Playing budgets next season? (Stolen from League Two)

[F!RTHY]

Ours was higher than that and Barnsley’s was bigger

Well, it was confirmed by our owner, so I’m not sure why they would lie.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Peterborough surely had quite a large budget with all the players they brought in over the summer as well as the fact Evans wont pitch up anywhere where he isnt promised money to spend. Id be surprised if he we had a top 3 budget, but would have thought it was around the top 6 or so in the league. Wouldn't have been hugely different to our League 2 budget at least initially given the squad wasnt all that different.

 

[Tranmerewhite]

If we beat Newport we will have a high budget in league one. Probably £3-4m, our non footballing income is ballooning.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Peterborough surely had quite a large budget with all the players they brought in over the summer as well as the fact Evans wont pitch up anywhere where he isnt promised money to spend. Id be surprised if he we had a top 3 budget, but would have thought it was around the top 6 or so in the league. Wouldn't have been hugely different to our League 2 budget at least initially given the squad wasnt all that different.

Gary Sweet said we performed around 7-8 places above our budget.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

If we beat Newport we will have a high budget in league one. Probably £3-4m, our non footballing income is ballooning.

From looking at the figures people are talking about that doesn’t seem particularly high.

 

[womble76]

Thats mid table in budget league i would say.

 

[Tranmerewhite]

Thats mid table in budget league i would say.

Really? Guess times have changed since 2.1m was a good league one budget!

 

[Luke Imp]

Really? Guess times have changed since 2.1m was a good league one budget!

About £4m is the average this season in L1.

 

[Davidimp]

Indeed Sunderland can pay out 4 million for Will Grigg.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Well, it was confirmed by our owner, so I’m not sure why they would lie.

I know ours was £6m and that Barnsley’s was higher still

 

[joethegill]

From a fan point of view, disregarding additions I really struggle to form an opinion of how short we are for this League as I'm upfront about knowing very little about the standard of L1. Some suggest the gap is huge whilst others have told me we may find it challenging.

Well bear in mind that this season, two of the three relegated clubs could be promoted back to the Championship, and all three were the season before. Tells you a little something about the gap between the leagues. The money gap used to be Premier League > Championship, but with so many in the Champ now on parachute payments that gap has closed right up. Championship > League One is an ever growing chasm.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Well bear in mind that this season, two of the three relegated clubs could be promoted back to the Championship, and all three were the season before. Tells you a little something about the gap between the leagues. The money gap used to be Premier League > Championship, but with so many in the Champ now on parachute payments that gap has closed right up. Championship > League One is an ever growing chasm.

It's not just solely down to parachute payments though, a lot has changed in football since they came in.

Parachute payments were, in my opinion, introduced in 2006-07 because too many teams were coming up, banking the PL riches and not investing enough to establish themselves in the top flight. Of course, foreign ownership in English football was in its infancy in those days. Fulham were probably the first notable foreign owned side to be successful and then Chelsea and Manchester United took that to new levels in the mid 2000s before the Thai and subsequent Abu Dhabi takeover at City really changed the game forever. And so your ordinary English owners were refusing to loosen the purse strings rather than blowing the load on new players.

There were exceptions however. Jack Walker's death didn't stop Blackburn from spending silly money to re-establish themselves as a Top 8 PL side in the mid 2000s. And Eddie Davies and Dave Whelan bankrolled Bolton and Wigan to become established PL clubs for many years. Whilst bigger sides owned by other less wealthy British owners were very tight with the purse strings and risked relegation. Sides like West Ham, Southampton, West Brom and Sunderland for instance.

As a result, a lot of sides in the 2000s achieved instant promotion back relatively easily. Birmingham, Sunderland and West Brom being the usual suspects in this scenario. Because they didn't saddle the squad with debt and they could keep the core of their squad whilst adding to it with a bit of Championship quality to set themselves up nicely.

Parachute payments, coupled with the rise of broadcasting income, the rise of bankrolled lower league teams to the PL and the likes of Hull and Swansea handing out 5 year contracts to players thinking they'd stay at a level far above their usual station forever really changed the game. Suddenly promoted teams had to invest or risk cementing their relegation place and fan unrest. In recent years, only Burnley (the first two times they went up) Reading, Blackpool and Newcastle (the latter two for obvious reasons) have resisted the temptation to go out and spend big to try and establish themselves in the top flight. And now even Burnley and Newcastle have started to spend big once they saw the likes of Bournemouth, Brighton and Huddersfield spending stupid money to try and stay up!

