Randy Lerner

[Dave]

One that had passed me by, but I've just read that Bolton are bottom of the Championship, £173M in debt and subject top both a transfer embargo and a winding up petition from HMRC?

Yep. Eddie Davis lives over here, and doesn't want to keep propping the club up any more. A cautionary tale about what happens to clubs who make losses, get relegated and then don't go back up quickly.

But of that £173m, didn't they have about £150m of it at the time they were relegated? Not that this means we don't need to care about our finances, but it's not quite the same situation as we would find ourselves in.

[kippaxvilla2]

One that had passed me by, but I've just read that Bolton are bottom of the Championship, £173M in debt and subject top both a transfer embargo and a winding up petition from HMRC?

Yep. Eddie Davis lives over here, and doesn't want to keep propping the club up any more. A cautionary tale about what happens to clubs who make losses, get relegated and then don't go back up quickly.

But of that £173m, didn't they have about £150m of it at the time they were relegated? Not that this means we don't need to care about our finances, but it's not quite the same situation as we would find ourselves in.

Correct a lot of it was around the Gartside era.  Also, their benefactor is prepared to write off the whole of the debt if he can find a taker for the club.

[aj2k77]

New figures for last seasons wage bill have just been released, thought it would be of some interest, just posted the teams that were in the Premier League then and are now. Would expect that after shedding Benteke, Delph, Given, Weimann, Vlaar, Cleverley and fringe players like Tonev and Helenius etc that we are paying possibly lower this season too.

1. Chelsea £215.6m
2. Man Utd £203m
3. Man City £193.8m
4. Arsenal £192m
5. Liverpool £152m
6. Spurs £110.5m
7. Newcastle £75.8m
8. Everton £74.7m
9. Stoke £72.3
10. Sunderland £71m
11. West Ham £69.5m
12. West Brom £68.5m
13. Aston Villa £65.1m
14. Southampton £59.5m
15. Crystal P £54.3m
16. Swansea £51m
17. Leicester £48.2m

[aj2k77]

Man Utd, Man City, Newcastle and Aston Villa were the only teams to reduce their wage bill from 13/14 to 14/15.

[Toronto Villa]

and that list shows you don't have spend loads of money on transfer fees, salaries and agents to compete. You need good players, through good scouting, good managers and coaches and confidence, Pardew, Koeman, Ranieri and the clubs they manage have done that.

[TopDeck113]

One that had passed me by, but I've just read that Bolton are bottom of the Championship, £173M in debt and subject top both a transfer embargo and a winding up petition from HMRC?

And they are owned by this chap Garside a pillar of football establishment in this country.
It can be a very dangerous game.

He isn't the owner, he's the Chairman.

A good example of a "big" club left floundering in the lower leagues in debt and the chairman part responsible is Sheffield Wednesday and Sir Dave Richards.  I'm sure Wednesday fans are delighted that Richards jumped ship just before they were relegated from the top tier and continues to enjoy the largesse of the Premier League.

[dave.woodhall]

One that had passed me by, but I've just read that Bolton are bottom of the Championship, £173M in debt and subject top both a transfer embargo and a winding up petition from HMRC?

And they are owned by this chap Garside a pillar of football establishment in this country.
It can be a very dangerous game.

He isn't the owner, he's the Chairman.

A good example of a "big" club left floundering in the lower leagues in debt and the chairman part responsible is Sheffield Wednesday and Sir Dave Richards.  I'm sure Wednesday fans are delighted that Richards jumped ship just before they were relegated from the top tier and continues to enjoy the largesse of the Premier League.

After he and the rest of the board made a killing buying up shares at a bargain price prior to flotation.

[TopDeck113]

But he got a knighthood for "services to sport", so that must be allowable in the eyes of the football establishment.

[Chris Harte]

and that list shows you don't have spend loads of money on transfer fees, salaries and agents to compete. You need good players, through good scouting, good managers and coaches and confidence, Pardew, Koeman, Ranieri and the clubs they manage have done that.

I'd imagine Leicester's wage bill will increase when other clubs come looking at their talent. The only way a club like Leicester will retain their best talent is if they significantly increase (read double or treble) the wages of their top performers. And even that may not be enough.

[saunders_heroes]

We paid lower wages than West Brom. I wonder if that's ever happened before?

[Toronto Villa]

and that list shows you don't have spend loads of money on transfer fees, salaries and agents to compete. You need good players, through good scouting, good managers and coaches and confidence, Pardew, Koeman, Ranieri and the clubs they manage have done that.

I'd imagine Leicester's wage bill will increase when other clubs come looking at their talent. The only way a club like Leicester will retain their best talent is if they significantly increase (read double or treble) the wages of their top performers. And even that may not be enough.

no doubt, but the point remains that you don't need to pay the top wages to be at the top. Or just competitive in the PL. The challenge for Leicester is once they do lose players can they adequately replace them within the same kind of wage structure? Southampton have managed to do that really well.

[aj2k77]

We paid lower wages than West Brom. I wonder if that's ever happened before?

That was last season, this season I would expect the difference to be slightly larger, their bill going up again and ours down.

[Des Little]

We paid lower wages than West Brom. I wonder if that's ever happened before?

That was last season, this season I would expect the difference to be slightly larger, their bill going up again and ours down.

It will if you include win bonuses. Whatever they are.

[Chris Harte]

We paid lower wages than West Brom. I wonder if that's ever happened before?

That was last season, this season I would expect the difference to be slightly larger, their bill going up again and ours down.

It will if you include win bonuses. Whatever they are.

Nearly spat me beer out.

[eamonn]

I'm pretty sure we've been 8th or 9th in the ''wages league'' that one of the Sunday papers, the Observer, I think, publish on the results page on Sundays. The above suggests a bit of a drop.