Time to get serious about our future
02/03/05 | by Ian Widdowson

If we stay up or go down either way it will be a busy summer for Gary Megson and Nigel Doughty. If we stay up we need to buy the players who can really challenge for promotion – I mean who else is fed up in hearing we can't attract good players to the club because of the position we are in? If we do stay up, we start the season with a clean slate so we should be able to attract the right players to the club, if, of course, we are prepared to pay the transfer fees and wages for quality players.

Alternatively, if we go down we again have to cut our cloth accordingly but still get the right players in, as we must at all costs be challenging for promotion.

But my main worry is that the Football League next season will (as I understand it) have to adopt FIFA's transfer system and must abide by the transfer window. Therefore all the incoming and outgoing players need to be in or out by August 31. No messing about in the close season – we need to have a settled, strong squad by kick-off of next season.

We can't rely on panic buys or loans once the season has started and any fine tuning to the squad will have to be made in January. Doughty must take note from previous summers – he has only got his wallet out this season at a time when it was (in some people's eyes) too late to avoid the drop, and in reality most of that investment only came available after we received money from Reid and Dawson and on the back of the successful cup run.

The new transfer window will mean prices of players will be higher than normal in the summer. Players out of contract will be able to ask for higher wages (although I understand you can still sign out of contract players after the transfer deadline because those players are out of work).

So Doughty, you will have to spend yours / the club's money in the summer if we go down or stay up. You may put the prices of season tickets up, you may argue if you don't spend any money we will be debt free. But what good is being debt free in League One? As for the fans, to buy those season tickets they need to be able to see where the club is heading; for people to pay those extortionate admission prices, they need to see a squad capable of promotion from whichever league we are in. 

Our chairman better be prepared to get serious. He needs to get his wallet out as this club is in for a busy summer, and we need to be able to compete with rival clubs on and off the pitch. I can't see how he can afford not to, can you?