The player budget has been decimated because a succession of first-team managers, supported by someone who fucked off to Aberdeen, made a succession of utterly horrendous decisions. None of the investements, shall we say, have paid off.
Now, unless you're made of money, if an investment goes tits up and you lose a load of cash, you don't then turn around and throw more money at another thing. You cut your cloth accordingly, hoping that over time you can grow again.
That's where we are at this season. Kettlewell has had a massive job getting the budget down. This isn't for a laugh, it's to secure our short-term and medium-term future of the club. Now, you can very well argue (as most will) he hasn't used his budget as best as he could have, but for me if we're sitting today with Mika Biereth in our squad then the vast majority of punters are happy with where we're at. It could very well be at Kettlewell has decided to go with 1 up top for the remainder of the season, and feels Bair, Vale and the ghost of Jon Obika will be enough to get us through. Time will tell on that.
It's been said already, but the sole aim for this season is to cut the budget and stay in the league. Reset the aims with a new CEO and probable manager come June. We're on course for that, I'd say.