The Robins Nest Forum

Robin wrote:Some of the criticism at the moment is way over the top.

I've never agreed with you more. Lost 1-0 and missed a penalty with a group that are still obviously gelling together and you'd think this was the Morecambe forum.

So the main concerns are: wrong system, not enough players, and players we do have not being ready.

On face value nothing to get too het up about after one game.

But the bigger picture is that it has been the same situation for 93 games.

Some lost patience during 206/17 season or at the end of it. Others during 2017/18. Some like me kept faith to this summer. If we go much beyond the 100 game mark with no improvement and no lessons learned I do not expect many to stay patient.

I am a little bit older than a lot of you on here and still keep a check on Non League (old habits), also read the Non League Paper from cover to cover every week. I also live up north and still get to as many of our games as I can, home and away (was there Saturday). If Chelt are too far away now I might watch some other match.
How many of you have seen Danny Rowe play,and how many of you know much about him? Well I have seen him a few times, and if there is a better striker in non league then I would want to see him. He will score goals for us no doubt. The problem is Fylde are not short of money and have no need to sell, plus he is on good money.
Don't know if there is a clip on the internet of his winning goal on Saturday and I wouldn't have a clue how to find it but, I am told it was a cracker.

Shade wrote:

Robin wrote:Some of the criticism at the moment is way over the top.

I've never agreed with you more. Lost 1-0 and missed a penalty with a group that are still obviously gelling together and you'd think this was the Morecambe forum.

Yep, we were disjointed on Saturday,but goals change matches and scoring the penalty would likely have given us momentum and possibly a winner.
I have been out in the sun today though.

Well, people seem to forget Duku had a decent chance in the first half that was saved and his lob over the keeper that dropped wide in the second as well. I think if we had have equalised we could have gone on to win. I think a bit of confidence of getting that first goal would have done wonders. Especially for Duku's confidence.

little mo wrote:I am a little bit older than a lot of you on here and still keep a check on Non League (old habits), also read the Non League Paper from cover to cover every week. I also live up north and still get to as many of our games as I can, home and away (was there Saturday). If Chelt are too far away now I might watch some other match.
How many of you have seen Danny Rowe play,and how many of you know much about him? Well I have seen him a few times, and if there is a better striker in non league then I would want to see him. He will score goals for us no doubt. The problem is Fylde are not short of money and have no need to sell, plus he is on good money.
Don't know if there is a clip on the internet of his winning goal on Saturday and I wouldn't have a clue how to find it but, I am told it was a cracker.

Saw a tweet from Pete O'Rourke on Twitter (Sky Sports journo, usually not far off the mark) saying we've increased our offer to £175k and are prepared to increase further - apparently he's expressed an interest to join us as well.

Regarding the goal mo, I saw it on Twitter earlier and here it is:

https://twitter.com/TheNationalLge/stat ... 6527503360

If anyone's interested - the National League highlights are on FreeSports tonight at 8pm. It's available on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media.

Thanks Si, I mentioned earlier that I would imagine we must have some level of positive response from the agent that the player is keen to move. I do feel at £175k we must be towards the absolute ceiling though for a 28 year old non-league player.

I assume these data are wrong?!?! http://www.soccerbase.com/players/playe ... r_id=58100" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the new bid has also been rejected...

The Flyde chairman is driving a bloody hard bargain in fairness, that's a huge sum at that level.

£175,000 is a lot of money for a 28 year old striker with no FL experience. Surely we would be better looking elsewhere.

Si Robin wrote:

little mo wrote:I am a little bit older than a lot of you on here and still keep a check on Non League (old habits), also read the Non League Paper from cover to cover every week. I also live up north and still get to as many of our games as I can, home and away (was there Saturday). If Chelt are too far away now I might watch some other match.
How many of you have seen Danny Rowe play,and how many of you know much about him? Well I have seen him a few times, and if there is a better striker in non league then I would want to see him. He will score goals for us no doubt. The problem is Fylde are not short of money and have no need to sell, plus he is on good money.
Don't know if there is a clip on the internet of his winning goal on Saturday and I wouldn't have a clue how to find it but, I am told it was a cracker.

