Gillingham FC Forum

With a bit of luck the teams below us will not pick anything up tomorrow night, which I think sets up for a nice run into that tough section of the schedule starting with MKDons away.
Really need to make hay while the sun shines in the next few weeks 3 against PV, 1 at Carlisle, 3 home to Sheff U, I at Oldham and at least 1 if not 3 against Bristol City 9 points at least, maybe as many as 11 from a possible 15, and suddenly were only 7 or 8 points from ensuring our self First Division Football again next year.
I guess the transfer window closes this week, have we bought anyone in or are we going the rest of the way on a wing and a prayer ??

I think we will probably e exploiting the loan market

I dont think we are a club who buys players any more gillsfan. We have to rely on loans or free transfers in the summer, or maybe minor fees.

To be fair to gillingham I think most clubs with a small fan base are surviving this way now. Sponsorship levels are not big at this level and the gate income is nominal when you take all the costs onboard.

I think we need to accept that without an investor we are back to being a club which bounces between the bottom 2 divisions like we always used to be.

I don't think any club outside of the country's top 6 or 7 can buy the players they want these days. I can't remember the details but there was a loan move last week for a player to a Premier club who could easily have found the £1-2m it would have cost to buy the player instead. If clubs with income streams of over £60m a year find loan moves better than we must also. Many more deals appear to be loans than anything else and the vast majority in our divisions will be yet many of our fans think this is wrong. There are a couple of highly vociferous voices on some boards/Facebook pages who seem happy to post hour after hour about how much Scally has received in fees but skimped on paying fees for players. Whilst they are entitled to their opinions, their hatred for the chairman seems to cloud the fact that the majority of our peers (some much bigger than ourselves) are also doing the same thing!

At this time of year we cannot afford to add to the wage bill significantly unless players move out. As this is unlikely until their contracts expire in the summer so too does it make it unlikely to be able purchase new players like we have done in the summer before. Those who seem intent on ridiculing the system seem to forget that this offers the chance to have a better quality player at usually a lower wage. Why many seem to want to deride this I don't know. It will become more and more the norm but quite why premier league clubs don't have the finances to do otherwise I really don't know!

I find it so hard to watch English Premier soccer now, I start off looking at the bottom of the table first hoping the London clubs avoid relegation, what's the point of looking at the top, same old same old, Man C, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool, Spurs, basically been like that for 30 years, really don't care which of them wins the title, although watching Man City bang a hat full in each game is kind of fun.
How there is no salary cap on teams I can not imagine. Much as I was against it at one time, I now applaud it 100% , it has evened the teams up and with the exception of a few badly run teams, with a week to go this season about a 1/2 of the teams were in with a chance of making the playoffs.
Look at the Premier League today ,outside the top 5 or 6 no one has a chance to win the title, been like that from day one of the season (my money is on MC) and it's been the same for the past 35 years with the exception of Blackburn, and people wonder why "fans" around the world who have never been to a game gravitate towards teams like Man U.
If you were interested in watching English soccer and you lived in Japan or Argentina who would you want to support, Everton, Newcastle, Stoke, West Ham, bunch of "losers" who can not scratch their butts and pick their nose's at the same time ?
Ok rant over, I just get so frustrated with the game I have loved for 50 years which is suddenly becoming boring to me, and that's a shame.

And why the uncertainty of being a Gills fan, never knowing what will happen, will beat that every day of the week!!!

Apart from Crawley (whose game was yet again postponed) the results mean another game chalked off and we remain 14th. Happy with that!