How horrendously arrogant of you. Typical of a southern ponce. Point is, these players are good enough to earn a decent wedge. They will be fully aware of the sort of money they can earn over here. So they'll either be earning a decent wage or they'll be looking for a transfer to a club that can afford to pay them a decent wage. Point I'm making is that your club is likely exploiting another loophole to get around FFP. FFP is pretty simple, you can only pay your players up to 100% of the turnover made by the club in a year, which if I'm not mistaken for Watford is about £5 million. That means you can pay a maximum of £5 million in wages. If "owner investment doesn't count" then why are Leicester so eager to get players off the books? It's entirely possible to make an arrangement whereby the selling club pays part of the wages of the player. Exploiting that to get around FFP is dodgy business and basically allows your club to ignore the rules of the league. I'd say that's even worse than the morally reprehensible strategy taken last season. Doesn't really matter anyway, I'm predicting mid table for your lot this season.
And yes we were all so quick to defend the way ken bates ran the club. We were all so happy with that that we called for his head for the entire 8 years he was in charge... we never tried to justify his dodgy dealings like you lot do.
Sam Byram, Tom Lees, Dominic Poleon, Aidy White... all make the first team regularly. We have plenty of players from our academy. We have more coming through every year. Plus it's not the average wages that matter, it's the total wages. It just seems that a club with one of the smallest turnovers in the league doesn't seem to be worrying about shifting players when every single other club in the league is having to cut it's wage bill before bringing new players in... hmm why is that?
You're talking about the same FA and Football League that signed off ken bates and various other dodgy ****s as "fit and proper persons". That argument won't wash.
Yes we can tell it doesn't matter to you. That's why you keep checking this thread and spending so little time replying to it..... I don't care what we are doing I'm looking forward to the season because we have an exciting team.
And we have absolutely no reason to give a ****. Our club tops £30 million turnover a year which puts us as the top of the league for money available to pay to players. That means we can pay £30 million a year in wages. We can potentially pay a full squad of 25 players over £20k a week each. So why should we be jealous? Point being you're all acting incredibly arrogant and failing to see that you're probably breaking the rules. You were all saying it yourselves last season that the "Pozzo's would find a way to get around FFP so we can have all our Italian players" - I am of course paraphrasing. I'm failing to see how it's good for English football as well, importing a lot of Italian and Spanish players.
There's also a lot of your fans acting very arrogant as if you have a better idea of what FFP is than any of the rest of us. As if the rest of us haven't looked it up to find out what it means for the future of football. Get down off your high horse and accept that if you can afford to pay these players without them seeing what's available from other clubs and wanting away within a season, then you're likely circumventing FFP rules. They are simply that your club can pay, in wages, 100% of your clubs turnover. If your wages exceed the turnover, you're punished. Your clubs turnover is very, very small, and as much as you'd like to convince everybody that these players will accept much lower wages than English players, they are coming from top tier clubs abroad. I guarantee that while those leagues on average pay significantly less than the Premier League, they most certainly pay more than the Championship. Those players will be on wages comparable to the wages paid by other clubs with aspirations of promotion.
I don't give a **** where you end up. I do care that your club thinks it's special and doesn't have to play by the rules, and is more than likely circumventing the financial fair play rules through some questionable method, likely by having your players wages paid in part by another club in a league that doesn't have financial fair play rules, and therefore can have the owners pump money in as much as they want to cover the costs. You're assuming that your owners, who based on the one season they've had in English football (and therefore the only time we can judge them on) have a habit of exploiting loopholes for a significant advantage, are doing everything "above board". It might all be perfectly legal by the rules of the football league, but only because the football league has never seen it before and hasn't had chance to put a rule in place, just like what you did last season. It's morally reprehensible and unfair on the other clubs in the league.
You do care after all. I don't though and as I said I'm looking forward to it. Everyones entitled to their opinion but you need to calm down a bit. When people start to use phrases like 'morally reprehensible' in relation to football transfers you know it must be time to go to bed!
