Who will be in the top 7

[denzel ecfc]

Still not getting the 'we rather finish 4th than 8th' argument that Devon lad and a few other Exeter fans say. And I should know a thing or two since we finished runners up in the NL on two occasions back in 2008 and 2009, and were beaten twice at Wembley before we did it again in 2014 (2nd place that is) but we finally won the final at the 3rd attempt and the rest is history as they say.

Granted, the two Wembley defeats hurt like hell esp. the 2009 one as I was convinced we were going to beat Torquay. But and this is a big but, if I were to look at some book on the history of CUFC then I much rather see
''2007/08 season - 2nd'' and ''2008/09 season - 2nd'' than something ''07/08 - 6th'' and ''08/09 - 8th''.

So what if Exeter will play in the play offs once again for what will be the 167th time? Nobody knows what the future holds and one day it'll be their day. It's like the lottery really; you have to buy a ticket first if you want to stand a chance of winning.

I've said it before but let me explain a bit more.
The problem with being losing finalists is that it extends the season and delays the retained list. If you know you'll be in league two, you can immediately start player recruitment, and negotiate contracts for those who you want to keep.
You can also start work straight away on your pitch, which has also affected us this season in particular. And last season there was no financial advantage in getting to the playoffs, the same will apply this season.
If we do make the playoffs that will be preferable to not, but not winning them doesnt bear thinking about. It will certainly be a massive test for the players, as almost all of them were involved last season.
Noticeable that after your two defeats, it took you five seasons to get back up there, don't you think.

 

[Sydney Posse]

I just decided to follow up on all the talk about form and see what it actually was. Morecambe are the surprising one. They just keep plodding along.

As long as they take our place, I’d love it if they went up

 

[Sydney Posse]

As long as they take our place, I’d love it if they went up

Obviously meant “don’t”

 

[masi51]

I've said it before but let me explain a bit more.
The problem with being losing finalists is that it extends the season and delays the retained list. If you know you'll be in league two, you can immediately start player recruitment, and negotiate contracts for those who you want to keep.
You can also start work straight away on your pitch, which has also affected us this season in particular. And last season there was no financial advantage in getting to the playoffs, the same will apply this season.
If we do make the playoffs that will be preferable to not, but not winning them doesnt bear thinking about. It will certainly be a massive test for the players, as almost all of them were involved last season.
Noticeable that after your two defeats, it took you five seasons to get back up there, don't you think.

Really...The retained list at Bolton and i suspect many clubs is already drawn up. We along with most clubs have players whose contracts end in June. If the club has not opened contract extensions with said players by now i would expect there agents to be finding them another club.
Only yesterday a player moved on loan until the end of the season.[ the player/Evatt/agent know he aint coming back]
We have someone employed at the club now working on summer recruitment, he will have 2 lists one if we stay in lge 2 and 1 if we gain promotion.

 

[FGR Stroud]

I've said it before but let me explain a bit more.
The problem with being losing finalists is that it extends the season and delays the retained list. If you know you'll be in league two, you can immediately start player recruitment, and negotiate contracts for those who you want to keep.
You can also start work straight away on your pitch, which has also affected us this season in particular. And last season there was no financial advantage in getting to the playoffs, the same will apply this season.
If we do make the playoffs that will be preferable to not, but not winning them doesnt bear thinking about. It will certainly be a massive test for the players, as almost all of them were involved last season.
Noticeable that after your two defeats, it took you five seasons to get back up there, don't you think.

There are examples to support that opinion and examples against.
Last season Cheltenham secured a place in play-offs and 10 months later are top of table.
But Exeter [9th] & Colchester [20th] are both out of play-off places.

A few years ago Grimsby were making annual visits to Wembley in Conference play-off finals.
Consistently successful [apart from last game of season] for nearly a decade despite regular set backs.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Really...The retained list at Bolton and i suspect many clubs is already drawn up. We along with most clubs have players whose contracts end in June. If the club has not opened contract extensions with said players by now i would expect there agents to be finding them another club.
Only yesterday a player moved on loan until the end of the season.[ the player/Evatt/agent know he aint coming back]
We have someone employed at the club now working on summer recruitment, he will have 2 lists one if we stay in lge 2 and 1 if we gain promotion.

