The one thing that never changes is the steady ticking of the clock.
With every day that passes, it becomes more likely that our squad will remain as it is, with all our top players still here and a few very good footballers added to the mix.
Chris Sutton thinks we need more. He’s right but not many more.
One right sided midfielder, a left back and a backup central defender will put us on the right track. The question is, what state are our finances in after the health crisis hit us? What kind of state are they in considering that we won’t sell 60,000 tickets for our European matches?
That is bound to hurt, and badly. That is going to take a serious toll.
But if that’s true at Celtic Park, imagine how true it is over at Ibrox where they are so desperately in need of cash that there would be a multi-million shortfall even if fans were suddenly allowed back into stadiums and all was well in the world again.
I don’t know how Sevco intends to survive this.
All the various avenues open to them before this crisis appear to be closed, and although scams like MyGers, which I’ll talk about in another piece, will bring in modest amounts, and doing up their shirt with more advertising than a Formula One car will bring in a little bit more on top of the season ticket money, the need to sell a player is critical.
As it stands right now, I think they’ll probably need to sell more than one.
There’s just no other way they will close the funding gap. They’ve reached the end of the line as far as FFP is concerned, but even if they still had breathing space their directors aren’t going to put their hands in their pockets for upwards of £10 million without feeling it.
Attempts to sell Morelos have been farcical. Things are so bad between him and the manager that you cannot imagine now how they can keep him at the club. But without a buyer willing to offer Sevco a sum that can make a difference, they’ll have no choice.
The amazing thing to me is that it seems as if Sevco has forced its own hand. This is a club which has spent so long telling the world that Morelos is worth £20 million plus that it’s more than possible they’ve come to depend on selling him for that.
You wonder; can they really be so stupid? And then you remember that, actually, yes they can. They did the same with Kent, having advertised the fact there’s a release clause in his contract in the hope that if Leeds wouldn’t pay it that someone else would.
So far nobody has, and I don’t think anybody will.
There are people who think the bloggers overdo it on this issue, but this is fundamental – even critical – to the ten in a row campaign and what comes afterwards. Sevco has dug itself into a very deep hole, and it was already raining.
The hole is filling up with water, and still they’re at the bottom of it and digging down. Without a sale the water is going to engulf them.
For the next four weeks keep your eyes on what happens over there.
The media will tell you that if the window closes without them selling someone that they’ll be in a strong position to challenge us, but that’s only a surface understanding. Morelos is unhappy. Whatever the media says, Kent is unhappy. There may be others equally keen to go.
But if they all stay it will not be because the club is showing ambition and wants to hang onto them, it will be because nobody wants to pay the ludicrous sums the club thinks they are worth. Had they been sensible, and planned accordingly, had they sold first, for a reasonable sum, they could have planned their summer instead of pretending nothing was wrong and acting like it.
That club has always been half-mad, but I’ve never seen anything as stupid as this summer, when the rest of football knows that hard choices need to be made. We’ll sell a top player because there’s simply no choice in the matter; Sevco is acting like those choices aren’t needed.
But they are needed. That club cannot simply stroll on as if they aren’t. Before this window ends they will have to find a way to sell a key player, and for big money, and I don’t think anyone is going to oblige them any more than they have in previous windows.
And yes, that is going to have dire consequences.
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