"....so long as it is below us" is what you really mean. Vic obviously hit a nerve earlier in the thread, a generalisation from him [shaven headed thugs and all that] but he must have a reason for saying it. I'd say (from personal experience) the same of Chelsea and West Ham, and Leeds is NOT a pleasant place to go now, is it? Be honest. What FFP rules have we circumvented? Chapter and verse please, not opinions. Which rules are you spouting on about? Business rules that says , for example, Honda can make cars in England and sell them back to Japan? European employment law? Stick to the facts if you will. The Bosman ruling giving player power over clubs and sucking the game dry... our players come relatively cheap (I'll retract that on publication of our wage structure by comparison when published in 2-3 years time) and we will not fall into some financial abyss. They were all bit-part players at their respective clubs and could not get that much in the way of first team football. "Morally reprehensible"? That's rich from a Leeds fan. You don't like it that your place in the 'natural order' (whatever that is) has been usurped by little ol' Watford? Do feel free to check out which of our signings have made a big impact for their clubs, be it Udinese or Granada, or Man Utd, say. They were all, at best, journeymen or in need of kick-starting their careers or unproven young talent. Look them up! 12 games in 3 seasons here, 15 games in 2 seasons there... until they arrive with us. Lil' 'ol Watford. Not big signings. Modest ones. We have not even managed to keep what you, the outside footballing public, voted the best player in the league last season - Matej Vydra. McGugan may be the odd one out but he still signed for us. Get over it. Have a moan when we sign the likes of Di Natale, until then please do jog on (and grow a brain whilst you do). Thank you
I find it so funny that it is the fans of these once upon a time big clubs - Leeds and to a lesser extent Leicester are the ones having a go. WE are arrogant - they of course are NOT. Since when did one of them care about the rules when their club was breaking them? And what a coincidence that a fan of a club who he himself admits has the highest turnover in the league supports a system that by his figures would give them six times the money to spend on wages than ours. That would be SO fair. FFP my foot - it is a way of ensuring that tin pot little clubs like ours know their place and stayin their place. The Daily Mail has ranted on at us for 30 years because we dared try to break into the big time. Our system ensures that we do not go bankrupt and leave small suppliers in trouble - unlike their clubs. Get over it - you only support the rules that favour you guys.
1) Our club never exploited a loophole, they operated within the rules as they were written - how many times does that have to be explained before it sinks in? As to only being able to pay players a maximum of £5M - wrong on two counts. Firstly, you appear to have plucked a figure out of thin air, given that last season's accounts are not due until 1st Dec and have yet to be finalised - you have no idea at all what the club's income was for the year. Secondly, if you bother to research the FFP rules, you'll find that, even if that was the club's income level, the figure they can pay out is far in excess of that, should they choose to do so. I should also add that if you seriously think that clubs pay 100% of their income on player wages anyway, then you are as deluded as you are bitter... 2) Simple - the players they are trying to get rid of are neither up to scratch nor worth the money they are being paid. That happens at every club - just about in every business too. 3) You seem to be making one huge, erroneous assumption here, and cannot differentiate between what actually does happen and what, in your mind, could happen. Just because you think that something can happen is no reason to accuse our, or any other, club of doing it - where is your evidence that anything at all untoward has been going on here or at any other club? As to the 'morally reprehensible strategy', I repeat, how many times does something need to be explained before it sinks in? Do you really form your opinions from the ramblings of lazy hacks without thinking "..maybe I should research that and confirm it.."? It really does beggar belief.... 4) I seriously doubt that anyone worries, or even cares, over the predictions of someone who clearly doesn't know what they are talking about. - or of someone, such as you, who clearly thinks that their opinion is the only one that matters.
Oh wow.... Someone isn't happy little old watford is above the mighty Leeds You accuse us of assumptions and make so many yourself. You say we have a turnover of £5m so couldn't possibly afford all these players. I'd like to know where you have these figures... I'm pretty sure ice seen us have circa £10m just a cup,e of seasons ago. On top of that, the new owners have already increased revenue, including a very large catering contract (which you'll probably say is the Italian mob). We have also signed 2 good shirt sponsorships. You may have noticed we have also released a number of players which freed a number of players, freeing up the wage bill greatly. I can understand why you are wetting yourself over FFP though, as being one of the larger supported teams, you will naturally have a larger income, just shame you don't use it very well
For someone who does not give a ****, Marky spends a lot of time on another clubs MB at a time of night when I would have thought the sad act would have better things to do. Get over yourself sad act...
I am not at all interested in getting involved with the FFP argument with 'away' supporters as I think it is pathetic. However, I will just answer the turnover question made by our friend from Leeds. £5M? Not sure where you got that from, but our turnover, outside of the year in the Premier League, has been between £12M and £14M most years.....
Come on Marko, you haven't given a **** for over 8 hours. Maybe our score today has given you nasty flashbacks
Well maybe not but that's hardly down to us really - the Premier league clubs are to blame because they only use 27% of British players in their squads. Most of the top clubs even get youngsters in from overseas now. Maybe they just don't trust the youngsters in this country as much - it is a shame but football is about instant results and success now rather than trying to build a team and let it develop. I suspect if you guys went up fans would be demanding this and that to ensure the team was improved quickly and most people would rather see their team successful than England.
People say the Football League must do something to stop this but it actually makes them silly because a simple bit of background research on the Pozzos and their business model which has been well known across Europe and the world for years would have flagged up any potential concerns they might have before approving the original take-over and of course latest signings. It rather shows up the lack of understanding and respect the authorities here have for the game outside of Britain or maybe they simply don't care who comes into our game. Marko has a point - what is the value of their "fit and proper" person test? - Coventry/Blackburn and other fans might ask the same question. Maybe its all a show to pretend they really worry about the morals and future...
