Summer transfer rumours, speculation and out-and-out b*ll*cks.

[eastie]

Is Cuellar to Rangers off or just gone quiet?

gordon smith blamed the injury while mccoist said they were miles apart on personal terms -he was already injured well before they made their bid but mccoist said they were nowhere near matching his wages .

[KRS]

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has told BBC Five Live's Mike Sewell that he does not expect to be active in the transfer market this summer - unless players leave the club.

I know its all about reducing the wage bill, but we've already got rid of a load of players including £35m for AY and SD...hearing this line repeated is very frustrating. How many more players need to leave the club???

I've been thinking about this and how are wagebill should be broken down.  Basing it on a 25-man squad I think it's relaistic to have 16 semior pros, which is your first 11 plus an almost full bench.  If three of those are the 'superstars you need to compete, such as Bent, then they'd be on say £65k a week with the other 13 averaging £40k.  So a total of £715k a week.  The reamining 9 would be youth, so say £20k a week and a total of £180k and a grand total rounded up to £900k a week.  Over 52 weeks that's about £47m.

Is our turnover enough to sustain that and can we possibly hope to compete paying anything less?   

Yep there is no doubt the problem is due to putting our average players on the "superstar" wages...there is no way Heskey has ever been worth £65k/week for example. The problem now is average players are demanding these salaries so creating a squad from anything other than mainly youth is literally going to be impossible if we are to remain within these financial "restrictions". The good news is that this seems to affect every club other than the Man Utd, Man City and Chelski...even the Arse and Spurs have gone public with the wages issue; the bad news is that we shouldnt be in this situation in the first place, and we are paying the price for negligent management now.

[villan1975]

Real shame we spent our money backing the wrong man to buy the wrong players as think there are players of genuine quality out there who could see us push Arsenal who have been weakened hugely.By the sounds of what Moyes and Kenwright have said over the last two days they are in real danger and need to sell star players quickly.

[KRS]

The real shame is that 4th Champions League spot is pretty open this season...given the spending we should be fighting for it with Arse, Spurs and Liverpool but we seem to be a million miles away in reality. I think Arse will be very inconsistent this season especially away from home, Liverpool arent as good as the media hype them up to be, and will be fairly solid. A couple of more decent signings would throw us right into the mix.

[eastie]

It would be interesting to know what wages heskey was on at wigan- I would have thought it would be nearer half what we offered him and why mon or randy felt the need to pay him 65k a week to tempt him from Wigan to villa.

[spangley1812]

It would be interesting to know what wages heskey was on at wigan- I would have thought it would be nearer half what we offered him and why mon or randy felt the need to pay him 65k a week to tempt him from Wigan to villa.

Yawn....it wouldnt interest me at all, all you Heskey knockers im afraid are in for a long season as you can see from the selections so far our manager rates Heskey and if he plays well who knows he may be offered a new contract............

[eastie]

The point being spangles that if he was on £30k or £35k at Wigan and I doubt they could afford that then why should we pay him £65k a week and £3m a year in wages when we could have probably signed him for far less.

Who sanctioned the wages, mon or randy?
Surely heskey would have snatched our hand off for £40k so why offer him such crazy money.

[taylorsworkrate]

Why fuckin sign him in the first place?

[eastie]

Why fuckin sign him in the first place?

Yes, that too.

[spangley1812]

The point being spangles that if he was on £30k or £35k at Wigan and I doubt they could afford that then why should we pay him £65k a week and £3m a year in wages when we could have probably signed him for far less.

Who sanctioned the wages, mon or randy?
Surely heskey would have snatched our hand off for £40k so why offer him such crazy money.

I sense yours and many other peoples frustration Eastie but @ the time he was in the England team. We will never know about who authorised the wages but what I think should have happened it that when Randy took over he should have appointed a "footballing man" ie Graham Taylor to oversee things and act as a go between and then im sure all these apparently over the top contracts may not have been given out. If Randy let MON have total control then its Randys fault and its a lesson learned...........

[PeterWithesShin]

IIRC it was reported he was on about 50K a week at Wigan.

[eastie]

IIRC it was reported he was on about 50K a week at Wigan.

If true I'm surprised that Wigan could afford to pay that - I thought heskey regained his England spot after joining villa but I'm not sure on that.

[PeterWithesShin]

IIRC it was reported he was on about 50K a week at Wigan.

If true I'm surprised that Wigan could afford to pay that - I thought heskey regained his England spot after joining villa but I'm not sure on that.

He def got his England place back while at Wigan.

A quick search found this, obviously I have no idea how accurate it is as unless a player or club actually says the wage is XYZ,there is always an element of guesswork involved.

This was published in the Mirror in October 2008.

"England striker Emile Heskey is looking for an £80,000-a-week deal as he plays out his current Wigan contract.

The size of Heskey's demands mean he could prove too expensive in the January window, with potential suitors such as Aston Villa and Tottenham unwilling to also pay a transfer fee.

But Heskey is relaxed about playing out his final season at Wigan, where he is already on £50,000 a week.

The Latics are reluctant to meet his demands, but his advisors believe they will be able to secure a salary elsewhere that reflects his status as an international."

Edited to add the link http://tinyurl.com/ybpk3e7

[TheSandman]

It would be interesting to know what wages heskey was on at wigan- I would have thought it would be nearer half what we offered him and why mon or randy felt the need to pay him 65k a week to tempt him from Wigan to villa.

Liverpool were reputedly after him too. He was in decent form at the time and was getting games for England.

If true I'm surprised that Wigan could afford to pay that - I thought heskey regained his England spot after joining villa but I'm not sure on that.

He was getting games in Euro 2008 qualifying and was pretty much a regular in the team when we signed him.

[JJ-AV]

It would be interesting to know what wages heskey was on at wigan- I would have thought it would be nearer half what we offered him and why mon or randy felt the need to pay him 65k a week to tempt him from Wigan to villa.

MON made some shocking signings, and Heskey was one of them no doubt. But Heskey had agreed to sign for Liverpool on a free the Summer after we'd bought him, so we needed to match the contract he was going to get at the redscouse.

So he was forced to offer big as Heskey was awaiting his 60k a week there and sign on fee.

Of course, Darren Bent was available for £12m and 40k a week at that time too - which was annoying.