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hector wrote:Is Branston on a wage beyond us? Who says he is? Why is re-signing our best player a move that may move us towards administartion. It's a nonsense.

Let's see which championship or League 1 club he was at before he came here that must have been paying him a fortune that for us to maintain places the whole future of TUFC in doubt? Oh, no, hang on. It was Burton Albion and before that Kettering Town in the conference. Hardly massive payers that we would have had to almost bankcrupt our club to compete with.

The reality is if we get back to the Bateson era of penny-pinching, then the penny-wise, pound-foolish outcome will be the same. If the club are basically saying that they cannot even be competitive with the rest of the division then we may as well pack up and go in the Conference South.

Bottom line is not enough people through the gates to generate money to spend on better players for glory days.

There seems to be a lot of assumption & supposition going on here.
Do we actually know that Branson was one of our highest earners or are we just assuming ?
Do we actually know that we can't offer him a new contract because we can't afford it or are we just assuming ?
Do we actually know the exact state of the club's finances or are we just assuming?

As Hector rightly said his two previous clubs (Burton & Kettering) are unlikely to be able to offer top money, so is it possible we are getting just a little bit paranoid here.
The state of the club's finances may be every bit as bad as we think they are - or they may not - or they may be nearly as bad but not quite!

The point is we are all guessing to some extent or other but there is no guarentee that any of us will reach the correct conclusion.

Without assumption and suggestion though, the forum would be very boring. There are only very few facts that we'll ever actually know. Be interesting to see if anyone has the latest copy of Football Manager. I've heard that's pretty good for showing correct wages and the only one I've got was 2010 when he was still on loan from Burton.

As for GB, I really cannot see him being a huge wage earner and/or a money grabber. He just doesn't seem that type. Whether he wants a pay rise now he's player of the year and in the L2 team of the year, I'm not sure, but I'd still be surprised if he was on £1k+ per week. £800-900 per week would be my guess and if I'm right, that should be affordable to the board.

The person with the money died during the season - I am not sure that his wife is as keen to spend as much cash as he was. Also, we are building the grandstand therefore operating at reduced attendances throughout most of the season, which means wage cap will be lower.

I am not sure we have a huge amount of money to spend on players wages to be honest, and it may take the sale of some of our more "worthwhile" assets to generate any sort of cash to keep the likes of Branston and sign people like Stanley et al.

I take your point cambgull and it certainly makes life more interesting

Here's a thought. Not sure if it's been suggested previously....Perhaps the club are thinking they might allow the new manager to decide which players he wants to sign?!

As for what Branno was earning at Burton and Kettering, it's completely irrelevant. All that matters is what he wants now. Perhaps we have discussed his requirements, and have offered him a 1 year deal at £800 a week. If there are other clubs prepared to pay him £1000 for 2 years, that is their prerogative.

Whether some are prepared to admit it or not, we are one of the samller clubs in this division. People feel justified in poking fun at 'AC Northampton' but the fact is they are a bigger club than us, as are the majority of other clubs in this league. Unfortunately, attendances do dictate directly the kind of contracts the club can offer to players. And as much as it annoys some here, i'm pretty certain we are destined to be near the bottom of the League with the likes of Accrignton, Macc, and Barnet in terms of salaries. Unless we get more people through the tunstiles, that is our place so we'd better get used to it.

The problem we have currently is the time taken to choose a new manager - not the non-offering of contracts to ex-players. One will follow the other, so they need to pull thier proverbial fingers out on the manager front.

It's a bit of a catch 22 situation - we don't want to offer contracts to players without a manager in place, but players don't want to wait around forever and take a gamble with their livelihood, especially if there's a concrete offer elsewhere.

Personally I'd be trying to sign Guy up regardless, what new manager wouldn't want a team of the year player on board?

A forward looking manager.

I guess it depends on how much of the new managers budget will be used in securing him? The fact is it's pointless speculating about it - because we don't know the finances involved, and you can almost be certain that is the main concern.

Players contracted for next season are:

Mansell
Robbo
Ellis
Nico
LRT
Lathrope
O'Kane
Halpin
Macklin
Zebroski
Kee

That is 11 players. Assuming none of those leave, we need at least two goalkeepers, a centre half, two centre midfielders, a winger and a striker. That's the bare minimum. The money has to be in place for that to happen, otherwise we won't be supporting a team this year. Offering Branston and Stanley contracts, important players down the spine of the team, should be happening. It keeps continuity from a successful season last season, whilst also leaving room for a new manager to bring his own players in. The money has to be there to do this, otherwise we're in trouble.

And perhaps the players would rather wait to see who the incoming manager is before discussing new deals? There are countless reasons why we might not have signed these players yet. It's a waste of energy to keep moaning about it, and assuming the board are overlooking something so obvious.

In my own opinion, Stanley is the only player of those without a deal that was here at the end of the season that it's imperative to sign. I'd like to see Branno here too, but he isn't the priority for me. And i i'd be loathe to offer a 2 year deal if that's what he's after.

Fonda wrote:And perhaps the players would rather wait to see who the incoming manager is before discussing new deals?

This is true, however indications are they've had no contact from the club, not even when Buckle was at the club.

JamieE wrote:Players contracted for next season are:

Mansell
Robbo
Ellis
Nico
LRT
Lathrope
O'Kane
Halpin
Macklin
Zebroski
Kee

That is 11 players. Assuming none of those leave, we need at least two goalkeepers, a centre half, two centre midfielders, a winger and a striker. That's the bare minimum. The money has to be in place for that to happen, otherwise we won't be supporting a team this year. Offering Branston and Stanley contracts, important players down the spine of the team, should be happening. It keeps continuity from a successful season last season, whilst also leaving room for a new manager to bring his own players in. The money has to be there to do this, otherwise we're in trouble.

Is Bevan out of contract as well?

The directors surely can see that those 11 players would not be competitive in this division. Branston and Stanley have both expressed an inclination towards us and it is folly to let that opportunity go, regardless of who a new manager is.

By the time a new manager is in, 5 weeks will have passed that our rivals are building their squads...even if that is our rivals in a potential relegation battle. Branston and Stanley are both key players who would make relegation a less likely scenario. It is almost neglectful to let that fester on. Get them bloody signed!

Well, there's an obvious reason why Buckle wouldn't have made contact with them. I really think signing players - howver highly they are regarded by the support, is the job of the manager. And we haven't got one. It's the board's job to get a manager in situ as quickly as possible, and then the issue of contract offers to players can be addressed.

I am going to suggest something here,finances have nothing directly to do with why Branston or Stanley/Robinson may have as yet not been offered a contract by Torquay,first a foremost it will be down to nothing else than the fact the club does not have a manager,that does not take a lot of working out surely.

It would be utterly foolish for our club tp presume that which ever person they appoint manager will want Branston or any other player out of contract including former loanees,should the club tie any of these players down to contracts and the new manager does want them then finances will play a huge part going forward,as the new manager will be left with no room to change things and squad that does not fit into his plans.

Our club are not stupid,i should imagine contract offers are drawn up ready to go,once the green light has been received from the new manager they will then and only then be passed to the players concerned,and i have said before if the players concerned do want to sign for Torquay ,they will know the time frame and will wait.