How the value of Bristol City's squad compares to the rest of their Championship rivals The Robins have the ninth most expensive assembled squad in the league with Fulham topping the bill and Blackpool working on a budget Bristol City have the ninth most expensive assembled squad in the Championship totalling £36.2million with Fulham topping the bill worth a huge £233m. The Cottagers booked their return to the Premier League on Tuesday with a 3-0 victory over Preston although it will come as little surprise to many considering the total value of their squad is worth considerably more than the rest of their Championship rivals. Thanks to data released by Price of Football's Kieran Maguire, the latest information provides further evidence of the mismanagement in previous transfer windows considering the financial and league positions the club finds itself in today. The costs of the squads are calculated from the most recent available accounts although Derby County's figure stems back to 2018 as owner Mel Morris has refused to publish their accounts. Above City are Cardiff, Middlesbrough, Derby, West Brom, Sheffield United, Stoke, Bournemouth and Marco Silva's Fulham - all above Nigel Pearson's side in the Championship with the exception of already relegated Rams. The top five have all benefitted from parachute payments in recent years and therefore have been able to maintain their spending in the transfer windows while keeping hold of players that arrived during their time in the top flight - Aleksandar Mitrovic for example who joined Fulham for £22million in 2018. From a City perspective, the figures are a reminder of their poor judgement in the transfer windows and further backup Pearson's comments that the club have been passive in the past. Tomas Kalas is the most expensive player in the squad with City paying Chelsea a club-record £8m fee while midfielder Han-Noah Massengo joined for an initial £2.7m fee, rising to almost £8m with clauses. City opened the cheque book in the summer of 2019 also paying around £5m for striker Nahki Wells, a reported £3.5m for Kasey Palmer and seven-figure prices for Jay Dasilva and Dan Bentley. The Robins posted losses of £38.4m in December and put it down to the collapse of the transfer market outside of the Premier League following to coronavirus pandemic. Less than £2m was spent last summer in Rob Atkinson and George Tanner. The information also highlights the jobs being done by the likes of Luton, who sit fourth in the Championship, with a squad value totalling just £3.4m. Coventry (£5.4m), Blackburn (£16.4m) and Huddersfield (£17.2) are all arguably overachieving in the league while Blackpool have the lowest squad value in the division worth just £1.4m. The latest figures come a week after figures were shared exposing the extent of wages Bristol City have been paying their players and staff in relation to the revenue they receive. City were paying 212 per cent of wages in comparison to the income received last season with just three Championship clubs in Birmingham, Brentford and Reading paying more. Maguire also released information regarding the average weekly wage of clubs in the Championship - and again it wasn't good reading for Bristol City. It claims the club were paying an average of £16,419 per player on wages last season with only five teams paying more in Brentford, Stoke, Bournemouth, Norwich and Watford - three of those were promoted while Stoke and Bournemouth still have Premier League wages on their books. Manager Pearson has been blunt in City's assessment of their finances as he plans a summer shakeup with no, or very limited, funds available. When asked about transfer plans, he responded: "As it stands at the moment, I can't see us spending any money". He was slightly more positive last week when he said "there may be some money but we have to be prepared, it depends on how things go with the financial fair play situation." Championship squad costs Fulham - £233m Bournemouth - £198.6m Stoke - £145.4m Sheffield United - £113.7m West Brom - £85m Derby - £62.5m (figures from 2018) Middlesbrough - £58.3m Cardiff - £54.8m Bristol City - £36.2m Swansea - £31.6m Birmingham - £31.1m Nottingham Forest - £30.8m Reading - £23.7m Huddersfield - £17.2m Blackburn - £16.4m Preston - £12.5m Barnsley - £8.8m QPR - £8.3m Millwall - £7.5m Coventry - £5.6m Peterborough - £4.6m Hull - £3.6m Luton - £3.4m Blackpool - £1.4m https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/bristol-city-squad-costs-championship-6977173
From what I've seen Da Silva is starting to improve in my humble opinion and may yet be a great asset if he stays. I've criticised him in the past, but this season Bentley has been outstanding on occasions, and on his day Kalas is cool and HNM will continue to develop under Nige and Fleming. As for the rest, including Wells, Palmer and O'Dowda, what a waste of money as the saying goes. You have to acknowledge the achievements of Luton, Blackpool and Coventry given the figures above, especially the former.
'The Robins have the ninth most expensive assembled squad in the league...' I actually thought we were about 4th-6th - second only to the newly relegated teams with PP. This is actually GOOD news for me - I thought it was much worse. Wells, O'Dowda and Palmer need to go, but we'll probably be stuck with them and end up losing Massengo and Semenyo.
It's easy with hindsight. The only one of these I think we all agree that the club didn't need at the time was Palmer, he was an MA indulgence to build relationships with Chelsea. O'Dowda was performing well until the contract wrangle and big injury hampered him. Wells has simply failed to live up to expectations.
