Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest Wages

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Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest Wages

Postby Forever Blue » Sun Dec 16, 2018 10:45 am

Six straight away losses and the Premier League’s lowest wage budget hindering Cardiff City’s attempt to defy the odds.


Sunday December 16, 2018

by The other Bob Wilson aka Paul Evans


I had the car radio on last night listening to Radio 5’s weekend football preview programme and when they got around to talking about Cardiff City, it was said that our wage budget for the season was the lowest in the Premier League – not just that, ours is £20 million less than anyone else’s.

That first bit of information doesn’t come as a surprise to me, but the second one does because it really does bring home the self inflicted disadvantage we are operating under – £20 million would pay for a five year contract for a player on £300k a month and still have a couple of million left over or four four year contracts for someone on £100k a month. More realistically for our position, a player on, say, £40k a month for a three year contract would cost us £1,440,000, so four players on contracts like that would only use up just over a quarter of that £20 million.

Of course, there would be transfer and signing on fees etc. to consider, but we’re talking about wages only here – it really does bring home the size of the task that has been imposed on Neil Warnock and I think it is only right that defeats like our sixth consecutive away loss, by 3-2 at Watford today, need to be assessed in that context.

I’ve said a few times this season that I’m reluctant to be critical of the level of spending by the club over the summer because of Vincent Tan’s decision to convert nearly £70 million of club debt into equity and, although it’s harder to maintain such a stance when you hear things like those wage budget figures, I’m going to stick to that line of thinking.

I’ve always thought that the potential was there for an increased level of spending which would still come up well short of the sort of outlay we saw in 2013 when we were signing the likes of Andreas Cornelius, Gary Medel and Steven Caulker. However, if Mr Tan does not feel he can authorise additional spending then I suppose supporters should remember that he must have ploughed in the region of £200 million into the club now when you consider things like the interest payments on loans he has waived.

Nevertheless, assuming the sort of funding available to Neil Warnock in January is along similar lines to what we’ve seen since our latest promotion, then I can only assume a couple of things – first, Mr Tan must be aware of the strong possibility (actually, it’s more appropriate to say likelihood) that we are going to be relegated this season and, second, that he is content to let this happen.

My reaction to today’s defeat is almost contradictory, because, on the one hand, it could be seen as all very predictable, but I also couldn’t help thinking that it throws up questions about our attitude when we play away from home.

We’ve now lost at Watford and West Ham after a run of four away matches against sides in the top third of the division. These last two were supposed to be the easier, potentially winnable, games where we might be able to make our away record look more acceptable.

West Ham and Watford are now in that middle third of the table and this, for me, is the reason why our visits to them were seen by some, like myself, as offering the potential to record our first away point(s) since we drew at Huddersfield in August, but how realistic was that really?

Even before we get to our “meagre” wage budget, West Ham spent something like four times as much as us in transfer fees in the summer and you only have to have a quick scan of the their squad list to become convinced that it is better than ours. Realistically, West Ham were always going to improve on their sluggish start to the season and, with four straight wins behind them now, their league position (the main reason why our game there ten days ago was considered winnable) is a better reflection of the ability within their squad than it was.

The situation is a bit different with Watford whose spending levels since they got promoted have been on the modest side by Premier League standards. Ever since the Pozzo brothers took over at that club, I’ve found it hard to get a handle so to speak on their squad because of the way players move around so much between the clubs that they own.
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Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest Wages

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Re: Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest W

Postby City Slicker » Sun Dec 16, 2018 11:45 am

TOBW always produces great write ups and this is no exception. It just shows how difficult a job Warnock has without any support and all credit to him for making a brave fist of it.
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Re: Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest W

Postby SirJimmySchoular » Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:21 pm

I think that's a very negative piece.
In a way you could call it the "socialist" view of life reflected in football - failure is not only inevitable ,but entirely the fault of unfair circumstance and the only answer is for someone else to spend their money on you. Never a thought for the money and effort already sunk into the project without return , and most certainly no offer to make any personal contribution.

