The Mail Bag
Attracting Quality Players
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Whilst we all know that Kenwright will struggle to find £10-£15M required to acquire 1 or 2 decent players every July/August, what will always be a stumbling block to get a player from any English Top 6/8 club, Spanish Top 6/8, probably Top 4 German or Italian is our salary structure.
We pay at least £20-30k/wk lower for the above clubs standard players, ie Heitinga today (wants £80k/wk) and I suspect also Bentley, and Krancjar would also fall into the same issues, if we had ever got close to approaching one of them.
Moyes can get good Championship, Portugese, Russian, Belgian, and older UK players, et al, within our salary structure but it means invariably that they are not immediately playing at the Top 4 level we need to progress. Under Moyes’s management I’m sure they will develop over 2-3 years into Top 4 level (Lescott, Arteta, Jags) but we need top players now and we cant afford their demands.
If we tried to increase our salary structure by an extra £25k/wk for our Top 20 players this would mean an extra £26m on our salary bill and hey we just break even at the moment — and Kirkby won't provide the extra.
I don’t know the way forward in all honesty, without a sugar daddy we need to add 50% to our ticket prices and suddenly get an £10-20M a year from our hopeless Commercial Dept.
It’s the one area I think will lead to Everton’s future demise. We will I think be able to get capital in from selling players as do Man U, Liverpool, Spurs etc and we had better get used to that — Arteta or Rodwell next year £20M? but we cannot attract or keep Top 4 players at our average salary payments of £40-50k/wk.
Mike Oates, Posted 01/09/2009 at 09:20:58
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How can Moyes tell JL its wrong to want to double his wages when he got the same thing himself last season when he secured £75 k a week himself??? No wonder the senior pros turned on Moyes a few weeks ago when all this was going on.
As far as Moyes getting paid too much, well, you could argue that by managing to consistently get into Europe, consistently improve the squad and increase the value of the players we have by making them look good and all this while paying the players less than our rivals means that he’s worth more as a club manager... or not.
For every bit of silverware they get give them a massive bonus. That would soon put them on better wages if they’re good enough and if they’re not then they don't deserve what they get.
Moyes wages are pretty comparable to other top Premier League managers and Benitez is on £5 million a year for taking the Yanks towards bankruptcy.
Whereas Everton and Arsenal work to this model at present. What you could see is smaller squads but each player on higher saleries. Can't wait to see this happen, should've been done 5 years ago. Remember City have players tied up on long contacts well past 2011? Are they now barred from European Games already?
Platini is a clown, his plans unworkable and illegal... unless the big boys are complicit then they’ll never see the light of day... and I for one will be happy...
We should be aspiring to be as good as the big boys — not wanting to pull them down to our level!
If you think Lescott is a £24million, £80k-a-week defender, then I think you’re fucking daft. We have raped Man City, Lescott’s goal poaching brought him onto people’s radar’s, not his defending ability. I have never seen Lescott completely cancel out an attacker in the same way that Jags did on Torres.
But anyway, the original point Mike Oates made is spot on. To break the wage structure, you have to be able to afford it. We simply cannot do that at the moment. You can whinge about it all day, but I would rather be an Evertonian supporting a conservative club that lives within its means, than a Hammers, Pompey or Toon fan who are seeing first hand the reality of so called ’investors’ like Gaydamak, Egghead and Ashley.
Platini is not a clown. He has been one of the best players in the world, he has worked in the game for years and can see the damage and stupidity, and unfairness, of allowing clubs to operate in a fantasy land. Football is a sport. Even the USA, land of the free, recognises that sport is rather different than normal business. If you don;t have competition you don’t really have sport.
Nothing wrong with some clubs being bigger than others. Twas ever thus. But I haven't yet heard one single coherent argument as to why clubs should not be restricted to spending what they earn. They are not registered fucking charities. I want Everton to reach the top, but I don’t want to buy trophies in the uniquely extreme way that Man City and Real Madrid are trying to.
And some facts, outside of the Sky 4, Man Vity and a few blood rushes by Newcastle in the past, Everton’s wage ceiling is not too far away from anybody else’s. Spurs don’t pay big wages, they top out at mid £50k per week. Villa similar to us. Newcastle’s spend was underwritten mainly by the fans through attendances and massive merchandising. if our fans aren’t prepared to turn out in similar numbers then why should anyone else invest?
We have long term financial problems of our own making, both the current administration and previous are culpable. We have no choice but to live within our means. What the fuck is wrong with that? Platini is on the button with his plans. He’s not seeking to limit everyone to the same salaries or stop capital investment for stada etc, he’s simply aiming to stop the abject nonsense whereby 20 teams play Football Manager, 17 or 18 have a fixed budget and 2 or 3 have no limit whatsoever and can borrow much as they want without worrying about it. It’s a total nonsense and sooner it stops the better the sport will be. if the only solution is that you have to find a billionaire then something is sadly wrong.
It's going to burst big time for the clubs run as businesses like United & Liverpool. Forget about Chelsea and City. They have owners who’s investment arms can easily make back what has been invested into those football teams. They are not in it to make money. How can United announce their biggest ever turnover, yet the parent company increases debt to £799 million??? But some fickle fans want EFC to be a piece of this, to compete regardless of the consequences. Break the wage cap, loan more money.
It's the same fans, asking for the head of the chairman who in reality should be commended for even keeping this club in a position where it is today. I keep saying it over and over, look at Portsmouth, Newcastle & West Ham to see examples of how investment is not actually the be-all and end-all. Investment means fuck all, unless you have a chairman who knows what to do with it, and knows what his limits are.
It was no surprise to see Abramovic support Patinis ideas. It is known as "pull up the ladder, Jack, we’re ok". How do some of the above posters think City, Chelsea etc will get their money back? Or do they completely misunderstand why people invest money into a "project" ?
My point is, waive a checkbook about and it will attract a money grabber who, if they do well, will fuck off for more money ASAP — Anelka for example, or someone willing to sit back and take the money, Shandy anyone?
Krancjar said yesterday he turned us down for Spurs because of history and tradition... bollocks. I think he looked at the investment Spurs where putting in and thought "They’ll do better than Everton, and probably pay more". Rooney went for the same reasons and so did Lescott.
The thing is we could go to an average of £50k a week but would that improve the club would we attract better players, would we keep more players? Or would it have to be £90k a week or more. Remember Leeds?
It will be interesting to see what happens when someone like City breaks into the top 4, and with that kind of investment they will, sooner or later, whoever they replace will lose that Champions League revenue; what will happen then?
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Quite simple really. If you restrict the buying power or attraction of the top English clubs, then you clearly lower the standard of the league and therefore the level of aspiration. It’s not rocket science.
And Platini is a clown, irrespective of how good a footballer he was... taking an illegal proposition ot the European council only to be laughed at is — in my opinion — the action of a clown.
How much attention has he focused on other big spending leagues? Nevermind his pandering to second-rate European leagues that got him appointed in the first place.
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1 Posted 01/09/2009 at 14:09:31
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I agree with you that we shouldnt pay it, but we can probably just wait for a bit - this situation with wage inflation in the top level of football cannot go on, clubs cannot afford to pay those wages (which is why Heitinga is not wanted by Atletico) as it is.