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Who can we sacrifice to free up salary space?


Simon bristol

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1 minute ago, Topper 123 said:

Pardon me for not understanding that wages have been near on halved and 2 players that only cost us development costs were sold for £37 million pound . Now I’m not the one who said we never had to sell , that was our 2 billion pound owner so if we didn’t need to sell surely some of that money need re investing, I’m not saying all but you have to speculate to accumulate in my mind 

That's where you are going wrong, lansdowns money isn't the clubs money, he doesn't have to put anything in, 

Also the speculate to accumulate, is that on top of the near 180 million he's already invested into the club and seen 0 return?,

Until new investment comes into the club from a new owner or investor then we have to be self sufficient and not continue to lose close to 20 million a season

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2 hours ago, Bristol Rob said:

Not sure we can play the emergency keeper loan card, Bajic has played a number of games (I think) that would mean he'd need to be out as well. 

EFL rules state that ‘all the professional goalkeepers at a club are unavailable,’ due to being unfit to play, suspension or international duty.

However, a ‘professional goalkeeper’ is classed as a player who has been named in the starting eleven on five or more occasions for a Premier League or EFL club in any competitions - excluding the Papa John’s Trophy.

Therefore we we would be allowed as Bajic only has one appearance to his name (Lincoln EFL cup) and Wiles-Richards and Joe Duncan haven't got any. My suggestion of a Premier League keeper wouldn't be permitted though as apparently they are not allowed to send goalkeepers on seven-day emergency loans into the EFL.

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2 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

That's where you are going wrong, lansdowns money isn't the clubs money, he doesn't have to put anything in, 

Also the speculate to accumulate, is that on top of the near 180 million he's already invested into the club and seen 0 return?,

Until new investment comes into the club from a new owner or investor then we have to be self sufficient and not continue to lose close to 20 million a season

And I doubt many investors are looking to use their own money.

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8 minutes ago, Bristol Rob said:

It might just be a case that having realised the wages to turnover ratio was beyond bonkers, the club decided to act before they were forced to do so. 

If things had contined on a high-spend/high-wage curve then sooner or later, points would have been deducted and further sanctioned applied, the 25Mil for Scott would have quickly dropped to a lower amount as we'd been in fire-sale mode and desperately trying to balance the books.

Until parachute payments change, this is always going to be a division where some clubs have a financial advantage which generally also means a sporting advantage. We can't blame SL (or anyone) for that, it's just the way it is. 

Can the club do more to reduce costs, increase revenue and possibly generate enough cash to either keep hold of, or buy a player or two? Possibly. But we'll still be reliant on the goodwill of SL.

Should the EFL take a look at the advantages that come with parachute payments and seek to make changes? Yes.

I've long held the view that parachute payments should only be used to cover the difference between what a relegated player is on and the average Championship wage, so if they were on 100k a week in the Prem and the average Championship wage is 10k, 90k a week of the parachute could be used to provide some financial smoothing. If they player moves on, then that element of the parachute is retained by the EFL and distributed across the remaining clubs. I'd also exclude players who sign in the last transfer window before relegation as being players they could weigh PP against. I'm sure we've all suspected some clubs of not using their last transfer window to ensure survival, but to try and be ready for their next Championship season. The reward for failure shouldn't result in a club being able to rebuild their side using Premier League relegation funds. 

I do agree with this but when you watch mission Burnley on tv you do realise the need AT PRESENT of the parachute payments. Last season the 3 teams that came down spent £140 million obviously with some big contracts on board then the season before when Burnley were relegated the parachute payment of £50 million was a pittance compared to the 100million they lost in prem tv rights ( what a nightmare ) so I’m glad we’re not there but it would be nice to challenge and let’s hope fa find some level ground soon 

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6 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

That's where you are going wrong, lansdowns money isn't the clubs money, he doesn't have to put anything in, 

Also the speculate to accumulate, is that on top of the near 180 million he's already invested into the club and seen 0 return?,

Until new investment comes into the club from a new owner or investor then we have to be self sufficient and not continue to lose close to 20 million a season

Yes this is a real salient post.

It is not what we want to hear but unless there is a binding contract for SL to put in £x per season (Cash Losses are the key, in the £10-15m bracket per year of late) then he is under no obligation.

He can run it on a cash breakeven if he likes. He could even run it as a cash surplus to start repaying some of his loans that haven't been converted to equity.

