But then that's chicken and egg. The nervousness is that we *will* end up selling them on the cheap, as much to pay for those very same contracts. Until it's done and dusted, that's going to be there isn't it. I'd agree that the new contracts is very good news - with the attendent worry that us seemingly being unable to sustain our wage bill doesn't bode well for us going forward. Fisher had always said our model would work in league one, but not this one... and that's a nagging doubt isn't it. And while I hate it when fans are billy big bollocks about their clubs, you'd think middling Championship ought to be a reasonable aspiration for us, surely? And yes, that will indeed involve selling players, so I'm not particularly worried about that. I'm more concerned about how we then work to improve the squad, and how our owners decide what's appropriate for running costs... and what those running costs turn out to be. The slow movement so far appears to show we're right at our limit, and what we had done a lot better in recent years is get our top targets in early, allow them to bed in (well, I'll give you the likes of Chaplin, who were a long, tortured chase!).
We will indeed wait and see, but the runes aren't reading well atm. I wasn't one who thought we should push in January (and we did sign Bidwell then anyway) but I was admittedly hoping for a permanent CB at the very least, and that doesn't look a possibility anymore, does it.
What I especially hope however, is that if we do go into the season with pretty much the same squad we have now, people don't expect too much of the manager and show some tolerance if it doesn't go as we all hope. This season feels very much like a standing still season, which doesn't have to be a bad thing in itself... but we have had momentum behind us for a while now, and that's been quite nice really!