Can we afford Huckerby?

[GMF 741]

Here are my thoughs regarding the much asked question, "Can we afford Huckerby?".

My guess is that the forthcoming Year End accounts for the last season, due out in the next few weeks, will show the club''s turnover to be in line with many others at the top end of Division One, being in the region of £10 million. By my maths, that''s approximatley £192,000 per week.

Given the Football League''s accepted requirement that players'' wages should be a maximum of 50% of turnover, Norwich will probably have a weekly wage bill of less than £100,000 per week.

With a squad of 25 players that would give an average of less than £4,000 per week per player.

Even allowing for the facts that averages can be misleading and that the younger members of the squad will be on nowhere near this amount, it does suggest that Huckerby''s reported weekly wages, whether they be £15,000 or £25,000 per week, are way beyond the means of a club like ours.

I would point out that the above figures are pure conjecture, I''m not claiming any inside knowledge, but it does highlight the scale of the problem, should Norwich want to permanently recruit, one of the most exciting players recently seen at Carrow Road.

[Chip20 69]

Indeed. Again, I don''t know exact figures but reports & snippets I''ve read suggest our highest earners are roundabout the £5,000/week mark. As the club have pointed out, you simply cannot make allowances for somebody to be on massively more than everybody else, no matter how good they are and even if you could afford them (as a one-off investment I mean). As he is only borrowed at the moment this isn''t a huge problem, but problems would arise if one player in the squad were earning three or four times the next highest earner. That leaves the door open for our existing best talent (the likes of Green & McVeigh) to demand parity or they will leave to a club that''s prepared to offer them that. God knows what it would do to morale and team spirit as well.

As a side point, how many clubs have been promoted from the 1st Division in recent seasons having taken a risk and invested in expensive Premiership players? It seems to me that, until they actually reach the Premiership, successful clubs have typically just built the squad up with a mixture of youth development and astute purchases from our own division or lower. How many successful 1st Division clubs have splashed out on an expensive Premiership player or two and reaped the rewards?

[DorsetCanary 0]

Richard, Portsmouth didnt do too badly bringing in Premiership players, Merson, Stone, Hislop etc.

Alex.

[GMF 741]

Indeed they didn''t, but, as has widely been acknowledged, whilst they paid little in transfer fees, they had to pay Premiership style wages, largely out of the pocket of their Chairman, rather than from self-generated footballing finance. Many clubs, I suspect, Norwich included, aren''t that lucky.

[Barking Mad Barclay Boy 13]

No Buh. We got no money in the pot.

[Trevor Hockey's Beard 527]

[quote user="GMF"]Indeed they didn''t, but, as has widely been acknowledged, whilst they paid little in transfer fees, they had to pay Premiership style wages, largely out of the pocket of their Chairman, rather than from self-generated footballing finance. Many clubs, I suspect, Norwich included, aren''t that lucky.[/quote]

A fat lot of good it did Portsmouth.

[hogesar 9,667]

How times change!

Imagine if we tried to sign the Huckerby from then, now.

[king canary 7,605]

Well at the time of did do Portsmouth a lot of good, they went up and stayed in the Premier league for quite a while, winning an FA Cup. Subsequent terrible owners did the damage.

[KeiranShikari_2 0]

Huckerby would probably be in the England team if he was playing today.

[norfolkngood 1,087]

wonder how much he would be worth todays prices 25 to 30 million ?