Tozer done deal

[Jon Palmer]

https://bit.ly/TozerDealDone" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[longmover]

As a 31 year old you cant turn that ££ and contract down considering he's in the last year of his contract here.

[milestones]

Sorry to see him go but that sounds like a good bit of business to me!

[QED]

200k for a 31 year old? We’ve had their pants down. Good luck to him and hopefully he’ll be back in the league one day - as our friends in Nailsworth found out, it’s not easy to buy your way out of non-league.

[Shade]

Well, I'm going to disagree. Feels like we're just doing right by the player ffs. £200k? The board really know how to f#!$ us over when we are supposed to be riding a high. How can we have had Wrexham's pants down for £200k when they are loaded and he saves and sets up around a combined 20 goals a season? Very unhappy.

[Hubert Parry]

On a strictly financial level, this is good business for the Club. We signed him for nothing and we are not likely to get a bigger offer than this for the remainder of his contract.

The question is whether we can sufficiently replace what we brought to the table? Most notably - his leadership, his ball-playing abilities and obviously the goals from his long throws. In terms of the latter, this will be extremely difficult to replace although Sean Long does have a good throw on him. We shall need to find goals via other means, and this will inevitably require us to be much better with our other set pieces.

In terms of leadership, Will Boyle seems like a natural replacement, so I have few concerns there. We also have time to bring in a sufficiently experienced CB if we are not comfortable with Long or Freestone (or Horton) filling in that spot.

We probably do need a ball playing CB to come in. One of Tozer's great assets was his ability to switch the play quickly and I am not sure Boyle, Freestone, Long or Raglan have the same levels of ability.

It will be interesting to see whether we now switch the shape, because so much of it was built around what Tozer brought to the party.

[Shade]

Unless we can get that ball playing defender in sharpish, it will be a lot more of a struggle than it was going to be. I don't want to make predictions but it now feels like it will be a long season. We will probably be playing against BT next season.

[Fuller]

How much of that money will go back into the squad?
Can we find a proper replacement by next Wednesday?
Anyone else take long throws as good as Ben's?
Thanks Ben but I'm well hacked off and expecting a long winter ...

[Joey]

I expect we will get some nonsense from the board how "this is a good deal for the club", what a completely uninspiring summer this has been.

[longmover]

I don't know what the club are expected to do? Wrexham hold all the cards here, they know he's in his last year and in the grand scheme of things they can wait and have him for free and Tozer still gets big wages and three year contract and we get nothing.

[longmover]

Had any other club come in for Tozer or just wrexham?

[Shade]

They've gone from £60k to £200k in a week. Why stop there? Hold the f*%*ers to ransom. If they end up saying nope, then fine, we get to keep our captain for at least another few months and end up with him staying next summer or letting him go for having had 4 years good service from him. It feels like we were holding the better cards but have folded before the stakes got interesting. The impact of his loss to the team will be more than £200k, imo. I just hope it doesn't do any damage to the overall team morale.

If we win tonight then all will be forgiven until the next defeat. If we lose, then the board are in for an uncomfortable time, I think, unless we sign a decent replacement.

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

If we go down now it will cost us more than £200k in TV/prize/sponsorship money.

I will be the first to say it: Wilcox would not have bottled it and sold.

[Ralph]

Well, I'm going to disagree. Feels like we're just doing right by the player ffs. £200k? The board really know how to f#!$ us over when we are supposed to be riding a high. How can we have had Wrexham's pants down for £200k when they are loaded and he saves and sets up around a combined 20 goals a season? Very unhappy.

Agree with this. 200k for one of our best weapons, captain and all-round leader? We've been mugged. We won't be able to replace him in time before the window shuts. Well done CTFC board for screwing us over just when we felt there were exciting times ahead.

[theidlerich]

On the other hand we should be pleased for him. He has done us proud over time and if he wishes to move on we should allow him that courtesy. Good luck Tozer lad we wish you well.

