Football League attendances have continued to fall with most people awaiting their first pay packet of the new year.
Yesterday saw Accrington barely break 1,000 supporters in their game with Barnet, a Football League low of over ten years. Walsall's attendance against the Bulls was just about their lowest home support turnout, removing the away supporters, as was Cheltenham's gate. Both those sides have instilled a 'one in, one out' transfer policy as gates fall.
Walsall's chairman cited the cutbacks at Jaguar as a cause of their lower gates, while Swindon are likely to be similarly affected by Honda's four month closure with a number of anciliary businesses in the area shedding staff with little work on the books for those months.
This Tuesday there is a full FL programme of matches that could determine transfer policy amongst a number of other clubs over the final week of the transfer window. Low gates on Tuesday, with Premier League action live on TV and a rainy night forecast, could stifle transfer activity as Chairmen across the FL reign in spending ahead of what has repeatedly been warned as rough times ahead for football.
The Bulls originally budgeted on an attendance of 3,900 this season, but have so far managed nearly 700 fewer than that figure. It will be boosted by the 'marquee' fixtures against Leeds and Leicester, but the final total is likely to fall short of the stated figure. That figure was given to the VP Club AGM in mid-July when just fifteen players were signed to the club.
By the time the season kicked off the squad was up to nineteen and far from complete. The long promised striker signing never materialised, with the wages set aside for the incoming target man presumably still to be spent. Graham Turner has repeatedly stated over several seasons that he has kept money aside in the budget 'for the right player'. That player was supposed to be Gary Hooper, originally, and has probably been a few other names since he fell off the drawing board.
Given the sudden, and brutal, nature of the economic downturn the failure to capture the big money targets may have accidentally been in the best interests of the club in the long term. With only Toumani Diagouraga and - presumably - Matt Done under contract for next season, and most clubs shedding playing staff, it will be a buyers market to snap up the finest of the surplus talent.
The only question is, does the buyer dip his toes into the shark tank of the final week of the window - or wait for the warmer waters of the PFA released list?