Rage Online

It seems some clubs are making comparatively big foray's into
the transfer market already with many agreeing to join on July 1st when contracts expire.


Shrewsbury have snapped up Chester's highly rated midfielder
Ben Davies from under the noses of Northampton and signed fellow cestrian Stuart Drummond and two other players.

Already Gillingham have swooped to sign Ipswich striker Dean
McDonald, Cardiff forward Guylain Ndumbu Nsungu and Southend
duo Duncan Jupp and Mark Bentley. Shrewsbury's highly rated 'keeper
Joe Hart has today signed for Manchester City.

Phil Jevons has left Yeovil today on a Bosman style move to
link up with Gary Johnson at Bristol City.

Yes, but despite the temptation to be drawn in to the hype, it's how it all turns out that matters. If you look at League 2 last summer, a club like Shrewsbury seemed to be signing no-one and losing their best players, whilst a certain Wycombe were making high-profile signings. Next season, they meet again....

We have to trust that Jim's contacts, and his judgment, will give us an advantage. To put it another way, there is a huge surplus of competent (if not exciting) footballers who will end up out of contract, and who therefore would play for any professional club next season, and amongst those there is the team to get us promoted. It's a matter of finding them, and shaping them into a team - obvious, but true all the same. A certain Mr Rix assumed that paying a lot for relatively high-profile and high-wage players would make the difference.

Agree with that.

What Cheltenham manager John Ward has achieved on a budget reported
to be around £650,00 is nothing short of remarkable.He barely signed a player last summer and the Robins were heavily tipped for relegation.

He was bale to mould a team with the right blend of youth and experience
who were committed,strong and fit and who always try to pass the ball.

In two and a half years at Cheltenham,Ward has done a terrific job.

Its strange to think we've lost our FL status and they are now two leagues above us. The five games against them last season,they were all very tight affairs with the winning margin one goal in four of those meetings.

Then we offloaded Davies,Hackett and Bradbury!

To add to that, both Macclesfield and Bury survived last season on very poor crowds - and so I would imagine low incomes. I didn't see Bury, but Macclesfield played reasonable football when I saw us at Moss Rose.