£40 million is the starting price (auction). Club is hoping the interested teams try and outbid each other to a figure nearer £50 million.
Pretty certain the wage bill isn’t over £100m, someone published the figures on here the other day. Our wage bill is something like 50-60% of our revenue.
Sorry to be pedantic but while we dont know what it was in the season just gone, it was £84m and falling in 18/19. I'm not sure it's likely it'll have shot up above £100m in 19/20.
If only! The table produced by the Mirror said that the first team squad wages were £70m give or take Add Loanees coming back Management Agents Coaching Staff Oncosts such as national insurance One off costs like severance pay for our 3+ managers a year! Well over £100m i suspect Radical surgery needed across all parts of the club unless we opt to be Leeds or Bolton in a year or two
£84m (and that’s without some of the 50% relegation clauses that will automatically kick in) compared to Bournemouth on £111m: https://twitter.com/swissramble/status/1288364354879070208?s=21
These are truly unprecedented times though, I can see us defeating ourselves in the play-off final tbf
But that is what we do on here - we speculate - be it managers or players -we don't know but we try to work stuff out I suspect my guesswork is not far out!
Fair enough. But others are speculating that it may not be as severe as you say - and you’ve told them they need to breathe because they don’t understand? You’ve admitted it’s guesswork on your behalf so I can’t see how you can claim to understand what others don’t! I haven’t seen anyone say ‘we don’t need to sell anyone’ or that we don’t need to cut our cloth to some extent - but seems strange to me to say the club need to make radical cuts when we simply don’t know.
Being in the PL will be seen as a bigger (and richer) stepping stone than being in the Championship - whatever we may think
I don’t disagree. But his agent was clear that they had a career plan - I suspect it was the go to a big club direct from us, but obviously relegation wasn’t in the plan. But I have my doubts that they will think the way of getting him back on that path includes a move to Palace. I just can’t see it. I still think he stays or he goes to a big club this summer.
The debt is known as its shown in the accounts so that's fact. The reduction in tv money is fact. They are the largest "assumptions" and they seem pretty well backed up. But you're right, perhaps the Pozzos have a spare £50m floating round that we don't know about? If we don't exit our more expensive players, gamble on promotion and don't make it, we would be in serious financial trouble.
What was the budget in the promotion year. That is what it needs to be in 20/21. They will have to sell and reduce the running costs of the club, unless promotion is extremely likely. The question is compared to other savings and revenue raised through fees, is selling Sarr a better option than other options to reduce the cost of the playing. That has to be judged on the impact on the squads competitiveness as well as the finances.
I don’t think it’s that simple as we will have parachute payments, our budget is lower than a normal premier league season but still a lot higher than when the Pozzos took over.
Yeah, that's a very crude measure. It's all massively up in the air at the moment, nobody seems to know who's got relegation clauses, or who's gonna be off, but assuming the likes of Doucoure, Sarr and Deulofeu go for decent prices, there'll be no need to sell everyone I'm sure
I can personally see a situation where we try and drive a hard bargain for players like Doucoure and try and get £20m-£25m for him. Sending Pereyra to Udinese seems counter productive unless the money genuinely comes to us and is around £10m-£15m. If we can get £6m-£8m for Deeney and say £8m for Gray, that would offset a lot of losses and help us with both income and losing high earners. Deulofeu should fetch between £20m-£25m as well should it be that we have no chance of keeping him. Femenia too could get £6m roughly? I think we can afford to lose all of the above and replace them with players of perhaps lesser ability, but more suited to the task ahead and with a greater desire to play for the club. Doucoure has a replacement in Quina. Femenia has a replacement in Ngakia. Deeney and Gray can be replaced by Suarez, Cucho, Welbeck and Joao Pedro. Deulofeu can be replaced by Sema. Holebas replaced by Estupinan. Wilmot will be added and if we can bin off either Cathcart or (preferably) Kabasele and add a CB (Matt Clarke, Shane Duffy?) then the squad is shorn of ageing, underperforming high-earners with minimal work really needed in terms of transfers. Pereyra is perhaps is the only player in amongst that lot that we can’t replace internally... Doing the above surely would give us greater flexibility in keeping Sarr/Estupinan/Suarez/Welbeck who I would say should be a bigger priority in keeping over the players above (Deulofeu aside, but I just can’t see him staying a WFC player unless there’s a season long loan involved). If we can get close to the fees I’ve suggested, then it would likely give us a modest amount to spend as well.
If we did sell Kabs we'd need to buy a quick centre back. Can't see him leaving, didn't he sign a new contract?
CB’s only need to be quick if they get caught out in the first place. Kabasele’s pace has never really been an asset to us. I’d sooner be looking for a commanding CB who reads the game far better than those we have. Wilmot likely carries pace as well. As mentioned above, Brighton have Dunk, White, Veltman, Webster, Duffy and Clarke - Burn can also play CB for them. No way are they keeping all of them. Webster, White and Dunk will be the ones they will want to keep at all costs according to Potter. They’ve turned down £22.5m from Leeds for White already apparently and said he will 100% be there next season. Dunk is captain and Webster cost £20m+ just a year ago. Duffy is exactly what we need and knows the division too. Clarke is a left-footed CB who starred for Derby on loan. I’d be pestering Brighton about both of them personally.
Would any of them be willing to step down a division? It's not like Duffy is really old and was a passenger in their squad this season
Well Clarke was in the Championship last season and was at Portsmouth before that so I doubt he see’s a recently relegated PL club who will be favourites as a step down... Duffy was in and out of their side last season - but mainly out towards the end. With White returning and the fact they have bought Veltman, his game time is not likely to increase I’d suggest. Maybe a side like Sheff United might take him but I think we’d be in with a decent shout. He’s also Republic of Ireland captain so would be a candidate for us in that respect as well.
All defences get caught out occasionally and need pace somewhere. I take your point on reading the game but if we are expecting to be pushing teams back this season then we can't afford to get caught on the break. Does anyone know how quick Wilmot actually is? I've never seen him play.
Of course they do, I’m just saying pace shouldn’t be the main concern. We desperately need a defensive leader who can command the line above all else - if he’s quick, great.
Duffy appears to be on his way to West Brom. Webster seems the only remaining obtainable one for us, that is if we'd be willing to pay up, which we probably won't be.
What about Clarke? He’s perhaps the most suitable given he did so well for Derby last season and is left-footed. Was also Pompey captain so another with leadership qualities... Not a surprise to see interest in Duffy and obviously relegation makes us less appealing. Annoying really as that’s exactly what we need.
Clarke got a big thumbs up from my Derby supporting mate. Got player of the season. Must be well within our budget too.
Oops, meant to type Clarke, not Webster. Seems I have a habit for mixing up the names of lower-PL CBs.
Given that Liverpool have set clear budgets for positions, such as a £12m ceiling for a left back, I don't see them making more than one offer for Sarr before packing in that idea.
Shame. Not sure if he'll be a first choice for us, if he wasn't for Swansea. Hopefully we give him a try and see how he does.
