Tony’s Statement.

[john e]

depending on who you believe and where you read it average Championship wages are somewhere between 4-8k a week, our average is 25-30k

anyone thinking that the likes of Hourahine, Barny, Lansbury, Taylor, Samba, Elmo, Whelan are going to get clubs to buy them then pay the big wages are living in a dream world

they were all pretty much below average to piss poor with a few bright spots here and there
no way we are getting rid of any of them

add to that the even bigger earners, Richards, Hogan, Mcormac and you see why we are in shit street, not because we have overspent but because we have overspent on absolute shit that we can't get any money back for

you probably couldn't even give any of the above away on the wages they are on

it's undefendable from Xia, Wyness and Bruce they are all culpable

[VILLA MOLE]

depending on who you believe and where you read it average Championship wages are somewhere between 4-8k a week, our average is 25-30k

anyone thinking that the likes of Hourahine, Barny, Lansbury, Taylor, Samba, Elmo, Whelan are going to get clubs to buy them then pay the big wages are living in a dream world

they were all pretty much below average to piss poor with a few bright spots here and there
no way we are getting rid of any of them

add to that the even bigger earners, Richards, Hogan, Mcormac and you see why we are in shit street, not because we have overspent but because we have overspent on absolute shit that we can't get any money back for

you probably couldn't even give any of the above away on the wages they are on

it's undefendable from Xia, Wyness and Bruce they are all culpable

I have no confidence in any of them, part of me wants us to go into administration and hopefully get bought out by someone with an element of competence   But then It is not fair on all the staff and suppliers etc .   

[eamonn]

In a way you'd wonder, as Bruce said himself - "the club sells itself", so why the need to offer new players huge increases on what they're on?

[PeterWithe]

Imagine how the Italian or South American Ultras would react to players like McCormack and Richards stinking out their clubs. I would have expected them to have found alternative clubs by now.

Frank. I’m sure neither of us would be happy to get involved in anything that could be described as conspiracy but, you have a birthday coming up in the next 12 months and id like to get you a present.

What size balaclava do you take?

[David_Nab]

In a way you'd wonder, as Bruce said himself - "the club sells itself", so why the need to offer new players huge increases on what they're on?

Exactly story was Houriane was on 7k at Barnsley and gave him 30k ..I don't remember a bidding war at the time so how did we get conned Into that ..
Lansbury the same 35k ..McCormack who where we competing with to justify the wages ..

[Villafirst]

So, a club in massive crisis, and an important meeting today....via conference call? Xia can't even be arsed to fly over to Britain to try and sort this mess out? I have zero confidence in any of the board at this club. Interestingly, not a single word from Brian Little - isn't he supposed to be advisor to the board? What advice has he given?

[Lastfootstamper]

He's been in hospital, having a knee op.

[OzVilla]

In a way you'd wonder, as Bruce said himself - "the club sells itself", so why the need to offer new players huge increases on what they're on?

Exactly story was Houriane was on 7k at Barnsley and gave him 30k ..I don't remember a bidding war at the time so how did we get conned Into that ..
Lansbury the same 35k ..McCormack who where we competing with to justify the wages ..

Maybe we were just being arrogant, throwing our wealth around trying to look like the big club - we just forgot to sign better players.

[aj2k77]

He probably can't afford the airfare as he's maxed out his credit cards.

[Matt Collins]

A big problem is that we had a splurge before we had a strategy. Hourihane I reckon we could sell on. But agree that Lansbury and Hogan look terrible signings and we're done when we supposedly had a strategy. We really couldn't afford them even if they were good. The fact they haven't been and there's no market for them is a massive problem.. I can't see how we move them on.

[mr underhill]

then we are going to have to play them in a formation that suits. The days of the bomb squad are over or should be - it's resulted in a financial Chernobyl

[kippaxvilla2]

I don't know who it was who said it on here, but by far the comment I am still chuckling at in all this mess a week later is 'have they blamed anyone yet, I need to know who to tweet death threats to'.

[Clark W Griswold]

We really should have been signing all players post the relegation on initially a 10-20% rise on their salary at the existing club with the agreement of 50-100 % more on top again if we went up.

[Richie]

Clark - couldn't agree more. It also bewilders me why players aren't paid a basic wage, plus a huge percentage if they actually play. Certainly wouldn't have left us with huge contracts to pay the likes of McCormack, Richards etc.

[Risso]

It's still very much a seller's market.  McCormack was in demand because in the previous 5 seasons in the Championship, in four of them he'd scored 18, 28, 17 and 21 goals.  Somebody with a record like that isn't going to accept a worse deal than the one he has.  It would take a collective effort from all teams to do something about salaries.