[Albion] Quick question: Why was it bad for Brighton to sign players on 10 year contracts in 1980s?

[Goldstone Rapper]

Foster, Robinson and Lawrenson were all on them in the early 1980s. Clearly, the rationale was to ensure Albion had great players in the side for the foreseeable future.

But what made the 10 year-deals so bad?

Was it to do with if the players got a serious injury? Or being tied to a high wage bill if the team got relegated from the top flight? Did it have an impact on how much the club could get for players if it was trying to extricate itself from a long term contract with a player?

All suggestions welcome!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Because we couldn't afford the wages, they got older and slower, and we got relegated - so the team wasn't that good after all.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Quick question: Why was it bad for Brighton to sign players on 10 year contra...

Because we couldn't afford the wages, they got older and slower, and we got relegated - so the team wasn't that good after all.

Thanks. I know it's an if and a but, but if Albion had retained their First Division status, would these contracts have been looked at in a more favourable light because the wages could still be afforded? Or would they still be thought of as unwise decisions?

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

We obviously believed it was a way to protect our assets.

That worked out well then.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Quick question: Why was it bad for Brighton to sign players on 10 year contra...

I'm not how true this is but there was talk about Jimmy Melia being given a ten year contract in the aftermath to the Cup Final. Good grief.

 

[joeinbrighton]

Complacency and sending a signal of resting on your laurels. As seen by Newcastle United's regression in the time since Alan Pardew was awarded an 8 year contract.

 

[catfish]

When we started handing out the 10 year contracts we were still getting decent crowds but they dropped quite significantly each season afterwards.

 

[Lenny Rider]

It actually came about when an 'average' player Gary Collier walked out of Bristol,City to join Coventry (somewhat ironic) and the clubs of City and Albions level panicked and sought some kind of protection.

In hindsight it was one of the things that led to the clubs financial meltdown, any player transferred out who didn't ask for a transfer, Stevens, Foster etc had their contracts paid up in full.

 

[dougdeep]

And Barry Lloyd was left to clear up the mess.

 

[kevo]

I think this answers Ernest's question about what happened to the Cup Final money.

 

[Baron Pepperpot]

Foster, Robinson and Lawrenson were all on them in the early 1980s. Clearly, the rationale was to ensure Albion had great players in the side for the foreseeable future.

But what made the 10 year-deals so bad?

Was it to do with if the players got a serious injury? Or being tied to a high wage bill if the team got relegated from the top flight? Did it have an impact on how much the club could get for players if it was trying to extricate itself from a long term contract with a player?

All suggestions welcome!

Think you've answered your own question GR

 

[AZ Gull]

It actually came about when an 'average' player Gary Collier walked out of Bristol,City to join Coventry (somewhat ironic) and the clubs of City and Albions level panicked and sought some kind of protection.

In hindsight it was one of the things that led to the clubs financial meltdown, any player transferred out who didn't ask for a transfer, Stevens, Foster etc had their contracts paid up in full.

Is that really true?

 

[Mowgli37]

How old were Foster, Robinson and Lawrenson when they signed these contracts? I'd be surprised if they were awarded at any age over 23

 

[Lenny Rider]

Is that really true?

Go back, check the facts Gary Stevens, Mike Robinson, Fozzie, Lawro, Andy Ritchie, none of them asked for a transfer so when they left contracts paid up in full, plus on the subject of Ernest and the Cup Final money, as revealed at the time by John Vinicombe the cup run bonuses were from another planet, I was told that after paying the squad out the Albion banked less thn 10 grand for the semi final.

 

[raymondbriggs]

It actually came about when an 'average' player Gary Collier walked out of Bristol,City to join Coventry (somewhat ironic) and the clubs of City and Albions level panicked and sought some kind of protection.

In hindsight it was one of the things that led to the clubs financial meltdown, any player transferred out who didn't ask for a transfer, Stevens, Foster etc had their contracts paid up in full.

Mostly true but part of the "protection" Mullery and Bamber were after was that in arbitration over disputed transfer fees a starting point was a multiplication of wages times years of contract.If a club desperately wanted one of our players we were quids in.(yeah Right)
The down side of that was if we were more desperate to offload than the buyer was keen to sell we had to honour the contract.
When Foster left the Albion he had 7 years left on his contract.Villa offered him a 3 year deal.We had to make up the 4 year difference.
Foster cost us more in compo than we got for him.Upside was we got a player off the payroll and had a ready cheaper replacement in Eric Young.

Mullery and Bamber certainly started the decline that led to Archer Stanley and Bullshittie.

 

[AZ Gull]

Mostly true but part of the "protection" Mullery and Bamber were after was that in arbitration over disputed transfer fees a starting point was a multiplication of wages times years of contract.If a club desperately wanted one of our players we were quids in.(yeah Right)
The down side of that was if we were more desperate to offload than the buyer was keen to sell we had to honour the contract.
When Foster left the Albion he had 7 years left on his contract.Villa offered him a 3 year deal.We had to make up the 4 year difference.
Foster cost us more in compo than we got for him.Upside was we got a player off the payroll and had a ready cheaper replacement in Eric Young.

Mullery and Bamber certainly started the decline that led to Archer Stanley and Bullshittie.

Ah, so we had to pay up the difference between what he was offered at Villa and how long he had left on his Albion contract. That makes a bit more sense to me than having to pay him the full 7 years of his contract he had left.