The voice of reason

[Ben3]

I’ve held a conference of Ben, Ben 2, Ben 3 and Ben v2:0. And here’s what they say

It’s a fools errand sacking a manager in the lower leagues. The reason people clamour for it is a symptom of too many people watching the premier league where clubs can afford to attract the best in the world. Who can Cheltenham possibly attract who is successful already (because if they were they’d be doing their own job!)? It’s like all this ‘let’s sign an established centre forward who scores 20 goals a year” nonsense that we get each close season. Those players are out of our league

However - I did post in April last year that I thought the club needed to decide on what they want. Sticking with wade was a choice that I supported , but it smacked of “we’ll hang around in league one until we’re relegated at some point”. I think the board need to decide on their ambition. It feels to me top of league 2/ bottom of league one is it - that’s ok, we’re doing so well as a club. But communicate it!

The vitriol aimed at wade and the board is clearly appalling. Our best ever seasons were 21/22 and 22/23. How short are people’s memories? It’s a disgrace and anyone who questions the board and wade makes me really angry to read it. The newly joined people on the Facebook group (almost all of them in the last few months) makes me think gcfc or fgr have infiltrated those forums to deliberately destabilise the club.

Wade going has cemented out relegation. Should he have gone over the summer? - probably. But can we do one of two things:

1) get a saviour to keep us up (surely only cotterill because there ain’t anyone else) or
2) get a manager who can hold for a good league campaign in league two next season

Everyone on Facebook who has sounded off should be reminded of their nonsense come may.

I’ll be there on Saturday. Come on lads!!!

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

I’ve held a conference of Ben, Ben 2, Ben 3 and Ben v2:0. And here’s what they say

It’s a fools errand sacking a manager in the lower leagues. The reason people clamour for it is a symptom of too many people watching the premier league where clubs can afford to attract the best in the world. Who can Cheltenham possibly attract who is successful already (because if they were they’d be doing their own job!)? It’s like all this ‘let’s sign an established centre forward who scores 20 goals a year” nonsense that we get each close season. Those players are out of our league

However - I did post in April last year that I thought the club needed to decide on what they want. Sticking with wade was a choice that I supported , but it smacked of “we’ll hang around in league one until we’re relegated at some point”. I think the board need to decide on their ambition. It feels to me top of league 2/ bottom of league one is it - that’s ok, we’re doing so well as a club. But communicate it!

The vitriol aimed at wade and the board is clearly appalling. Our best ever seasons were 21/22 and 22/23. How short are people’s memories? It’s a disgrace and anyone who questions the board and wade makes me really angry to read it. The newly joined people on the Facebook group (almost all of them in the last few months) makes me think gcfc or fgr have infiltrated those forums to deliberately destabilise the club.

Wade going has cemented out relegation. Should he have gone over the summer? - probably. But can we do one of two things:

1) get a saviour to keep us up (surely only cotterill because there ain’t anyone else) or
2) get a manager who can hold for a good league campaign in league two next season

Everyone on Facebook who has sounded off should be reminded of their nonsense come may.

I’ll be there on Saturday. Come on lads!!!

Disappointing that Ben 4 wasn’t included.

Re “Board need to decide on their ambition”. This relates to my question on “what is the purpose of CTFC” and the need to have a clear ambition to work towards and measure progress against.

[Ben3]

I’ve held a conference of Ben, Ben 2, Ben 3 and Ben v2:0. And here’s what they say

It’s a fools errand sacking a manager in the lower leagues. The reason people clamour for it is a symptom of too many people watching the premier league where clubs can afford to attract the best in the world. Who can Cheltenham possibly attract who is successful already (because if they were they’d be doing their own job!)? It’s like all this ‘let’s sign an established centre forward who scores 20 goals a year” nonsense that we get each close season. Those players are out of our league

However - I did post in April last year that I thought the club needed to decide on what they want. Sticking with wade was a choice that I supported , but it smacked of “we’ll hang around in league one until we’re relegated at some point”. I think the board need to decide on their ambition. It feels to me top of league 2/ bottom of league one is it - that’s ok, we’re doing so well as a club. But communicate it!

The vitriol aimed at wade and the board is clearly appalling. Our best ever seasons were 21/22 and 22/23. How short are people’s memories? It’s a disgrace and anyone who questions the board and wade makes me really angry to read it. The newly joined people on the Facebook group (almost all of them in the last few months) makes me think gcfc or fgr have infiltrated those forums to deliberately destabilise the club.

