You are right, it does not show what people are spending now. But it gives an idea. I for one cannot imagine many clubs looking for promotion will have RECUCED their spending on wages. As ours have gone up, so, in most instances, will others.
Of course, we only pay around a ninth of Bridge's...
It is an inescapable fact that the club's total wage bill is below the league's average. The year West Ham went up via the play offs their wage bill for the club was around the £40m mark. Ours is less than half that.
That same season Leicester City spent £28m, Reading £27m, Birmingham City...
I was very sceptical about these claims earlier in the season, for exactly the same reasons mentioned above, but having seen the club's total wage bill against other clubs in this division I think Gus certainly has a point - albeit one he could probably not mention quite so often...