Saw a tweet from Pete O'Rourke on Twitter (Sky Sports journo, usually not far off the mark) saying we've increased our offer to £175k and are prepared to increase further - apparently he's expressed an interest to join us as well.

Regarding the goal mo, I saw it on Twitter earlier and here it is:

https://twitter.com/TheNationalLge/stat ... 6527503360

If anyone's interested - the National League highlights are on FreeSports tonight at 8pm. It's available on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media.

Thanks Si, that is the Danny Rowe I was talking about earlier.

Robin wrote:The Flyde chairman is driving a bloody hard bargain in fairness, that's a huge sum at that level.

As I said earlier Robin, they do not need the money. I would imagine the only way this will go through is if the player pushes for the move.

I think that push from the player will be soon with the transfer window about to close. If he puts in a transfer request this should go through I suspect. Anyone see his goal at the weekend? Noticeably he doesn't celebrate it.

Let's not forget that it's only a "soft" close on the transfer window.

EFL clubs can still make loan deals, and these can be made with permanency clauses in, up until August 31st. So, other than our desperation for a striker, there is no need to panic into paying over the odds here.

Problem is Si even if soft clubs will be less willing to sell after Thursday but agree with the general principle we should not pay over the odds and I fear we are on the verge of that now. Also £175k must be on a par with the annual wage budget of some clubs at that level, pretty sure Macclesfield ran on a £200k wage budget the year we were there.

Ihearye wrote: ... If that is what our budget is then so be it. If it is the case then blame either lands on Board who don't put up the money, or manager, who need sto raid the coffers every summer. Sgain I go back to your othe rpost, how has Harry K builkt a team in a year that makes us look non leagure and on reportedly less money. Tired of the retorts on here ' what would you do'. I am not paid a good wage to be a football manager, We have one person at CTFC who buys players, picks players on a Saturday, trains players etc etc and it sure isn't me

The bookies don’t agree with that assessment of Crawley - and they are not usually wrong. Most bookies currently place Crawley and Cheltenham to finish in the bottom 10 places of League 2 with Cheltenham 5th from bottom, therefore still worthy of a League 2 place and that would mean Harry K has not “built a team in a year that makes us look non league”. I think that’s an over-reaction after one game, and the transfer window remains open, so anything could still happen that could make the bookies upwardly revise Cheltenham’s chances.

Another National League target. Defender Manny Smith from Wrexham: https://twitter.com/SportsPeteO/status/ ... 5705220100" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting that we are in for another centre half, didn't this lad play against in the conference winning season?

Goodbye Forster

Wrexham play Fylde tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see if either of them are playing. If not then I would say that particular transfer is on.

Nesty wrote:Goodbye Forster

It will be a shame if that’s the case, as he didn’t get the chance to show what he could do before injury struck. Players don’t seem to fully achieve previous form after an achilles injury - it was the same with Asa Hall. Jordan Forster has worked so hard keeping in shape in the gym whilst recovering.

I was told by another poster on here that Forster could be on his way out and Horteng keeps hinting at it too. I suspect it will be a mix of the injury and a bust up with GJ however I did like him and would have kept him myself (assuming he does move and this new lad comes in as cover).

175K is more than enough for a 28 year old who has not so far made it to league level.
If he was near the beginning of his career he could still improve and make the grade. At 28
he wont be improving any more.
I'm reminded of Dan Holman who scored for fun in the conference but struggled in the league.
I imagine there will be a signing on fee as well.

Signing on fee and likely big wages (I would imagine he will become our highest paid player).

drgm wrote:175K is more than enough for a 28 year old who has not so far made it to league level.
If he was near the beginning of his career he could still improve and make the grade. At 28
he wont be improving any more.
I'm reminded of Dan Holman who scored for fun in the conference but struggled in the league.
I imagine there will be a signing on fee as well.

The Dan Holman that rinsed the Conference never had a chance in the League. The post-injury Holman was, and still is, a completely different player.

But yes I agree with the point that we don’t want to pay over the odds for a player of that age with no League experience.

