Selling the 'deadwood' and their 'high' wages

[Greg N'Ash]

It is MON.

As I said the other day if Randy has tightened the purse strings you wouldn't blame him really would you?

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you'd certainly want him taken out the loop thats for sure.

[cheltenhamlion]

I also wonder how much the players wages are the domain of the manager, but I can't see him not knowing what they are and if he sees an issue he's hardly likely to hold his toungue on it.

Even if you accept the wages aren't the direct call of the manager, surely, at some point, regardless of who does what, it would come down to the finance people saying "player X wants £45k a week for four years, is he worth it?" - as the manager is the one making the football decisions?

For what we've heard of MON he likes to control everything at the club, so suggesting he has not that much to do with wages looks a bit like convenient revisionism to me.

He has a huge say in wages. He has done at every club he has ever manged and demands that this is the case.

The finance people are there to ensure that we offer won't bankrupt the club and sort out the legal particulars.

[Concrete John]

I never said he didn't have input, just that I do think there are other factors in those decisions as well.

For instance, should we sit down with Milner to discuss a new contract, would Martin be in that meeting regarding the financials and would he make the final call on it?

[pauliewalnuts]

I never said he didn't have input, just that I do think there are other factors in those decisions as well.

For instance, should we sit down with Milner to discuss a new contract, would Martin be in that meeting regarding the financials and would he make the final call on it?

He might not make the final call, in that Lerner signs the cheques and can ultimately refuse to, but i don't think for a nanosecond Martin wouldn't be in that meeting and would be agreeing the contract.

[darren woolley]

I think he will wait untill he sorts out milner's future before buying anyone. Has he got a sell before buy policy i have read he has but i dont know for sure.

[TheSandman]

Have seen a few sites discussing the problem Villa are having shifting the unwanted's, Coker, Sidwell, Davies, Beye, Shorey, Young and so on.

Many have suggested the high wages Mon signed them on being the cause for the lack of interest. I was interested to see our wage bill exceeded that of Spurs and the players are hanging on for similar wages or waiting until their contracts are up so they can move cheaply at some cost to Villa as Harewood did.

I appreciate Mon feels he has to offer big wages to encourage the 'better' players but this does seem to be a down side to that plan.

If its accurate of course.

I also think back to Strachan's comments in his early days at Celtic, where he had a similar problem of over paid expensive mainly no hopers who few wanted. So maybe it is.

I agree with much of that. If you think about it we are paying Nicky Shorey forty odd grand a week. Nicky Shorey for Pete's sake. Before they re-negotiated his contract Luka Modric was on £25grand a week at Spurs exhibiting exactly why and where our wage bill is bigger than Spurs.

I have ranted on this subject many times indeed it is perhaps my main criticism of Martin but we have players who are getting fat wedges of notes for not playing. We are getting rid of players or at least trying to who have hardly played. Luke Young, Curtis Davies and Nigel Reo-Coker are stand out cases here. Whilst I'm far from a fan of two of those surely these lads should at least get the odd chance to fill in ahead of an injured or fatigued player?

At Celtic a lot of aging players were left on the wagebill. Alan Thompson and Joos Valegaren were both on fat wages and in their early thirties and were given free transfers. Bobo Balde however, had just signed a new contract and stayed for four years under Strachan despite not playing whilst picking up something like £30,000 Per week, which is utterly massive for the SPL. To illustrate that I don't think anyone is currently earning that much at Rangers or Celtic.

[sfx412]

I also wonder how much the players wages are the domain of the manager, but I can't see him not knowing what they are and if he sees an issue he's hardly likely to hold his toungue on it.

So 2 clubs Vila and celtic have the same problem and its nothing to do with their manager ??

OK, dream on

[sfx412]

I never said he didn't have input, just that I do think there are other factors in those decisions as well.

For instance, should we sit down with Milner to discuss a new contract, would Martin be in that meeting regarding the financials and would he make the final call on it?

