To anyone who has any idea of the financial side of the game. What does it cost the club to bring players through the youth system to the level of Cullen, Cairney, Devitt (ie players on the edge of the first team) in terms of wages and other expenses? Iâm just wondering how these costs compare to buying players of similar ages like Stewart, Chester, Evans who seem to slot straight into the first team.
I don't want to use FM, however, it is usually pretty accurate when it comes to contracts (at the start of the game obviously, before the game gets going). The ones I know of without the game are: Tom Cairney £5000 p/w (they offered him more to ward off interest from bigger clubs, but then I'm not sure if he was given more when he signed the newer contract) Jamie Devitt, Liam Cooper, Mark Cullen £1100 p/w Youth Contracts are anywhere between £50p/w for apprentiships and £275 p/w for top end youngsters. My brother is really good friends with Billy Ward and he said he was given £185 p/w as a YTS before he was released. As a reasonable guess, I'd say Chester, Dudgeon,Stewart and Evans are on around £4000 - £6000 a week, which given our wage structure, isn't bad at all.
Good thread Craig. It sorta seems pointless having a youth set up if we are just gonna buy Man U 19/21 yr olds doesnt it. Personally i think its wrong and we should ahve persevered with Cooper, Cairney, Devitt. Otherwise scrap it.
I'm no expert but a player who's been offered a professional contract at Manchester United is going to demand a higher salary than someone from our youth academy. However, the youth set up can hardly be called pointless if we sign a few young players. It's undeniable that Chester is a better player than Cooper and that Evans is a superior player to Cairney. These young signings build our squad for the future and are the players which are most likely to bring profits when sold, it's still handy to have some homegrown players on lower wages to fill the gaps and strengthen the team. I don't understand your point Chazz Rheinhold - Should we just sign middle aged players and hope for a middle/lower half table finish?
Bit off topic But when you see young players like Wilshere etc, on 50k a week... I honestly think despite it being ridiculous money anyway, no player should be on 50k a week or more till they've made 100 appearances at professional football level
It certainly isnt undeniable that either Chester or Evans is better than Cairney and Cooper. For one Chester is 2 and a half years older than Liam. Go to Craigs point of the thread. How much does it cost to bring a player through the youth team? As we arent playing them then is it worth the cost, whatever that may be? Dont forget these are the ones who have nearly made it. Never mind the others who every year come through to be let go at 16/17/18. either the youth set up is poor or we have managers who dont rate it or arent bothered enough to change it as its the same staff year in year out. What do yuo mean by middle aged players. 28 29 then i will take Kevin Nolan.
Having a reasonably small squad with several players brought up from the youth academy keeps the wage bill down, similarly signing younger players yet to hit their career peak is cheaper than buying those currently playing at their highest form. Paying for a player to come up through the young set up to then make few appearances is still cheaper than signing another player just to sit on our bench...
Don't get me wrong, I would enjoy watching more of our own youth playing first team football but they don't compare in quality to the youth from clubs which pour millions into their academy annually. However some players like Devitt make excellent cover for injuries or second half substitutions and I expect we will still see some of our youth plying their trade alongside the newer additions within the next year.
I have no definite idea how much the ex Man U players are on. But i will say it is well documented that Fergie drives the hardest bargain in football for his players that he lets go, he will get them the best wage possible.
What worries me is that the club ends up paying a lot of money to bring up young players who are effectively big fish in a small pond and then they struggle to make it in the first team.The alternative is that we cherry pick the best of the teams that have much wider nets (sorry to continue the fish motif) who have been trained by the best youth coaches in the country. Don't get me wrong, I think we should have a strong youth policy, but maybe it's a bit of a luxury at the moment.
Errm you mean like the young Cam Stewart who is out till October. All players get injured irrespective of age. Your point doesnt make sense read Craig's post again.
Most the United youths we buy will increase in value and grow in experience and talent. Players like Nolan come in on high wages and impress for a few seasons but hold little resale value.
I thought the question was about how much it costs to bring them through the setup, not how much it costs to pay them once they're there? Ie Stewart cost us £300k. If he'd come through our youth setup then there'd have been no fee, but there would have been the cost of the youth coaches for upto 10 years, whatever money we give the kids/their parents in order to have them in our setup and tied to us so we get compo if another side comes in for them and all that kind of thing. Answering the question is really hard to do without knowing how many players you're likely to get through each year. If out of the same size setup you get 1 kid through each year then they've cost you more than each kid has if you get 5 through a year. Any payments to them will be the same for each individual but the salaries of the coaches, the cost of maintaining the training facilities etc is split between the players that make it. In terms of our setup we've been handicapped by our league position relative to other clubs within range up to 5 or 6 years ago and our climb through the leagues, so even if other things were equal our recent returns are no indication of what we should expect in the next few years (when we start getting players through that were recruited in the Championship and when Leeds got relegated to L1).
