The wage bill (again)

[Chipsticks]

This whole Bent saga has made me think that we have more money than we first thought.

I also think that MON left not because of money but I think we've had enough of MON debates this season.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

One thing is the total wage bill another is players on the wage bill that are never used. We're now moving players off the wage bill that serve no purpose to Aston Villa.

[Dante Lavelli]

I think a lot of the dead wood will naturally disappear as their contracts run out. I think houllier has been given the instructions (and is suited to) to training and bringing through more of the youngsters.

Mon and his team were known for not doing much in the way of coaching and therefore having Davies as 4th choice CB was seen as preferable to coaching and teaching Clark (for example).

I can see Carew, Baye, Davies and NRC all leaving in the summer without being replaced except by youngsters we already have. That's got to trim some bucks from the wage bill, especially if the policy is applied over a sustained period.

Easy.

[Risso]

You can't put a price on giving supporters their hope back.

[PeterWithe]

You can't put a price on giving supporters their hope back.

Spot on, I've just bought a ticket for the Wigan game with only a 50/50 chance of being able to make it.

[garyshawsknee]

Didnt GH say in the press conference something about players out of contract leaving soon ? Does that mean NRC and Carew will be out soon. Hopefully the rest of the deadwood will be gone in the summer,with the youngsters coming through, the squad will be without a lot of the bigger earners.

[SoccerHQ]

Don't forget NRC is leaving in the summer (Houllier said as much in the press conference). Makoun is his replacement so maybe he's on a bit less?

Ireland, Warnock, Carew and Davies will all leave this window probably, not sure how many on loan.

Still unload them and between those four that's 200k a week off our wage bill, 240k if you include Beye!

Don't you just love modern football?

[PeterWithe]

NRC is as a funny one, he could be one of the first names on the sheet but in all my years of watching I've rarely seen a player who veers so much between hot and cold, one week he looks like he wants to be a Villa legend, the next like its all too much like hard work.

[bob]

Players will leave and the wage bill will be cut where it's needed. We've just gone and got what we need rather than waiting around.

Kind of makes a mockery of the idea we are operating a sell to buy policy doesn't it? Or should someone tell Randy he's doing it wrong?

[jembob]

My conclusion about what has been said about the wage bill, is that RAL was unhappy that so much money was being paid to players who never got on the pitch. I think that if we had a large squad of players who ALL contributed to success on the pitch then a large wage bill might be justified. Any businessman will look at areas of a business that is not performing, and last season the likes of Sidwell, NRC, L Young were all being paid to keep the bench warm while the same first team played nearly all of the time. Reduction of the total wage bill is something which the Chairman had clearly identified as an area of concern, but for so much of that money to be squandered on non-performing players would have been the real problem.

If the signing of Bent added an additional £30k per week to the wage bill but he scored one goal every two games then I would suspect that the increase would be viewed as being justified.

[supertom]

We need buyer first of all. The main thing with GED is, he's willing to shift the shit. He'll also play the players he buys. Marlon Harewood was here for 3 seasons and started ONE premier league game. What was he on? Rumours on here between 30-40k a week! Hideous! Sidwell was shit, and was one of our highest earners. All the senior signings have come with big wages.

Carew won't last this window probably. That's gonna be 50-60k out. Warnock may go (50k, given he was well established at BBurn, and they didn't really need to sell). One can only cringe at what Habib Beye might be earning.

O Neill was too stubborn. He'd wasted far too much in his 4 seasons. Houllier has only just come in, and is getting the benefit of being given the chance to shape his own team. Good start so far with the three signings!

It's also not Houlliers fault of people don't want to buy our drek.

[SteveD]

Remember we had a debate a few years ago about the squad being too small? Well, Randy certainly rectified that, and the numbers were up. I think MON shot himself in the foot by getting the size of squad he (and we) needed and then playing practically the same XI every week, from Carling Cup to Premier League. Randy wonders why he's paying £60,000 a week to players on the bench, who hardly got on. So we're now seemingly trying to get a balance between a decent size squad, with more youngsters but hopefully paying wages and fees for key players. I don't buy that Randy gave MON a blank cheque and naively let him get on with it. He's a businessman and it was his money, but I'm sure his learning curve with the Premier League has taught him that simply throwing money at the issue is not enough. But perhaps MON's legacy will be he proved we don't need a whole raft of players on big wages, as he managed perfectly fine without, except at certain crucial times when players got tired. Did his own stubborness in not rotating players set the pattern which Houllier has to follow?