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Salford City

This is crazy spending. 4K a week for a player in the National League!
I understand both points of view, but it's sickening the amount of money they're investing to get into the football league.
It'll be fascinating to see if they struggle like Eastleigh have for so long. Not sure how harmonious a squad can be when they'll know how much certain players might be on.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44894821

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Comments

  • Interesting that in his Twitter spat with Gary Neville, Accy's major shareholder Andy Holt has revealed their budget for next season:

    "So far our net wage bill for league 1 next season is £932,000. That’s out of a budget of £1.1m"

  • I think it should be compulsory for National league clubs to be semi professional. Might address this.

  • @Midlander That would be the deathknell for many clubs who have been relegated from the FL in recent years. Can you imagine forcing Bristol Rovers, Tranmere, Hartlepool, Chesterfield etc. to play semi-pro?

    What do you think that would have done to Wycombe if we'd have gone down in Rovers place those few years ago?

    Whilst I'd rather not see any club using money to buy their way into the FL, Premier League or Europe, I understand where Gary is coming from. He's not the only person doing it and no-one wants to see the same old clubs in the same leagues forever.

    Furthermore, Accrington have had a benefactor put in cash recently, so its a bit rich for their shareholder to attack someone else for throwing money at a club.

  • @Midlander What you're really talking about is a salary cap isn't it?

  • I think a salary cap, especially at the lower levels, would be very sensible. It would create a fairer playing field and would do more to protect clubs against out of control owners gambling on success.

    I'm sick of the BBC fawning over Salford. There's nothing impressive or romantic about what they're doing, they're just a non-league Man City.

    Neville has come from a financially insane world where the kind of money they're spending is barely even petty cash. He clearly has a lot to learn about what life is like for most clubs outside of the greed league.

  • When it looked like we would drop into the Conference, there was talk that we would be forced to go part -time in the Conference, @OxfordBlue. Finances in the conference are still barking mad. I suspect we may well have to if ever we went that way in the future.
    Long may Gareth keep us in Lg1 with a nice safety buffer in case of a bad season.

    Salford are one of those few teams you want to fail really.

  • Wouldn't a salary cap just make it even easier for the Premier League to shit all over the lower leagues, because they definitely wouldn't follow suit.

  • Whatever you think about Salford, they shouldn't be accused of "stealing" a place in the football league

    Such language should be reserved for one club only

  • Agreed.

  • I've got mixed feelings about Salford. On the one hand the guys behind the team are a decent lot of ex-pros using their own money towards a footballing goal and not justing looking at the ground thinking I could build a supermarket there if I ingratiate myself with the fans and community first.
    However these things rarely play out to a happy ending regardless. Wigan were a great example of a passion project being bankrolled until the passion left. Rushden and Diamonds are now a memory etc etc, If these guys are in it then they need to be clear where they think they can take it to before letting it run free and become self-sustaining. That transition will be the time to judge.
    A lot of the flack is jealousy lets face it.

  • I'd see Wigan as a success story still though, and I'm sure their fans would.

  • Aren't Rushden & Diamonds still going g though? Felt sure I passed their ground a few weeks ago admittedly I didn't give it a second glance so it could have fallen to ruins & I wouldn't have noticed! It's an age thing.

  • edited July 2018

    There's an AFC Rushden and Diamonds that was started by R&D's youth team after the original club collapsed. They were promoted from Southern league division one last year.

    Nene Park was demolished.

  • Who would you rather have as owners of your club, a group of reasonably well off Premiership stars wanting to spend their money, or a rugby loving loan shark!

    I have no problem with people wanting to put money into a club, provided that it is not by way of loans. Sunderland had massive debts but when the owner sold the club a few months ago he cleared everything so they are now completely debt free.

    Wage caps do not work as you never know what the club's income will be in the immediate future, e.g players sales, cup runs, attendances etc.

  • Can you imagine forcing Bristol Rovers [...] to play semi-pro?

    Yes. Yes I can.

  • @Username I was more mentioning Wigan as it was a single man who was behind their success when the losses were huge. Similarly Wolves, Blackburn, Bolton teams that have over-performed thanks to wealthy benefactors. They are all successes to a greater or lesser degree today but they were reliant on a generous and well meaning person (family) that can lead to a huge void when that person leaves or dies.

  • Much to be said, so far, for fan ownership.

  • Sad for ex-players...they cannot win.
    Why don't these millionaires put something back into the game?
    Look at those millionaires just buying promotion!
    It was a small local side.
    Nobody puts money into a club to not succeed so as not to upset rival fans do they?
    Or am I getting football wrong?
    Some sole ownership does work. Some fan ownership does work. But not all of them and not forever...sadly that's the world.
    If they lose interest Salford City will be no worse off.
    It's not a Franchise style debacle.

  • I'd much prefer to have them invest in my club than a random rich businessman. Given their continued involvement in football (England women's head coach, pundits, wannabe managers) it would be a lot more damaging for them and their reputations in the game to create a mess of the club and then walk away compared to someone who can just go back to selling oil.

  • £200k a year (if what’s being reported is true) for a player in the Conference is ridiculous and unsustainable and not good for football.

  • edited July 2018

    @Chris I fear the alarm about pay in football horse has long bolted...

  • @Chris said:
    £200k a year (if what’s being reported is true) for a player in the Conference is ridiculous and unsustainable and not good for football.

    Peter Lim is worth £2.1 billion. He decides if it's sustainable I suppose.

  • Just to clarify here...

    Gary Neville and his ex-Manchester United buddies are not investing the millions they earned while playing. Salford City are being bankrolled by Peter Lim.

  • he is going out on a Lim

  • and without promotion his patience will be Lim-ited. (I'll get me chips and gravy...)

  • @Chris said:
    £200k a year (if what’s being reported is true) for a player in the Conference is ridiculous and unsustainable and not good for football.

    So if we ever got relegated to the Conference and say Richard Branson agreed to fund a number of £200k a year players to get us back in the league, would you stop supporting Wycombe?

  • He'd too busy suing the NHS.

  • Some fans - yes even some on here - often nag on about why aren't we breaking the bank to bid for Jake Shootingboots. What is Ainsworth doing? Some fans would rather we were back in the Conference than the club overstretch itself to pay money for overpaid dandy Jake Shootingboots. Some can see both sides of the argument and are not sure which line to take.
    Some fans would hate and despise local billionaire Largi Walletski taking over the fan-owned club and buying us the title...while others would welcome him in true Latvigurian/Buckinghamshire style. Others might not be sure what they think.That's why football is great. And we all trasp the hallowed halls of the Gasroom yelling out like loonies.

  • £4k a week in the 5th tier is really something.
    And says a lot about the Scottish Premier to lose a player to that level!

  • @mooneyman said:

    @Chris said:
    £200k a year (if what’s being reported is true) for a player in the Conference is ridiculous and unsustainable and not good for football.

    So if we ever got relegated to the Conference and say Richard Branson agreed to fund a number of £200k a year players to get us back in the league, would you stop supporting Wycombe?

    I’d still think it was ridiculous, unsustainable and not good for football.

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