Obviously we have already made four signings, and most of us think/hope/expect a couple more will come in by the end of the summer. I was thinking the other day that if the average wage for these new players is £40000 a week that's an extra £240000 a week on the wage bill. It's not beyond all possibility that this is off set by all the players that have left especially, Baird, Davies, Diarra, Schwarzer, karagounis, Petric and likely Stockdale (plus the others released loanees returned) So that means we have changed the team without having to pay out extra for wages so its not beyond all possibility that our transfer budget could be up to about £20 million especially with the funds we made from Dempsey and Dembele, the new tv deal kicking in and the extra £3 million we got by picking up 3 points against Swansea!!! Wouldn't shock me if saw a big signing this summer an £8-10 million on one player!!!
Wouldn't 4 times £40k be £160k? Don't forget signing on fees - it is fairly standard practise with free transfers for the player to receive a chunky signing on fee, in lieu of the transfer fee that would have been paid.
Surlyc I was including the two further signings we all believe may come in over the next month or two! Spoon I thought we had a highest wage budget of £50000 I'm sure that was mentioned when we signed Berbatov and everybody was reporting that we broken our wage structure to sign him
I understand it is low 40s - Berba gets about double that because the "fee" we paid Manchester Utd was basically amortised to subsidise his wages so they could get him off their books (ca. £4m over 2 years is roughly 40k a week subsidy)
I like the positivity here Cookie. Pre-season is a great time for fans of all clubs. We all have such great optimism. I liked Hangeland's interview yesterday where he says he is aiming for a good cup run and to reach European qualification. This is what I'd like to see - I'd just love it if we could get to Wembley. I'm even getting excited now as I type !
I'd seriously doubt our average wage is 40K p/w. I'd say only Hangeland/Berbatov/Ruiz are being paid over that.
And we shouldn’t forget the wages saved on Zamora, Johnson and Murphy, who were the high earners. Our total outgoings for last year were just over £80m of which around £58m went on wages (72% which is an increase on previous the year). The wage bill is a total though and not just for players. Also you need to take into account the extra costs for the Academy, including the extra coaching staff. Assuming a main squad of 20 players last year and that the got 70% of the £58m then the average wage is indeed £40k per week. As Bandit says, they wouldn’t all be on that of course; some would get more, some less. But it’s not unreasonable to make another assumption that last year the wage cap was £50k pw. In the year ahead there should be extra revenue from the Adidas shirt deal and the new main sponsor (hopefully). There is also the extra TV money. Last year we got £51m from this source and the pundits say we can expect an increase of about 30%. However, the Club has already taken a loan of £16m in anticipation of this (presumably as a first payment on the Ground Development). So in essence I don’t think there will in fact be all that much extra available in revenue, except that from wages saved from the released players. Nor do I think there will be a substantial increase in the (assumed) £50k pw wage cap. Also transfer fees come from capital not revenue. So unless MAF digs deep again (which he won’t) or we sell some players, there isn’t going to £8-10m swishing around. Sorry to put a dampner on things.
Slightly digressing,it seem that the new stand development has suddenly gone very quite, anyone no of proposed start date.
