‘We could not compete financially’ – Another big-spending manager plays the ‘poor me’ card against Lincoln

Fleetwood boss Joey Barton has been talking about our capture of England Under 21 international Callum Connolly, as reported by the Blackpool Gazette.

Fleetwood make their first visit to Sincil Bank in the Football League tomorrow with plenty of emotion already in the tie thanks to the controversial former Manchester City player. Our fans still remember his antics in the FA Cup tie with Burnley a few years ago, which started the ‘love’ affair.

Last season he made more friends amongst our support after lashing out as we signed Cian Bolger. The towering defender came in from Fleetwood for what Danny called a free transfer, prompting a rather rambling Barton to hit out at our boss.

Now, after meeting with five divisions between us on the pitch and a division separating them across the negotiating table, we’re going toe to toe with him as an equal and yet he still has an axe to grind. Everton fans might be interested too as he seems to have a little dig at them as well.

“My understanding was that they took our chief scout Steve Davis and we would get a loan deal off them as compensation for that,” he said.

“We are yet to get a loan player off them, so we need to firm that up.”

He then alluded to be in for a player himself last week, a player who came to Lincoln. That would surely have to be Connolly, unless there is another signing waiting to be unveiled.

“We were in for a player last week who ended up going to Lincoln, funnily enough. We could not compete financially with them.

“We thought the boy wanted to come here and would be a good addition for us. It was the right project for all of us and yet he was steered in a different direction.”

What’s made me chuckle is this bit; ‘We could not compete financially’. We heard the same rhetoric from Mark Robins around the same time his club spent £650,000 on Matt Godden, but we’re now getting it from a side who a couple of weeks ago paid (and I quote from their own site) ‘a substantial six-figure fee’.

It might be difficult to compete financially when you’re splashing our around five times more than we spent on our record signing, might it not Barton?

See you tomorrow.