Summer Signings.

[Bluemike]

The Blues have seen a drop of around 2,000 season tickets sales compared to this time last year following an uninspiring 16th place Championship finish.

Manager Mick McCarthy said he would seek assurances from owner Marcus Evans regarding the club’s ambition in a big end of season chat, having worked on a restricted transfer budget for the entirety of his four-and-a-half years in charge.

“It’s not for me to say ‘yes, he got the answers he wanted’,” said Milne. “They’ve had that discussion though and the outcome is that Mick is staying here for another season. I have no reason to believe there are any disagreements or bad feeling.”

He continued: “We don’t like losing season ticket holders, that’s a worry, but we think we’ll get them back by having some decent announcements about players.

“They’ve made an early start on talks. We’ve gone from a squad of around 32 to around 19, so there’s a gap to that normal squad size of around 26.

“The details will come through to me when things become a bit more solid, but there is always sparring going on between clubs. “Mick draws up his list of targets, then Marcus takes it from there.

“It’s all about negotiations and Marcus, because of his main business, is very good at that. Equally, (director of football) David Bowman and Mick may say to Marcus, and there are a few examples of this, that they don’t think the bidding should go any higher for a certain player.

“Our hope is that by mid/late June we will be announcing some signings. These things take time, but there’s an appreciation that we’re not going to sell loads of season tickets until the fans see what the squad looks like. I understand that.

Milne added: “It’s no secret that we lacked entertaining and winning football last season and we’ve got to get that back. Mick has kept us in the Championship, thank goodness, and now we go again.

“We all know the areas of weakness in the squad – that’s no secret. We’ve got to improve. The players are pushing for new blood too. (Captain) Luke Chambers made a big cry for that on the radio yesterday, so no pressure!”

[ashfordblue]

Lets wait and see this early intake of supposed new players coming in, Tom Lawrence coming back would be a positive move, plus about 4 more of Tom's quality would be a bonus, but why break tradition here, we normally go through offers and negotiations for players, nothing happens, then its panic bargain basement time in August picking up the scraps of players still wanting a club, generally ones that are past their sell by date, BUT lets not look at this in a negative way, I'm sure Marcus can come up with the goods, (cant he) ??????

[Shed on tour]

The Blues have seen a drop of around 2,000 season tickets sales compared to this time last year following an uninspiring 16th place Championship finish.

Manager Mick McCarthy said he would seek assurances from owner Marcus Evans regarding the club’s ambition in a big end of season chat, having worked on a restricted transfer budget for the entirety of his four-and-a-half years in charge.

“It’s not for me to say ‘yes, he got the answers he wanted’,” said Milne. “They’ve had that discussion though and the outcome is that Mick is staying here for another season. I have no reason to believe there are any disagreements or bad feeling.”

He continued: “We don’t like losing season ticket holders, that’s a worry, but we think we’ll get them back by having some decent announcements about players.

“They’ve made an early start on talks. We’ve gone from a squad of around 32 to around 19, so there’s a gap to that normal squad size of around 26.

“The details will come through to me when things become a bit more solid, but there is always sparring going on between clubs. “Mick draws up his list of targets, then Marcus takes it from there.

“It’s all about negotiations and Marcus, because of his main business, is very good at that. Equally, (director of football) David Bowman and Mick may say to Marcus, and there are a few examples of this, that they don’t think the bidding should go any higher for a certain player.

“Our hope is that by mid/late June we will be announcing some signings. These things take time, but there’s an appreciation that we’re not going to sell loads of season tickets until the fans see what the squad looks like. I understand that.

Milne added: “It’s no secret that we lacked entertaining and winning football last season and we’ve got to get that back. Mick has kept us in the Championship, thank goodness, and now we go again.

“We all know the areas of weakness in the squad – that’s no secret. We’ve got to improve. The players are pushing for new blood too. (Captain) Luke Chambers made a big cry for that on the radio yesterday, so no pressure!”

So Mick has agreed to stay another season, no surprise there.

However, even if Evans is considering changing policy and letting Mick have a bigger transfer budget, which I have my doubts he is, then surely he will still be thinking, we'll hold on this bloke might only be here for another year so I'm not going to give him too much to spend as the new manager may very well want to make changes to the squad when he comes in.

At the end of the day I think it will be a case of as we were.

[derick_ipsw]

Jordan Spencer has signed for 2 years. First signing in the bag. Oh joy.