Andrew Nicholson aka Courtjester wrote:

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If any of our players feel that they are more suited to playing football at a lower level or have reached the limit of their ambition and just want to chase money then I understand and respect that. But if they have ambition to progress then I would question why they would want to depart to a team playing at a lower level and are by no means certain to be in the National Conference any time soon.

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 A good argument, well put, Andrew.

Yes we will be the conference next year. As for ambition we have an ambitious manager and board. having limited money does not mean we are less ambitious, since our fans rallied together and saved our club, we have seen a turnaround in the club both on and off the pitch by living with in our means.

In answer to your question as a player, I would  have chosen Welling United because as a player I would want to play at the highest level I could.

Players should be told that the normal rules apply on all moves except Ebbsfleet. If you are moving up the leagues or to full time in this league we  will continue to do our best for you. Given that Mr Day seems to want to go for players he knows the starting price for ANYONE  making that move is £50,000. They make no bones they have the money, if they want people that badly they pay. If we do this we are not standing in the way of anyone's career. It is obvious Mr Day is aware he has to be ruthless to make it work in the time scale he has. We must be equally ruthless in defending our interests and club.

We have to operate in a transfer window, they don't. We cannot have our stock of players depleted as and when they see fit without at least obtaining the money to fund decent quality loans.

wings_13 wrote:

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You lot don't even appreciate the players we have and now you complain about anyone trying to move clubs to secure a better deal for themselves. We don't have the funds to pay our players the wages they deserve. Hell we don't even have the funds to go into the football league. I don't want our players leaving as much as the next guy but when they are offered more money, good management team, club that's looking to move up the league's and has the money to do it - who can blame them.

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 Interesting use of the term "you lot" rather than us lot. Not a fan, I guess.

When you are offered a contract you sign the best you can get. In commerce you may have to sign a  contract that states you may not use your contacts for a new company until 12 months after you leave, I cannot go and work for a direct supplier to my existing company. It's called self preservation

In the case of football you pay for the registration but if they have signed a contract they decided it was the best they could get at the time and they should know that is the case. Ignorance is not an excuse. At no point did I say they shouldn't be allowed to go, it is not personal to them. If Ebbsfleet rate them and want them it would be £50,000. If Ebbsfleet didn't want to pay they are the ones who have decided not to further that person's career. If say, Luton came in and offered £15,000, we may decide that is ok, go with good grace on both sides.

If you are suggesting we should not exercise our options robustly in the face of a direct competitor who can effectively insider trade and who no longer have regard to our best interests when we are bound by rules they are not I am interested to know how you would protect the interests of the club. If your logic is that the contract is inconvenient to the player when a better offer comes along, consider how inconvenient it is to the club to  be paying when a player is suspended or injured. I am sure they would be overjoyed to suspend payment for that period

This club is a business not the Ebbsfleet benevolent fund. If you want us to get the funds to get in the League, extract maximum value for our assets so we obtain the finance to compete.

Finally, appreciation does not all appear in the pay packet, ask John Farley

stafford wrote:

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Players should be told that the normal rules apply on all moves except Ebbsfleet. If you are moving up the leagues or to full time in this league we  will continue to do our best for you. Given that Mr Day seems to want to go for players he knows the starting price for ANYONE  making that move is £50,000. They make no bones they have the money, if they want people that badly they pay. If we do this we are not standing in the way of anyone's career. It is obvious Mr Day is aware he has to be ruthless to make it work in the time scale he has. We must be equally ruthless in defending our interests and club.

We have to operate in a transfer window, they don't. We cannot have our stock of players depleted as and when they see fit without at least obtaining the money to fund decent quality loans.

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 Correct.

I'm not too sure how much our solicitor was involved in the Ebbsfleet deal but it looks like we're getting stitched up (or legally we just can't do anything about players getting poached). I just hope we start to get players under the new boss on contracts with stronger clauses/release clauses. It's been great seeing the likes of Roscoe, Harry etc. at PVR but when players go for a pittance or drop down a league it's hard to take. We need to start telling agents and players to do one under the new management team and if it means we miss out on the occasional good player then maybe that's what we do.

GaryH wrote:

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I think you'll find there'll be more carrots dangled by Jamie towards our players. 

Hope i'm wrong though

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 Could be hero to villain in a fortnight...or possibly he will spend some of his reputed £1M budget elsewhere?

GaryH wrote:

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I'm not too sure how much our solicitor was involved in the Ebbsfleet deal but it looks like we're getting stitched up (or legally we just can't do anything about players getting poached). I just hope we start to get players under the new boss on contracts with stronger clauses/release clauses. It's been great seeing the likes of Roscoe, Harry etc. at PVR but when players go for a pittance or drop down a league it's hard to take. We need to start telling agents and players to do one under the new management team and if it means we miss out on the occasional good player then maybe that's what we do.

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 My other half who is a contracts lawyer has said that if Ebbsfleet are able to poach players under contract without Welling not be able to do anything about it or at the very least make money out of it, then she thinks that it sounds like something has gone wrong somewhere. However, as she points out there is an abundance of rumour and not a lot of facts, so it is difficult to say whether the club is getting stitched up or not. What is clear to her is that the club has to wake up and smell the coffee and to begin to be  far more commercially aware with not only contractual arrangements with players and managers, but also as to how the club can develop commercially. Football is now a business and loyalty can be bought even if it means going down a league!

JgFc wrote:

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Sidcup Graham wrote:

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Jody brown just said in an interview that an offer had been made by Ebbsfleet for one of our players but had been rejected. He's expecting another offer to come in...

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 The rumoured offer was an offensive amount. When they want to offer proper money then maybe they have a chance of getting the contracted players. For a side that has supposed big money to then sign 2 players playing  at Welling and be after another for school dinner money amounts it doesn't add up that the money is there.

Why don't we put in 7 day approaches for their non contract players and one for their gantry :)

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 Corcoran,Pooley,May,Harrington,Sessegnon  take your pick !

 My other half who is a contracts lawyer has said that if Ebbsfleet are able to poach players under contract without Welling not be able to do anything about it... 

 I don't think this is the case? Non contract JT and marsh had gone back. Contracted players can only go if we agree terms. 

Sidcup Graham wrote:

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 My other half who is a contracts lawyer has said that if Ebbsfleet are able to poach players under contract without Welling not be able to do anything about it... 

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 I don't think this is the case? Non contract JT and marsh had gone back. Contracted players can only go if we agree terms. 

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 With respect if you actually read what was written, it is about players who are under contract. Of course if you have players on loan or managers who are not under contract as a manager, then there is not a lot that can be done. What was being said was that when it comes to signing players/managers then the club needs to ensure that the terms & conditions of their contracts are robust and that if the players/manager want to get out of the contract because they have been approached with an attractive offer then there has to be a robust approach to the terms negotiated to release them i.e. you get the most out of it. This is not amateur hour but the conference league and as in any other business it's all about cash flow and making the right commercial decisions. 

And I fully agree about watertight contracts, something I was also discussing last night