Outgoing? Jack O'Connell

[Inter_blade83]

Theres no way that site is legit, we are definitely paying our players at least around 20k a week.

Read something that our average wage is 19k for the first team squad. So some above, some below. About 15k a week less than the next prem team. We're the lowest in the league by far.

 

[Blade56]

Think a little context won't harm where wages are concerned.

What may be classed as big clubs, or even comparable sized clubs as the Blades, tend to have wealthy owners who add to their Premier dividend, sometimes by some considerable margin. At the moment we don't have an owner capable of matching this input....and thus reality bites and we realise the extent of what's necessary to make any club more than the sum of it's parts.

Bournemouth are where they are, a Prem club (but for how long remains to be seen) who've existed several seasons at this level because they have a wealthy benefactor. It won't be fees that have enabled B'mouth to sustain their Prem place (I believe that their highest fee paid so far was for Solanke?), but they will have been able to pay decent Prem wages, hence it helped persuade our player, Brooks, to sign for Howe. Unfortunately for Brooks, he may be looking for our results next season whilst playing in the Championship. As wonderful as it is that we're a Prem club, and it's raised everyone's view of what's possible, we cannot remain stagnant. I've no doubt at all that the same thought has already crossed the mind of our manager and chairman, and that they'll already be planning to improve the salaries we pay as well as the fees that we'll have to confront if we wish to remain at this level.

Of course it's not all about money, the personnel that the club recruit, in our case the wonder team of Wilder and Knill, are as significant as anything else. But given the quality we have in this department the very next thing we need to address is the question of wages and fees. I know it's been discussed a lot recently, and no doubt will continue to be a hot topic amongst concerned Blade's fans, but I cannot stress too strongly, under no circumstances do we rush into any foolhardy plans to compete at a level that we're currently not equipped for. Everything that has taken us to this position, building carefully, intelligently, one eye on the present, the other on what's needed to progress, that's the only way we'll manage to push this club forward. It might mean losing players, it might also mean bringing in new, unproven players who have the potential to take their place. The very nature of football is that players come and go, sometimes when you least expect it to happen. Managers need to keep on their toes when it comes to recruitment, and in this respect I feel we have a first class guy in Chris Wilder who can identify a player with potential. Just how good is something that I feel will need far longer to make a judgement concerning CW's talent for spotting a good to great player. Can anyone recall what JOC was like when he first donned a Blade's shirt? Yet now he's as good a central defender as you'll find throughout most Premier division clubs. Clearly, Wilder and Knill's influence has helped turn JOC into something special, and that goes for many of what's turned out to be a superb first team squad built over the last three seasons.

I'm prone to eulogising about the team of Wilder and Knill, the work they've done, the work they continue to do. I'm not someone who offers blind loyalty, but what I do manage to do is judge someone on achievements, and up until now those achievements have left an indelible mark on Blade's fans no matter where they are. You support a team in the hope that they'll manage to achieve a modicum of success, no matter how relative that success is. You support them in the hope that your team might one day play amongst the most talented players and managers, and this season we've not just achieved that, we've shown that we're far more than Championship upstarts, we've shown that we sit comfortably amongst some genuinely world class talent, how amazing is that?

Good read iyb, couple of observations.

Wilder has always said he is following Bournemouth’s model, does that mean we will stay a lowish spending club but better wages? Worked well up to so far for them but I think they’ve gone off and will likely go down this season.

What I don’t want us to become is a gateway for “hopeful” players seeing us as the only club that will give them a chance to prove themselves in the PL on sub PL wages. Risk is if they make it eg JOC et al they will move for big wages ASAP and if they don’t make it we are stuck with a sub standard squad.

if we want to make our club a true PL team the owners and manager will have to play the PL game as well as the players. McWeresmemoneygone thought he could change the wages, agent fees etc, in truth he was just saying he wasn’t prepared to fund the membership of the elite PL. Question is will HRH do the same?