Having sold a player we didn’t need or want to for reportedly less than we valued him for, to then buy a player for more than we would like makes for a poor window.

If the reports are true that our latest offer for Rowe is seven times greater than our original one, then this saga is embarrassing and our interest should've ceased long ago. Either our original bid was ludicrously low or AFCF are asking way over the odds.

Either way, we are starting to look a bit desperate and we should've refocussed our search elsewhere. Clearly AFCF neither want to sell nor need the money, so it's surprising we've got drawn into a spiralling valuation for this relatively untested 28 year old.

Lord Elpuz wrote:

Nesty wrote:Goodbye Forster

It will be a shame if that’s the case, as he didn’t get the chance to show what he could do before injury struck. Players don’t seem to fully achieve previous form after an achilles injury - it was the same with Asa Hall. Jordan Forster has worked so hard keeping in shape in the gym whilst recovering.

Quite so. I think most supporters would agree that in relatively few games Forster played before his injury, he was arguably our best-performing defender. Having worked hard to get back to full fitness, he undoubtedly deserves the chance to re-establish himself in the team. While it's true that some players don't fully regain their best form after long-term injuries, that's not always the case. Besides, after such a long lay-off, any player would need a few competitive games to achieve full sharpness before it is possible to assess their value to the squad.

vickeryc wrote:If the reports are true that our latest offer for Rowe is seven times greater than our original one, then this saga is embarrassing and our interest should've ceased long ago. Either our original bid was ludicrously low or AFCF are asking way over the odds.

Either way, we are starting to look a bit desperate and we should've refocussed our search elsewhere. Clearly AFCF neither want to sell nor need the money, so it's surprising we've got drawn into a spiralling valuation for this relatively untested 28 year old.

I think we can safely say that our initial offer (reportedly £25k) was way below what a 24 goal (no penalties) striker from only one division below ours, with at least two years left on his contract, is likely to be worth, bearing in mind we've just sold a player with one less league goal in a deal rumoured to be in the region of £1.5m.

Si Robin wrote:

vickeryc wrote:If the reports are true that our latest offer for Rowe is seven times greater than our original one, then this saga is embarrassing and our interest should've ceased long ago. Either our original bid was ludicrously low or AFCF are asking way over the odds.

Either way, we are starting to look a bit desperate and we should've refocussed our search elsewhere. Clearly AFCF neither want to sell nor need the money, so it's surprising we've got drawn into a spiralling valuation for this relatively untested 28 year old.

I think we can safely say that our initial offer (reportedly £25k) was way below what a 24 goal (no penalties) striker from only one division below ours, with at least two years left on his contract, is likely to be worth, bearing in mind we've just sold a player with one less league goal in a deal rumoured to be in the region of £1.5m.

Agreed! The question now - if the club is serious - is how much more it is prepared to pay for a player who, at 28, has never played a league game. As others have said, this is similar to players like Wright and Holman. Of course, with Eisa (much younger) there was everything to gain because he cost us nothing.

Let’s not be held to ransom or play games with these grubby nouveau-riche Fleetwood-wannabes.

There will be better value players out there. Walk away and let Rowe force a move if he wants to join us. If he doesn’t, then it shows we shouldn’t fork out for a non-committed player anyway.

I suspect it could be the wage demand that may cause the problem for us. 175k for a decent striker is not a lot.

Not sure I agree Alf, we would have been talking with the agent so will likely know his wage demands and he will know roughly what we are prepared to offer. Don't get me wrong he's likely coming in as our top earner but I'd be amazed if he's getting anymore than £2k per week as we have an overall wage structure and he cannot be allowed to earn way more than everyone else.

£175k is huge money in league two this would likely be the highest fee paid by any league two side this summer.

panic buy - time is running out, I hope GJ has a plan B / C / D oh wait we are already on Plan E

Fylde just out for what they can get. I have a suspicion that if we tell them we're not bidding any more then something might happen, maybe instigated by the player. I mean, at 28, if he really does want to play in the League, then now is the time to do it. He doesn't want to waste another season in the NL hoping to get promoted, does he? He'll end up like Kyle Storer and Danny Wright, just scraping in at the back end of his career.