No relegation clauses in the contracts of our January signinings....

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...n-for-relegation-in-player-deals-8599984.html


Newcastle United have not made provisions for relegation in all of the contracts they gave to the players who arrived at St James' Park in January.


The club did not insert relegation clauses into all of the five deals that were given to the French players who arrived during a spending spree which cost the club £31m in transfer and agents' fees. Newcastle signed Mathieu Debuchy, Yoan Gouffran, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Massadio Haïdara and Moussa Sissoko during the transfer window earlier this year in a bold attempt to move the club away from the relegation zone.

However, despite an initial surge in the team's form, results have tailed off and Newcastle are now in the middle of a relegation fight for the second time in five seasons.

They fell to 17th in the Premier League table when Aston Villa beat Sunderland 6-1 on Monday night, their lowest position since Alan Pardew took over as manager, and now sit just five points above third-bottom Wigan Athletic, who have a game in hand. Newcastle similarly sit fourth-bottom in the current form table.

Their most recent accounts showed that the club's wage bill was £64.1m – but that was before the influx of new players – against a turnover of £93.3m. That turnover, however, would fall dramatically should they be relegated from the Premier League, as they were in 2009 when they were demoted on the final day of the season.

The new television rights deal for showing Premier League matches kicks in next season and the clubs are set to receive £60m – a £14m increase in income. This will only expand the financial gap between the Premier League and the Championship. The one silver lining for Newcastle is that relegated clubs will receive £48m in parachute payments over the following four campaigns.

The situation may be enough to force Newcastle to sell some of their prize assets. The likes of Sissoko, who was signed for just £1.8m from Toulouse, would attract great interest from clubs around Europe. The midfielder was valued at £16m two seasons ago, which arguably negates the need for a clause to decrease salaries to match demotion.

However, other clubs such as Sunderland and Norwich City are believed to have undertaken the safety-first policy.

Sunderland, who are also back in the midst of a relegation scrap following their heavy loss at Villa Park on Monday night, have clauses inserted into the players' contracts as a matter of course. If they were to fall into the Championship, players could see their salaries fall by as much as 40 per cent. That is now policy in light of the financial hardship the club has suffered following previous relegations. After demotion from the Premier League in 2003, 70 members of staff lost their jobs.

Similarly, Norwich have put relegation clauses into player contracts that would reduce wages by more than a third should they finish in the bottom three this season.

Queen's Park Rangers, however, who have already been relegated from the Premier League, struggled to persuade some of their more illustrious signings to gamble on such deals that protect the club if things go wrong on the pitch.

The Wigan manager, Roberto Martinez, has admitted that he would also take a pay cut if the club are relegated from the Premier League. "There are relegation clauses in all of the contracts," he said. "I have one, too. It's about having a sound financial plan and if you drop your league status, you are dropping your budget. Everyone should be affected by it. As a football club, it is something we have to have."

It is something that Newcastle don't.

 

This is not good news....

 

Its alright ACS, once we get these three victories out of the way, this stuff will be a distant memory

Massive pig just shot by window. I'm 3 floors up.

 

Better to be three floors up than three places down.

 

No matter - we'll just sell the bastards.

 

I don't understand how it would be better to have a relegation clause?

Is it not better to be able to negotiate on every player, instead of the player having the choice to leave, like Ba always had? I'm sure we could get rid of a few of these 'flops' for decent money and hopefully keep 3-4 who would be unreal in the Championship. Not that I want us to go down, but I think we'd be able to keep hold of enough to have a very good chance of coming back up?

Much rather the players just realise that this is in their own hands anyway and dig themselves out of it!

We will have the highest gates in the league again, and by trimming a decent amount off the wage bill, and the fact we have a good wage structure anyway, we're arguably in the best position to come back up? (I might have this totally wrong?)

 

Having said that, it would be devastating to miss out on the TV money next season. It's likely that whoever comes up in the next couple of seasons will be hard favorites to go down again because they'll forever be playing catchup with the EPL teams

 

Easy way round this problem, don't get relegated. I'm suprised Mike, Derek and Pardew haven't thought about what seems to me the obvious solution.

Sorted...

 

That's what I mean, it's our own fault if we get relegated given that if the season ended after Wigan's game in hand, they'd go down.

 

I think by relegation clause we are talking about a drop in wages though, so its always better to have one. You don't want a relegation transfer clause though! They are invariably weighted in favour of the player.

I'm with Jim, lets just not bother with relegation - problem solved.

If we miss out on this TV money and have to sell it might not be as simple as it was last time. Our squad would get decimated. I long for the day when we do a Dortmund, Barca, Bayern etc on a small scale and produce our own players

 

You's won't go down marra, you's will beat qpr

 

I soooooo hope you are right.

 

Wigan or Norwich will go down imo

 

I'm hoping Wigan. Although I do quietly fear for Norwich. Said it a couple of months back when most thought they looked clear. They have a tricky run in.
Their game v Villa could be huge.

 

I'm praying

 

You lot won't go down. Don't worry we are partaking in similar levels of bed wetting over on the Saints forum too, but the fact remains...Wigan are deep in the ****. I really can't see where their wins are going to come from, they are in the bottom 3 for a reason. Although they have form for pulling off great escapes their luck is going to run out, cheer up!

 

I keep hearing about how they are in great form and just unlucky. I don't buy this ****. Their form is ****e whichever way you dress it up. I've watched their games and people are over egging their performances and watching too much MOTD. They have 2 points from a possible 12, end of story. I see they've lost Figueroa for the season now too. Throw an FA Cup final, the odds are stacked against Wigan for me.

 

I agree. If villa win at Norwich and Wigan get something at west brom then it's going to be very difficult for the canaries with 2 tough games to come

 

"Similarly, Norwich have put relegation clauses into player contracts that would reduce wages by more than a third should they finish in the bottom three this season."

Ouch! Norwich currently have a wage cap of £15k a week anyway. One of the reasons we are stuggling this season is that we have allocated a full £12m to paying off the LAST of our debt. As of end of May, debt-free which is a fine achievement in this current era of the PL. Ricky Van Wolfswinkel was paid for using this current season's transfer funds left over. Myth of PL wages at Norwich are very wrong, £15k is Championship level salary.

Let's hope that Villa find form and beat Wigan, who let's face it are about to run straight into a solid brick wall, with the only hope of points comes against Swansea. They will get absolutely nothing from Arsenal (seaking to confirm a CL place), West Brom (in-form Lukaku). Newcastle have been seriously unlucky with injuries this season, don't deserve to go down IMO.