Steve Evans throwing cash around again??

and torres reputedly got a huge signing on fee as well,but that alone wont get them promoted,the bsp is very strong now,splashing the cash isnt a guarantee

I saw him play for Hayes and Yeading during the pre-season. He's a big lad who lumbered around a bit but he did finish the one chance he had rather well.

Yep and as we know he has been a long standing target of ours - but there was no way in the world we could have afforded to pay that sort of money for him. In truth, I think Crawley have paid over the odds for him - as they have for some of their other signings.

They really have become the Man City of the BSP and anything less than automatic promotion this season would surely be seen as a failure. I guess Luton Town fans will be feeling decidedly uncomfortable at the moment as they sold their own top scorer from last season to Oxford yesterday for a fee believed to be around £85k - surely the best they can hope for now is the "lottery" of the play offs?

Crawley have at least six strikers on their books and they cant play all of them but in Brodie and Tubbs they have the two top scorers in the BSP from last season and in Torres and Neilson they have two quality wide men. Add to that the likes of Pablo Mills - a regular for Rotherham last season and Kuipers their experienced keeper from Brighton - and you have to say that they look to have a squad that should be more than capable of winning the League.

The concern would be is that this level of spending is unprecedented at this level of football - transfer fees paid alone are now arround the £600k mark - never mind the wages that these players must be on!

It will all end in tears of one kind - joy or despair! On the face of it it seems utter madness to invest millions (as that is effectively what we are talking about) in what is and always has been a non league team that struggles to average gates on much more than 1000. It will be interesting to see whether the town and the surrounding area will really get behind their "project" as Steve Evans likes to refer to it.

Given his involvement and of course that of his Assistant Paul Raynor .... part of me can't help hoping it fails! ;D

How does that comply with the League rules on wage capping then?

I remain unconvinced that they can in the medium to long term, Crispygull!

This is just the extreme end of BSP clubs taking-on players that they can no-way naturally afford.
It was the same with Cambridge and Wrexham when we were in that league - whilst I would expect that we would have had a hefty wagebill it was not anywhere near some clubs were paying some players.

Maybe they are a "rich man's plaything" but I don't think that even that sort of money could propell and sustain football at a level that the sort of investment that they have made in the last couple of months surely would expect.
This surely outspends Max Griggs and his stint at Rushden and Diamonds? You would argue that Rushden have been left at a reasonable level with an excellent little stadium and have had some decent young players come through - is this guy at Crawley building-up the infrastructure there as well?

I don't have anything against Crawley, but I do against Raynor and Evans. They overspent at Boston and the upshot of that was ultimately to lose their league place and are still recovering now from signings like Julian Joachim. If it was my club I would want to see the money up-front in one go (and not in brown envelopes from Evans!) rather than in staged payments...........

I'll be watching their season with interest.

I don't think he realises his double standards on everything. The man will bankrupt that place and with a previous conviction for Fraud I sincerely hope the Serious Fraud Office have got one eye on developments there.