If they are one of our best and influential players?
You obviously want us to compete with an inferior team next season.
Yes, of course. And I also want Newcastle to win the league at our ground and for the whole first team to be killed in a bus crash. FFS - don't put words in my mouth.
If it weren't already abundantly apparent, I'm f**king sick of this woe is me shit. I don't care if it's coming from fans, players or Graham Arnold himself, it's bullshit and it achieves exactly nothing.
Let's face facts - we are a club short on cash. We have always been a club short on cash (absent a brief and glorious period when we spunked loads on Vidmar and Aloisi and still apparently ran a surplus).
We are playing in a league that has no money and relatively low salaries compared to comparable and even inferior leagues in our region, and we are one of the clubs least able to afford big wedges for players.
That players leave is, has and will always be a fact of life. It was figuratively on the sticker when we purcahsed - we either knew what we were getting ourselves into or we were hopelessly deluded.
The question here is timing - whether we should hold off so as not to take the core from a successful team. Would you make the same call?
For Rostyn, I'd have done that deal in a heartbeat. We've got cover in Hutcho (who I think has been better in the role this year), he's on contract for just a few months longer and we get a big cash injection. It's also an opportunity for him to make a living he could never make over here. That's a no-brainer.
For Matty, tougher call. Our strikeforce has been iffy for most of the season - even Matty's form wasn't fantastic, but again it all revolves around the replacement. Had Sutton been a good pickup, we'd be laughing now. He hasn't, but that makes me question the Sutton signing more than the Simon sale. Had we picked up someone with a bit of venom we'd be in a great spot.
How much blame can two departures take though? Had they been injured would we have all the rending of clothes and self flagellation? Or would we have just f**king got on with it?
There's obvious discontent with the owners and the board. Seems pretty clear to me that they've got no money, so it's worth betting that many of their decisions are essentially forced. Short of them getting the hell out of there and wearing massive personal losses, I don't see much else doing.
They might structure the sale of the club/a portion of the club differently, but if people are running at the due diligence stage then maybe there's simply not much prospect of a buyer of this entity.
So then what would the Eeyores among us do differently? Have the FFA take the licence back with immediate effect? Can the club? Have Turnbull invest significant sums that he obviously doesn't have? Let's be realistic here.
The ownership of the club's a massive issue, but it isn't going to get sorted on a f**king message board and I can't see it changing before the end of the season. How each fan wants to take that is up to them.
As for the players and coaches, they've still got a responsibility to play to their best and not be (as bikinigirl put it) a bunch of lovestruck teenagers. Certain individual players are miles below their best and need to get their shit together. Whatever's going on at board level reflects first on the board, whatever's going on at field level reflects first on the players and coaches. They are the ones most able to get performances up to scratch, they are the ones most able to seal the silverware.
The ownership stuff will out, most likely post-season I suspect. In the meantime the players have to simply get their own shit together and go win trophies, and supporters need to go support them.
