Quote Tricky2309="Tricky2309"When you don't spend up to the full cap like us, then there is always going to be an element of turnover of players - not something I particularly like but something we have to put up with at the present time.
The development of the younger players at the club and the rumour that a good number of them are to be signed up on full time contracts is a big positive in my eyes. The reason that the likes of Leeds and Saints have been up at the top for the last 5 years is their ability to bring quality young players through the system and into the first team. These players when they start off are (I suspect) on relatively low wages for what they bring to the squad and that allows these clubs to then go out and spend big money on 3 or 4 top quality experienced players.
If we can start to develop our own systems in a similar fashion, then it will make it easier for the money we can afford to spend under the cap to go further, plus of course we will get what we would all like, a much larger proportion of the squad to be local lads with hopefully a pride in playing for Wakey.
Until this development system can start to work properly and/or we increase you available spend under the cap, then when a project player gets offered a significant rise from another club. we are naturally going to have to question whether we can justify paying the same, or whether we look for a similar project player who can possibly come in and do the same job for the same wage as we were paying the outgoing player.
Another issue that needs to be considered is the fact often referenced to on here that we are "punching above our weight". If we buy into that concept than in my opinion this means that certain players within the squad must also be "punching above their weight". The logical conclusion would then be that it is likely to be the project players who are doing more than expected and that begs the question, how long can they continue to over achieve and do we risk giving them a big rise ?
As someone has already said, this is far from an easy job for the powers that be at the club and they are bound to make some mistakes along the way.'"
Well put and I don't disagree with anything you say. The point I've tried to make is that this year I think we've not handled it particularly well. If we are going to work like this, we need to be a bit quicker in deciding which players are worth an increase. I've overwhelmingly more faith in Kear and the rest of our 'powers' than I've had in 20+ years supporting the club, but that doesn't mean there aren't still lessons to be learnt.