I guess if you are being paid Championship wages it doesn't matter much if you are in League One or Two

 

[denzel ecfc]

There are examples to support that opinion and examples against.
Last season Cheltenham secured a place in play-offs and 10 months later are top of table.
But Exeter [9th] & Colchester [20th] are both out of play-off places.

A few years ago Grimsby were making annual visits to Wembley in Conference play-off finals.
Consistently successful [apart from last game of season] for nearly a decade despite regular set backs.

Cheltenham lost in the semis so had a couple of extra weeks to prepare.

 

[masi51]

I guess if you are being paid Championship wages it doesn't matter much if you are in League One or Two

Not a clue about wages. The player in question would have been on very little and proberbly dropped down to the national league to try and secure a contract for next season.
Suits both parties.

 

[Boz]

It’s very rare we extend contracts during the season. Currently only have 5 or 6 under contract next season.

 

[Si Robin]

For once, Masi actually makes a good point. Michael Duff said the same thing about the playoffs last season, that our director of football had two lists - one for League 1 and one for League 2.

I think we released all players who were out of contract last season, and we had already extended the ones of those we wanted to keep in either division.

 

[masi51]

It’s very rare we extend contracts during the season. Currently only have 5 or 6 under contract next season.

yes i can see the risk of offering extended contracts when all your squads 30 plus

 

[Boz]

yes i can see the risk of offering extended contracts when all your squads 30 plus

3 of those under contract for next season already are over 30.

 

[masi51]

3 of those under contract for next season already are over 30.

so out of a squad of say 28 you have only 5/6 tied up for next year.......Guessing Vaughan and Spearing are two.
Strange one if they are not being offered contract extensions are they in Hills plans......Is he waiting to see what division you are in before recruiting

 

[shoddycollins]

Please dont hate our club because of Devon Lad.
Though that prediction is quite plausible.

I'll take a minute of reflection for you and the other Exeter fans if that happens. If any group of fans deserve promotion it's probably Exeter

 

[Robshep]

so out of a squad of say 28 you have only 5/6 tied up for next year.......Guessing Vaughan and Spearing are two.
Strange one if they are not being offered contract extensions are they in Hills plans......Is he waiting to see what division you are in before recruiting

A few TRFC facts to show, once again, you know nothing.
22 players on permanent contracts, 6 of them over 30. 5 on loan, 2 over 30
Average age of permanent squad - 26 years 6 months. Ave' age of loanees - 28
Do some research and look at your own club before you make an idiot of yourself.

 

[stevowanderer]

I guess if you are being paid Championship wages it doesn't matter much if you are in League One or Two

How Much Do Championship Football Players Get Paid?

How much do Championship footballers get paid? We investigate the latest Championship salary information, including the highest paid player, average wage and lots more

www.888sport.com

Not sure how accurate this info is but is fairly recent. Salary caps may have dropped the average wages? But I know our highest paid player is on 3k a week base salary (we have pretty heavily incentivised contracts - like we did back in Big Sams day - big win/goal bonuses etc). Hardly championship wages or even league 1 for that matter (average 29k p/w, league 1 average 5k p/w). And with win bonuses I'm sure plenty of our players didn't earn much first half of the season haha.

We may have had frivolous people in charge historically but the new owners want to be sustainable. We nearly paid for that frivolity with our club like Bury and Macclesfield (not that they necessarily spent, I just mean that they went out of business). Thing is we didn't actually spend the money to get to the Prem back then. We spent it trying to stay there and if we hadn't gone down we wouldn't have had the financial issues we had. That's the gamble. Allardyce wasn't actually backed as well as he could have been (mainly frees and the odd marquee signings) but when he went we decided to back worse managers like Sammy Lee and Megson. We made good money on Cahill but we threw millions at the likes of Elmander which we rarely did under Big Sam.

