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BroadstairsR

Can we compete?

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I noticed in the newspaper today that both West Ham and Stoke have been active giving their players new contracts.

Dmitri Payet''s new contract could see him earning as much a £100, 000 per week and made up of £68, 000 basic, £25, 000 appearance and other bonuses.

Meanwhile, Stoke have given Bojan Krkics a new four years deal worth £70, 000 per week.

These are two of the "middling" clubs we aspire to be amongst and are not usually even included in the top six spenders.

We never know what wages our players get but I wouldn''t expect them to reach these heights (Naismith anybody?)

The big advantage that these two clubs have over us is that they have had longer spells in the Premier League and have been able to build up funds. They are both also sure of survival, imo, and therefore in line with the bonanza from TV money next season.

We can only aspire to these wage levels with a few consistent years at the top table, which we are finding difficult to achieve nowadays. Even so, would fellow posters be happy to see £100, 000 a week players in the yellow and green. I''m not too sure that I would be comfortable with that. A whole team with wages at or around that level would bankrupt a club with our limited resources and. besides, it is an obscene amount which encapsulates the problems with football today and the problems faced by NCFC.

Supposing we survive and a PL side comes in for Nathan Redmond with such an offer, or Brady for that matter or even Naismith, would we be able to compete on the wages front at that moment in time . They would be tempted away.

Should we get relegated, then these players would likely leave in any case, especially with a relegation clause in their contracts, but excluding Naismith apparently.

Should we go down we will likely be left again with the core oif the side from the last few seasons, the Martins, the Bassongs and the Olssons all on manageable wages (we hope) and the time would surely be right to start utilising our extensive build up of youth.

In sum, we would need a few seasons unbroken run in the Premier League to even compete with the West Hams and the Stokes as things are looking at the moment. Not having the richest owners doesn''t help, especially as the FFP rules seem easy to circumnavigate. I am not here advocating the change of ownership that some wish for, just stating the facts how they are and highlighting the difficulties facing our club.

Perhaps, also, all this is a clue to the reason our transfer activity last Summer was a failure. The wage demands from the supposed targets were just too high for us to withstand.

Clearly the recent window signings are a last ditch effort at survival and we may therefore have over-stretched ourselves. Probably a risk worth taking.

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Short answer is no, we can''t compete.
Forget West Ham and Stoke, we can''t even compete with the sides that we came up with - both Watford and Bournemouth have out spent us on transfers and I''d say it''s a safe bet they pay much higher wages than us too. I''m sure we''ll be at or around the bottom of the wage league table this season so once again we''ll need to over achieve just to stay in the PL.
I''m not anti Delia by any means, but it is hard to see how we''re ever going to become an established PL side without a lot more money coming into the club.

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I think we could compete but we need to work harder than other teams to do so.
Without knocking anyone our purchases have not been successful (RVW, Hooper, Becchio, Grabban, Lafferty, Fer ....) yet there are relatively cheap but capable players out there.
It''s obvious buying in the summer is better than the January window.  Not only do we have the advantage of the new players over the whole season but it is likely that we''ll in a better position to then attract players in the January window. 
In terms of wages I think we''ll always struggle until we become an established PL team, if indeed we do,

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Yes, we can compete..

the TV money is a great leveller for normal clubs (i.e. not those with massive global footprints or those "channelling funds" from the ultra high net worth individuals)..

We wouldn''t be offering massive wages now because our future in the prem next season is not certain..

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Good thoughts Braodstairs, as always.

No we can''t compete at the moment and won''t be able to unless and until we become truly established in this league. Teams like Stoke and Swansea shouldn''t have greater income generating ability than us so it obviously can be done.

Your point about established mid-table teams not having one eye on relegation is a good one. That frees them from the constraints of planning for the worst case scenario and allows a bit bit more risk taking with transfers and wages.

The first two seasons up are the tough ones. After that there should gradually be more money to spend and recently promoted teams that are potentially more likely to go down. Our third season under Hughton was a crucial opportunity and could prove to take many years to recover from.

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Hairy Canary wrote:

"The first two seasons up are the tough ones. After that there should gradually be more money to spend and recently promoted teams that are potentially more likely to go down. Our third season under Hughton was a crucial opportunity and could prove to take many years to recover from."

Agreed entirely, especially with the last sentence.

I consider that McNally (and/or the Board) panicked in sacking Hughton when he/they did. What did he call relegation at the time? "A fate worse than death?" Only to proceed to seal that fate. There was, imo, an outside chance that the Hoots might have snatched that one out-of -the- hat result. He had done it before. Adams stood no chance.

Let''s just hope and prey that such a move, which had us ridiculed by the whole of football, is not repeated this season and that harsh lessons have been learned.

Adams is still at the Club isn''t he? (Inserts smiley.)

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It''s all about picking up lower league/overseas gems. It''s probably more beneficial to put more attention and finance into scouting. You only have to look at players like

Vardy - £1m

Mahrez - £400k

Alli - £2m

Winston Reid - £3m

Celtic have had a knack over last few years of picking up good talent overseas for good prices:

Wanyama - £900k

Forster - £2m

Van Dijk - £2.25m

Ki Yeung - £1.8m

Biton - £600k

A team in our position should be looking at these kind of players, picking them up for less then £2m then getting good couple of seasons out of them and then selling them on for £10m+ then repeating that cycle. Easier said then done I know.

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