22
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: League One 2023 Wage Bills
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on: March 22, 2024, 13:15:56 pm
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Didn't KT say we were 18th or 19th?
Anyway, this annual list is flawed, includes loan players for whom we will never know what proportion (if any) we are paying for their wages, I think we can be pretty sure that NTFC are not paying Simpson £4.6k a week, or Leonard £3.9k a week.
It’s pure guesswork, like you say the loans aren’t accurate at all there is no way in the world Exeter are paying £16K a week for Muskwe
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24
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: First season back table
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on: March 17, 2024, 11:42:12 am
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My opinion. I've enjoyed looking at the stats all season as I do think it's a fair reflection of how JB has fared against other managers attepting the same task.
The squads Brady and Carr have/had at their disposal is like chalk and cheese.
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25
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Grade the Cobblers
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on: March 17, 2024, 11:20:52 am
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Are we talking director loans here. In reality isn’t that just an accounting process. Lower league football teams are very rarely profitable and other than those that own the land their ground is on have very little in terms of assets. Even if the club is sold owners virtually never as far as I’m aware get these loans back.
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26
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 17, 2024, 09:40:48 am
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Yes, it was a gamble but if you don't buy a ticket, you can't win the jackpot.
Isn’t that the crux of it. While there is a mathematical chance then anything is possible to varying degrees of probability. What Lincoln are doing or our present form prove nothing about a potential future that never existed. It comes down to a philosophical choice, your lottery analogy is a good one. I would never say no to more money but choose not to do the lottery, even though someone is guaranteed to win the odds are too astronomical for me and I’d rather just use that money elsewhere. For you maybe that jackpot is worth buying tickets for. The whole debate has surely become tiresome now and whether Lincoln do or don’t make the playoffs is irrelevant and not worth talking about.
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27
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 20:44:09 pm
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You do talk crap. We didn't make the play-offs because we didn't strengthen.
It's like me saying if you put sugar in your tea it will be sweeter and you saying it wouldn't, then not putting sugar in your tea and claiming you were right. Utter rubbish.
Wrexham and Carlisle two of the sides that invested most in January on their teams are both averaging less points per game after ‘strengthening’ than they were before. I guess sometimes you end up putting salt in your tea not sugar!.
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28
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 20:25:14 pm
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The sad thing is that Lincoln didn't really do a lot in January either..... I mean its not like they splashed out thousands on transfer fees. They picked up a player upon completion of the League of Ireland season and therefore completion of his contract in Moylan, they picked up Joseph Taylor on loan from Luton after he had been recalled from his loan for the first half of the season at League 2 Colchester, and they got Conor McGrandles on loan from Charlton. They also recalled Freddie Draper from Walsall where he had been on loan and stuck him back in their team.
Yeah the Moylan deal had been done in the summer.
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29
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 20:20:09 pm
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They've only been in league 1 for 4 years and only been back in the league for 6 years having spent a similar length of time in the non league wilderness. So you could say that we're far more established in the football league than them and have had the chance to build a squad with far more quality than theirs. We're similar sized clubs and I can't imagine they have a massive budget or splashed out stupidly to bolster their squad in the window. But they certainly managed to snap up some very good players and at least greatly improved the match day experience, scoring lots more goals , enticing more fans to the ground and giving themselves a decent chance of the play offs. Whereas we're going the other way. I'm with Marvo on this.
Turnover in players is that rapid that I don’t think it matters this is only their 7th season back in the league. We saw Lloyd Jones turn down more money with us to play in league one with Cambridge, so this is their fifth season with that advantage compared to our first. In terms of budget there probably isn’t a significant difference (though not sure manny will agree), but for probably a number of reasons at present there squad for me has far more quality than ours. If you believe that with Moulden in goal and the injuries that a couple of better signings (we did bring in Moore & Gape) would have produced a possible playoff place that’s fine but not for me, I’d rather see the money spent on next season’s campaign.
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30
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 19:06:53 pm
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Of course there are no guarantees but that doesn't mean you just give up!
As for over achieving, well, if you say so. Maybe Atkins, Carr and Bowen overachieved, I'm not sure this counts. Worse run of form for three years.
It’s not about giving up it’s about how we spend our limited finances. As ntfclad said any extra money spent in this winter window would reduce next season’s budget. I was talking about the position we were in at the turn of the year with the quality of players at our disposal, which was definitely overachieving for me and perhaps why it’s not really a surprise that our form has dropped.
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31
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 18:45:05 pm
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So you are all claiming that Lincoln are a bigger club than the Cobblers and can do things we can't? Okay, fair enough.
