There was an interesting conversation about this on Twitter (I know) the other day in relation to Sheffield Wednesday.
It was after that fan meeting and some of the complaints that the EFL have let the club down by not letting them put a competitive team together, and there were plenty of people saying that wasn’t fair and the EFL were just interested in them fulfilling fixtures as a base level.
Others were pointing out that if the EFL did go further and tried to help put a ‘competitive team’ together would be a massive overreach as where does that stop? Should the PL have stepped in to prevent Man Utd from finishing just above the relegation zone last season on account they are rich?
It’s a murky old line isn’t it in terms of regulatory powers, and I’m sure there are plenty of owners who think that leagues shouldn’t have any powers whatsoever.
Interesting.
I would have thought, like Amin said, it's in their best interests to have their clubs be competitive while also sustainable. The actions taken by the EFL towards us and Sheffield Weds don't suggest they are that concerned about clubs being competitive, only that they don't end up in financial difficulty. I just feel like they operate on a zero sum basis, as in, they don't want a repeat of Bury, Hereford or Macclesfield whereby a club goes bust and ceases to exist, but above and beyond that they don't really seem to give much of a ****.
Preventing us signing players we've already agreed to sign and potentially have paid for/paid wages to isn't in our best interests at all, it actively costs us money not to be able to do anything with them. There's the argument of what happens if we or the Wendies were to be relegated and what would happen with regards to income and our finances then, it just feels like there isn't much common sense employed.
I encounter this at schools I visit when doing behaviour training, some cling to the policies because it protects them and refuse to change them, but they also simultaneously wonder why their methods don't work and they're struggling to support children with specific needs.
Preston are also pretty deep in the ****, though it's largely gone under the radar - their owner puts in about £12m a year to keep them ticking over. They let a lot of their high earners leave on free transfers, while only signing one player for money and the rest on loans/frees. However, they apparently have a wage budget that's half of ours currently.
