. Now I don't know if it's true or not, but the fact that we played at Wembley twice (play-off and FA trophy finals) may have something to do with it, as obviously, playing there twice has financial rewards.

 

[ambernuts]

Last night I was assured none of the FA Cup money has gone into the playing budget which yes, has ever so slightly been increased for reasons aforementioned.

The money has done two things:
- spent on necessary ground improvements i.e. Bar extension, new club shop, tea bars, pitch, loos etc.
- majority of it put aside for the planned redevelopment of the Abbey. Phase 2, which will replace the Habbin Terraces, will be down to the club not our developer owner. The new Habbin will have facilities which will then fund a new main stand (phase 3).

We are in very good hands, which is something Us supporters haven't been able to say in a very, very long time.

 

[ambernuts]

Also, RM has been promoted from this league before y'know...

 

[Lee Watkins]

Chairman and money have both said we haven't spent a penny of FA cup money on transfers. They wouldn't lie. They said that you should start worrying when u have spent 55% of your budget or something and said were no where near that. We have only paid a fee for berry this summer. A big reason why players are attracted to coming to us is because we're aiming for promotion and they have seen the players were targeting such as Getting rid of useless Tom Elliot, and bringing in someone like Barry corr. Exciting times ahead.

 

[RavenBish]

There's a solid 10 teams 'aiming for promotion'

 

[Lee Watkins]

IMHO Portsmouth, Luton, Notts, Oxford, Cambridge, Northampton, Plymouth and wycombe are the teams that will be up there. Don't think rovers or Hartlepool will reach it, but will see soon enough.

 

[daviejones]

Chairman and money have both said we haven't spent a penny of FA cup money on transfers. They wouldn't lie. They said that you should start worrying when u have spent 55% of your budget or something and said were no where near that. We have only paid a fee for berry this summer. A big reason why players are attracted to coming to us is because we're aiming for promotion and they have seen the players were targeting such as Getting rid of useless Tom Elliot, and bringing in someone like Barry corr. Exciting times ahead.

I don't buy that a player would join a team on a lower wage than he could find elsewhere just because they were aiming for promotion either. What does a player like Corr really have to gain from dropping down a league again if he wasn't being offered a big wage, he can't care that much about being promoted to a higher level seeing as he's just done it with Southend and didn't hesitate to fuck them off.

Chairmen can - and do - lie by the way, easy to say that someone wouldn't lie but if telling the truth would make fans feel uneasy about the money being spent then it's much more convenient for them to say that you're below budget etc.

 

[SVH]

Of course most managers will say they're aiming for promotion because they need to sell season tickets. But we know the clubs doing the right business over the summer are the clubs who are most likely. We never said Barry Corr has dropped in wages to come to us, we have said he may be earning £200-£300 extra a week but do you know the reasons why Barry Corr left Southend? Read his interview with the Southend rag and he states after five years with them he felt they didn't do enough to keep hold of him. So much so the chairman of Southend didn't even know he had signed for us until we announced it. You would think your top scorer would be a priority to tie down on a new deal.

Interesting that Richard Money met Barry Corr the day after the play-off final to discuss the opportunity to come to us.

I guess we can all debate until we're blue in the face but let's see what happens when the season kicks off.

 

[Alan Partridge]

They wouldn't lie.

Aye, they'd never lie...

 

[Judge Dredd]

Does seem to be some rumour that the deal for him to join Luton permanently has been done and Luton are holding back an announcement for commercial purposes. Don't know how much truth there is in that.

I don't think there's any truth in that. The three proven ITK posters on Outlaws all basically rubbished it. A ways to go yet before striking a deal.

Interestingly, the ITK poster with the best track record stated flat-out that CMS wasn't interested in Southend.

 

[The Hand of Dom]

CMS is holding out for a higher league, but if he has to take Luton, he will. That's it.

 

[4froale]

A fit CMS would tear up league two.

 

[GEORGE]

A fit CMS would tear up league two.

A fit CMS would not even contemplate playing in Div 4

 

[BelizeHatter]

Well he's clearly physically fit. The rest we'll see.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I was concerned he was a crock before I saw him at Hitchin however he looked fit, quicker and better technically than I expected and very lively.

I've barely seen him play before really so I was quite surprised how aggressive he was in constantly challenging the centre halves and just being a pain in the arse. He played 90 mins and he certainly didn't looked gassed at the end. So fitness, on face value in any case, isn't a concern.

My concern would be that he doesn't fit our style of play and the rest of our players can't read some of his clever movement, which happened quite often.

Was an early pre season game though so difficult to draw any conclusion from in terms of how we would play should he sign.

 

[Murphy]

Strongest League Two we've had for a while on paper. You could fairly confidently predict the 3 promoted sides last season, impossible to do that this time around without having some doubts given the strength of some of the recruitment that has gone on.

 

[Youpies]

As more and more foreigners come in at all levels, decent players are dropping down the leagues. This looks like there are going to be 6 strong teams on paper. They just need to produce consistently which is always the issue in this league

 

[womble76]

Impossible to say. Like wwfc last season some will be better than expected and some much worse. Hopefully we are in tbe former.

 

[AmberRich]

The journalist Pete O'rourke who was the first person to link us with Newton and Hughes is now linking us with Shane Ferguson.

 

[ChrisCufc18]

Would be the best signing of the summer if true .Cant see him going from the premier league down to league 2 to be honest.

 

[Flaxman's Alibi]

The name 'Shane Ferguson' sounds a bit boy band, don't you think?

 

[Judge Dredd]

Would be the best signing of the summer if true .Cant see him going from the premier league down to league 2 to be honest.

He hasn't kicked a ball in the Premier League since 2012. He failed to establish himself in a terrible Birmingham team in 13/14, and played almost no competitive football full-stop in 14/15. In terms of career trajectory, it's not all that different to the Newton transfer.

 

[wilsontown]

We've got Shaun Miller on trial. Former Sheff Utd, Crewe and Coventry striker, his record in the last few years looks terrible.

Miller was with York on loan towards the end of last season. He looked a clever and tidy player and had a goal wrongly disallowed at Shrewsbury, I'd have been happy if we'd been able to sign him.

 

[Judge Dredd]

We've released our squad numbers today. No number allocated to Jake Howells, and his old number given to one of our new signings. Assume he is definitely off then.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

We've got Shaun Miller on trial. Former Sheff Utd, Crewe and Coventry striker, his record in the last few years looks terrible.

He's finished. Had a great season in 2010-11 when him and Clayton Donaldson had a 47 goal partnership with Miller bagging 19. Started the first month of the following season well with 6 goals but then failed to get the move he thought he would and badly lost confidence since. Think he's only scored 8 league goals in 4 years which is a similar strike rate to Ajay Leitch-Smith.

Yes he works hard, yes he's technically good but physically and mentally I think he's finished at Football League level and would be better off dropping down to Chester or Macclesfield. He's 28 now I believe and if he was any good he would've made the grade by now but his career is seemingly in decline. A shame because he's a top bloke but he's just not good enough I'm afraid.

 

[4froale]

Jimmy Keohane any good Exeter fans? Apparantly on trial with us.