It is all perfectly lawful and legal.

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The slightly depressing side for me is the club appear to have taken the stance that incoming transfer fees will have no effect on the wage budget.

I then look at our most likely sales next Summer (Conway and Pring) and they won't be on high wages having progressed from the Academy so we will be left looking to replace from within or lower leagues only.

Fair enough, if SL has decided to stop plugging the hole each year, that's his perogative, his money his choice but that strategy has a reasonable chance at seeing us drop down the table unless recruitment is damn good.

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We all know SL has been great for the club but we mustn’t forget he chose this position of his with a promise of prem football and let’s not forget he has invested £170 million in the club one way or another , most of which he still has his hands on  ie 2 training grounds and a very large amount of shares in BCFC  so he hasnt lost all this money and also let’s remember he is VERY rich guy so moving money around like this doesn’t really effect him ( £2.48 billion )  can someone tell me where the £125 million in transfer revenue has gone ( not interested in wages as every club has to fork them out ) as this is the balance of bought and sold in last 7 years  

I just can’t make head or tell 

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10 minutes ago, Tony Tootle said:

Harry Cornick seems to have become the new scapegoat on this forum. He's no world beater but he's a decent player and we've had far worse in recent memory that have cost a lot more than he has.

I agree Tony , the bloke seems an honest player to me and I think he’ll give 100% for the shirt not saying he’s any messi but as you say we’ve had worse 

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I understand why we are looking to limit the wage bill and not Chuck the Scott money at it like we did under Ashton-that didn't work so Steve is trying a different approach.

does feel like we are being very prudent with our recruitment now-signing youngsters with growth in them that have a sell on value. Also seem to be looking for angles which I like-such as dickie being exposed at QPR and the West Brom lad being played in too many positions.

Not very exciting for fans though as looks like another mid table finish (at best) and we now know even if we sell more players the money won't be reinvested!

would also like someone to ask lansdown about the sound bites of 'whatever football makes it can spend' and 'we have two recruitment plans depending on what happens with Scott'! Do these still hold true-if so I'd like to see the recruitment play with Scott!

Edited by Fontaineofallknowledge
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53 minutes ago, Topper 123 said:

thanks for putting me straight can you also tell me where the £130 million transfer income has gone ( not interested in wages as every club has them to pay ) just a question as I can’t find any answers to this one ?

130mil is about 4 years worth of accumulated losses.

Does that help?

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57 minutes ago, Ian M said:

The slightly depressing side for me is the club appear to have taken the stance that incoming transfer fees will have no effect on the wage budget.

I then look at our most likely sales next Summer (Conway and Pring) and they won't be on high wages having progressed from the Academy so we will be left looking to replace from within or lower leagues only.

Fair enough, if SL has decided to stop plugging the hole each year, that's his perogative, his money his choice but that strategy has a reasonable chance at seeing us drop down the table unless recruitment is damn good.

 

If he thinks he's haemorrhaging money from maintaining a mid-table Championship club, wait till he finds how big the holes needing plugging are with a L1 side existing within a Championship framework, with Championship off-field and administrative costs, but plummeting revenues. 

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5 minutes ago, Red-Robbo said:

 

If he thinks he's haemorrhaging money from maintaining a mid-table Championship club, wait till he finds how big the holes needing plugging are with a L1 side existing within a Championship framework, with Championship off-field and administrative costs, but plummeting revenues. 

The AGL non matchday revenue will help though. It is a disappointing trajectory but certainly don't see us as a League One side. Lack some depth certainly..

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1 minute ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

The AGL non matchday revenue will help though. It is a disappointing trajectory but certainly don't see us as a League One side. Lack some depth certainly..

I hope not, and 4 points from 3 games would suggest not this season. However, seemingly not having the funds to compete with teams in this division who get smaller crowds than us would suggest a downward spiral that may, indeed, lead in that direction.  Maybe with a few returnees and a few improvements from players already here, it'll all click into place. But right now, I doubt that and - as a City fan - I feel underwhelmed and prepared to see a lot of hard-to-watch games. 

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4 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

The running of the football club.  I realise it's not convenient for you, but wages do form a big part of that and so have to be included!

Yes, and for @Topper 123 too at one point Championship wages- wages alone were at or in excess of 100 pct of revenue. That's a divisional average.

We were around that in 2021-22 which was Year 1 of downsizing. Would have to check for 2019-20 and 2018-19.

