Delia,Delia,Delia... ...........

I read your quote below and think to myself "...isn't that why the Academy should be so important to us in bringing through players so we DON'T have to spend ?4 million on players/wages..." -and that I would far, far rather have a Paul Hayes or Danny Crow coming through the Academy, getting a place in the side, and scoring the goals we need, than having to spend ?3 million on a player from a club that DOES use their Academy "properly" and have some faith and belief in it...never mind Charlton, shouldn't we be learning from Crewe? And yes, Ipswich???

"Majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones had a relatively quiet night, but Delia had her say when one shareholder suggested the club were putting prudence before ambition by not spending enough on new players.

?I had the privilege of sitting next to Sir Bobby Robson on Saturday and when I told him when we went up to the Premiership Nigel had ?4m to spend on transfer fees and wages he could not believe it - that we were competing with clubs who had multi-million pound players with a budget like that.

?That is what we could afford. We have gone the extra mile and I just can't agree that we should go into deeper debt. The survival of the football club is the most important thing. We have seen clubs who have gone up into the Premiership - one not far down the road - who have overspent and then gone into administration. I'd much rather we kept our balance. We are ambitious - and no-one is more ambitious than Nigel.?

Posted By: Martin Peters, Nov 1, 14:31:14