Wade going has cemented out relegation. Should he have gone over the summer? - probably. But can we do one of two things:

1) get a saviour to keep us up (surely only cotterill because there ain’t anyone else) or
2) get a manager who can hold for a good league campaign in league two next season

Everyone on Facebook who has sounded off should be reminded of their nonsense come may.

I’ll be there on Saturday. Come on lads!!!

Disappointing that Ben 4 wasn’t included.

Re “Board need to decide on their ambition”. This relates to my question on “what is the purpose of CTFC” and the need to have a clear ambition to work towards and measure progress against.

Respect Ben 4:0s decisions ffs regency. He’s his own person and dances to his own tune

Disrespectful to mention him in that way, frankly.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

I’ve held a conference of Ben, Ben 2, Ben 3 and Ben v2:0. And here’s what they say

It’s a fools errand sacking a manager in the lower leagues. The reason people clamour for it is a symptom of too many people watching the premier league where clubs can afford to attract the best in the world. Who can Cheltenham possibly attract who is successful already (because if they were they’d be doing their own job!)? It’s like all this ‘let’s sign an established centre forward who scores 20 goals a year” nonsense that we get each close season. Those players are out of our league

However - I did post in April last year that I thought the club needed to decide on what they want. Sticking with wade was a choice that I supported , but it smacked of “we’ll hang around in league one until we’re relegated at some point”. I think the board need to decide on their ambition. It feels to me top of league 2/ bottom of league one is it - that’s ok, we’re doing so well as a club. But communicate it!

The vitriol aimed at wade and the board is clearly appalling. Our best ever seasons were 21/22 and 22/23. How short are people’s memories? It’s a disgrace and anyone who questions the board and wade makes me really angry to read it. The newly joined people on the Facebook group (almost all of them in the last few months) makes me think gcfc or fgr have infiltrated those forums to deliberately destabilise the club.

Wade going has cemented out relegation. Should he have gone over the summer? - probably. But can we do one of two things:

1) get a saviour to keep us up (surely only cotterill because there ain’t anyone else) or
2) get a manager who can hold for a good league campaign in league two next season

Everyone on Facebook who has sounded off should be reminded of their nonsense come may.

I’ll be there on Saturday. Come on lads!!!

Disappointing that Ben 4 wasn’t included.

Re “Board need to decide on their ambition”. This relates to my question on “what is the purpose of CTFC” and the need to have a clear ambition to work towards and measure progress against.

Respect Ben 4:0s decisions ffs regency. He’s his own person and dances to his own tune

Disrespectful to mention him in that way, frankly.

Apologies to Bens collective.

[asl]

Shandy wants a word with you. Something about copyright...

[Ben3]

Disappointing that Ben 4 wasn’t included.

Re “Board need to decide on their ambition”. This relates to my question on “what is the purpose of CTFC” and the need to have a clear ambition to work towards and measure progress against.

Respect Ben 4:0s decisions ffs regency. He’s his own person and dances to his own tune

Disrespectful to mention him in that way, frankly.

Apologies to Bens collective.

Accepted. I’ve rung Ben 4:0 and he re asserts he’s a real good person but don’t take him for granted as then you may misunderstand him.

(I think he’s been listening to ‘the Shamen’).

[SHANDY VOR]

Shandy wants a word with you. Something about copyright...

Not at all, there's room for more than one voice of reason on this board. It's been a long time coming

[RobinsCTFC]

Reading your post reminded me of Leicester's decision to sack Ranieri only months after he had won them the league. Utterly bonkers.

The problem for Wade was the zero goals wasn't it? If we had scored 8 goals so far this season but still only had 1 point, I think he'd have been given a fair bit more time.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Reading your post reminded me of Leicester's decision to sack Ranieri only months after he had won them the league. Utterly bonkers.

The problem for Wade was the zero goals wasn't it? If we had scored 8 goals so far this season but still only had 1 point, I think he'd have been given a fair bit more time.

That’s what it comes down to. Encapsulated by JP in his interview spat with Wade post-Posh;

“If you analyse each individual game it’s not that bad. But you haven’t scored.”

[Wellwisher]

It’s a fools errand sacking a manager in the lower leagues.

Cannot agree.

