I would have said us and Belfast probably spending about the same. Every signing they announced I thought looked good and not cheap. Like you say, Barriga and Tedesco will have been signed on top end money.Doom wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 5:07 pmWe probably do have the highest wage bill in the league, but I doubt there's much in it and certainly not enough to make a fuss about.ginger wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 4:03 pmHilarious when you look at the rosters and league experience. Cardiff have more AHL, Czech, DEL and Allsvensken experience than us, we have more Liiga experience.mark wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 3:27 pmOur bigger income from attendances is balanced out by the fact that we pay a fortune to hire the arena, unlike Cardiff. Sport is cyclic and the stars of the old Cardiff team have mostly moved on and not been replaced, hardly unusual in professional sport, there was even a time when Manchester United used to be goodwakefieldsteelersfan wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 3:19 pmSeen a few comments on twitter/Facebook too.....anyone would think Cardiff's roster is dirt cheap the way they speak.
I'm sure the likes of Cox,Sandford,Daniel,Martin,Bowns,Richardson,Crawford,Ully,Arniel etc came dirt cheap and play for peanuts.
To suggest there's massive differences in budget is laughable. Weren't we rumoured to also have been in for Arniel?
Looking at my pre season goals prediction, I had Belfast top followed by us and then Cardiff and Nottingham just behind.
In Tedesco and Barriga Belfast added two of the top goal scorers in our league to an already strong roster....They won't have cost peanuts.
They also managed to retain the top netminder from the previous season.
Unfortunately for Belfast Besko is having a stinker this season and Tedesco has failed to fire, whereas the players we signed who struggled last season have really found their feet in our league (Juusola, Simpson etc.).
I think it's good recruitment by Fox, but also there's an element of luck in it. The stars seem to have aligned for us and maybe this year it's our turn.
Regards
Doom
Cardiff will not be far behind and I doubt Guildford are either.
I think we got Simpson and Juusola on cheaper deals than expected, probably with a 'come and prove it and you'll get a bigger deal next year (whether here or elsewhere)'. Also can't forget the uni deals as I doubt we get Watling without it.
Always an element of luck in building a winning team, but I've said elsewhere that I think Fox got a high number of his first choices this year and it shows. His systems require high discipline at both ends of the rink, plus speed. Unfortunately I think he's had to take a couple of bigger gambles the last two years, and some have not worked for various reasons. What I would say is he has never recruited someone who I thought was really poor (apart from maybe McNally but there's a decent hockey player in him too).
Interested to know what you think might have happened last year had we had Saucerman and Tansey as opposed to Schulze and Piche?
he finally got the pieces he wanted in Tansey and Saucerman, very much worth the wait.