It works both ways though. A decade ago, Championship clubs like Leeds and Derby had set wage caps. I always remember Leeds' highest wage was £10,000 a week and Derby's was even less than that when they took Brayford and Bailey off us as clubs were still recovering from the ITV Digital collapse. The majority of clubs in the second tier cut their cloth until a certain Shaun Harvey became Chief Executive of the FL. Suddenly, foreign ownership swamped the top two divisions at a rapid rate which blew rigid wage structures out of the window and has now led to the top second tier players commanding wages of between £60,000 and £80,000 a week which is absurd!

The problem is now though, that parachute payments are being abused by relegated PL clubs desperate to return back there to the point where they'll mortgage these payments in a desperate bid for promotion (Blackburn, Bolton, Villa, Stoke, West Brom are examples). So if you're a Championship club without them, you either try to keep up with the Joneses and mortgage the long term future of your club for 15 minutes of PL fame (and many fail, only a few succeed. Check out Derby and now Sheffield Wednesday trying to do stadium deals to comply with the awful FFP) or you do sod all about it like Ipswich did, try to run the club on a sound budget and fall further down the food chain and into League One.

The problem is though, the broadcasting income has only slightly increased for us paupers in Leagues One and Two compared to the top two divisions, and so unless you're a small club punching above its weight like Yeovil or Burton or a financial basket case like Coventry, Portsmouth or Bolton have been this decade, you're more or less guaranteed a swift return to Championship within a couple of seasons if you cut your cloth accordingly in League One. Then you realise you have to spend big to keep up with the Championship clubs and, with the fantastic exception of Sheffield United, you end up in the vicious cycle again.

The PL clubs (financed by astronomical broadcasting deals) and the Championship clubs (financed by mainly debt and heavy losses) have therefore closed the once dramatically wide gap. Whereas the gulf between the second and third tiers looks to be increasing by the year, and I can never see that closing anytime soon.

For most of us in Leagues 1 and 2, the top half of League One will be as good as it'll ever get for us barring a tycoon takeover or a genuine miracle. And that's the sad part of it all.

 

[FarehamPompey]

Our local media have said budget is the same as last year, which was around 4m iirc.

 

[RLC]

Our local media have said budget is the same as last year, which was around 4m iirc.

Our budget will probably be about 50% of that, so it will be a tough challenge next season. However, if clubs like Accrington and Wycombe can survive in League One, I think we still stand a fair chance of consolidating.

 

[Stanleyfan]

There was a Q&A meeting with our owner Andy Holt tonight - he announced our budget for next season will be £1.6 million. He believes it'll be the 2nd lowest in L1 after Wycombe.

 

[womble76]

Interesting as i dont think we will be much more than that next season

 

[Luke Imp]

Ours seems to have been put at 18th. Can't recall whether it was the Chairman who said that or the Chief Exec, but any player sales will add to it.

 

[Loyal Dale]

Widely rumoured that our budget will be cut significantly from last year, when we were about 4th lowest.
I'd suspect that we will be 3rd lowest this year, just above Accy and Wycombe.

 

[mase]

I've no idea, but I doubt it's too high...

 

[Muzzle]

Not sure what the transfer embargo against us will be as yet. With only 6 full time professional and 8 youth scholars, they will have to be reasonable in what they allow us to do, or the might as well relegate us before the season starts

 

[Loyal Dale]

Not sure what the transfer embargo against us will be as yet. With only 6 full time professional and 8 youth scholars, they will have to be reasonable in what they allow us to do, or the might as well relegate us before the season starts

I know you have the 12 point deduction for entering Admin, but what happened or will happen about the Brentford game that never went ahead? Do you think there might be another points deduction ?

 

[Muzzle]

I know you have the 12 point deduction for entering Admin, but what happened or will happen about the Brentford game that never went ahead? Do you think there might be another points deduction ?

No idea to be honest, it could be another 3 points could be worse. I suppose it depends on perspective, we actually could have put the game on, as we were going to be granted the safety certificate (which all clubs need every match), and the staff were willing to work the turnstiles etc, it was the players who actually said they wouldn't be willing to play unless either Anderson or the PFA could give them guarantees. This culminated in us putting out a much weakened team for the final league match, when some players refused to play.