For it is well-known fact that there is no problem in football which cannot be solved by sacking the manager.

Which is why Rochdale qualify for the Champions League season-in, season-out.

[Ihearye]

Reading your post reminded me of Leicester's decision to sack Ranieri only months after he had won them the league. Utterly bonkers.

The problem for Wade was the zero goals wasn't it? If we had scored 8 goals so far this season but still only had 1 point, I think he'd have been given a fair bit more time.

That’s what it comes down to. Encapsulated by JP in his interview spat with Wade post-Posh;

“If you analyse each individual game it’s not that bad. But you haven’t scored.”

Correct, we haven't been a mile off. Strange thing is there are people who agreed to selling our main striker for a bargain basement price (I can only presume so that May could get better personal terms from a new employer), thus not giving the manager the where with all to replace those goals. May was hot and cold and maybe Keena is too (hopefully). However lack of goals was / is the problem and the decision makers played a major part in that.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Reading your post reminded me of Leicester's decision to sack Ranieri only months after he had won them the league. Utterly bonkers.

The problem for Wade was the zero goals wasn't it? If we had scored 8 goals so far this season but still only had 1 point, I think he'd have been given a fair bit more time.

That’s what it comes down to. Encapsulated by JP in his interview spat with Wade post-Posh;

“If you analyse each individual game it’s not that bad. But you haven’t scored.”

Correct, we haven't been a mile off. Strange thing is there are people who agreed to selling our main striker for a bargain basement price (I can only presume so that May could get better personal terms from a new employer), thus not giving the manager the where with all to replace those goals. May was hot and cold and maybe Keena is too (hopefully). However lack of goals was / is the problem and the decision makers played a major part in that.

On the podcast this week MH says the Board making a gentleman’s agreement to sell May so cheap was one of the worst things the Board has ever done. I would say it was compounded by waiting so long in to the window.

Some people may not like others going on about it, but as you say it played a major part in causing the current situation so it is hard not to talk about.

[Ihearye]

If that decision was made in the January,I would love to know what the board had seen up to then last season, that backing May to the tune of circa 600k to score enough goals to be the reason we stayed up? And the same folk pride themselves on their fiscal prudence

[Si Robin]

I originally defended the decision to sell him at cut price, I was very much like Shade's previously posted opinions on here. If we didn't agree, would an unhappy Alfie have led to relegation last season. Does an unhappy Alfie lead to dressing room issues (I'm a huge believer that we only really have success when we have a happy dressing room made up of the right stock). What if Alfie broke his leg in pre-season having not sold him and we end up with nothing at all. Also, he was 30 years old and I genuinely believed we'd be lucky to get a decent amount for a 30 year old.

However, whenever you look back at it, we held all of the cards really. He had a year left on his deal and an extension clause that was our decision, not his. Whilst I don't think we should be holding Alfie back, we shouldn't have given a figure to him that we'd accept. We should have said something along the lines of if a club matches a valuation we believe to be acceptable we won't stand in his way. That we let him walk for what would effectively been less than half what Posh would have got for Jonson Clarke-Harris (also 30 years old btw) is criminal in a way.

JP will say that only Gillingham and Bristol Rovers put in serious bids, but rumours have been doing the rounds that he spent time at Derby, however they were unaware of an EFL rule that stopped them paying a fee. Were other clubs aware of his desire to move closer to home? Why come in and create a bidding war when he's already hinted that Charlton is the most desirable place for him?

I also agree with RCS - it rumbling on until the beginning of pre-season also didn't help things. It actually got to a point where we were questioning if he'd play in the first pre-season friendly!!

I'm not fully on board with the huge criticism the board are getting at the moment, but that doesn't mean they should escape criticism completely, and the Alfie decision really sticks out like a sore thumb.

[Ihearye]

I Would argue that up to January May had done little to get the title of being our messiah for last season. His form would certainly not in my eyes have given him too many bargaining chips at that time

[Si Robin]

I agree to an extent, but we had also seen what he'd done in the second half of the previous season. He scored 4 goals in January alone as well - with Gillingham only poking their nose around towards the end of the window.

[Robin]

Also Alfie was injured for some time in the first half of the season and had no partner until Keena came in.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

Another potential motivation for Alfie’s post-New Year form: after we made the silly agreement with him in January maybe his agent contacted Charlton to tell them the price who may have replied saying “score 15 goals before the end of the season and we will meet that price.”

