by Vision »
28 Jan 2015 11:45
Look at clubs in a similiar situation such as Boro, Derby, Blackburn (who are still failing ffp) or Wigan who came down with us and more topically Cardiff and Fulham relegated last season. If you don't bounce straight back up then there really does have to be widespread cost cutting to even remotely make up for the inflated Premiership wage bill.
There's not much point in debating though Wooders if you don't believe the figures the club provide because that's all I have to go on I'm afraid. Ah bugger it, who am I kidding I'll have a go anyway
To summarise though, our wage bill in the Prem was £46m. That was 13m higher than the last time we were relegated so yes I'd say that the AZ approach was significantly different.
We lost 7.3m last season (which actually was pretty good going given the previous season's wage bill stated above) To qualify for this season's FFP we need to reduce that even further. That's not helped by removing Adkins and his team on full compensation, falling match day revenues plus additional players that have come into the club (Mackie,Ferdinand,Cox,Norwood,Murray,Chalobah) and the highest number of young professionals signing new contracts we've ever had.
I think you're right in the sense that actually this season we will probably be ok but unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that.. I think the problem actually is beyond this season and onto next when the parachute payments are reduced massively and it's likely that match day revenues will reduce yet again. That is what Balckburn have come a cropper on and it has a bearing on what we do now. If for example the Murray deal went through as rumoured at around 1.5m for a 2 and half year deal. then although we may still be ok this seaon's FFP it will carry over for the 2 subsequent seasons.
I think that's why the club are looking solely at short term deals in this window rather than a permanent longer term deal because it means they can properly take stock in the summer when Clarke has had more time to guage exactly what he wants in his squad.
It's a fine balancing act though and it would certainly help if we knew what the owners were intending to commit themselves with regards to future investment but as things stand we're in a far different situation from what we found ourselves the last time we were relegated when with the aid of maximising the value of players sold we were still competitive in this league and turned a profit.
I'm afraid in that sense the AZ legacy will still be felt for a while yet.