 

[Wards]

Bournemouth have wasted a lot of cash, it’s a bit of a myth they don’t spend much. Just look at Solanke and Ibe - two players who don’t contribute anything and cost in the region of £15-20 million a piece. The poor little Bournemouth piece doesn’t wash anymore. They’re going down because they’re a poor side with dreadful recruitment, not because they’re not spending.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Read something that our average wage is 19k for the first team squad. So some above, some below. About 15k a week less than the next prem team. We're the lowest in the league by far.

I think that was based on the last set of released accounts though. Any figures I've seen quoted have been based on the Championship numbers from our first season back.

 

[Grizzly blade]

It’s interesting to note that all the money Everton pay out on wages we pay McBurnie 50% more than Everton pay Calvert-Lewin.

Really?
That’s a surprise. I thought he was on his second Everton contract and got a good pay rise

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

£5m on beer and prostitutes isn't going to last long !!

I doubt many of us would last very long with a £5m hooker.

 

[itsinyerblood]

Good read iyb, couple of observations.

Wilder has always said he is following Bournemouth’s model, does that mean we will stay a lowish spending club but better wages? Worked well up to so far for them but I think they’ve gone off and will likely go down this season.

What I don’t want us to become is a gateway for “hopeful” players seeing us as the only club that will give them a chance to prove themselves in the PL on sub PL wages. Risk is if they make it eg JOC et al they will move for big wages ASAP and if they don’t make it we are stuck with a sub standard squad.

if we want to make our club a true PL team the owners and manager will have to play the PL game as well as the players. McWeresmemoneygone thought he could change the wages, agent fees etc, in truth he was just saying he wasn’t prepared to fund the membership of the elite PL. Question is will HRH do the same?

Last first.......I think the Prince may have motives that I'm still unsure about. So far we've seen an unusually high (for us) spend last summer, but January's here and I have concerns that we may have little wriggle room in which to buy the type of quality recruitment that we need.

I agree, attracting players is tough as it is, and what you have no control over is whether a player can be persuaded to continue with us instead of moving for an even higher financial return. The longer we remain in the Prem, with of course Wilder and Knill at the helm, the greater our chances of strengthening and improving.

Wages are fundamental in whether we can attract good players, but what we cannot afford to do is blow the lid off a carefully considered pay structure, one that enables us to compete with middle order Prem clubs, a pay structure that gives us a fighting chance from one season to the next. My own take is that I can be classified as a cynical optimist, one moment I fear for the club's future, the next I'll be ecstatic regarding the latest proclamation from Chris Wilder, but isn't that a reasonable diagnosis of any Blade's disposition? Hand on heart, we're in a great position...for now. But once this season comes to an end we're back to a level playing field, and the very nature of what makes us who we are will depend on who we recruit, who may choose to depart, and the same tired mix of discussions, opinions, and rumour-mongering that is the life-blood of any club.

 

[Ranmoorblade]

Really?
That’s a surprise. I thought he was on his second Everton contract and got a good pay rise

Could be rubbish as they have our pay way off.

 

[Blade56]

The longer we remain in the Prem, with of course Wilder and Knill at the helm, the greater our chances of strengthening and improving.

Agree about CWAK but. My concern is they will not be allowed to develop themselves. If HRH has given them a new contract to keep us in the PL based on running the club by finding lower league talent and players trying to resurrect their careers on lower than average wages we are doomed.

I would rather him and McK come to an agreement, cash in and let new owners fund the club to become a force not a grateful visitor to the PL

 

[mattbianco1]

Has anybody put 2+2 together that his Mrs plays in France? Eurostar makes the move much easier for them.

And all of a sudden we're signing a player who can play LCB.

Pass the sharps!!!!

 

[Badger Blade]

The problem with selling any of our first team players is getting players to replace them who are as good or better. CW has been pretty good so far, Norwood for Evans for example but can he keep doing it? Leicester are the model. They have had a lot of players who have been sold for big bucks but they then buy a replacement who is better for less money. E.g. Harry Maguire sold for £80 mill (only cost £17 mill and their defence is as good as ever. If we can replicate that we have a sustainable model to build a solid PL. team for the future and move to become a top 6 side.