Edited by Mr Popodopolous
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45 minutes ago, Tony Tootle said:

Harry Cornick seems to have become the new scapegoat on this forum. He's no world beater but he's a decent player and we've had far worse in recent memory that have cost a lot more than he has.

I'm actually joking. Willing to give him time.

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2 minutes ago, Steve Watts said:

The running of the football club.  I realise it's not convenient for you, but wages do form a big part of that and so have to be included!

The wages must have a salary budget set each season now the club will know what they have to pay out unless they sign extra players through the season which will add to the wage bill this applies to all clubs so if we’re losing that amount of money each year someone is not doing their job and don’t forget lansdowns have invested £180 million so we CANT be losing that much :laugh:

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Crowds up every year since COVID 

season ticket sales UP every year 

squad numbers reduced for last 3 seasons 

squad wages also reduced 

hospitality at its highest ever at AG 

BALANCE ON BUY AND SELL IN LAST 7 years £50 million plus 

but WERE STILL LOSING MONEY SOMETHING NOT RIGHT THEN 

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6 minutes ago, Topper 123 said:

Crowds up every year since COVID 

season ticket sales UP every year 

squad numbers reduced for last 3 seasons 

squad wages also reduced 

hospitality at its highest ever at AG 

BALANCE ON BUY AND SELL IN LAST 7 years £50 million plus 

but WERE STILL LOSING MONEY SOMETHING NOT RIGHT THEN 

If expenses exceed income then there will be a loss.

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1 hour ago, Topper 123 said:

thanks for putting me straight can you also tell me where the £130 million transfer income has gone ( not interested in wages as every club has them to pay ) just a question as I can’t find any answers to this one ?

The club has made a profit once in the last 20 years, that's where its gone, that as well as the ground redevelopment, wages that on average have been around 120% of turnover, buying players.....

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10 minutes ago, Topper 123 said:

Crowds up every year since COVID 

season ticket sales UP every year 

squad numbers reduced for last 3 seasons 

squad wages also reduced 

hospitality at its highest ever at AG 

BALANCE ON BUY AND SELL IN LAST 7 years £50 million plus 

but WERE STILL LOSING MONEY SOMETHING NOT RIGHT THEN 

Turnstile money doesn't even cover the academy 

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2 minutes ago, Monkeh said:

The club has made a profit once in the last 20 years, that's where its gone, that as well as the ground redevelopment, wages that on average have been around 120% of turnover, buying players.....

We’ve bought est something like £75 million in last 6/7 seasons

sold est something like £125 million 

now the balance of £50 odd million should help with a hell of a lot of running costs 

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12 minutes ago, Topper 123 said:

Crowds up every year since COVID 

season ticket sales UP every year 

squad numbers reduced for last 3 seasons 

squad wages also reduced 

hospitality at its highest ever at AG 

BALANCE ON BUY AND SELL IN LAST 7 years £50 million plus 

but WERE STILL LOSING MONEY SOMETHING NOT RIGHT THEN 

It's called football (or, more specifically, EFL Championship football).  No one makes any money.

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6 minutes ago, Topper 123 said:

We’ve bought est something like £75 million in last 6/7 seasons

sold est something like £125 million 

now the balance of £50 odd million should help with a hell of a lot of running costs 

Seriously please read the accounts, 

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4 hours ago, Tony Tootle said:

Is there really any point in signing another keeper when you can use the emergency loan option should the worst happen. If O'Leary did get a bad injury I assume we would just loan in a keeper from a Premier League team as we would be allowed to do so outside of the transfer window.

Has been covered. We wouldn’t be able to sign an emergency keeper with Bajic here. 

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28 minutes ago, Topper 123 said:

We’ve bought est something like £75 million in last 6/7 seasons

sold est something like £125 million 

now the balance of £50 odd million should help with a hell of a lot of running costs 

It disappears fairly quickly: it started off at £130m, went down to £125m in the space of a few posts, and now it’s a balance of £50m!

Seriously, when you think about it, we bandy about wage figures on here of £10K, £12K a week, and hardly bat an eyelid. Not long ago we’d assume players were on 3,4 times that.  £10K is half a million quid a year, £2m over a 4 year contract. And we’ve got how many players. It adds up to scary numbers very quickly. 

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7 minutes ago, italian dave said:

It disappears fairly quickly: it started off at £130m, went down to £125m in the space of a few posts, and now it’s a balance of £50m!

