Its an interesting article but

the analogy is not quite the same because the decision to cash in a failing investment ie pay off Worthie ( and probably ) his staff for a new investment ( ie a new manangement team) does not allow a clean break in that you are still investing in the same failing team. This in itself may be an unattractive investment even with a new management team thus risking an expensive failure .

Firstly the squad is unbalanced and requires additional player investment to create a balanced squad.

Secodly there is clearly an amount of deadwood in the squad that would have to be cleared out possibly at a further loss on the investment. Hughes Gallagher and Charlton are the only obvious deadwood that cost us significant money and it is unlikely that we could sell them for what we paid for them. Further they are likely to be on salary packages that would make it difficult for us to sell them on without buying them out of their contracts.

The other deadwood at least cost us nothing to buy in because they were free transfers - Thorne, Louis-Jean , Jarrett , Brennan and McVeigh but again they would probably have to have their contracts bought out to enable the club to sever ties with them .

Thirdly nearly 25% of the squad are short term loanees thus making it difficult for any new management team to undertake long term planning.

Despite all these obstacles there is hope , even in investment terms that the right management team could reinvigorate the squad to enable a rebuilding programme to be completed for the start of next season.

In particular there are key players who are ( or were before injury) currently underperforming - Ashton, Huckerby, Drury , Mckenzie and Shackell are the obvious examples. There is a reasonable chance that a new management team could reinvigorate these players. Others such as Doherty and Saffri are performing ( injury allowing ) to their potential.

The jury remains out in my view on Colin and Henderson who along with the likes of Fleming , Ward and Jarvis can be useful squad players.

Secondly there are sellable players who are available to fund a fundamental squad reorganisation around those key players. In my view Green and Saffri ( only because he is so injury prone ) could be sold . Ward is a capable deputy to step up if only for the short term until hopefully Lewis fulfills his promise and Robinson ( out of contract at the end of the season )I believe is likely to prove an adequate long term replacement for Saffri.

Further thewholesale pruning of the deadwood should free up money in terms of salary to build up a more blanced squad and we have the benefit of a further parachute payment next year.

However a new management team must be brought in as early as possible to assess the squad and see whether a new approach can transform that squad. This needs to happen before the transfer window opens in December. If we are going to challenge for promotion next year ( If , and this is a big if, we are not relegated ) the new mangement team must have time to construct and blend a new squad.

There is no chance that Worthie can do this. Even if he is willing to admit his fundamental mistakes and carry out a reconstruction of the squad he clearly cannot be trusted on his recent transfer record and his playing record of the past 16 months to do so successfully .

The conclusion therefore is that with the benefit of the investment analogy , even taking into account the differences to overcome set out above, that Worthington plc must be cashed in and replaced. All the Board surely understand investment decisions from their own personal wealth investment strategies and it is extraordinary to me that they are still keeping their their investment in Worthington plc.

Posted By: Westfields1, Nov 27, 19:37:44