Brentford are like a smaller, watered down Leicester where their better players get picked off but still find someone to back fill them and are still in the upper reaches of the table.

Eventually, JOC, Fleck, Stevens et al will leave and we need to be able to do the same. Verrips is the only player we've plucked from obscurity and we're still none the wiser about whether he's any good so we'll need to do what Leicester and Brentford have done to try and find players when we've exhausted all the options from the Championship.

If we do it on the cheap though or make a few gambles on players who aren't as good as the ones, they're replacing, we'll eventually end up back where we came from so there's a fine line to strike and while CWAK have worked miracles, we've also had some duffers.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

I doubt many of us would last very long with a £5m hooker.

But I'd have a great last 15 years with ten bob ones.

 

[Bladesman]

Has anybody put 2+2 together that his Mrs plays in France? Eurostar makes the move much easier for them.

And all of a sudden we're signing a player who can play LCB.

Pass the sharps!!!!

It is clear we are signing a player like Robinson because Keen Brain is going out on loan (if anyone takes him) and I think Wilder has decided Obsorn is more of a midfielder than a left wing back.

 

[mattbianco1]

It is clear we are signing a player like Robinson because Keen Brain is going out on loan (if anyone takes him) and I think Wilder has decided Obsorn is more of a midfielder than a left wing back.

Phew... I'll put the bread knife back

 

[Niceguyeddie]

Agree about CWAK but. My concern is they will not be allowed to develop themselves. If HRH has given them a new contract to keep us in the PL based on running the club by finding lower league talent and players trying to resurrect their careers on lower than average wages we are doomed.

I would rather him and McK come to an agreement, cash in and let new owners fund the club to become a force not a grateful visitor to the PL

Do you ever read any of this forum ?

 

[Yewsman]

Got it off here.

Error 404 | Spotrac.com

NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS contract breakdowns, yearly salaries, team salary caps and more.

www.spotrac.com

interesting that according to that site Mo Besic is on £30k a week. That's probably more than any of our other players (except Henderson ?). If we were to try and sign him (as has been discussed on other threads then if he was on the same wage he would possibly become our highest paid player. That would surly upset the apple cart a bit with the squad?

 

[BushBlade]

interesting that according to that site Mo Besic is on £30k a week. That's probably more than any of our other players (except Henderson ?). If we were to try and sign him (as has been discussed on other threads then if he was on the same wage he would possibly become our highest paid player. That would surly upset the apple cart a bit with the squad?

If that website were true, which is highly unlikely because which club actually publishes details of individual wages?

 

[Ranmoorblade]

interesting that according to that site Mo Besic is on £30k a week. That's probably more than any of our other players (except Henderson ?). If we were to try and sign him (as has been discussed on other threads then if he was on the same wage he would possibly become our highest paid player. That would surly upset the apple cart a bit with the squad?

McBurnie is on 30k a week.

 

[Booker4]

This from Wilder is a tad concerning, I think its from today's press conference "But as we all now, it is a moving market - in terms of players coming in and I cannot sit here and say that any of my (main) players might not move on, as well. Ones that we maybe don't want to move on. That is just the way football is.

That probably most likely relates to JOC I would guess. I might be looking into this more than is there but I don't like the use of ones as a plural possibility of departures!

 

[Roygbiv]

This from Wilder is a tad concerning, I think its from today's press conference "But as we all now, it is a moving market - in terms of players coming in and I cannot sit here and say that any of my (main) players might not move on, as well. Ones that we maybe don't want to move on. That is just the way football is.

That probably most likely relates to JOC I would guess.

I don't think it relates to anyone. It's just a fact.

 

[FredZeppelin]

We didn't exactly scrape past them but don't let that get in the way of a good story.

