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Stephen Ward - Albion unwilling to match salary



Bra

Well-known member
Feb 21, 2009
1,366
patcham
I'm braced for it and have been expecting it since Oscar walked just a year after Poyet did the same. I do not believe Oscar left because he didn't have the balls for the job which seems to be the perceived wisdom on NSC. I think he walked because of the budget.

Sadly so do I. Since last year we have lost Bridcutt, Barnes, El-abd, Lopez, Upson, Orlandi, PIG plus the loan players. We must have reduced the wage bill enormously and yet pre season has arrived and no signings or news of any potential signings other than a 18 year old kid. We have to hope that Ankergren, Bruno and Calde are back otherwise we are left with no right backs and youth team goalkeeper.
 




Worthingite

Sexy Pete... :D
Sep 16, 2011
4,959
Worthing
You can easily compete and not pay silly money... how many of Burnleys players were on even 10k a week do you think ?......

Sorry, but with the exception of the work from Trippier and Ings, I would hazard a guess that it was a total and utter fluke - in the same way Palace went up. I would bet you a pound to a piece of shit that they wouldn't even be looking at the playoff's this year. And they WILL come straight back down.
 


Biscuit

Native Creative
Jul 8, 2003
22,223
Brighton
You can easily compete and not pay silly money... how many of Burnleys players were on even 10k a week do you think ?......

That proves it can be done, not that it can be done 'easily'.

Teams, as a general rule, spend their way out of this division. If we want to do it the noble way, good on the club, but it'll take a lot of fan patience.. we'll see how long that lasts.
 


Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
What's the solution though? Screw our business model and go for broke?

No.

We HAVE to be sensible about these things. We are a club doing our best to operate within our means. If we can't afford a player. We can't afford a player. It's pretty clear that TB and co won't bend over backwards for anybody. And that's why we're so lucky. I don't care if we don't go up this season, next season or even the season after that. We will always be a sensibly run club with an ever increasing base of young, local talent. Let's not start being underwhelmed because we're not spunking huge wages on any player we like the look of.

People have got to stop acting like we've got to match the spending habits of everyone else and start thinking that maybe we're trying to set a very good trend. One that more clubs should follow!

Patience is undoubtably going to be the key, we are likely to be in this division for a few years yet as we rely on youth coming through. I don't have a problem with that.
 


Marshy

Well-known member
Jul 6, 2003
19,743
FRUIT OF THE BLOOM
No idea but they were willing to pay Ashley Barnes a lot more than we were so I suggest that their players were on better wages than ours, probably.

Absolutely no chance that the players at Burnley earn anywhere near what ours are on.

Im sure you can probably find out somewhere.
 




Worthingite

Sexy Pete... :D
Sep 16, 2011
4,959
Worthing
What's the solution though? Screw our business model and go for broke?

No.

We HAVE to be sensible about these things. We are a club doing our best to operate within our means. If we can't afford a player. We can't afford a player. It's pretty clear that TB and co won't bend over backwards for anybody. And that's why we're so lucky. I don't care if we don't go up this season, next season or even the season after that. We will always be a sensibly run club with an ever increasing base of young, local talent. Let's not start being underwhelmed because we're not spunking huge wages on any player we like the look of.

People have got to stop acting like we've got to match the spending habits of everyone else and start thinking that maybe we're trying to set a very good trend. One that more clubs should follow!

Don't get me wrong - I don't want us to follow the Leeds/Portsmouth route of going balls out and leaving ourselves wide open. But it feels like every aspect of the club has moved on, with the exception of the playing budget. If we pay small time wages, we get small time players. All I'm saying is that we need to be paying the going rate for the league that we are in.
 




deletebeepbeepbeep

Well-known member
May 12, 2009
21,008
Sadly so do I. Since last year we have lost Bridcutt, Barnes, El-abd, Lopez, Upson, Orlandi, PIG plus the loan players. We must have reduced the wage bill enormously and yet pre season has arrived and no signings or news of any potential signings other than a 18 year old kid. We have to hope that Ankergren, Bruno and Calde are back otherwise we are left with no right backs and youth team goalkeeper.

And Toko Nzuzi but lets skip over that because it doesn't suit your agenda.
 




symyjym

Banned
Nov 2, 2009
13,138
Brighton / Hove actually
I'm braced for it and have been expecting it since Oscar walked just a year after Poyet did the same. I do not believe Oscar left because he didn't have the balls for the job which seems to be the perceived wisdom on NSC. I think he walked because of the budget.

Agree, but I don't think it was the budget as much as our inability to do good business when it counts. If we had Grabban and Conway we may have had a chance to get to the Prem.

I thought that in the January window we were in a league position to warrant a punt, also bearing in mind that Grabban would have been a fixed asset and could have been sold for £3m after 4 months and helped our budget. We sort of cut off our noses to spite our face.
 


Biscuit

Native Creative
Jul 8, 2003
22,223
Brighton
Don't get me wrong - I don't want us to follow the Leeds/Portsmouth route of going balls out and leaving ourselves wide open. But it feels like every aspect of the club has moved on, with the exception of the playing budget. If we pay small time wages, we get small time players. All I'm saying is that we need to be paying the going rate for the league that we are in.

