[Devongone]

It seemed as though there was really no money at all when John Pemberton was finally named as manager. The club shut down through lockdown. New ownership finally crossed the line, but they did it after such a protracted struggle that no one really expected any extra expenditure. But, after seeming relegation-bound with an unrefreshed squad, we have got rid of those in charge of the team who had given every appearance of having their financial hands tied, and replaced them with an exciting young manager. He brought with him his leading scorer at a cost, yet another expense we didn't realise we could cover.

Now we have found enough for a short-team deal for free agent Jak McCourt and a small (?) fee for Tom Whelan, who has apparently been doing well at Weymouth, but who didn't make the grade at Yeovil. James Rowe is making it clear he is looking to the future and that means every player is playing for his own future as well as that of the club. That's something every fan will applaud, but it does leave me, and perhaps you, wondering what is available for the development we intend, having appointed Lemon and Turnbull (who sound like shirt manufacturers).

You will doubtless be bored out of your minds reading lists of non-league players I've thought we could get for next to nothing over the last few years. Some come good like Ben Garrity of Warrington, who Blackpool finally offered a contract, but he was then loaned out and is now doing well at Oldham. Others, well it is a struggle, Alex Brown from first Sheffield FC then Buxton is now at Kings Lynn. He's in the team, but the defence is the worst in our section. On the other hand Sam Barratt and Matt Kosylo have almost single-handedly hauled their teams into the promotion race. There's an element of gamble involved. You can find a Levi Amantchi who looks like the future and ends up working his way down the pyramid. Our aim has to be to spend small and sell big. But sometimes the small spend will be all loss.

I've no idea what our true resources are, but we would hardly have made appointments if their budget was zero. As football prepares to find ways for its lower leagues to find ways back onto the pitch, my suggestion would be for us to nip in and bag a seriously good young player I've mentioned before - Kane Drummond from Rylands Warrington. It is no accident that they are challenging at the top of their league. He works hard, he scores goals, he's a wide man, who also makes goals. He's 18/19 and is the only player Rylands have ever contracted. In his last game he was brought down and still got up to score. He might not be ready for our first team, but surely we could afford a deal that involved loaning him back to continue developing in Warrington for this season. What could be better with two strikers than a clever, quick and brave young winger?

Personally I wouldn't have signed Jak back on ....... but he did have one or two good games in his last spell. Whelan interests me. How long since we had a public schoolboy in the team? He learnt to play at Millfield. What do you think? And do you think we have any money to develop a team - a proper team?

[Dancingwilldoit]

I dont think we will find out anytime soon what funds we have available. I did wonder if with Sheridan joining Swindon on a permanent basis it cancelled his pay off. If not you would have thought we would be struggling for funds to sign anybody. The viewing figures for Pembertons last game in charge were only just over 1K so they haven't be making a fortune from game streaming. It might be better now but cant see them getting more than £25k each home game. The emergency funding for the National league seems to have benefited the smaller clubs so god know where we are getting cash from.
Maybe its the mysterious Chinese influencers.

[Devongone]

Yes, I know we are spending small ........ but like you Dancing I'd understood we really had no cash to spare. Apparently Carson is across social media telling all and sundry we're going broke, if that's so social media isn't all he should be put across.

The problem with competitive professional sport is that you can't just pull up the drawbridge and wait for an economic upturn. You have to find ways of moving forward. All I can see for us is recruiting players like Kane Drummond as soon as they come to light. If we don't take that small gamble someone else will. And if we can't afford that kind of gamble then I can't see what the future can hold for us. There has to be a level of player we can afford to recruit, between school leaver and fully-fledged player. Schoolboy into pro' is an expensive, long-winded and failure-laden process, which in terms of the club's development has always been insufficient. Similarly it is very expensive to recruit only fully-fledged players from other clubs, in competition with all our rivals. We do need to pitch some
recruitment between those two levels, but even that is not cost-free, and if you find those players you have to have something to do with them. We can't rely on sign them and loan them out, and whatever answer you come up with it isn't going to be cost-free.

What I've always wanted to see is openness in our dealings - transparency - so that we are not left to speculate whether we can really afford to sign an ex-public schoolboy from Weymouth, whether the Trust can survive, whether the club has a real future or whether the last few weeks have simply been a chimera. I realise it is very difficult for them, income is almost zero, but literally thousands of fans have raised their voices to express their anger at the way the club has been allowed to decline in the last few years. Surely one way forward in these straitened times is to open up to those who love the club and seek their help with even greater urgency. Sponsoring Asante's strip is fine and people will respond, but fans will also happily contribute if they can see EXACTLY where their money is going. The problem in the past is we all believed transfer money and any other money raised didn't go towards improving the club and team, but was being trousered by men we certainly didn't trust. If the Trust can build trust then maybe we can survive as a community club. Do you think?

[Dancingwilldoit]

Trust is in the name Dev. Maybe not anywhere else but time will tell. You brought back some memories with Rylands Warrington, it used to be Rylands Whitecross and I used to work there. Must admit even back in the day they had a good football team. Its a time in my life I would rather forget so thanks for reminding me.

[spireitematt]

I dont think we will find out anytime soon what funds we have available. I did wonder if with Sheridan joining Swindon on a permanent basis it cancelled his pay off. If not you would have thought we would be struggling for funds to sign anybody. The viewing figures for Pembertons last game in charge were only just over 1K so they haven't be making a fortune from game streaming. It might be better now but cant see them getting more than £25k each home game. The emergency funding for the National league seems to have benefited the smaller clubs so god know where we are getting cash from.
Maybe its the mysterious Chinese influencers.