Seriously, when you think about it, we bandy about wage figures on here of £10K, £12K a week, and hardly bat an eyelid. Not long ago we’d assume players were on 3,4 times that.  £10K is half a million quid a year, £2m over a 4 year contract. And we’ve got how many players. It adds up to scary numbers very quickly. 

When it's put like that, it makes me think k the Americans have it right in the mls *shudder*

Wage limit except for 3 marquee signings per squad 

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In terms of answering this ‘theoretical’ in the most basic manner, I think the best player to sell to free up wages would be Wells. Not scored a goal in open play for over 20 games, one of our biggest earners and one of older players. 

If I was playing Champ Manager, I’d sell him and use his wages (plus revenue from Scott sale) to buy 1 strong quick striker to lead the line (Like Afobe, Akpom) and another young specialised centre back 

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4 hours ago, Cidre Monita said:

Assumptions and guesses? Really?! You say we have got a decent squad - 4th game in tomorrow and we have one available specialist centre back (Vyner) who may well be sold next week, one senior striker (Wells), whose best days are behind him, and what I consider to be a league 2 keeper with no serious back up. 
 

Academy players in 1st team squad:- 

* When I say academy players - obviously those promoted to the 1st team squad but on low wages to reflect this.

O’Leary/Wiles-Richards 

Vyner/Pring/Araoye/Knight-Lebel

Benarous/Scott (now gone)

Conway/Bell

Se, I class Naismith as a CB who can play in midfield…so we have 2! ?

3 hours ago, Bristol Rob said:

It might just be a case that having realised the wages to turnover ratio was beyond bonkers, the club decided to act before they were forced to do so. 

If things had contined on a high-spend/high-wage curve then sooner or later, points would have been deducted and further sanctioned applied, the 25Mil for Scott would have quickly dropped to a lower amount as we'd been in fire-sale mode and desperately trying to balance the books.

Until parachute payments change, this is always going to be a division where some clubs have a financial advantage which generally also means a sporting advantage. We can't blame SL (or anyone) for that, it's just the way it is. 

Can the club do more to reduce costs, increase revenue and possibly generate enough cash to either keep hold of, or buy a player or two? Possibly. But we'll still be reliant on the goodwill of SL.

Should the EFL take a look at the advantages that come with parachute payments and seek to make changes? Yes.

I've long held the view that parachute payments should only be used to cover the difference between what a relegated player is on and the average Championship wage, so if they were on 100k a week in the Prem and the average Championship wage is 10k, 90k a week of the parachute could be used to provide some financial smoothing. If they player moves on, then that element of the parachute is retained by the EFL and distributed across the remaining clubs. I'd also exclude players who sign in the last transfer window before relegation as being players they could weigh PP against. I'm sure we've all suspected some clubs of not using their last transfer window to ensure survival, but to try and be ready for their next Championship season. The reward for failure shouldn't result in a club being able to rebuild their side using Premier League relegation funds. 

Rob, you may recall that when the wage cap stuff was talked about I proposed something similar to what you are.  I basically called it a 1 season moratorium on the excess wage (above the league average).  Basically you could class his wages as £750k p.a for season 1 then report his full wage from season 2.  Basically build relegation wage reduction clauses into your contracts (not easy), get promoted or be willing to sell him on by the end of season one back down.  You could add clauses like SCMP eg, onky for those players on a 3 year deal or more signed more than 12 months ago.  No excuse for signing a player upon promotion without building something in for relegation.

3 hours ago, Tony Tootle said:

EFL rules state that ‘all the professional goalkeepers at a club are unavailable,’ due to being unfit to play, suspension or international duty.

However, a ‘professional goalkeeper’ is classed as a player who has been named in the starting eleven on five or more occasions for a Premier League or EFL club in any competitions - excluding the Papa John’s Trophy.

Therefore we we would be allowed as Bajic only has one appearance to his name (Lincoln EFL cup) and Wiles-Richards and Joe Duncan haven't got any. My suggestion of a Premier League keeper wouldn't be permitted though as apparently they are not allowed to send goalkeepers on seven-day emergency loans into the EFL.

You should’ve read on further…hate to be the bearer of bad news.

image.thumb.jpeg.5eb7ae2449dfb23a0d80a42e4b2e59f3.jpeg

Bajic’s games for St.Etienne and Pau mean no emergency loan.  I hope our club Secretary read this too!

