The problem with the Premiershite and the Championship

[Dave the OAP]

Teams who get into the two leagues are all in difficulty for the following reason:

You get promoted. You are under pressure to stay there by fans who want more sucess. You end up buying players ( mostly foreignors) on rediculous wages and your costs escalate out of control. examples...Leeds..Bradford..Coventry...Sunderland..West Ham...
Huddersfield.....

I am convinced that in the next few years there will be a revolution in footy, whereby clubs will go to the wall and we will end up like the Spanish and Italian leagues, whereby we have a Premier league and a Premier one...the rest will be non -league part timers

 

[perth seagull]

That was a major problem about three years ago. But most clubs now are more realistic and accept the prospect of relegation, instead of breaking the bank. West Brom are probably the best example, Wolves were similar. The three promoted teams this season have stated that they won't blow out their budgets to try and stay up.

 

[Titanic]

I am convinced that in the next few years there will be a revolution in footy, whereby clubs will go to the wall and we will end up like the Spanish and Italian leagues, whereby we have a Premier league and a Premier one...the rest will be non -league part timers

Which makes it all the more important that we take this opportunity to establish ourselves in the top 20 of the Championship (Premier One) - which IMHO is where we belong!

 

[fatbadger]

But, DtG, your argument seems to suggest that it is the teams in the Premiershite and the Championship (ugh!) which will struggle and perhaps go to the wall. Which means, of course, that the solid third and fourth division teams - Rochdale, Bury, Hartlepool, those kinds of teams) which will be fine. I suspect, however, that this may not be the case...

 

[Dave the OAP]

What I was getting at is there are only a certain amount of clubs who can sustain the current level of spending, ie those with benefactors like Abramovitch, the Thai bloke at Liverpool, Doug Elliss, majeski at Reading, Jordan to a degree at Palace etc.

When the Sky bubble burts and all the foreignors go home with their pockets lined with sterling, then that is when the big shake up will happen, then perhaps we will get back to the teams like Crewe supplying real home grown talent. If clubs are allowed to fall by the wayside, which the Premiershite seems to ignore, who is going to provide thse emerging English talent? Arsenal certainly dont give a toss as they are more interested in young players from Lens!!!

 

[Theatre of Trees]

You'll get two or three clubs who'll spend all the money and the rest following proper business plans. The Leeds and Bradford debacles stem from an attempt to speculate on the future then suffering the consequences as a result. Other clubs will be wary of following that route.

Anyway throwing money at players does not always work as football is a team game.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I dont think Leeds speculated in the future. If yiou remember they had qualified for the Champions league, in fact got through to was it the quarters? Therefore they spent big money on players who they believed would keep them there...Viduka/Fowler/Woodgate/ Kewell/Dacort and those Brazillian blokes...when they started to lose games, which no-one saw it coming, then the folly of it manifested.

Bolton on the other hand spend out willy nilly on every foreignor going and manage to stay up. I think they will come cropper soon ( as will Middlesboro)

 

[fatboy]

I dont think Leeds speculated in the future. If yiou remember they had qualified for the Champions league, in fact got through to was it the quarters? )

Semis I believe.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

I dont think Leeds speculated in the future. If yiou remember they had qualified for the Champions league, in fact got through to was it the quarters? Therefore they spent big money on players who they believed would keep them there...Viduka/Fowler/Woodgate/ Kewell/Dacort and those Brazillian blokes...when they started to lose games, which no-one saw it coming, then the folly of it manifested.

Bolton on the other hand spend out willy nilly on every foreignor going and manage to stay up. I think they will come cropper soon ( as will Middlesboro)

They did as they near enough mortgaged everything upon finance being received through qualification to the Champions League over a period of consecutive seasons. Consequently, the first year they failed to qualify their projections did not match their actual outgoings, hence the sale of Ferdinand. The shit hit the fan when they failed to qualify for a second season in a row.

Bolton keep everybody on short term contracts, you'd find that if they got relegated they would be a clause in all these players contracts releasing them, subsequently freeing up the wage bill. When Bradford were rlegated they were saddled with a huge wage bill for Carbone and were unable to offload him quick because he stuck to the latter of his contract.

 

[Easy 10]

The Football League brought in legislation last season to say that D3 clubs are not allowed to spend any more than a certain percentage (70% ?) of their annual turnover on salaries.

While thats not a perfect system, and there are probably ways around it with bonuses etc, this seems to me to be a pragmatic and sensible way forward, and is at least a step in the right direction to try to control the madcap finances in football. I gather it is being extended to D2 clubs this season or next season as well, and it'd be no bad thing if the principles of this idea was imposed across the board (although it'd never happen I suppose - the "big clubs" don't like being dictated to while they're wallowing in the obscene amounts of TV money being thrown at them from all directions).