Transfer Fees/High Wages - Do YOU Care?

[jcdenton08]

In view of our glorious rise to the PL and the megabucks it brings, how concerned are you about our (potential) spending?

As a fan who grew up with the club in the pits, I remember the fan-funded signing of Rod Thomas for the princely sum of £15,000. To put this into perspective, it is approximately 12 hours of a top PL player's weekly salary. Or a sub-decimal percentage of an average player's transfer fee.

Given that Tony has seen us in 2017 in such an incredible position, I find it a little hard to accept some of the posts on here about potential signings. I remember the season when I realised that spending had gone crazy; Sunderland dropped £10m on Craig Gordon, and £5m on Michael Chopra.

Do WE want to a club spending £10m on Aaron Mooy? Or signing "a Joleon Lescott", PL mercenary on astronomical wages, plus all the "hidden costs", agent fees, signing on fees, win bonuses, appearance fees and so on.

The almost trivial throwing around of high figures for unproven/mediocre footballers is troubling to me now that it concerns the Albion.

 

[GT49er]

Care? - not a lot, I suppose - there's not a lot I can do about it......but like? Definitely not!

 

[Nixonator]

The key is to not spend it on mediocre footballers. But yes, we should be doing all those things in order to compete.

 

[Seasidesage]

Personally, not really as long as they are professional and do the job they are very well paid to do. Players are entitled to a share of the revenue generated and top players should earn big money, no one begrudges pop stars or golfers so why footballers? What I do hate though is players who come for big money, make little or no effort and turn into some sort of insane diva. Unfortunately, I expect we will end up with 1 or 2 of those in the next few years...

 

[Rod Marsh]

Not particularly bothered about fees or wages. Those are market forces. Whether I like it or not really doesn't matter.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

It's all about the result and the consequences, if we spend, make a modest profit and stay in the Premier League then bob on!

 

[Frutos]

I trust Tony and Chris to spend the right amounts of money on the right players.

 

[Weststander]

Spending the full budget is the only way, otherwise it's near certain relegation from the most financially competitive division in football.

A new article today show that virtually every PL club is making a loss or relative to turnover a very small profit:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jun/01/premier-league-finances-club-by-club

In other words, every penny of the £3.65b income per season, and more, is being shelled out on players to maintain the status of all 20 clubs.


Then it's the separate question of how the club spends it on players?

 

[The Wookiee]

It's all relative, back then we didn't have the money, now we are in the prem I say spend it but spend wisely

 

[whitelion]

It's a tough one.

I want us to spend wisely as we have in the past (apart from a few duds) but in order to compete wages and fees have to be commensurate with our rivals although I cannot really see us spending similarly to top six sides.

I think it's possible to punch above your financial weight as we proved this season in the Championship.

 

[sparkie]

Couldn't care at all as long as Tony is happy with the finances.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

Having been in business myself since the age of 19, I know it's a lot harder to earn a quid than to spend one...

All I care about is that whatever we do, and whatever we pay - we get value for money. No less than that.

 

[Colonel Angus]

Every single fan should care.

Exorbitant wages enrich a small number of players and either leave the fans paying for it or clubs lose perspective, overpay and then go under.

If we ever overcommit on player salaries, I would be concerned. I expect Tony to keep our spending under control though, so I'm not worried for the season ahead.

 

[Bladders]

No , as it's not my money . Tony can spend all he wants if he likes .

Knock yourself out Tony


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[Lady Whistledown]

Every single fan should care.

Exorbitant wages enrich a small number of players and either leave the fans paying for it or clubs lose perspective, overpay and then go under.

If we ever overcommit on player salaries, I would be concerned. I expect Tony to keep our spending under control though, so I'm not worried for the season ahead.

Agree with this. Those advocating a "spend whatever it takes" policy are tending to take the Pompey fans', blind eye attitude to it all.

We're a newly promoted Premier League club: others have gone up and stayed up without spanking £100k per week on individual players. It won't be easy, and relies on cunning recruitment, but it is possible.

You could offer players that sort of huge money, get relegated anyway, and then have the same players in the Championship, still learning their £100k per week, but not wanting to leave because nobody else wants to pay their wages. To add to that, once you start bringing in players who earn vast salaries, then others within the squad start to think- especially if they begin to out-perform the "stars"- "why am I not on that sort of wage?", and so it spirals again.


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[Marshy]

I care but know we are in safe hands, I'm certainly not going to panic over 10 million pound players and 40k a week that's well within range given the money we are now getting.

 

[jamie the seagull]

Will only panic if we spend £8m on Snodgrass.
Spend what you like on people like Cairney....

 

[whitelion]

Agree with this. Those advocating a "spend whatever it takes" policy are tending to take the Pompey fans', blind eye attitude to it all.

We're a newly promoted Premier League club: others have gone up and stayed up without spanking £100k per week on individual players. It won't be easy, and relies on cunning recruitment, but it is possible.

You could offer players that sort of huge money, get relegated anyway, and then have the same players in the Championship, still learning their £100k per week, but not wanting to leave because nobody else wants to pay their wages. To add to that, once you start bringing in players who earn vast salaries, then others within the squad start to think- especially if they begin to out-perform the "stars"- "why am I not on that sort of wage?", and so it spirals again.


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I don't like the idea of £100k pw wages but even if we pay average/below average Premier wages I'm sure there would be a relegation clause in contracts.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

I don't like the idea of £100k pw wages but even if we pay average/below average Premier wages I'm sure there would be a relegation clause in contracts.

I did hear somewhere that you can't get away with relegation clauses because players won't sign those contracts

 

[beorhthelm]

Do WE want to a club spending £10m on Aaron Mooy? Or signing "a Joleon Lescott", PL mercenary on astronomical wages, plus all the "hidden costs", agent fees, signing on fees, win bonuses, appearance fees and so on.

strange comparison to make, transfer fee on good player in prime or wages on a has-been (he's 34! what a talent wasted)?

for the general question though, on balance i'd rather payout on wages than fees, because you're paying for motivation and some of it will filter through to the local economy as players live locally.