Thetownend.com

Did anyone see the short article about Bristol Shitty on BBC West news last night?  Dropping down a division they now have to contend with the fair play rules and are subject to a 60% wage cap.  From figures attained by the BBC it would appear that their income is about £11 million, meaning they would have about £7 milllion for wages.  The current wages bill is about £18 million!!!  They are also £41 million in debt, mostly to their benefactor.  A few players there looking for new clubs in the summer I would guess.  Scary figures though. :bye: :bye:

Will they look for a new version of the Ashton Gate 8?

It's fire sale time...

They've already stated they'll be using players from the academy more next year.

Worth a cheeky £50k bid for Baldock I reckon.

He could tear a hole in this division next season.

18 million!? Ours is 4 million..

Bristol City, Bristol City 1982, Bristol City 2015?

I was instantly weary that they might sniff around our out-of-contract players.

...But if they're THAT broke then perhaps not.

One thing it does show is how hard it would be for us to compete in a higher division.

It does indeed Wiggy. BCFC have lost over 10 million a season for 4 consecutive years. I suppose they did chase the Prem dream for a couple of those, whereas we'd be more aiming to survive.

It doesn't help when 3 teams every year get £60M over 3 years parachute payments. How can the rest compete with that. Premier League 2 by stealth :)

Which means our wage bill is still £3 million more than one club already in the play-offs.

I was in on a conversation at another Div 3 club with 2 ex-pros and a Chairman. One of the pros said something along the lines of 'all these young lads want to do is play football, once they've got a few bob in their pocket they'd rather be a bit of a hero in the local town than a nobody playing U 21, Academy, or whatever, for a Prem / Champ club.

As we all know it's hit or miss getting that age group cast-offs or loanees but it's the only way I see us becoming a sustainable club in the long term. Hopefully KMac is the man to do this. I'd rather see us playing an enthusiastic but with a lot to learn player like Byrne than the Jay Macs / Roberts of this world, here for one last decent payday.

Fuck em.. hopefully go the same way of Luton or Stockport, straight out the league. Will be fun taking the piss there again next season, brilliant display when we beat them in the cup 1-0 last season, although I can remember very little of it...  :beers:

Nail head hit

Well they are going to lose 5m worth of income, as they are no longer in the Championship, and have to do with the handouts in L1.

I wonder if the players have got relegation clauses in their contract. Who would want to pay Jon Stead 10k a week for playing in L1?

Current league positions of teams relegated from PL over last 3 seasons;

PL - 11th
Championship - 2nd 7th 12th 14th 17th 19th 21st
League One - 22nd

I'd say other teams are competing pretty well with it.

Does that work out? Assuming we're 4 million pa  - about 300k per month - 25 pros - that's an average of 3K per week which is very high (league average around 1400 pw 2009-10). Let me guess at our top wage - about 4.5k- 5k per week, though I don't know who deserves that. Then the kids on <1k plus the rest at 1-3k - I would estimate the average to be 2k per week (2.6 million pa); maybe it could be 3 million, but 4 million is pushing it.

 So, i presume you're talking about Yeovil - 1 million pa with 20 pros is  only about 960 pw
that's cheap as chips. You'd really estimate it that low?????

They run a tight ship. Av wage £800, 20 pros, no-one on more than £1k, younger ones £600/week. Which is still a lot more than most 21 year-olds will be earning in the area, if they have a job. They've certainly had their fingers burnt in the past, agents pushing up wages, but that was a few years ago.

I might have been told porkies of course but I've known a few YTFC players over the last decade and it squares with their comments. A (good) striker with a Devon non-league team earnt more money, plus a 5-figure signing-on fee, going to Truro City rather than 3rd Div Yeovil.

That figures, Truro were throwing money at it for a few years.  Those days are gone there now.

Kid in our year plays for the youth team, about to find out how successful their scholarships are, but anyways it fun to shout "Thats the standard of league 1" and "Lets all trial for Bristol" when he misses a shot.... which happens on quite a few occasions.

It will become more difficult from next season when teams in the Championship have to compete under the wage cap.

Assuming that it's 65% (which I think it is), that gives those teams a £13m advantage over the other teams in the Championship.

There isn't going to be a wage cap in The Championship next season. They went with Financial Fair Play instead, which will limit their losses to £8m in the first season which then reduces in subsequent seasons.

Though the real problem with the unfair advantage argument is that the facts don't really support it. All they do with the extra money is piss it away paying inflated salaries to the under performing players that got them relegated.

FL meeting yesterday - and they have called for more of the PL money to cascade down to the lower leagues.  No chance, doesn't quite fit in with their idea of PL2 does it?

There's more chance of gold coins cascading out of my ears

Gary Roberts is most likely our highest paid player. He turned down a new contract at Huddersfield before he joined us.