I wouldn't want to play you lot it would be a no win situation pretty much like our last 2 games. By the way when you said in the other thread you dint know any Wednesday fans who had an arrogant attitude where they thought they had a Devine right to be in the prem. you may want to have a look at this latest thread. Sums your fan base up to a tea https://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/topic/286738-brighton-tho/

This from Wilder is a tad concerning, I think its from today's press conference "But as we all now, it is a moving market - in terms of players coming in and I cannot sit here and say that any of my (main) players might not move on, as well. Ones that we maybe don't want to move on. That is just the way football is.

That probably most likely relates to JOC I would guess. I might be looking into this more than is there but I don't like the use of ones as a plural possibility of departures!

I heard it thought it was referencing the Sharp interest, myself.

Just goes to prove that we all hear things and make our own assumptions.

UTB

 

[Sam64]

This from Wilder is a tad concerning, I think its from today's press conference "But as we all now, it is a moving market - in terms of players coming in and I cannot sit here and say that any of my (main) players might not move on, as well. Ones that we maybe don't want to move on. That is just the way football is.

That probably most likely relates to JOC I would guess. I might be looking into this more than is there but I don't like the use of ones as a plural possibility of departures!

didn't he also say we've had no bids?

 

[Antonb]

Well hes not gone anywhere yet, i saw him earlier checking into the hotel with lunny

 

[Booker4]

I don't think it relates to anyone. It's just a fact.

It makes me think that he wouldn't have said that if there wasn't some serious interest in this window for one or more of our players - you might think that's obvious mate, I don't know, but I was a bit taken aback from that. I know that's football, I totally get players move on, but I was hoping, naively maybe, that we could keep the squad together till the summer. Its very difficult to replace players now if we lose someone like Fleck.

On the other hand, you can ask for a ridiculous fee in this window because certain clubs are desperate to strengthen, Arsenal no doubt one of them, and we could maybe get more now than in the summer when its a longer window.

 

[Roygbiv]

Hang on , do people genuinely think he's leaving this window? Based on a report in the Mirror that said Spurs were interested in bringing him in the Summer?

We should rename ourselves Shit Yourself United with how worried people get!

 

[Booker4]

I heard it thought it was referencing the Sharp interest, myself.

Just goes to prove that we all hear things and make our own assumptions.

UTB

Very true mate. I thought that Wilder had said that Sharp could go if he wants to solely because Sharp owes nothing and his wishes should be respected. Who knows though!

didn't he also say we've had no bids?

Didn't listen to the full interview to be honest mate!

 

[Weasel]

It's always been the case. If another top PL team comes in for any of our players abs want them bad enough, then they will be gone. Has always been that way and that's fair enough.

If any player goes, we move on and bring in another. The only one indispensable at the Lane is Mr Wilder.

 

[Collins Morris]

So should we have a wage bill of £160 million like Everton then?

Why not if the players deserve it simple really
So long as the contracts are performance related why should the club not pay them the going rate

 

[Roygbiv]

It makes me think that he wouldn't have said that if there wasn't some serious interest in this window for one or more of our players - you might think that's obvious mate, I don't know, but I was a bit taken aback from that. I know that's football, I totally get players move on, but I was hoping, naively maybe, that we could keep the squad together till the summer. Its very difficult to replace players now if we lose someone like Fleck.

On the other hand, you can ask for a ridiculous fee in this window because certain clubs are desperate to strengthen, Arsenal no doubt one of them, and we could maybe get more now than in the summer when its a longer window.

No offence intended Booker as we all read things differently but I don't know how you've come to the conclusion that we may sell one of our best players based on what Wilder has said. He also spoke about building, getting contracts signed and that we have received no bids for anyone.

He can't sit there and say nobody is leaving when nobody knows what is around the corner. Imagine if he said "nobody's going" then Fleck hands in a transfer request and ends up at Arsenal. Wilder would have his words thrown back at him

 

[Ranmoorblade]

Why not if the players deserve it simple really
So long as the contracts are performance related why should the club play them the going rate

We wouldn’t have a club for long then, paying out more than we earn. I’m all for giving the players more money but we shouldn’t be breaking the bank.