Latest football club wagelist

[HangTime]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10249101.stm

Club - 2009 (2008):
Chelsea - £167m (£172m)
Man Utd - £123m (£121m)
Liverpool - £107m (£90m)
Arsenal - £104m (£101m)
Man City - £83m (£54m)

Interesting to see Liverpool surge past Arsenal in the wages stakes. Chelsea still way out in front as one might expect. Next year when figures for 2009-10 come out you'd expect another big jump for man city.

However what I find even more interesting in this article is this:

the wages ratio in the Football League was 86% as a whole and 90% in the Championship

We traditionally hear about the 'outrageous' wages spent by premiership clubs, but in terms of wages:revenue ratio, the big boys aren't spending beyond their means anywhere near as much as the smaller clubs on average (just 67%). If you think about it 86% is pretty shocking given that presumably the smaller clubs still have pretty hefty overheads (in relative terms) like mortgage/loan repayments, upkeep of the ground, policing etc. 90% in the Championship is surely a sign of them quite literally banking on getting promotion to the Premiership, especially when you see them splashing millions of pounds on new players to boot.

 

[thepeganator]

Two thirds of premier league debt is in the top four clubs...

Ouch.

 

[BaZ87]

We had several players sign new deals last year which would account for our increase in wages, we've subsequently cut the size of our squad and shipped out some high earners. I'd be surprised if we're still paying more than Arsenal or City.

 

[Shamikebab]

seventeen million increase

 

[goonerfan]

Two thirds of premier league debt is in the top four clubs...

Ouch.

Half the premier league's £3bn debt is solely at Chelsea and Man City and the owners are never going to call it in, it's just a bargaining position if they ever want to sell the club. Aston Villa and Sunderland are in similar positions: their rich American owners personally lent the club money, but aren't going to ask for it back any time soon or charge interest... I don’t think Randy Lerner’s or Ellis Short’s respective takeovers were leveraged buyouts either, like Liverpool or United, but I might be wrong?

The only debt we should be interested is that which is owed to banks charging interest at ever-increasing amounts, and so the figures look a lot worse than they are.
Of those clubs in debt with creditors, I don’t think many are in danger, we all know about United’s £700mil, but their revenues will keep them safe, Arsenal have £200-£250mil debt left from building the Emirates but at substantially lower interest rates than other clubs’ loans, and again a very good turnover, so we’re OK.

As I see it, the only clubs in perilous situations with creditors are Liverpool (we’ve got a long thread about that one! ), West Ham – who were ran hopelessly by their Icelandic owners, and Hull (if we count them) who spent above their means. The other clubs I haven’t mentioned probably all have varying degrees of debt that they have gotten into to try and keep pace, but I’ve not heard anything reports in the news of them being in trouble.


Looking at the wages table, I was surprised to see Arsenal still above Man City, I though City had been more reckless than they had (maybe Robinho isn’t included on that stat), I think you’re right HangTime, City will be up to at least 3rd for 2010, no troubles. I guess Liverpool will fall back in that table, as their credit issues seem to linger. I’ve heard that there were two perfectly good offers submitted for the club’s sale, and Gillett was keen to sell-up, but the idiot cowboy Hicks is holding out for an unreasonable amount.

 

[daz]

We traditionally hear about the 'outrageous' wages spent by premiership clubs, but in terms of wages:revenue ratio, the big boys aren't spending beyond their means anywhere near as much as the smaller clubs on average (just 67%). If you think about it 86% is pretty shocking given that presumably the smaller clubs still have pretty hefty overheads (in relative terms) like mortgage/loan repayments, upkeep of the ground, policing etc. 90% in the Championship is surely a sign of them quite literally banking on getting promotion to the Premiership, especially when you see them splashing millions of pounds on new players to boot.

You're right but it's caused by the wage inflation of the Premiership.

If a Championship team wants to sign a reserve player from the premiership, they might have to spend £10k a week to match his wages. The rewards for gaining promotion from the Championship are that much higher, teams are willing to gamble in any attempt to get there.

 

[Greenlizard0]

Sort of like how Cardiff did. Apparently they're rather screwed now.

 

[Weebull]

You're right but it's caused by the wage inflation of the Premiership.

If a Championship team wants to sign a reserve player from the premiership, they might have to spend £10k a week to match his wages. The rewards for gaining promotion from the Championship are that much higher, teams are willing to gamble in any attempt to get there.

They don't have to pay any players anything, it's simply the precarious "keeping up with the Joneses" nature of football (and pretty much anything like it) that means that pay rates have a certain amount of inelasticity across the leagues.

 

[HangTime]

Well obviously there is an element of wage inflation seeping down but the only reason that can happen is the drive of clubs to compete in the Championship. Ultimately they are the ones who sign the contracts and agree to pay these Prem reserve players £10k/week, because they are harbouring ambitions of using those players to push them forwards into the top flight.

If you think about it the Premiership clubs are not going to hire every single player out there to fill up a 50-strong reserve team squad, teams in the lower leagues can bring in lesser players, scour the foreign markets, focus on youth etc if they are serious about their wage structure. Maybe they just have an over-inflated opinion of the calibre of player they should have at the club. It's not just wages, you see all sorts of multi-million pound deals going on in the Championship, you know, your Ade Akinbiyis and your Michael Chopras.

At the end of the day, the teams vying for promotion should by and large be the teams that got relegated from the Prem (due to their superior squad and parachute payments), plus the odd up-and-coming side. Some might say that is a sorry state of affairs, resulting in a yo-yo situation (West Brom etc) and not giving other clubs a chance - but ultimately that is what logic dictates should happen, and other clubs need to be aware of that; they need to realise that there are only so many carrots available in that division, being challenged for by traditionally much bigger rabbits, but plenty of sticks waiting to whack them if they fail.