It's getting abit boring this line, yes we can blame Agar he chose to sign the players he did like Lynne and molloy instead of offering Cowling, Kaye and Wildie contract extensions. It can also be argued to an extent with all the players that went to Aus like Grayson, Slater and Gledhill. All of which would probably be good squad players by now. But he chose to sign Lynne and Molloy and Poore instead.

Thats my take on it. How Kay performed in his stint raised his salary expectations. Had Agar offered Kay a new contract last year it would've been less than what his agent was demanding this year. He chose to offer untried youngsters from other clubs contracts instead so he is accountable for the club losing their home grown players with potential.

Agree with this. We could have offered Liam Kay £20k last April and he'd probably have taken it. We neither gave him the game time nor backed him by investing in him - hence we lose him. It is very poor management of the squad and has been a recurring theme which is now costing us badly when we really need these players. We reap what we sow....

Agar has done some good things for the club, but this, to me, is a massive failing!

Yes, with hindsight another Agar mistake, but consider the scenario that he was in the dark regards the financial state - as many of us were.
If he was promised cash to spend on more experienced players he would not need to take risks, even low cost ones.
Now the need is greater, the costs have risen and he does not have the budget to meet the demands, even if he thinks the player is worth it.

Whilst I doubt they'll be on a fortune I'd bet my last penny they are on more than the reported pittence we have offered our own promising homegrown players. And whilst he won't have the final say Agar will have conversed to the board what level of importance those young players are to the squad and how vital or not it was to keep or lose them. From the outside looking in as they depart one by one it doesn't seem that important to retain them. Paying overs like Elston & Glover did is one thing but trying to pull a fast one on our kids by offering them insulting fulltime salaries is just as bad imho. Yes the buck stops with the board but I don't believe for one second Agar was totally oblivious even if he didn't know the full picture.

And just because the financial status wasn't fully out in the public domain it will have well known within the club what the state of play was yet we still went out signing Molloy & Tautai mid-season and offering deals to the likes of Tuson & Fakir that we couldn't honour rather than offer living wages to Kay, Cowling et al. Quite honestly its been one almighty cock-up from start to finish.

Spot on.

One thing in all this is don't we have to have 7 club trained players in our top 25 man squad next season? How are we going to achieve this without just filling it with some under 19's who aren't anywhere near first team level yet?