Chris Powell: Are we missing 'a good cop'?

[5waller5]

I've gone through this in my other thread, but the whole squad is a complete mismatch in terms of wages and it's going to cause some serious discontent. You've got a bunch of players on astronomical wages who are surplus to requirements, no-one wants them and they'll all be back at the club after the summer. Then you've got a bunch of young, good quality players who are on a fraction of what the big earners are getting paid, and they'll be looking at their contracts thinking 'why am I getting paid less when I contribute much more?' How do you think Chris Wood feels when he compares his contract to David Nugent's and Jermaine Beckford's? How do you think Wes Morgan feels when he compares his contract to Paul Konchesky's and Sean St Ledger's?

It's my opinion that as well as getting rid of Sven's piss poor signings, we might have to get rid of the good players he signed on massive wages to try and bring back some equality to the squad, because at the minute our better players - bar perhaps Kasper and Nugent - are the ones who are on the least and the worst players who aren't featuring are the ones raking it in and that is going to cause some serious ill-feeeling in the squad.

I think you're falling for a NP red herring here ...... There needs to be equality for motivation.

He certainly believes that and that's why we've gone for a squad full of young and hungry players ......

Where else is this the case though???

Every other club there are high earners (say Rooney) and players trying to make their breakthrough into the squad.

It's just another smokescreen for NP to hide behind.

[indierich06]

I think you're falling for a NP red herring here ...... There needs to be equality for motivation.

He certainly believes that and that's why we've gone for a squad full of young and hungry players ......

Where else is this the case though???

Every other club there are high earners (say Rooney) and players trying to make their breakthrough into the squad.

It's just another smokescreen for NP to hide behind.

Yes, but my point is at these other clubs, the players who are paid the most are the ones who are among the most valuable to the side. This is certainly not the case at this club, and I can't think of any other club in the country where this is the case either.

I'm not making excuses for anyone or using this to make a case for Pearson staying or leaving, I'm just stating facts. Our highest paid players are not our best players and this inequality in the squad is bound to cause some serious ill feeling and this won't change if Pearson stays or goes. There's no way we're going to be able to offload players such as Beckford, Gallagher, St Ledger, Wellens, Danns, Konchesky et al because a) who would want them and b) who would want to/could afford to pay their wages?

And if we want to bring in players that are better than what we have, they are going to want paying the same as the high earners on our books - something we can't afford to do. In my opinion that's why we're going to see a lot more 'young, hungry' players, rather than the quality, experienced players that we need to balance out our squad, regardless of who is in charge at our club.

[hackneyfox]

We don't need our defense sorting, our record this season should show that ample enough. We need an attacking coach. Someone who knows a few more free kick set pieces, and is a master of corner tactics.

Really, I get worried every time a decent team with movement off the ball attack our defence.

We've had a tight defence because the rest of the team have heped out, which has been to the detriment of the rest of our game.

[hackneyfox]

Yes, but my point is at these other clubs, the players who are paid the most are the ones who are among the most valuable to the side. This is certainly not the case at this club, and I can't think of any other club in the country where this is the case either.

I'm not making excuses for anyone or using this to make a case for Pearson staying or leaving, I'm just stating facts. Our highest paid players are not our best players and this inequality in the squad is bound to cause some serious ill feeling and this won't change if Pearson stays or goes. There's no way we're going to be able to offload players such as Beckford, Gallagher, St Ledger, Wellens, Danns, Konchesky et al because a) who would want them and b) who would want to/could afford to pay their wages?

And if we want to bring in players that are better than what we have, they are going to want paying the same as the high earners on our books - something we can't afford to do. In my opinion that's why we're going to see a lot more 'young, hungry' players, rather than the quality, experienced players that we need to balance out our squad, regardless of who is in charge at our club.

I would imagine there are a fair few clubs where older players, with decent agents, are on a great contract yet can no longer produce the goods on the pitch.

FFP surely means that there will be dozens of clubs where new and better players sign for a new club and are on a salary a lot less than the more established players.