Two countries who are buying clubs in England are China and America so we could probably end up being bought by a Chinese investor or an American investor who wants to take the club to the dizzy heights of the Football League.

Does anyone else think the Wrexham takeover is a publicity stunt or is actually genuine?

---

Yes, I know we are spending small ........ but like you Dancing  I'd understood we really had no cash to spare. Apparently Carson is across social media telling all and sundry we're going broke, if that's so social media isn't all he should be put across.

The problem with competitive professional sport is that you can't just pull up the drawbridge and wait for an economic upturn. You have to find ways of moving forward. All I can see for us is recruiting players like Kane Drummond as soon as they come to light. If we don't take that small gamble someone else will. And if we can't afford that kind of gamble then I can't see what the future can hold for us. There has to be a level of player we can afford to recruit, between school leaver and fully-fledged player. Schoolboy into pro' is an expensive, long-winded and failure-laden process, which in terms of the club's development has always been insufficient. Similarly it is very expensive to recruit only fully-fledged players from other clubs, in competition with all our rivals. We do need to pitch some
recruitment between those two levels, but even that is not cost-free, and if you find those players you have to have something to do with them. We can't rely on sign them and loan them out, and whatever answer you come up with it isn't going to be cost-free.

What I've always wanted to see is openness in our dealings - transparency - so that we are not left to speculate whether we can really afford to sign an ex-public schoolboy from Weymouth, whether the Trust can survive, whether the club has a real future or whether the last few weeks have simply been a chimera. I realise it is very difficult for them, income is almost zero, but literally thousands of fans have raised their voices to express their anger at the way the club has been allowed to decline in the last few years. Surely one way forward in these straitened times is to open up to those who love the club and seek their help with even greater urgency. Sponsoring Asante's strip is fine and people will respond, but fans will also happily contribute if they can see EXACTLY where their money is going. The problem in the past is we all believed transfer money and any other money raised didn't go towards improving the club and team, but was being trousered by men we certainly didn't trust. If the Trust can build trust then maybe we can survive as a community club. Do you think?

It is possible Dev to build a team solely on free transfers and only pay wages. The biggest problem for the club is having no fans in the ground at matches, there is the streams at £10 a game but it won't cover the revenue that they are losing by not having fans in the ground.

Do you not think we need a supporters trust to buy shares in the club as well?

[Devongone]

I tend to be dubious about Trusts in general. Trust seems to be the one thing they neither reward, nor deserve. So I'm probably the wrong person to take notice of. When those involved say they are lifelong supporters who am I to doubt their bona fides? I don't expect them to prove to me they deserve my trust by anything more than being absolutely open about everything possible.

I don't expect to know the minutiae of our financial position, but if we are short of money and that restricts our new manager to searching the bargain basements for players I'd like us to say that. If developing players means finding the discards of the cut-throat youth programmes of bigger clubs and unearthing hidden talent lower down the football pyramid then that should openly be our policy. Our expectations are then likely to be realistic and we can applaud the successes and understand the failures.

A supporters' trust buying shares runs up against the same questions as the current Trust. Are they men and women of good faith? Do they share our aims? Will they tell us where we are going, or where they are taking the rest of us?

For many years we have fumbled around in darkness and half-light. We've seen what our first eleven and subs are doing on field and after that the questions and the guesswork begin. Even with Cookie as manager we ended up with a period of secretly knowing he was off to Portsmouth, all our best players had prices on their heads and we were vaguely wondering if that left us with any chance against a good team like Preston in the play-offs. Trust and/or the lack of it run through a club like Blackpool Rock, from fans' forums to the field of play. So far it appears to me the Trust appointed well in Mr Rowe following a really sensible process in which they admitted their own lack of expertise. Whether ditching Mr Pemberton is worthy of similar accolades heads us into the realm of individual morality. I would only have done it if he refused my offer to finance bringing in some new talent - and I don't imagine he had that chance ........

It is very early days. We are on a better track I hope. And irrelevant as it is, things would look a lot better with a 2-1 win at Sutton.

I don't think we can only recruit from places where Dancing had a good time. Scouting trips to South Africa are going to be expensive for a start, and Spanish players aren't exactly queueing for a game in the National League.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Taylor and Carline rumoured to have signed. If true there must be some major bank rolling going on.

[Devongone]

Well we got Carline, which, after he left Gloucester, was pretty certain ......... Mr Rowe is clearly unconvinced by our current midfield's running power.

And apparently Joel Taylor from Chester is on the team bus for the Sutton trip, if the FA clear him in time ........

Now Mr Rowe says he wants two keepers and has only one. Please somebody get him to sign Cameron Mason. He's the right age. England C squad. Only at Curzon Ashton. Got another rave at the weekend despite his side going down 3-1. If we are having a second keeper, it might as well be a decent one, who'll quickly displace Letheren.

Where this leaves my favourite-named player Milan Butterfield I don't know. I know our fans are ready to throw him under the bus, but he was Man of the Match when we knocked Stockport out of the Cup. So he can obviously function against the best teams we'll play - we can't wipe that game from our memory banks because of an administrative error can we?

Loaning out the surplus players will be a test for Mr Rowe. If he wants to see how players like Rawson, Sharman and Rowley can develop they need challenging loans. We've had loads of players recently who we sent on the loan route to failure. Kiwomya is one who seems to lack heart. McKay seems to lack everything but an aeroplane. Mandeville is talented but if that's all he'll give us perhaps we can find him a temporary home. Could they be on the way?