That would put Alfie’s quote in a different light: “I want the best for my family which means I have to keep scoring goals”.

[Ben3]

It’s a feature of fans-forums like this that people are delusional.

“We want a proven 20 goal a season striker”
“Our striker is worth a million pounds at least”
“The board are not interested”

It’s all utter nonsense, of course, but forums like Facebook become echo chambers where these ridiculous views are affirmed and reinforced.

Does anyone seriously think, when they sit in their chair at home and engage their brain, that the board knowingly under-priced and sold May? Really? The market for clubs like us is that the players and bigger clubs hold all the power. If Charlton want to spend £200k and nobody else is willing to chance their arm on a 30 year old with injury issues…then how can we ‘demand’ more?

It’s why I dip in and out of this board. It’s better than the Facebook stuff but even so, people tend to live in cloud cuckoo land. Especially so when the club has had our best ever two seasons (literally BEST EVER!) yet people expect us to somehow magically become a different club.

There is always hope and things can improve. We could make the premier league for a season, I honestly believe that, but there’s no way we could maintain that! And if we got relegated then presumably everyone would complain that the board we ‘not interested’

[Ihearye]

Also Alfie was injured for some time in the first half of the season and had no partner until Keena came in.

We are told Keena was brought in as Kay's replacement. Therefore if nobody was leaving, we would have had no Keena and May would have had to continue as before. On the he scored well in the second half of previous season debate. It is not something I would put my mortgage on.
Am aware there are two camps on this. I just feel what turned out to be a 600k gamble was short sighted at the time and we are paying the price of it now

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

It’s a feature of fans-forums like this that people are delusional.

“We want a proven 20 goal a season striker”
“Our striker is worth a million pounds at least”
“The board are not interested”

It’s all utter nonsense, of course, but forums like Facebook become echo chambers where these ridiculous views are affirmed and reinforced.

Does anyone seriously think, when they sit in their chair at home and engage their brain, that the board knowingly under-priced and sold May? Really? The market for clubs like us is that the players and bigger clubs hold all the power. If Charlton want to spend £200k and nobody else is willing to chance their arm on a 30 year old with injury issues…then how can we ‘demand’ more?

It’s why I dip in and out of this board. It’s better than the Facebook stuff but even so, people tend to live in cloud cuckoo land. Especially so when the club has had our best ever two seasons (literally BEST EVER!) yet people expect us to somehow magically become a different club.

There is always hope and things can improve. We could make the premier league for a season, I honestly believe that, but there’s no way we could maintain that! And if we got relegated then presumably everyone would complain that the board we ‘not interested’

But by telling May he could go for £200k and May saying he only wanted to go to Charlton meant there was no point anyone being interested.

It’s not like Clark-Harris, where people were offering £800k for someone in the same point of his career to prise him away from a club who wanted to keep him.

If it was an open market we would have had more bids. But when there is a fixed price and only one customer it is different.

[Si Robin]

Exactly that - by telling him he could go for a set amount, it's effectively putting him in the shop window at a sale price. It just takes Alfie's agent to say to clubs "this is the price, now go and get him".

This is the one time that we actually did hold all the cards - aside from Alfie changing everything we know about him and going on strike until he was sold (a la Pierre Van Hooijdonk). We didn't need to agree anything with him in January.

[robinsrule]

I’ve held a conference of Ben, Ben 2, Ben 3 and Ben v2:0. And here’s what they say

It’s a fools errand sacking a manager in the lower leagues. The reason people clamour for it is a symptom of too many people watching the premier league where clubs can afford to attract the best in the world. Who can Cheltenham possibly attract who is successful already (because if they were they’d be doing their own job!)? It’s like all this ‘let’s sign an established centre forward who scores 20 goals a year” nonsense that we get each close season. Those players are out of our league

However - I did post in April last year that I thought the club needed to decide on what they want. Sticking with wade was a choice that I supported , but it smacked of “we’ll hang around in league one until we’re relegated at some point”. I think the board need to decide on their ambition. It feels to me top of league 2/ bottom of league one is it - that’s ok, we’re doing so well as a club. But communicate it!