[shevates]

Financialy its a good deal without doubt, especially as his contract finishes at the end of the season. Footballing wise its a nightmare losing a dam good defender and our leading assist man. That two pkayers who have dropped from the league to join Wrexham, Tozer, and Mullins, and Barrow lost there leading Striker to Stockport. Money does talk

[paperboy]

Aging defender getting found out by pace in League One
Turning circle of a dredger.

Just trying to put a positive spin on things-gutted.

Can't wait to seeing him proudly holding up that Wrexham shirt and gushingly say how excited he is to be part of the project.

Tbh. He's been a lower league plodder for most of his career. He has spoken openly of his struggles at Newport, so can't criticize him for accepting the big carrot that's been dangled in front of him.

[Shade]

Just to make it clear - I have no problem with BT wanting to take the security of a 3 year deal and extra pay. He has served us extremely well, achieved things no other CTFC captain has ever achieved, and I wish him luck. I'm just pissed off that the board have let him go for £200k. I would much rather have had him for the rest of this season and had him leave on a free next summer. He is worth more than £200k to this squad over the next 8 months. When we can't score and lose by the odd goal, when one of his throws could (and often did) make the difference...when we can't get the ball out of defence and it's being passed from one defender to the other, and again, and again, and then eventually pumped forward to nobody or is lost in our own last third...we'll be wishing we had Tozer on the pitch or a lot more money in the bank.

Be interesting to see what MD thinks about it/his tone/body language tonight.

[HamTown]

At least its a position we're well covered in and also the most confident Duff can find a decent replacement (if he deems necessary)

His ball playing will be difficult to replace especially how the system was essentially set up around him but IMO, as a basic defender, hes not league 1 standard

Also, am I being naive in saying it can't be that hard to lob a ball in to the box? Tall, strong back, bit of technique?

[Shade]

Also, am I being naive in saying it can't be that hard to lob a ball in to the box? Tall, strong back, bit of technique?

If it was that easy, wouldn't everyone be doing it given how effective it is? Long's long throws are a lot more loopy. It's all about the trajectory and not many can get it that far, that flat.

[Hubert Parry]

There are other ways to score a goal.

It is interesting look at the analytical data so far this season. The sample size is small, but our XG vs. XA currently has us in 4th position. This suggests that we are conceding more than we should and scoring fewer than we should, based on chances created. This indicates a leaky defence (of which Tozer was part) and a wasteful attack.

If we can find other ways to score then we will not miss the long throws as much. Hopefully Duffo can now bring in those 2 or 3 signings he has talked about...

[Malabus]

Nature of the game.
We are a selling club and always will be playing at this level.
Have to move on.

[Robin]

200k for a 31 year old? We’ve had their pants down. Good luck to him and hopefully he’ll be back in the league one day - as our friends in Nailsworth found out, it’s not easy to buy your way out of non-league.

Sounds like the board held out to get a fair price for once but if this ends up with us being relegated it will cost a lot more than £200k so it's a gamble. I hope Mickey Moore has some good young centre backs on the radar who we can pull in at short notice because we don't have a successor for Toze in the current squad. We need another Jacob Greaves style signing.

[Robin]

Financialy its a good deal without doubt, especially as his contract finishes at the end of the season. Footballing wise its a nightmare losing a dam good defender and our leading assist man. That two pkayers who have dropped from the league to join Wrexham, Tozer, and Mullins, and Barrow lost there leading Striker to Stockport. Money does talk

Wrexham also signed a Carlisle centre back the other week for a rumoured £100,000, some serious money being spent up there. If they don't go up this season it will get interesting.

[Robin]

At least its a position we're well covered in and also the most confident Duff can find a decent replacement (if he deems necessary)

His ball playing will be difficult to replace especially how the system was essentially set up around him but IMO, as a basic defender, hes not league 1 standard

Also, am I being naive in saying it can't be that hard to lob a ball in to the box? Tall, strong back, bit of technique?