3 hours ago, Topper 123 said:

thanks for putting me straight can you also tell me where the £130 million transfer income has gone ( not interested in wages as every club has them to pay ) just a question as I can’t find any answers to this one ?

£76m on Transfer Fees.

The rest is all the other operating costs related to football.

£162m in wages.

£67m other costs.

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3 hours ago, Topper 123 said:

BALANCE ON BUY AND SELL IN LAST 7 years £50 million plus 

but WERE STILL LOSING MONEY SOMETHING NOT RIGHT THEN 

That's football. So thank god for Lansdown, otherwise we'd be bust. We've got to give Guernsey that, if little else.

And I'm not convinced your the go-to guy for financial insight regarding City, neither. But we'll let that slide. 

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8 hours ago, sh1t_ref_again said:

In that case the decision is Bajic up to replace Max if we have an injury, if not then he needs to go out on loan to open the door for an emergency loan if needed.  

How do you propose we do that? Bundle him into the Eurostar & throw him out when it reaches France?

There has to be an interested party to loan him out.

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17 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

That's football. So thank god for Lansdown, otherwise we'd be bust. We've got to give Guernsey that, if little else.

And I'm not convinced your the go-to guy for financial insight regarding City, neither. But we'll let that slide. 

I dunno. If Topper'd been running our recruitment summer '15, then Cotts'd've signed 'arry McGuire, Konchesky, Fredericks, Andre Gray, Dwayne wotsit, Kodj, Bakes, Tommy Tomlin, probably a couple more, and we'd've swept all before us and stormed to 100 points, and still be in the Prem now having a laugh at all the dopey EFL clubs dotting their ffp "eyes" and crossing their ffp "teas" (like Bournemouth and a few others)

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1 hour ago, GrahamC said:

How do you propose we do that? Bundle him into the Eurostar & throw him out when it reaches France?

There has to be an interested party to loan him out.

Would have thought the way we send out any player on loan, or are you trying to suggest he is that bad no body would want him

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15 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Don’t get me wrong I’d like to hear more from Phil Alexander, but playing a bit of Devil’s advocate for a second…

…the set-up has changed on the football side.

We have gone from:

  • Gould (CEO) and Pearson (Manager) to
  • Alexander (CEO), Tinnion (Technical Director) and Pearson (Manager)

There is a different expectation on Alexander from a football side than Gould in terms of Comms.

It could be that Alexander is focussing more on the non-playing side of things, e.g. Commercial.  And to be fair we’ve no idea how he’s performing in that aspect, because we’ve not seen any accounts (and he would only be responsible for 4/5 months anyway).

That doesn’t excuse his quietness.  We maybe need to hear from both him and Tinnion from a more “strategic” point of view.

James or Williams.  

I wonder if the quietness maybe comes from things not going as NP expected, I think he expected Scott to stay. And he expected some/more money to come his way from the transfer when it did happen. And the worry that offers could come in for one or two of our players and if they are allowed to go . NP not knowing if or what he would be given to replace in a very short reaction period which all strikes me as fire management and having a piss poor or no plan and lack of  backing from SL. Which again raises the point has or is SL lining up a new manager 

COYR

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14 minutes ago, Rocking Red Cyril said:

I wonder if the quietness maybe comes from things not going as NP expected, I think he expected Scott to stay. And he expected some/more money to come his way from the transfer when it did happen. And the worry that offers could come in for one or two of our players and if they are allowed to go . NP not knowing if or what he would be given to replace in a very short reaction period which all strikes me as fire management and having a piss poor or no plan and lack of  backing from SL. Which again raises the point has or is SL lining up a new manager 

COYR

Sorry for commenting on my own comment.

But I do hope SL is being clear, honest, and open with NP. Or this could get bloody messy and really stunt any real team growth and development.

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22 hours ago, Simon bristol said:

As we go in to the next game with only 1 senior keeper, and 1 fit first choice centre back, and according to nige no space in our salary budget to bring anymore in, is there anyone that we can realistically move out, even on loan, to bring 1 or 2 more in?

bearing in mind contract lengths plus what I presume to be a higher earner, williams and weimann would be 2 that presumably would clear up some space?

im not sure how many more seasons wells is likely to be sticking around either, but with conway out there are no alternatives… any others we can move on to free up space?

Cornick. We just need to accept we got that one wrong it appears. 

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