Even if we can't afford to?
 


supaseagull

Well-known member
Feb 19, 2004
9,611
The United Kingdom of Mile Oak
Absolutely no chance that the players at Burnley earn anywhere near what ours are on.

Im sure you can probably find out somewhere.

You're missing one vital bit of info...Burnley would almost certainly be able to match us in terms of wages/signing on fees because they didn't spunk their parachute payments from when they were in the Premier league on players who they couldn't afford and so, I reckon they are able to offer decent wages.
 




seagullsovergrimsby

#cpfctinpotclub
Aug 21, 2005
43,692
Crap Town
If we bow in and give Ward £13k a week it will put pressure on the club to increase wages across the playing squad. If he sees out his contract at Wolves he'll have earned a little bit extra but then will find it nigh on impossible to get the same wages elsewhere after he is released. The only thing in our favour is if other clubs don't want to pay anywhere near £10k a week on a season long loan deal or unwilling to pay a transfer fee. It might end up with Wolves letting him go for free to save on his wages.
 


Gilliver's Travels

Peripatetic
Jul 5, 2003
2,921
Brighton Marina Village
It's time to make a stand. I don't want to see this club - nor indeed any other - bankrupted by players' ludicrous wage demands. £13,000 a WEEK, for an Ireland international (and where did they feature in the World Cup?) who in any other walk of life would be absolutely delighted to get a 10th of that. Lunacy.

The obscenity of professional footballers' bloated pay packets was brought into sharp relief when England's prized £300,000 a WEEK superstar ballooned that pathetic corner kick way behind the Italian goal. It's got to stop. We've got to stop forking out for it, week after week. And paying players no more than their actual worth in real-world terms is the only way to bring sanity back to the game.
 


seagullsovergrimsby

#cpfctinpotclub
Aug 21, 2005
43,692
Crap Town
You're missing one vital bit of info...Burnley would almost certainly be able to match us in terms of wages/signing on fees because they didn't spunk their parachute payments from when they were in the Premier league on players who they couldn't afford and so, I reckon they are able to offer decent wages.

Burnley were in the last chance saloon because it was the final parachute payment. If they hadn't gone up they would have had to sell their 4 best players to remain on level terms this season.
 




mreprice

Active member
Sep 12, 2010
690
Sydney, Australia
Do the maths. 13k a week is NOT breaking our wage structure. 20 players each on 13k a week is £13.5m a year. Our "footballing costs" in 2012/13 were over £20m. So we must be paying our players that much on average.

Ward was clearly above average and so should be paid at least the average amount. If we can't find that amount to pay our most valuable player from last season we are really going to struggle to put a decent squad together.
 


nwgull

Well-known member
Jul 25, 2003
13,890
Manchester
You're missing one vital bit of info...Burnley would almost certainly be able to match us in terms of wages/signing on fees because they didn't spunk their parachute payments from when they were in the Premier league on players who they couldn't afford and so, I reckon they are able to offer decent wages.

Even with parachute payments, Burnley's income last season will have been less than ours due to our higher ticket sales and associated commercial stuff. - someone posted a breakdown of all Championship clubs for 12/13 a while back. Given this, I'm fairly sure that they were not paying silly wages for this level.
 


brakespear

Doctor Worm
Feb 24, 2009
12,326
Sleeping on the roof
What's the solution though? Screw our business model and go for broke?

No.

We HAVE to be sensible about these things. We are a club doing our best to operate within our means. If we can't afford a player. We can't afford a player. It's pretty clear that TB and co won't bend over backwards for anybody. And that's why we're so lucky. I don't care if we don't go up this season, next season or even the season after that. We will always be a sensibly run club with an ever increasing base of young, local talent. Let's not start being underwhelmed because we're not spunking huge wages on any player we like the look of.

People have got to stop acting like we've got to match the spending habits of everyone else and start thinking that maybe we're trying to set a very good trend. One that more clubs should follow!
:thumbsup:
 


Superphil

Dismember
Jul 7, 2003
25,445
In a pile of football shirts
You can easily compete and not pay silly money... how many of Burnleys players were on even 10k a week do you think ?......

No idea but they were willing to pay Ashley Barnes a lot more than we were so I suggest that their players were on better wages than ours, probably.

Absolutely no chance that the players at Burnley earn anywhere near what ours are on.

Im sure you can probably find out somewhere.
:thumbsup:

I bet Ashley Barnes earned a lot less than Ward in the Championship, at both Albion & Burnley. I'd imagine he's had something of a bonus now he's helped them into the Premier League, probably including a pay rise.
 




Tim Over Whelmed

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 24, 2007
10,238
Arundel
Surely it will work out cheaper to pay the extra 3k. Than it will be risking 500k on a left back who may or may not fit in.

Depends on whose £500k it is, if it were mine I'd be playing hard ball, if it were someone else's I'd be much more cavalier!
 


TonyW

New member
Feb 11, 2004
2,525
He's not a 13k a week player. The money is better spent elsewhere.

He's a full international, he's played in the Premiership and he was arguably our best player last season.

Of course he is worth that much.

If we are serious about promotion, we need to pay this kind of wage and more.
 


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