The vitriol aimed at wade and the board is clearly appalling. Our best ever seasons were 21/22 and 22/23. How short are people’s memories? It’s a disgrace and anyone who questions the board and wade makes me really angry to read it. The newly joined people on the Facebook group (almost all of them in the last few months) makes me think gcfc or fgr have infiltrated those forums to deliberately destabilise the club.

Wade going has cemented out relegation. Should he have gone over the summer? - probably. But can we do one of two things:

1) get a saviour to keep us up (surely only cotterill because there ain’t anyone else) or
2) get a manager who can hold for a good league campaign in league two next season

Everyone on Facebook who has sounded off should be reminded of their nonsense come may.

I’ll be there on Saturday. Come on lads!!!

Football is like politics. When a party is in power they will make loads of promises that everybody knows are nonsense, but if they don’t make those promises nobody would vote for them.

The board are never going to come out publicly and say “Look, we simply don’t have the fanbase or money to compete at this level so we are going to do things as cheaply as possible until we inevitably get relegated”. Equally it would be silly to say that we are going to compete and push for promotion then find ourselves rock bottom after eight games. In short, they can’t win.

Expecting public statements of intent, or promises, or a “mission statement”, or clarity from any football board is pie in the sky - unless you have just been bought by Saudis for whom the sky is the limit.

Our finances and fanbase dictate that we are a small League 2 club and that is where we will probably be next season. I’ve seen us bloody the noses of the big boys over the last few years, but it is simply not sustainable with our stadium and resources.

I’m not saying “let’s give up” - far from it. We survived against the odds the last two seasons. We may still survive this season too. I just think that people’s’ expectations need to be tempered somewhat when it comes to the class of manager and players we can attract, especially in our current position.

[Robin]

I'd like to see our board talk more about how they will grow the club, what is the plan to bring in more external investment, timeframe and next steps to get the new main stand - which we all know is desperately needed to move the club forward, latest with purchase of cakebridge place, what are we doing to generate revenue from the training ground, how can we fund an U-21 team to bridge the gap from youth to first team, even on a smaller scale are we getting LED hoardings which almost every other club in this league has now. These cost money but generate money so there needs to be a plan.

[horlickfanclub]

It’s a feature of fans-forums like this that people are delusional.

“We want a proven 20 goal a season striker”
“Our striker is worth a million pounds at least”
“The board are not interested”

It’s all utter nonsense, of course, but forums like Facebook become echo chambers where these ridiculous views are affirmed and reinforced.

Does anyone seriously think, when they sit in their chair at home and engage their brain, that the board knowingly under-priced and sold May? Really? The market for clubs like us is that the players and bigger clubs hold all the power. If Charlton want to spend £200k and nobody else is willing to chance their arm on a 30 year old with injury issues…then how can we ‘demand’ more?

It’s why I dip in and out of this board. It’s better than the Facebook stuff but even so, people tend to live in cloud cuckoo land. Especially so when the club has had our best ever two seasons (literally BEST EVER!) yet people expect us to somehow magically become a different club.

There is always hope and things can improve. We could make the premier league for a season, I honestly believe that, but there’s no way we could maintain that! And if we got relegated then presumably everyone would complain that the board we ‘not interested’

Two good posts Ben. To bring in Keena ahead of Alfie leaving looked like good preparation. Sack the Board was not in fashion then.

[horlickfanclub]

It’s a feature of fans-forums like this that people are delusional.

“We want a proven 20 goal a season striker”
“Our striker is worth a million pounds at least”
“The board are not interested”

It’s all utter nonsense, of course, but forums like Facebook become echo chambers where these ridiculous views are affirmed and reinforced.

Does anyone seriously think, when they sit in their chair at home and engage their brain, that the board knowingly under-priced and sold May? Really? The market for clubs like us is that the players and bigger clubs hold all the power. If Charlton want to spend £200k and nobody else is willing to chance their arm on a 30 year old with injury issues…then how can we ‘demand’ more?

It’s why I dip in and out of this board. It’s better than the Facebook stuff but even so, people tend to live in cloud cuckoo land. Especially so when the club has had our best ever two seasons (literally BEST EVER!) yet people expect us to somehow magically become a different club.

There is always hope and things can improve. We could make the premier league for a season, I honestly believe that, but there’s no way we could maintain that! And if we got relegated then presumably everyone would complain that the board we ‘not interested’

But by telling May he could go for £200k and May saying he only wanted to go to Charlton meant there was no point anyone being interested.