Not sure I can agree with this, we do not have any replacement. He's instrumental to how we play and please don't suggest a change in formation we don't have the players for it. Boyle and Raglan are not comfortable distributing from the back we need someone to sweep between them.

Signing a quality striker and ball playing defender in the next couple of days is key.

[ReturningRed]

Tozer trending on Twitter, just behind Ronaldo & Kanye West.

Cheltenham Town....we are Massive!

[little mo]

Financialy its a good deal without doubt, especially as his contract finishes at the end of the season. Footballing wise its a nightmare losing a dam good defender and our leading assist man. That two pkayers who have dropped from the league to join Wrexham, Tozer, and Mullins, and Barrow lost there leading Striker to Stockport. Money does talk

They have also signed James Jones from Lincoln for an undisclosed fee,3 year contract. He played 45 games in league one last season. They must be paying way more than even we think to get all these players dropping 2 divisions. Good luck to them though,fill your boots.

[Horteng]

200k for a 31 year old? We’ve had their pants down. Good luck to him and hopefully he’ll be back in the league one day - as our friends in Nailsworth found out, it’s not easy to buy your way out of non-league.

Not really. Would you replace him for £200k? Probably not. Loosing Toze is a detrimental to the team. We don’t need the money. I should of been more to make it worth while. £500k and start talking……

[Johnsons Red Army]

Agree with Shade, Robin and Horteng.

[Si Robin]

I will be the first to say it: Wilcox would not have bottled it and sold.

Based on what evidence exactly? He took £150k for Ryan Broom last year.

[little mo]

If the Johnson brothers signed him,are they in for a percentage.

[HamTown]

At least its a position we're well covered in and also the most confident Duff can find a decent replacement (if he deems necessary)

His ball playing will be difficult to replace especially how the system was essentially set up around him but IMO, as a basic defender, hes not league 1 standard

Also, am I being naive in saying it can't be that hard to lob a ball in to the box? Tall, strong back, bit of technique?

Not sure I can agree with this, we do not have any replacement. He's instrumental to how we play and please don't suggest a change in formation we don't have the players for it. Boyle and Raglan are not comfortable distributing from the back we need someone to sweep between them.

Signing a quality striker and ball playing defender in the next couple of days is key.

Well we are well covered with CBs who have been here for a decent amount of time who know the existing system. I agree his ability to play out from the back or hit an accurate long ball will be greatly missed but I wouldn't consider him particularly good defensively, that third goal last week against a poor Fleetwood was a total shambles for example.

I'm confident in Duff and co to overcome this setback.

[MittonRobin]

Absolutely f#!$ rubbish. Yes i am bitter !

Lost my mojo a bit with this club at the minute. Pretty shocking summer for transfer business and Enthusiasm gone at the moment big time !

[RegencyCheltenhamSpa]

I will be the first to say it: Wilcox would not have bottled it and sold.

Based on what evidence exactly? He took £150k for Ryan Broom last year.

I wish people stopped making comparisons with Broom. Imo the value we accept has nothing to do with the age or quality of the player, it is about how important they are to our aims at this point in timr. We won the league without Broom, so it was essentially £150k for a player we didn’t need. Or at worst, the money helped us get Sercombe and Wright who are better players.

Either way, losing Broom didn’t cost us anything and led to us improving the team…whether we sold for £75k, £150k or £300k is neither here nor there. Losing Tozer on the other hand could cost us a place in L1, which would cost us more than £200k.

But, I am just venting. I hope Duff OK’d the decision and feels we can stay up without Tozer or can replace him with quality. If Duff didn’t want to sell and thinks this damages rather than helps our chances. Either way, I trust in Duff.

[horlickfanclub]

Players come and go. We have the fee and a chunk of wages which should bring in someone. Freestone might grab his chance and we can change style a bit.Get some pace at the back. The quick throw in might become the new secret weapon.
Tozer faces a longer commute for his money .
He has been great but onwards and upwards. The bigger disaster will be if we lose Boyle in the next few days.