I don't think anyone is unaware of the disadvantages we have compared to richer clubs, but that's the very essence of our achievement.

We have come a very very long way in a very very short time by enterprise and human endeavour, and it's been my experience that those who follow such a path instead of sitting in their own filth complaining that someone should rescue them eventually receive the rewards.

We haven't " inherited" wealth or success , so we must achieve it gradually by hard work and commitment. If we want to establish ourselves as a club which can spend big sums and pay big salaries - even win significant trophies in time- that's possible and I'd even say inevitable if we are strong and determined enough, but there is absolutely no fairy godmother who is going to appear from a puff of smoke and do it on the spot for us.
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Re: Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest W

Postby Sven » Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:54 pm

City Slicker wrote:TOBW always produces great write ups and this is no exception. It just shows how difficult a job Warnock has without any support and all credit to him for making a brave fist of it.


Agree with this and always enjoy reading his (TOBW's) blogs :thumbright:

Notwithstanding that the poster above this one makes some valid points, I think he has missed the point of what was said by the OP, i.e. that City started the season at a considerable disadvantage financially and in the modern Premier League this was always going to be an issue. Furthermore, the OP qualifies his own statements/thoughts by noting the amounts already input by the owner in recent times (debt to equity being one that commits his own money with no guarantee of return)

We can argue all day over how the debt was accrued but that, I would say, is a well trodden path and one most of us will have an intransigent opinion on

A good question brought up in the article is to question where Vincent Tan's thoughts/commitment to keeping us in the Premier League actually lie, i.e. will he commit to recruiting in a genuine attempt to keep the club in the Premier League; or will he rely on his manager to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat on relatively (and that was the OPs point) meagre finances in comparison to every team around us?

Worth investment or not will wholly depend on whether Cardiff City FC's name is in the pot for Premier League fixtures 2019/20 and therein may lie the problem for club owner, as a return to The Championship will have financial consequences he is all too aware of after last time...

Nothing negative from the OP; just saying it as he (and many others) see it :ayatollah:
"If you think what I say is 'offensive' to you, you should hear what I keep to myself...!"
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Re: Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest W

Postby pembroke allan » Sun Dec 16, 2018 3:39 pm

At end day money does not guarantee staying in premiership at least one fairly established premiership side is going to get relegated what as 200m done for them but give them huge wage bill which cannot be managed when they get relegated! But city will not have such a disadvantage also should be able to keep majority of players unlike other teams so better equipped to bounce back up.
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Re: Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest W

Postby Melsuttonholyboots » Sun Dec 16, 2018 8:30 pm

Well said pembroke allan, so as fans, keep the faith and lets here you ALL at Ninian, erh CCS, and that means all.
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Re: Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest W

Postby Nuclearblue » Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:56 am

For me I have not got an issue with what we are spending it is what it is and I don’t want to see our club in the shit. Look how much Fulham have spent and look where they are ? We are a tight knit club with fans players and manager as one and to be honest I prefer that to other clubs situation.
Come Saturday we will be kicking every ball with the players and we will be there to help pick them up if we fall behind. But when we are sometimes flat in the stands the players have done there bit to get us going.
As I said we are all together and for me I love it. And at the present time I have no complaints about Tan.
If he did say sorry to fans and meant it for the rebrand I would even puplicly support him.
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Re: Six straight away losses & the Premier League’s Lowest W

Postby bluesince62 » Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:49 pm

Nuclearblue wrote:For me I have not got an issue with what we are spending it is what it is and I don’t want to see our club in the shit. Look how much Fulham have spent and look where they are ? We are a tight knit club with fans players and manager as one and to be honest I prefer that to other clubs situation.
Come Saturday we will be kicking every ball with the players and we will be there to help pick them up if we fall behind. But when we are sometimes flat in the stands the players have done there bit to get us going.
As I said we are all together and for me I love it. And at the present time I have no complaints about Tan.
If he did say sorry to fans and meant it for the rebrand I would even puplicly support him.

Well put sir :ayatollah:
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