Repeatedly the subject of our rumoured wage cap keeps coming up so I'd thought I'd ask what the facts really are and what people believe a club of our size should spend?
I don't have any proof but it was heavily hinted that Owen Coyle left Burnley because of their refusal to break the wage cap to sign Nugent on a permanent deal. Burnley don't pay anyone more than £15k pw and Nugent is on £30k pw. Having read the Pompey accounts when it was released in the Guardian it didn't state the exact figure Nugent was being paid by Portsmouth but having seen the some of money they paid other players it won't be surprise me if Nugent is on as much as £30k pw. Arguably Burnley's refusal to spend more on players that £15k pw led to their downfall because they didn't sign the quality required to stay up. However they have probably secured their financial future for many years to come.
The year Burnley were promoted to the Premiership they averaged a smaller gate than we did and don't have billionnaire owners but were able to gain promotion on similar resources to what we have. Blackpool have an even smaller budget than we do and once again they've proven promotion is possible without spending big. We will wait and see whether they can stay in the Premiership but for now they are in a better position than we are and I have no doubt spend a lot less on salaries than we do.
I've no idea of the exact figure we spend on salaries but there is always and argument for having fewer players in the squad of a higher quality rather than lots of players of a lesser quality. Our problem is that we spent a lot of money on the likes of Hall, Agyemang, Vine etc at the beginning of the "project" making it hard to ship players out because other clubs won't pay equivalent salaries. Hopefully if we can ship out 8 or 9 players we can spend the equivalent money on just 2 or 3 players.
Lots and lots of teams have gone up to the Premiership and have been subsequently relegated in the following few seasons. Although the Premiership has been going since the early 90s I believe it really became a money driven business rather than a sporting competition when Abramovich bought Chelsea. Since then small sides promoted from the Championship have struggled to compete and correct me if I'm wrong but only Wigan have been able to maintain their Premiership status year after year without having being bought out by a foreign billionnaire. Can we exist if we spend £20k+ per player per week? Or is there no point in existing if you can't compete? To compete £20k+ is peanuts but to a team with an average home gate of 13K is not peanuts.
So should we bow down to someone like James Beattie and do everything we can to compete or do we follow the likes of Burnley and Blackpool and take a risk that we might have enough if we get there?
I don't have any proof but it was heavily hinted that Owen Coyle left Burnley because of their refusal to break the wage cap to sign Nugent on a permanent deal. Burnley don't pay anyone more than £15k pw and Nugent is on £30k pw. Having read the Pompey accounts when it was released in the Guardian it didn't state the exact figure Nugent was being paid by Portsmouth but having seen the some of money they paid other players it won't be surprise me if Nugent is on as much as £30k pw. Arguably Burnley's refusal to spend more on players that £15k pw led to their downfall because they didn't sign the quality required to stay up. However they have probably secured their financial future for many years to come.
The year Burnley were promoted to the Premiership they averaged a smaller gate than we did and don't have billionnaire owners but were able to gain promotion on similar resources to what we have. Blackpool have an even smaller budget than we do and once again they've proven promotion is possible without spending big. We will wait and see whether they can stay in the Premiership but for now they are in a better position than we are and I have no doubt spend a lot less on salaries than we do.
I've no idea of the exact figure we spend on salaries but there is always and argument for having fewer players in the squad of a higher quality rather than lots of players of a lesser quality. Our problem is that we spent a lot of money on the likes of Hall, Agyemang, Vine etc at the beginning of the "project" making it hard to ship players out because other clubs won't pay equivalent salaries. Hopefully if we can ship out 8 or 9 players we can spend the equivalent money on just 2 or 3 players.
Lots and lots of teams have gone up to the Premiership and have been subsequently relegated in the following few seasons. Although the Premiership has been going since the early 90s I believe it really became a money driven business rather than a sporting competition when Abramovich bought Chelsea. Since then small sides promoted from the Championship have struggled to compete and correct me if I'm wrong but only Wigan have been able to maintain their Premiership status year after year without having being bought out by a foreign billionnaire. Can we exist if we spend £20k+ per player per week? Or is there no point in existing if you can't compete? To compete £20k+ is peanuts but to a team with an average home gate of 13K is not peanuts.
So should we bow down to someone like James Beattie and do everything we can to compete or do we follow the likes of Burnley and Blackpool and take a risk that we might have enough if we get there?
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