I was going to have a rant on the Brereton page and thought better of it, mainly because my thoughts have already been said by others, but like a petulant child I wish to be heard so will start a new thread. Apologies for the length in advance.
My issue is generally around selling better players and if it does us any good. I get all the arguments, every player has a price, nobody is bigger than the club etc. However historically the money coming in has been used to fund incoming transfers, loans and associated wages and invariably on poorer quality players than those sold on.
I will summarise our transfers from 2000 below, I have only included players from the Forest academy, not players we have sold on from elsewhere.
2001
Jermaine Jenas £5m
Replacements no player with fee
David Prutton £2.5m
Replacements no player for fee
The money raised these 2 seasons was mainly to cover the catastrophic losses under the David Platt era rather than to fund new players.
2003/4
Marlon Harewood £500k Gareth williams £500k
Replacements included
Marlon King £950k, Chris Commons Paul Gerrard, Gareth Taylor Danny Sonner , Andy Impey, Alan Rogers (mark2)
We speculated here a bit , it was our “We’re serious about promotion year” however we sold too and got a seemingly low fee for a promising centre forward (sound familiar?) and reinvested in Marlon King, we subsequently sold him on for half the amount. Commons clearly a good player, you can judge the rest, ended up finishing 14th under Joe Kinnear.
2004/5
Andy Reid , Michael Dawson £8m
Replacements included David Frio, Daryl Powell, Paul Evans, Hjelde mk2, Adam Nowland , Neil Harris, Scott Dobie.
OK here is where the folly of selling your best players and replacing with cheap rubbish will never be better illustrated. Suffice to say we ended up 23rd and relegated under Megson.
2011/12
Patrick Bamford, Wes Morgan estimated £3m
Replacements included Jonathan Greening, Boateng, Matt Derbyshire, Ishmail Miller, Andy Reid (free)
Sales here were due to Nigel Doughty pulling out, he sadly died later this season. Transfers made by Steve Mclaren clearly disastrous but a lot of money spent on short term loans by Calderwood including Gueddy, Cunningham, Higginbotham which probably kept us up.
2014/5
Karl Darlow, Jamaal Lascelles £7m and loaned back.
Replacements included
Assombalonga, Antonio, Veldvyk
On the face of it there was a very clever deal here, outgoings loaned back and used to fund some genuine quality replacements, OK Lars didn’t work but it looked good on paper. Unfortunately the rest of the squad and, sadly, the manger weren’t up to it. However the year before was our transfer business at its very worst, huge sums spent on Abdoun ,Djebbour, Mackie, Kelvin Wilson, Hobbs and Jara. Wages alone here probably exceeded what we recouped in transfer fees from Darlow and Lascelles.
2016/7
Ollie Burke £13m
Replacements included Bendtner, Lica, Caryol, Perquis, Clough, Aryibi
Yet again you could argue here fee was wasted, Burke would have been on low wages, Bendtner certainly was not, none of the incoming player made meaningful contributions.
What has surprised me in looking at all this is that since year 2000 we have only sold 12 academy players for a fee and that includes Brereton. We seem to think we have a great production line at Forest, the above would say its not too plentiful. However there is some good quality there and average fee was significant.
Therefore does selling to reinvest work? Well obviously not for Forest, the problem being there has seemingly never been any kind of strategy to sales and transfers. Certainly we have never had a policy for example like Brentford where every player has his price but funds are reinvested in players who are identified early in their careers.
The difference with the Brereton situation is that for once we should not be reacting to adversity. Previously sales have been forced upon us due dire finances or league position. This time we perceive to be in a position of strength, building a young squad and a real plan for a promotion push. More than ever this is not the time to be pushed into the short termist panic buys of old, ageing players on high wages, selling one good player to fund 3 bang average ones. I really really hope we are not repeating the same mistakes again.
My issue is generally around selling better players and if it does us any good. I get all the arguments, every player has a price, nobody is bigger than the club etc. However historically the money coming in has been used to fund incoming transfers, loans and associated wages and invariably on poorer quality players than those sold on.
I will summarise our transfers from 2000 below, I have only included players from the Forest academy, not players we have sold on from elsewhere.
2001
Jermaine Jenas £5m
Replacements no player with fee
David Prutton £2.5m
Replacements no player for fee
The money raised these 2 seasons was mainly to cover the catastrophic losses under the David Platt era rather than to fund new players.
2003/4
Marlon Harewood £500k Gareth williams £500k
Replacements included
Marlon King £950k, Chris Commons Paul Gerrard, Gareth Taylor Danny Sonner , Andy Impey, Alan Rogers (mark2)
We speculated here a bit , it was our “We’re serious about promotion year” however we sold too and got a seemingly low fee for a promising centre forward (sound familiar?) and reinvested in Marlon King, we subsequently sold him on for half the amount. Commons clearly a good player, you can judge the rest, ended up finishing 14th under Joe Kinnear.
2004/5
Andy Reid , Michael Dawson £8m
Replacements included David Frio, Daryl Powell, Paul Evans, Hjelde mk2, Adam Nowland , Neil Harris, Scott Dobie.
OK here is where the folly of selling your best players and replacing with cheap rubbish will never be better illustrated. Suffice to say we ended up 23rd and relegated under Megson.
2011/12
Patrick Bamford, Wes Morgan estimated £3m
Replacements included Jonathan Greening, Boateng, Matt Derbyshire, Ishmail Miller, Andy Reid (free)
Sales here were due to Nigel Doughty pulling out, he sadly died later this season. Transfers made by Steve Mclaren clearly disastrous but a lot of money spent on short term loans by Calderwood including Gueddy, Cunningham, Higginbotham which probably kept us up.
2014/5
Karl Darlow, Jamaal Lascelles £7m and loaned back.
Replacements included
Assombalonga, Antonio, Veldvyk
On the face of it there was a very clever deal here, outgoings loaned back and used to fund some genuine quality replacements, OK Lars didn’t work but it looked good on paper. Unfortunately the rest of the squad and, sadly, the manger weren’t up to it. However the year before was our transfer business at its very worst, huge sums spent on Abdoun ,Djebbour, Mackie, Kelvin Wilson, Hobbs and Jara. Wages alone here probably exceeded what we recouped in transfer fees from Darlow and Lascelles.
2016/7
Ollie Burke £13m
Replacements included Bendtner, Lica, Caryol, Perquis, Clough, Aryibi
Yet again you could argue here fee was wasted, Burke would have been on low wages, Bendtner certainly was not, none of the incoming player made meaningful contributions.
What has surprised me in looking at all this is that since year 2000 we have only sold 12 academy players for a fee and that includes Brereton. We seem to think we have a great production line at Forest, the above would say its not too plentiful. However there is some good quality there and average fee was significant.
Therefore does selling to reinvest work? Well obviously not for Forest, the problem being there has seemingly never been any kind of strategy to sales and transfers. Certainly we have never had a policy for example like Brentford where every player has his price but funds are reinvested in players who are identified early in their careers.
The difference with the Brereton situation is that for once we should not be reacting to adversity. Previously sales have been forced upon us due dire finances or league position. This time we perceive to be in a position of strength, building a young squad and a real plan for a promotion push. More than ever this is not the time to be pushed into the short termist panic buys of old, ageing players on high wages, selling one good player to fund 3 bang average ones. I really really hope we are not repeating the same mistakes again.
