So that's it then, the two "West Ham fans" who own our club have shown their hand and committed West Ham to eternal mediocrity - for as long as they are in charge at least.
Of course, Sullivan's call for financial restraint and a sensible pay structure can't be argued with, but when he then brackets the club with Norwich, Swansea and West Brom, you know sensible means turning off the salary tap to a mere trickle.
And this comes, of course, at a time when TV revenue is going through the roof with the team finishing bottom of the Prem due to collect more money than Man City received last season for winning the division! Sullivan admits that there will be no "collective decisions" on salaries in the Prem - and bloody good job too as they would be against cartel law - so he is effectively saying that we are accepting a place amongst the minnows of the division and setting up a situation where we will be looking for bargain basement players both in terms of transfer fees and salaries.
So this is why we lost Green and why we were unable to persuade Yakubu to stay in England. Looking ahead, what chance will there ever be of retaining young talent if we are operating a wage cap whilst other clubs are prioritising winning trophies? Anybody remember Duxbury claiming that West Ham were no longer a selling club? Now every player will have a price - and a moderate one at that - because wages will be set lower than the competition.
I am not saying we should be competing with Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea on wages - that would be madness - but isn't bracketing yourself with country bumpkin teams like Norwich and Swansea going a tad too far? Mind you, nice touch at the end where Sullivan roots us in the local community and recycles the "Moore than just a football club" line. You bet ya David, so rooted in the local community that we will be buying players in Queens Market!
18 comments:
Player salary caps work in the NFL and they can work in PL too. If we are to make it a fair open contest without losing the ability to entertain and sell the product of the league across the world why shouldn't it be enforced.
After all it is a business so there needs to be a balance between a fair playing league across Europe ie FIFA imposed otherwise all clubs would loose out on signings
YOUR AN IDIOT
Kevin in Manchester writes..
Makes perfect sense to me. We are in debt and the club's finances need to be shored up - sure Gollivan may end up making a buck or two and so what,without them there's a good chance we'd have gone bust. You say we ought not to compete with Man City- too right, then if not them who? You complain we are being condemned to medocrity but for our entire history we have been a mediocre top flight team at best; so what's new? Let's not kid ourselves, as one wag wrote on a previous post, we may find it a whole lot easier to get out of the Premier League than we did the Championship. We are competing with the likes of Norwich and Swansea; they are probably more flush than us at this point and finally someone has to take a stand and stop passing on the Sky billions direct to players and think about the business. In US sport - different culture I know - the wage structure is about paying handful of star players a king's ransom because they are worth it and the rest get a lot less, here it seems any squad player gets the hump if they paid less than 90% of the top wage..maddness.
Whoa there cowboy!!! Do you not think the small debt of about £100 million (and the fact they still don't have 100% ownership yet) may have seething to do with their austere position?
No 1054, "You're" the idiot. Idiots don't know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you). Three words and you get one wrong! That's idiotic!
Take off you sensible head Kevin and be a fan! We are moving to a 60,000 capacity stadium! The world is our oyster! London is an expensive place to live! To bracket ourselves with Norwich and Swansea is a step too far surely?
newcastle havent done to bad with the same business plan, infact we are currently paying more in wages than newcastle! and look where they are, our current stadium is nowhere near the size of newcastles either. in 5 years time when every team thats over spending goes bust we will be in an extremely healthy financial position to take advantage, overspend now and we become one of them teams that WILL go bust, we were weeks away from going bust, lesons need to be learnt
It was unwise to mention us in the same breath as Swansea and Norwich. Perhaps he meant at this moment in time because as a medium-term financial proposition, we're a much bigger club. I'm not a fan of the salary cap idea but I think there should be a greater disbursement of wealth from big clubs to smaller clubs throughout the PL and Championship. A levy based on gate receipts and ticket sales, perhaps.
HF, you know full well that outside of the top 5 most clubs are much of a muchness and in the same position. They could have quite easily have compared us with the likes of any of those but Norwich and Swansea were the last to get promoted. Their plans are ultimately to get European football regularly but we need to take challenging but realistic steps, especially whilst managing down the sizeable debt they inherited. They aren't looking to condemn us to mediocrity but rather ensure we survive and grow. JMan43
How about a luxury tax the way baseball does it over here? Unlike a hard cap, teams that go over have to pay a percentage tax on the wages they pay above the cap. I think the New York Yankees once paid more in luxury tax than some teams total payroll. The tax is dispersed among the other teams, I think.
And I think Kevin is thinking like a fan. If we move into the OS, and more revenue comes in, then onward and upward. But regardless of culture, some form of salary cap has worked in every major sports league over here.
We should have just stayed in the Championship.
Don't you think their plan's working out just perfectly? Go down, clear a few things, come back up through the windfall of the play-offs...stay in the Prem without real ambition, get Olympic stadium, re-develop Upton Park...
But our fans won't say anything because they're loyal! They're the best in the country! They bloody took us down in their first season and we didn't do anything so there's a licence if the owners ever needed one.
Take off 'you' sensible head. Seems like, by your own reckoning, 1054 may have had a point.
Peace my friend.
Actually both Norwich and Swansea played some attractive football last season.
I would be more than happy if we could do as well this coming one.
As regards Gold & Sulllivan, I don't beieve for one moment that they want to see mediocrity. To date they have invested in the Club without taking anything out. If success eventually leads to them taking someting back then who would complain?
11:15 It's a blog mate - don't take yourself so seriously - it's hardly the Times now is it? No need to be a grammar Nazi - just makes you look.... well, a berk really.
18:32 the voice of reason, thank you.
Don't normally have much empathy for Spammers Fanny but, with regard to 10:54's comment, he does have a point. If you're gonna call someone an idiot, you've really got to make a bit of an effort. Else you deserve all you get.
Looks like Ken Bates will be looking for a new project very soon. Would love him to turn up with a bid to save the debt ridden Hammers. Then you'd know the meaning of mediocrity.
Got to agree with USA Dave on this. The US has successfully prevented the dominance of a small group of clubs in all their major sports.
One addition. The NBA also has a minimum salaray requirement so that teams dont collect luxury tax money and just use it for operating costs.
The sports may not be as great, but the business models are.
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