And to be honest because we still have a club and IMO what seems to be the best owners now we've had in my lifetime I (like many Bolton fans) wouldn't change those several years of European football and mixing with the 'big boys'. Were some of the best times you could ask for as a football fan.

 

[White horse]

Bolton paid 4m for Cahill and only sold him for 6m as he only had 6 months of his contract left. False economy as it was the season we went down. We would have probably had stayed up as we had just beaten Liverpool and Everton, with Cahill scoring the winner. Could have made money from Alonso , bought him for 1m and let him go out of contract and he left for nothing. Only Anelka made good money, bought for 8m and sold for 15m.

The real damage at Bolton was obviously the relegation, lumbered ourselves by Coyle with average players like Ngog and Petrov on massive wages. No wonder we nearly went out of business.

 

[masi51]

No use coming out with what we paid etc for who.......you are on the wrong forum for debate here
You will get nothing here from the natives

 

[Robshep]

Bolton paid 4m for Cahill and only sold him for 6m as he only had 6 months of his contract left. False economy as it was the season we went down. We would have probably had stayed up as we had just beaten Liverpool and Everton, with Cahill scoring the winner. Could have made money from Alonso , bought him for 1m and let him go out of contract and he left for nothing. Only Anelka made good money, bought for 8m and sold for 15m.

The real damage at Bolton was obviously the relegation, lumbered ourselves by Coyle with average players like Ngog and Petrov on massive wages. No wonder we nearly went out of business.

Its nice to have Bolton supporters on here who can make reasoned and sensible remarks about their clubs situation. You are both very welcome.

 

[Robshep]

No use coming out with what we paid etc for who.......you are on the wrong forum for debate here
You will get nothing here from the natives

They have simply spotlighted what a complete buffoon you really are. Scuttle off back under your rock. The adults have arrived.

 

[stevowanderer]

Bolton paid 4m for Cahill and only sold him for 6m as he only had 6 months of his contract left. False economy as it was the season we went down. We would have probably had stayed up as we had just beaten Liverpool and Everton, with Cahill scoring the winner. Could have made money from Alonso , bought him for 1m and let him go out of contract and he left for nothing. Only Anelka made good money, bought for 8m and sold for 15m.

The real damage at Bolton was obviously the relegation, lumbered ourselves by Coyle with average players like Ngog and Petrov on massive wages. No wonder we nearly went out of business.

I knew he'd gone 6months before the end of his contract but for some reason I thought we had got more than that for him. Didn't we get an offer of 13-15m the previous summer from City? To be fair to him he won the Champions League and FA Cup within 6 months of leaving us so can't blame him. He was a level above, like Anelka.

I was excited about Petrov at the time. Ended up being a pretty awful signing. Not as bad as Ngog though.

 

[valefan16]

Allegedly our wages were revealed on a sports page and our highest was £2400 per week... frustratingly about the top 6 earners have been crocks!

 

[Devon_Lad]

Great win today for the crowned league 2 winners 20/21 away at Morecambe.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Great win today for the crowned league 2 winners 20/21 away at Morecambe.

Terrific banter.

For a Tory.

 

[The Globule]

Great win today for the crowned league 2 winners 20/21 away at Morecambe.

Tedious

For anyone

 

[Si Robin]

It got tedious a while ago, now it's just desperate.

 

[masi51]

my revised top 7
Cheltenham
FGR
Bolton/Exeter
...................................................
Bolton/Exeter
Cambridge
Tranmere
Morecambe

 

[Huntsman94]

James Vaughan needing surgery is a big blow

 

[LS Bantam]

15 games remaining but only a handful of those vs teams above us, including Newport on Tuesday at Cardiff, hoping the change of venue is a bit of a leveller.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Reckon we're missing the key players we sold a bit more than I thought; probably done enough already and have enough about us to stay in the top seven but automatics will be a real achievement, made hard work of a Grimsby team really struggling this term and we've those other recent losses to teams down the bottom.