Football Finances & Management in the Championship

[Curious Canary 0]

Has anyone read Michael Bailey’s latest.

Not sure I follow the relevance of all of it but to me there are three key points:

1) Over the last three seasons PL clubs have become rich.

2) This has meant lots of investment in PL stadia and training grounds.

3) The PL clubs are going to get even richer but Norwich City have gone and got themselves relegated AND all the Championship clubs are going to be trying like hell to join the top table.

What are the implications looking forward?

Point 1 provides the reason why we’ve cleared the debt so that’s good, but the clubs in all the divisions are looking more solvent too.

Point 2 is interesting.

Haven’t seen much development here at Carrow Road or any plans, this is a can that has been kicked down the road. OK maybe three years wasn’t long enough to make commitments. No prospect of stadium development here then.

Colney is a real asset, and may have helped convince some established players to join us, but other PL clubs appear to have invested (more?) in their training grounds.

I think I’m right in saying that Colney has been going since the 90’s and has had an indoor training Dome since 2002 (opened by Ronnie Koeman). McNally said we needed to spend more to update facilities and Bailey says he’s seen the investment in infrastructure.

Are our players fitter and more skilful as a result? Anyone in the club monitoring this?

What about the Academy?

When can we expect young home grown talent and our recruitment of players for the future to make a contribution?

These days talent is developed by loaning out rather than via the reserve team with only the real youngsters playing at U21 level.

The signs don’t look obviously encouraging at either level.

The U21s played in Division 1 and finished bottom of the 12 clubs.

One or two of the loaned out players may have done well individually but they were hardly at clubs that actually achieved anything. It looks optimistic to say that many/any of these players will have an impact at a higher level next season.

This is a list of the loaned out players (including the established pros):

Toffolo Peterboro League One 13th

Thompson Swindon League One 16th

Matthews Doncaster League One 21st Relegated

Burton Albion League One 2nd Promoted

Loza Southend League One 15th

Stevenage League Two 18th

Maddison Coventry League One 8th

Murphy Jacob Coventry League One 8th

Murphy Josh M K Dons Championship 23rd Relegated

Turner Sheff W Championship 6th Play Offs

Lafferty Birmingham Championship 10th

Norman Woking National League 12th

Killip Lowestoft National League 20th Relegated

Morris Hamilton Scottish Premier 10th

Wolfswinkel Real Betis La Liga 10th

Kean Swindon League One 16th

Colchester League One 23rd Relegated

Odija-Ofoe Rotherham Championship 21st

Andreu Rotherham Championship 21st

E&OE

Point 3, yes we have got some parachute money to spend.

But so have a couple of other clubs.

And there are big incentives for owners with more money than ours to dip into their pockets and have a gamble. Consider also that future high levels of spending in the Championship can only be sustained by owner funding.

If the Academy and youth policy is not delivering and we don’t have a significant financial advantage then the only way, in my humble opinion, that we can achieve success is by good management.

Good management means selecting the “right man for the job” at every level, chairman, CEO, football manager, chief scout, academy manager, centre forward, left back, goalkeeper, etc, etc, etc.

It would be unreasonable to expect Alex Neil to be solely responsible for everything and assume that all he needs to do is sort out the current squad and transfer targets.

[Katie Borkins 1]

I cannot square your "analysis" of point 1 with the figures showing average debt levels outside the PL are on the rise and already approaching unsustainable levels.

You then seem to have picked out the gloomiest analysis on points 2 and 3.

Take a Prozac and go for a jog, endorphins are wonderful things.