No but Lincoln are far more established in League 1 and have had the chance to build a squad with far more quality than ours. Up to January 1st we were massively overachieving while they were underperforming so there was far more scope for them to improve than us. Unfortunately we lost a keeper and replaced him with a massively inferior player. We have had a lot of injuries. Marriott a potential signing but out of our price range has done nothing at league 2 Wrexham. Carlisle have spent big and done nothing so it’s no guarantee you will improve.
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32
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 16, 2024, 18:26:20 pm
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Wrong again Marvo, most people were saying it couldn't be done by NTFC, they have been proven right, alot of people don't care about other teams. Your just asking yourself looking like a mug.
Exactly this.
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35
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 14, 2024, 22:02:31 pm
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Of course its relevant. If you can't learn from experience/history then I'm at a loss what you can learn from.
Every club has its rightful place, ours is bottom third of League 1, top third of League 2. We beat Swansea at Wembley but Swansea are a bigger club than us, that's why they are now in the next league up. We lost to Grimsby but they had dropped into non-league while we remained at our level. Derby are always going to get out of this division. If they don't do it this year then they will the next or the one after that. They're a big club, it will happen. Same as it did for Man City, Aston Villa, Ipswich, Sunderland, Leeds, etc, etc. There is nothing about us that would lead you to believe we can be a stable League 1 side, nothing at all. We're just waiting for the inevitable drop back down, its all about preventing that for as long as we can. Don't fret though, we'll get back up again.
I don’t disagree in terms of our rightful place. What I was getting at was just because since the 70’s we’ve never gone 3 seasons in league 1 without getting relegated it means relegation is inevitable this season or next. People look for patterns that are coincidence and link them as some sort of law as to how the future will unfold. Maybe we do go down next season, it won’t be easy but just because in 75/76 we only lasted one season in the third tier doesn’t mean that there is zero chance of us ever making it four seasons in league 1 or maybe more. I 100% agree we should learn from past failures, I’ve praised the club for not dismantling a promotion winning side and being more proactive with out of contract players but my point was what has happened a long time in the past doesn’t necessarily set in stone what’s going to happen in the future. I just find a lot of these stats mainly used by pundits and commentators facile and of little relevance to now.
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36
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 14, 2024, 18:54:29 pm
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Totally agree that history tells us not to be too optimistic.
Do people actually give any relevance at all to things that might have happened under different ownership or management or with completely different players?. Think we drew our last two matches against Man City in the league but I wouldn’t put my house on us not losing should we play them again!.
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37
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Play-off watch
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on: March 14, 2024, 17:51:07 pm
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but we'll probably get relegated from League 1
I hate it when other supposed Cobblers fans run the team down, saying we’re not good enough and that we haven't got a chance. That may be the case but why air those views?
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38
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Ups & downs
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on: March 14, 2024, 14:44:35 pm
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Wouldn't mind if Lincoln went up through the play-offs, if only to shut you lot up.
Why would that shut people up? Even if they went up it wouldn’t prove anything, as I said before we were always massively overachieving so there was far more scope for Lincoln to improve, add to that a spate of injuries and a poor goalkeeping replacement which would have likely scuppered any remote hope of the play offs. First it was Bristol Rovers, then Orient, now Lincoln. It’s easy with hindsight to pick the team in form and say that could have been us.
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39
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Grade the Cobblers
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on: March 14, 2024, 13:13:30 pm
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Players & management - A- Hard working team more than the some of its parts. Play a decent style of football and have overachieved this season.
Ownership - B- Personally I don’t expect owners to piss away a load of their own money each year running the club beyond it means as it’s not healthy for football. At the moment I hear football league clubs complaining about the funding deal from premier league saying how unsustainable things are, which is garbage just pay less on players. Having said that the injury situation needs to be sorted, we need to be bringing more players through the youth system and we need to be making more money through transfer sales.
Facilities - C- Fine but I feel with a few small changes we could make better of what we have.
Match Day Experience - B- Similar to facilities.
Community - A It’s clear the club puts a lot of hard work into the community and have been rewarded for it.
Do I feel part of the club - B
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40
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The Hotel End / Cobblers Corner / Re: Blackpool (h)
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on: March 12, 2024, 23:08:12 pm
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I assume Burge will be on his way at the end of the season?
I hope he stays, he’s solid enough at league 1 level not to be a problem. We go into the season needing 2 new keepers and end up with a starter at a similar level to Moulden then that could almost single handily get us relegated.
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