The Chasing Pack - GAME OVER AMIGOS

[Penk Wolf]

On FFP, is it right that our max permitted wage bill will be lower than some others' in the PL next year, and is that likely to affect who we can sign?

Yes, first year you can only have a wage bill of £67m.

 

[Penk Wolf]

Splitting hairs a bit here, but if we lose all 4 games and they win all 4 games, chances are that the swing would mean the goal difference would be very similar.

Not that it'll matter because it's when, not if we win it.

What a load of rubbish, they only win 1-0 when they do win...

 

[The Bear]

Yes, first year you can only have a wage bill of £67m.

And given that our wage bill for 16/17 was £28m, we'd still have plenty of space to work with even taking into any increase for this season.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

No, never was the case, not being promoted won't make them break FFP this season. What they will have to do is cut their cloth and not be able to sign high wage loan / free players like Snodgrass and Terry next year

Yeah, this is it. They aren't going to go bankrupt if they stay down and nor is that likely that they'll fall so far foul of the regulations that they end up under an embargo or facing financial/points penalties.

However - their income reduces drastically next season in the event of failing to get promotion as they lose around £18m p/a of parachute money. All the loanees will go back which leaves a gaping hole in the squad, ordinarily you'd look to fill that by selling 2-3 players and funding a rebuild...but they've got bugger all to sell apart from Grealish. And they're still committed to a number of players on silly money that they can't get rid of.

They've bet the farm on this approach by Bruce which is ridiculous, go up and they need a total rebuild, stay down and they need a total rebuild. Just as well their owner isn't a complete fucking moron, really.

 

[Penk Wolf]

And given that our wage bill for 16/17 was £28m, we'd still have plenty of space to work with even taking into any increase for this season.

I’d guess with the additional players + bonuses + pay rises, we’ll be at about £40m?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I’d guess with the additional players + bonuses + pay rises, we’ll be at about £40m?

We'll lose a fair amount off the wage bill if all of the following go (as I suspect they will):

90%+ of the Academy players out of contract in the summer
At least one of the current loanees
Iorfa
Zyro
Gladon
Nazon
Graham
Oniangue
Batth
Marshall
Ebanks-Landell
Ofosu-Ayeh
Miranda

 

[The Bear]

£35-40m would have been my rough guess. Probably the lower end after the staff reductions Deutsch outlines above.

 

[StuardoWulf]

Yeah, this is it. They aren't going to go bankrupt if they stay down and nor is that likely that they'll fall so far foul of the regulations that they end up under an embargo or facing financial/points penalties.

However - their income reduces drastically next season in the event of failing to get promotion as they lose around £18m p/a of parachute money. All the loanees will go back which leaves a gaping hole in the squad, ordinarily you'd look to fill that by selling 2-3 players and funding a rebuild...but they've got bugger all to sell apart from Grealish. And they're still committed to a number of players on silly money that they can't get rid of.

They've bet the farm on this approach by Bruce which is ridiculous, go up and they need a total rebuild, stay down and they need a total rebuild. Just as well their owner isn't a complete $#@!ing moron, really.

Yeah Ridiculous is the word.

 

[Tom Hark]

£35-40m would have been my rough guess. Probably the lower end after the staff reductions Deutsch outlines above.

Well, yes to all that but, to reiterate my question above, given that only 6 clubs in the PL were below that [£67m] this year, that seems like quite a restriction, unless we can bump up the commercial element. Might we be able to do that? What sort of things does it include?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Sponsorship, TV Money, that sort of thing. I am sure we will increase the commercial in any way we can. Being huge in China might well help, but we need to create that bit as well.

 

[Keef]

I'd guess the commercial side would involve getting us better known in China,maybe a bit of sponsorship from there,get the kit on sale over there,sell everybody a shirt for a pound,there's a billion quid right there! That's how these things work isn't it? Lol

 

[Tom Hark]

Sponsorship, TV Money, that sort of thing. I am sure we will increase the commercial in any way we can. Being huge in China might well help, but we need to create that bit as well.

I hope so, because it looks as though you need £150-250m to pay a top-six squad, and it's going to take a bloody long time to get there at £7m a year. But if we can add £110m or more of TV/prize money I guess it becomes rather less of a problem. And Fosun don't seem to be the sort of outfit that wouldn't have a plan ...

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Sign one absolute star. Sell 50 million shirts in china with his name on the back. Sorted.

 

[Penk Wolf]

Well, yes to all that but, to reiterate my question above, given that only 6 clubs in the PL were below that [£67m] this year, that seems like quite a restriction, unless we can bump up the commercial element. Might we be able to do that? What sort of things does it include?

I think £67m is the limit in your first year regardless of bumping up revenue. I agree though, it makes quite an unfair playing field for newly promoted clubs, although I doubt many will increase their wage bill to £67m anyway.

 

[Keef]

Sign one absolute star. Sell 50 million shirts in china with his name on the back. Sorted.

Thought the forum had voted unanimously that Ronaldo wasn't coming

 

[AndyWolves]

I think there are different rules for premiership and champ.

Premier is the £67m in wages rules and then you can increase each season - this more or less protects the big, established clubs as they can spend more and more each year. Clubs like us have to start at the base £67m before we can build our way up. This strikes me as being borderline illegal as you're limiting the amount of competition the more established clubs have. I don't think the premier league rules care about how much is lost per season.

I think for the championship is that you can't have losses of more than £39m over 3 years. Money pumped in by owners doesn't count

 

[Lord Knows]

I think £67m is the limit in your first year regardless of bumping up revenue. I agree though, it makes quite an unfair playing field for newly promoted clubs, although I doubt many will increase their wage bill to £67m anyway.

Middlesbrough were relegated with the third lowest wage bill last season of 65million, only Hull City and Burnley were lower both 61million.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Thought the forum had voted unanimously that Ronaldo wasn't coming

We'll just have to get Bale instead then.

 

[pr0sl0]

I still think David Luiz is a decent shout. Big name that'll sell shirts, plays in the middle of a back three, out of favour at Chelsea - apart from his age, ticks plenty of boxes for me in terms of "prestige signing", even if I don't actually rate him that much as a player. And even though that's just a guess on my part, I don't think it's unlikely we'll find ourselves with a couple of "prestigious" names in the squad come the start of the season at about the same kind of level — it's how we got Neves, after all, at a price we could afford. We knew he was a) available, b) at a price we could afford, and c) that he'd prefer gametime at a smaller club over bench appearances for a bigger club at this stage of his career.

Whoever we get over the summer, there are bound to be one or two similarly WTF out-of-nowhere signings for similar reasons, ones which your average football fan wouldn't be aware of but a club with the Mendes connection is.

 

[Penk Wolf]

Middlesbrough were relegated with the third lowest wage bill last season of 65million, only Hull City and Burnley were lower both 61million.

Hull City - £25m
Burnley - £33m
Middlesborough - £34m
Bournemouth - £34m
Watford - £41m
Palace - £55m
Swansea - £59m
Southampton - £63m
Albion - £65m
Leicester - £66m