It’s not like Clark-Harris, where people were offering £800k for someone in the same point of his career to prise him away from a club who wanted to keep him.

If it was an open market we would have had more bids. But when there is a fixed price and only one customer it is different.

Some seem to be pushing this £200,000 to strengthen a point of view. I thought it was £250,000 with us netting £200,000.

[robinsrule]

I'd like to see our board talk more about how they will grow the club, what is the plan to bring in more external investment, timeframe and next steps to get the new main stand - which we all know is desperately needed to move the club forward, latest with purchase of cakebridge place, what are we doing to generate revenue from the training ground, how can we fund an U-21 team to bridge the gap from youth to first team, even on a smaller scale are we getting LED hoardings which almost every other club in this league has now. These cost money but generate money so there needs to be a plan.

I think their silence speaks volumes when it comes to stadium redevelopment. I’d love to see a new main stand but I guess it is just not economically viable (even if it would make money long term)

[Ihearye]

It’s a feature of fans-forums like this that people are delusional.

“We want a proven 20 goal a season striker”
“Our striker is worth a million pounds at least”
“The board are not interested”

It’s all utter nonsense, of course, but forums like Facebook become echo chambers where these ridiculous views are affirmed and reinforced.

Does anyone seriously think, when they sit in their chair at home and engage their brain, that the board knowingly under-priced and sold May? Really? The market for clubs like us is that the players and bigger clubs hold all the power. If Charlton want to spend £200k and nobody else is willing to chance their arm on a 30 year old with injury issues…then how can we ‘demand’ more?

It’s why I dip in and out of this board. It’s better than the Facebook stuff but even so, people tend to live in cloud cuckoo land. Especially so when the club has had our best ever two seasons (literally BEST EVER!) yet people expect us to somehow magically become a different club.

There is always hope and things can improve. We could make the premier league for a season, I honestly believe that, but there’s no way we could maintain that! And if we got relegated then presumably everyone would complain that the board we ‘not interested’

But by telling May he could go for £200k and May saying he only wanted to go to Charlton meant there was no point anyone being interested.

It’s not like Clark-Harris, where people were offering £800k for someone in the same point of his career to prise him away from a club who wanted to keep him.

If it was an open market we would have had more bids. But when there is a fixed price and only one customer it is different.

Some seem to be pushing this £200,000 to strengthen a point of view. I thought it was £250,000 with us netting £200,000.

Be it 200k or 250k it is a long way off the potential 800k that RCS is highlighting. It turns out that anyone quoting a million was not quite as delusional as the usual fisher would have us all believe. The market showed that is what his calibre age of striker was worth this summer. Who would have complained about a new striker coming in? Pointless argument. Not as if it is hindsight as many called out the financial lunacy at the time

[Warwickshire Robin]

But by telling May he could go for £200k and May saying he only wanted to go to Charlton meant there was no point anyone being interested.

It’s not like Clark-Harris, where people were offering £800k for someone in the same point of his career to prise him away from a club who wanted to keep him.

If it was an open market we would have had more bids. But when there is a fixed price and only one customer it is different.

Some seem to be pushing this £200,000 to strengthen a point of view. I thought it was £250,000 with us netting £200,000.

Be it 200k or 250k it is a long way off the potential 800k that RCS is highlighting. It turns out that anyone quoting a million was not quite as delusional as the usual fisher would have us all believe. The market showed that is what his calibre age of striker was worth this summer. Who would have complained about a new striker coming in? Pointless argument. Not as if it is hindsight as many called out the financial lunacy at the time

Whilst yes I agree our board left us wide open to selling Alfie on the cheap I do feel this constant comparing to the potential Clarke Harris £800k valuation is off the mark.

If you compare their careers to date, other than the age there isn't much that is the same i.e. JCH has nearly 100 games and over 20 goals to his name in the Championship, a league Alfie has never played in and the League 1 comparison is 235 games and 98 goals for Clarke Harris and 161 games/50 goals for Alfie (up to the end of last season).

So even in a open market I don't see anyway we could have got near £800k but think £250k is on the low side.

[Ihearye]

At the end of the day, he was a league one player going to another league one team. his previous life did not see him getting picked up by a championship team

His league one conversion rate was 39% in a good team. May's was 31% in an average team, so not a million miles away. Added to that we had effectively 2 years left with May.
But it won't put the ball in the net for us sadly.