All looks good for our coffers

Quoted from aldi_01

flipping hell, do you work for them?

It was a genuine question, the Bennett fiasco nearly cost us money, genuine question ya busy girl private.

What nearly cost us money? You keep bringing this up, but have no facts other than mentioning it was done wrong. When people point out that the board let them stagger the payments rather than a lump sum to allow the sale to go ahead, you seem oblivious to the fact that this would be a good move.

But you just carry on ranting away like a miserable old fornicator, then call me the girl private  

Quoted from pen penfras

What nearly cost us money? You keep bringing this up, but have no facts other than mentioning it was done wrong. When people point out that the board let them stagger the payments rather than a lump sum to allow the sale to go ahead, you seem oblivious to the fact that this would be a good move.

But you just carry on ranting away like a miserable old fornicator, then call me the girl private  

The 'Town got shafted over Bennett' story is one of those odd myths that just keeps on prevailing no matter how many times it is debunked. I think the confusion stems from the fact that Barry Fry attempted, but failed, to buy out the clause just prior to Bennett's sale to Norwich. I believe there was a successful renegotiation of the terms, but this was only to reflect that Town's sell-on fee would be paid at the same instalment rate at which Norwich were due to pay Peterborough. And that's not unreasonable.

Successful negotiation is rarely about getting things 100% your own way - when you insist on that you tend to come away with nothing. In reality, it's about getting as close to your own best case scenario as possible whilst maintaining a workable deal for all concerned parties.

I think I'm right in saying that in the club's 120 odd year history, only John Oster and Gary Croft have earned the club more money from a player's transfer. I'm not sure where that ranks in real terms, but to contstrue it as a failure on our part is just misguided.

I could write a book on the mismanagement that this club has suffered over the course of the last couple of decades, but the sale of Ryan Bennett should not feature as an example.

I think the only potential 'member up' when it comes to Ryan Bennett needs us to ask that had we kept him, would we have stayed up that season?

It's all ifs and buts and using the beauty of hindsight.  Each season cost us £1million whilst in the Conference.  Personally I think we were circling the plughole for too long and would have gone down at some point simply because we were so badly run, from top to bottom.  Had we stayed up that season, it would have only been a matter of time before we dropped.

I think we also had an agreement in place with Bennett when he signed a new deal that summer.   Around the same time we also did very well out of selling Jack Barlow to Hull for £300k.

Quoted from Poojah

I think I'm right in saying that in the club's 120 odd year history, only John Oster and Gary Croft have earned the club more money from a player's transfer. I'm not sure where that ranks in real terms, but to contstrue it as a failure on our part is just misguided.

In 'real terms', I'd say the Shaun Cunnington transfer to Sunderland (£650,000 in 1992) was worth more.  Even better is the fact that we used that money to permanently sign Clive Mendonca (£80,000 I think) and get some lad from Blackpool for £150,000....can't remember his name but he did ok for us.

We also used some of the money to sign Rhys Wilmott too....2 out of 3 ain't bad!

Steve Bruce was spotted at the Crewe v Peterborough game at the weekend, apparently there to watch Dembele according to some Toon fans. Not sure what he saw though as Peterborough lost for the first time this season.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Around the same time we also did very well out of selling Jack Barlow to Hull for £300k.

£100k.

I think the Jack Barlow cash was an excellent deal under the circumstances and may be, just maybe we’d already seen the potential attitude issues, hence the sale.

Going back to Bennett, I don’t think we’d have stayed up had we kept him and if we did, much like that day at Bournemouth, it would only have delayed the inevitable. As folk have said, we hovered around the relegation zone and everyone could see it coming. There’s countless reasons for this but all share part of the blame.

Dembele has clearly improved year on year since leaving us, and if you put yourself in his shoes at the minute, he must think he’s a million miles away from where it started and fair play to the lad.