He might not make the final call, in that Lerner signs the cheques and can ultimately refuse to, but i don't think for a nanosecond Martin wouldn't be in that meeting and would be agreeing the contract.

Surely as the General is fond of saving Mon has complete control of playing affairs and I'd have thought that included transfers and wages
No?

[Ad@m]

Without getting lambasted for supporting MON here, most of the players we're talking about were signed before the arse fell out of the world economy.

Up until Portsmouth nearly hit the wall football clubs still thought the good times would always roll and the cash would never run out.  It wouldn't surprise me that now no-one can get a bank loan cause the banks have got no money and Pompey are still right up shit creek without a paddle that clubs are reassessing just how much money they're willing to spend on players.  If that's the case I doubt we're the only club with players on contracts that with the benefit of hindsight look a little bit silly.

[Concrete John]

I also wonder how much the players wages are the domain of the manager, but I can't see him not knowing what they are and if he sees an issue he's hardly likely to hold his toungue on it.

So 2 clubs Vila and celtic have the same problem and its nothing to do with their manager ??

OK, dream on

Hold on - I'm not saying it isn't right, just raising the question of where the final decision comes from on players wages.  Hardly incites the reaction of 'dream on'!

I don't know a lot about the Celtic situation so can't really comment, but most clubs have older players on large contracts - it's normally the younger ones you can get away with paying less.  As a contract comes up for renewal a player normally gets a payrise, which means probably a 6 year stay and therefore an older player.  It's the way of football works.  

My concern, and it's my only concern, is that we do have a lot of players at Villa earning a fortune who aren't contributing.  Blame MON for that if you like, but at least it's been recognised before it becomes a major problem and we seem to be trying to address it.

[curiousorange]

I never said he didn't have input, just that I do think there are other factors in those decisions as well.

For instance, should we sit down with Milner to discuss a new contract, would Martin be in that meeting regarding the financials and would he make the final call on it?

He might not make the final call, in that Lerner signs the cheques and can ultimately refuse to, but i don't think for a nanosecond Martin wouldn't be in that meeting and would be agreeing the contract.

Surely as the General is fond of saving Mon has complete control of playing affairs and I'd have thought that included transfers and wages
No?

The impression I get of O'Neill as regards contracts etc is that he would quibble over every aspect of a contract, whereas a man like Harry Redknapp would take the agent into the training ground canteen, ask him what the player wants, say done if he agrees and leave the fine print to the execs.

[john e]

we have a fair few players that are surplus and a few who we'd all like to see the back of,
but i cant see them going anywhere, the players themselves arnt good enough to command the wages they are on,

take Heskey for instance,
 we will more than likely have him in the squad next year because although other clubs  probably below us could afford the transfer fee, they wont pay the 60k wages that he's reputed to be on, same goes for Sidwell, Davies, NRC  etc

we have a sqaud with far to many very average players, on so much money we cant move them on

[curiousorange]

we have a fair few players that are surplus and a few who we'd all like to see the back of,
but i cant see them going anywhere, the players themselves arnt good enough to command the wages they are on,

take Heskey for instance,
 we will more than likely have him in the squad next year because although other clubs  probably below us could afford the transfer fee, they wont pay the 60k wages that he's reputed to be on, same goes for Sidwell, Davies, NRC  etc

we have a sqaud with far to many very average players, on so much money we cant move them on

There's not a squad in the land where that last statement does not apply.

[Merv]

But it's not just Villa and Celtic who have players on big wages. The figures coming out of Hull were frightening. Take a look at Portsmouth, too. You now get average players on big wages and modest clubs. Welcome to the Premier League.

Thing is, Davies, Shorey, etc weren't signed as reserve players. They weren't handed £40k a week to play in the reserves, they were first team players. It's just now they've fallen down the pecking order, which is why we're trying to offload them.

[Drummond]

Well it looks like a fee has been agreed with Fulham for Sidwell.