Looking at the table today you can clearly see that Burnley and ourselves are doing things the hard way and without huge piles of cash. The top 10 has a thread running through it that shows teams that have had huge cash injections or have parachute payments. Take out Burnley (top) and Leeds (8th) Leicester - new owners huge cash injection. QPR - New owners and cash injection and now with parachute payments. Blackpool - Parachute payments Reading - New owners and parachute payments Forest - New owners and cash injection Watford - New owners and cash injection Blackburn - parachute payments Wigan - parachute payments. This paints a picture doesn't it, and demonstrates that usually a team needs financial backing to get in amongst the propmotion places. Leeds and Burnley are doing well as they dont have that cash to fall back on, so are we fans expecting too much. The championship has become a league where failure is rewarded unfairly and fair play to the clubs who got new owners who had cash to invest.
Spot on and rubbishes the claims that we can get promotion on a shoestring. We can't and won't. Don't think its a target for either the owners or McD this season or maybe even next. Win maybe every second game by whatever means and that'll have to do for now
The only club with cash missing from the top 10 list, is Bolton who have started stringing some results together now that Beckfords scoring. This means that 9 clubs in the championship have big cash spent on their squads. If we finish inside the top 11 we will have done really well, and must demonstrate this by being in front of everyone else - Milwall, Ipswich, B/Mouth ........ etc, etc etc. Crazy situation though isn't it when 15 clubs have no chance of promotion before the season starts. fair play to Burnley and I hope they break the mould because they will have deserved it.
Depends on what you are expecting as a fan, I expect mid table. As I fan what I expect and what I would like are totally different, I have always said GFH are no good to us, the sooner they sell us to someone who cares and not have to worry about making a return on their investors deposits the greater the success we can expect.
What you got to remember a lot of the parachute payments are taken by players they can't shift and if they do, they pay them off Wage bill is higher than Blackpool and Watford and not far off Leicester and forest
Fine post Doc. Not sure I agree that it takes lots of cash to get out of the Championship. A good team with a good Manager playing decent footie will get you out of the Championship. Just look at Swansea. Leicester have had plenty of money for the last couple of years, and they're still in the championship. I think money really starts to count if you want to stay in the PL and at least keep away from the relegation zone. Look at West Brom. All their parachute payments and a half decent manager are now startig to pay dividends. We still have a chance of promotion this season. But if we were to go up, we would need significant investment to be able to stay up and be able to initially at least compete for a mid table spot. The kids coming through will help. But we would need to have a close look at which positions we would need quality replacements for what we've got.
Leicester have had lots of money, yes they are still here but they have been there or challenging far stronger than we have and they look a far greater prospect of getting out of this division than we do.
you have to remember Bates cashed out a large part of this seasons ticket sales,next season we will have a few more million to play with.
LIW I'm just showing the reality and next season doesn't get any better because I expect Burnley to fall away (And us) due to a lack of depth in the squad and then presuming that Leicester, QPR and Reding go up we have Norwich, Sunderland and Palace coming down. Middelsboro have now run out of parachute cash so they had to sack Mowbray. Most teams who are expected to be relegated from the prem have break clause contracts, so i dont accept (LIW) that the parachute payments are taken on players. QPR would be the exception as they didnt see it coming, but have a rich owner anyway. I can almost guarantee that the 3 teams who come down will have alsmost the same team next season as this, unless they get an offer they cant refuse. None of the 3 teams I've mentioned are paying huge prem wages. But I suppose we can all argue the toss about it, but its looking us all straight in the face by the league table
Doc A lot of parachute payments are swallowed by wages for players they can't shift The whole point parachute isn't to give clubs loads of money to come straight back up, but to try to make sure clubs don't go bust because of the wages they had to pay to get players in Yes it's an advantage for them but no where has big has an advantage has made out The 3 clubs who went down the year before last. Wolves Bolton and Blackburn what did they do and what they doing now
Doc, it will be interesting to see how many players stay with Norwich if they come back down. 4 or 5 of them, mainly from us, left us purely because Norwich were a PL club. They have a number of players - Howson, Snoddy, & BJ - I'd have to think about whether it would be worth bringing them back to ER if we got promoted. I also think they'll escape the drop this season. So it won't matter. Having said all of that, I just hope we at least make the play offs this season. That in itself will represent progress and a chance for Mowatt and Byram to grow just a bit more before plying their trade in the PL..... with us in 15/16.
LIW I have to agree on the main point as that is exactly why the parachute system was designed (Post Ipswich) But as you well know the system can be circumvented by having a business plan that takes it into account, and contracts are designed to be based upon a drop in wages if club relegated. WBA started this model years ago and have used it to bounce up and down (yo-Yo) every year until they got themselves established. Stoke, WBA are not going to be relegated any time soon but most clubs design contracts to take account of relegation these days. This is why it becomes unfair to the rest of the clubs in the league because they will not get anywhere near £12m in revenue for the whole season, never mind on top of revenues. Wolves and Blackburn last season - common denominator? useless new owners and thats a fact. Blackburn would still be in the prem now under big Sam and Woles would too if that idiot Steve Morgan had not have sacked big Mick Macarthy. So I dont accept your argument mate, and we know only too well what impact an owner can have on your club. Next season is worse than I thought now as Wolves are walking promotion and will be in our league next year, and still have 2 years of £12m per year to come!!! So that makes 10 teams with cash and 14 without
I agree with a lot with what your saying mate And agree abit wolves and Blackburn Total **** ups I just think it ain't always has big has an advantage has made out
Personally, I'm satisfied we won't be involved in a relegation dogfight this season with rubbish like Millwall and the likes. They are also punching above their weight but can't get away from the lower reaches, so be thankful for small mercies my friends
On the face of it I would agree, that is until I looked at the table and then it stands out like a sore thumb mate. The haves are at the top and the have nots are below them Another reason why Wolves in L1 are coming straight back up is the parachute payments making things even more unfair in that league. Eire Wolves manager is the old wall boss isn't it? which makes it harder for our nilwall mates who may even pass their old manager on the way down as he comes up
Good post apart from the fact that Burnley are on their last year of parachute payments and Leeds are hardly paying their players the minimum wage.
you are paying one of our players one of the highest salaries at our club. You are not good at this RL are you?
Ringo Burnley had 3-years of parachute payments and the rule changed last year so that relegated teams got it for 4-years, therefore Burnley dont get it mate Otherwise we really would be punching above our weight as we'd be the only club in the top 10 without huge cash
There are 6 teams chasing 4 Champions League places - Scum, Scum City, La Arse, Chelski, Victimpool and Spurs. Two of those won't make it (Scum & Spurs??). How many of their players might move on and how long will it take for each club to replace those players? Not quite the same thing, but it's taken us at least 10 years to replace those we lost as a result of us missing out on a CL spot. Potentially a salutory reminder to thos chasing the dream and not having sold foundations for life in the PL.
