A farm club model needs to be generating sufficient player transfer revenue per season to offset operation losses and replenish cash reserves to cover the famine years. According to the most recent financials, now a year old, we’re nowhere near that.
That's because Steve Cooper didn't want to use our U23/U21 players and the youngsters he signed on a permanent basis. Instead, he took players on loan from PL clubs, players we couldn't keep at the end of their loan spells. The finances for the 2021/22 season mark the end of the Steve Cooper era.
2019/20 (Cooper's first season with us)
Signed
Kristoffer Peterson, 24, for
£550k, and
Jake Bidwell, 26, on free transfer.
All other signings were loans.
Sold
Oli McBurnie, Dan James and Jordan Ayew for approx.
£35m.
Profit from transfers = £34.45m
2020/21 (Cooper's second season with us)
Signed
Jamal Lowe, 26, for
£800k,
Morgan Whittaker, 20, for
£700k,
Ryan Manning, 24, for
£200k, and
Joel Latibeaudiere, 20, for an undisclosed fee. Some other players were signed either as free agents or for an undisclosed fee, but they are not interesting because all of them were older players without any re-sell value (Ryan Bennett, Korey Smith, Kieron Freeman and Ben Hammer).
Sold
Joe Rodon, Bersant Celina, Joel Asoro and Kristoffer Peterson for
£15m.
Profit from transfers = £13.3m
2021/22 (Martin's first year with us)
Signed
Michael Obafemi, 21, for
£1.8m,
Flynn Downes, 22, for
£1.5m,
Joel Piroe, 21, for
£1.1m,
Kyle Joseph, 19, for
£500k,
Andy Fisher for
£450k, and
Nathaniel Ogbeta for an undisclosed fee.
Liam Walsh, 23,
Olivier Ntcham, 25, and Jamie Paterson, 29, were all signed on free transfers. Wolf, Williams, Laird and Christie were signed on loan.
Sold
Connor Roberts for
£2.7m and
Jamal Lowe for
£1.6m.
Profit from transfers = - £1.05m
In 2022/23 (Martin's second year with us)
Signed
Harry Darling, 22, for
£2.2m,
Nathan Wood, 20, for an undisclosed fee, and Joe Allen as a free agent.
Sold
Flynn Downes for
£10.5m and
Jordon Garrick for undisclosed fee.
Profit from transfers =
approx. £8m
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In his two years in charge, Steve Cooper has only signed four under-25 players who could have been developed and sold for a profit: Kristoffer Peterson, Morgan Whittaker, Ryan Manning and Joel Latibeaudiere. None of them played much under Cooper. We lost money on Peterson, Manning and Latibeaudiere. We can either use and develop Whittaker or sell him for more than we paid for him.
Martin has so far signed ten under-25s who could have been, or can be, developed and sold at a profit: Michael Obafemi, Flynn Downes, Joel Piroe, Kyle Joseph, Andy Fisher, Nathaniel Ogbeta, Liam Walsh, Olivier Ntcham, Harry Darling and Nathan Wood. Most of these players have played a lot under Martin. Obafemi was sold for a pittance and Downes for a considerable profit. All the others are still with us. Piroe, Wood and Ntcham can be sold for a substantial profit.
As you can see, there is a huge difference between Steve Cooper and Russell Martin when it comes to transfer market strategy. Steve Cooper didn't sign many young talented players, and when he did, he didn't use them at all. He used loan players from other clubs. Steve Cooper also didn't use our academy players at all. Russell Martin, on the other hand, bought a lot of young players to play and develop. He also brought Oli Cooper, Liam Cullen, Cameron Congreve and Steven Benda into the first team.
In my opinion, Steve Cooper wasted two years of the club's progress and money by forcing loans on players who were never going to sign for us. He hasn't developed any of our own players.