 

[Boz]

It’s quite encouraging that Accrington, Rochdale and Wycombe held their own at this level on budgets which were less than our suggested £1.8 million in L2 last season.

 

[Davidimp]

Ours seems to have been put at 18th. Can't recall whether it was the Chairman who said that or the Chief Exec, but any player sales will add to it.

Meant to be 2.5 to 3 million?
Thought Portsmouth would be a lot higher.
I know they said they wanted to up by a million.

 

[Bar Carousel]

Our budget could increase significantly if we sell Clarke and possibly Lowe for substantial fees as is being reported.

Although we have wealthy owners, they were voted in on the basis that we continue with the same model adopted under fan ownership of 'eat what you kill'. Therefore our budget is based on a maximum of 60% of our predicted income based on approx 14,000 average home receipts. If gates remain at the 17/18,000 mark, then we get an increase through the season for loans in Jan or option of offering improved contracts to current squad members.

Ground maintenance costs are funded separately by our owners and are not taken from the playing budget.

As it stands, without player sales, I think our budget is around the £4m mark.

 

[K-Win]

As it stands, without player sales, I think our budget is around the £4m mark.

Thanks for the info, BC! Sensible stuff. Difficult to explain sometimes to some fans with short memories who think the owners should just be throwing more and more money around.

Incredible to think that this budget could double if/when the expected Matt Clarke departure happens. And then obviously more will likely come in when Jamal Lowe finds a home.

This would take us into the budget stratosphere this season. No pressure, Kenny!

 

[Bar Carousel]

Thanks for the info, BC! Sensible stuff. Difficult to explain sometimes to some fans with short memories who think the owners should just be throwing more and more money around.

Incredible to think that this budget could double if/when the expected Matt Clarke departure happens. And then obviously more will likely come in when Jamal Lowe finds a home.

This would take us into the budget stratosphere this season. No pressure, Kenny!

It's depressing reading some of the fans comments on PFC message boards. One claimed that if we 'only' get £3.9m for Clarke we are better off letting his contract run down, as we've been had.

It will be interesting to see how the sales play out and what effect it has on our wage structure. By all accounts we've lost out on a couple of players already who have wanted more a week than we are prepared to pay, the latest being the Plymouth striker.

It's one thing having a budget to offer a decent transfer fee, but the flip-side is the player will then want a big wage over a long period. I'm not sure our owners are prepared to commit to wages beyond what they deem are reasonable at this level.

Can see that Sunderland and Ipswich will be able to blow all other div 3 clubs out the water with financial packages.

 

[K-Win]

It will be interesting to see how the sales play out and what effect it has on our wage structure. By all accounts we've lost out on a couple of players already who have wanted more a week than we are prepared to pay, the latest being the Plymouth striker.

Yes, looks like we'll be missing out on both George Edmundson and Freddie Ladapo. Agreed fees for both so must be due to personal terms. We have a League One wage structure and we're sticking to it.

 

[Eastfield Posh]

Yes, looks like we'll be missing out on both George Edmundson and Freddie Ladapo. Agreed fees for both so must be due to personal terms. We have a League One wage structure and we're sticking to it.

We'd also agreed a fee for £600k with Oldham , the lad then went on holiday for 8 days but the lure of Rangers if far higher than Fratton Park & definitely London Road.

You lot sniffing round Matty Godden , would leave us with just 2 strikers if you were successful.

We are flirting with Szmodics & Kent from Col U , don't know much about Kent though Fergie wants a ball playing young CB to play alongside Beevers & Szmodics would be a superb addition , both good ages , nurture & flog for profit , The Posh way !

 

[dedwardp]

We'd also agreed a fee for £600k with Oldham , the lad then went on holiday for 8 days but the lure of Rangers if far higher than Fratton Park & definitely London Road.

You lot sniffing round Matty Godden , would leave us with just 2 strikers if you were successful.

We are flirting with Szmodics & Kent from Col U , don't know much about Kent though Fergie wants a ball playing young CB to play alongside Beevers & Szmodics would be a superb addition , both good ages , nurture & flog for profit , The Posh way !

Frankie is top quality. A modern, ball-playing centre half, he's really composed and sniffs out danger before you know it's there. Has captained us many times at a young age and will without doubt play in at least the Championship. He's really matured over the past season or two.

The pair will easily cost seven figures though.