[indierich06]

I would imagine there are a fair few clubs where older players, with decent agents, are on a great contract yet can no longer produce the goods on the pitch.

FFP surely means that there will be dozens of clubs where new and better players sign for a new club and are on a salary a lot less than the more established players.

I wouldn't have thought there are many clubs with as many as us and with such high wages. You're probably right in that FFP means 'there will be dozens of clubs where new and better players sign for a new club and are on a salary a lot less than the more established players' - so surely it's a concern that a) we won't be able to move on these average players on massive wages and b) we're already well on the backfoot in comparison to other clubs.

These financial obligations to players like Wellens, Gallagher, Beckford, Danns, Konchesky et al are going to seriously hinder what we can do in the transfer market over the next few seasons. I pray to God that we can get rid of a few of these over the summer, hopefully some clubs will be daft enough to buy them and they won't be greedy enough to demand the same wages as they've had here. If we could convince Bolton to buy Matt Mills then hopefully we'll be able to convince some other clubs to take this bunch.

[hackneyfox]

I wouldn't have thought there are many clubs with as many as us and with such high wages. You're probably right in that FFP means 'there will be dozens of clubs where new and better players sign for a new club and are on a salary a lot less than the more established players' - so surely it's a concern that a) we won't be able to move on these average players on massive wages and b) we're already well on the backfoot in comparison to other clubs.

These financial obligations to players like Wellens, Gallagher, Beckford, Danns, Konchesky et al are going to seriously hinder what we can do in the transfer market over the next few seasons. I pray to God that we can get rid of a few of these over the summer, hopefully some clubs will be daft enough to buy them and they won't be greedy enough to demand the same wages as they've had here. If we could convince Bolton to buy Matt Mills then hopefully we'll be able to convince some other clubs to take this bunch.

Players nearing the end of their careers would be mad to move on and take a drop to something like 20% of what they are currently on (I'm guessing at salaries here but say 20k down to 5k and no league 1 clubs will be paying 5k) so we need to pay these contracts off, that or new players coming in will have to accept that these players are just an exception that won't happen again due to ffp.

There will always be scenarios where the disparity in wages seems unfair, mostly depending upon how recently you signed your contract or whether you were a 'favoured' player.

[5waller5]

I agree with you indie that it's not the inequality but the inequality to ability that may cause a problem .....

But Hackney has pretty much taken the words out of my mouth .... That's going to be the case in alot of clubs and in fact alot of workplaces ..... It applies to people in the NHS / councils etc where the people that have been there longer enjoyed better benefits than those that are new .... in retail some of the oldies are still getting a massive premium to work on a sunday for instance.

It's just a fact of life - you negotiate a contract today given market conditions today ... if it's a good deal today then go for it - if it isn't don't. You can't then kick off that someone else got a better contract a year ago and are still on it.

I do think it's one of those excuses that a current manager makes to apportion some of the blame for his own tenure on that of the previous regime. NP's not the first to use it and won't be the last.

Personally i think we'll see some of the players mentioned leaving by mutual consent once the season's over .... to get them off the books before FFP really kicks in.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

I agree with you indie that it's not the inequality but the inequality to ability that may cause a problem .....

But Hackney has pretty much taken the words out of my mouth .... That's going to be the case in alot of clubs and in fact alot of workplaces ..... It applies to people in the NHS / councils etc where the people that have been there longer enjoyed better benefits than those that are new .... in retail some of the oldies are still getting a massive premium to work on a sunday for instance.

It's just a fact of life - you negotiate a contract today given market conditions today ... if it's a good deal today then go for it - if it isn't don't. You can't then kick off that someone else got a better contract a year ago and are still on it.

I do think it's one of those excuses that a current manager makes to apportion some of the blame for his own tenure on that of the previous regime. NP's not the first to use it and won't be the last.

Personally i think we'll see some of the players mentioned leaving by mutual consent once the season's over .... to get them off the books before FFP really kicks in.

Good post Waller, about right IMO