If Will Goes....

[Silver]

 

We often hear about lack of investment and incoming transfer money only being recycled to fund new purchases.  I believe many either do not understand, or do not want to understand, that transfer fees only make-up a proportion of "investment" in players.  How many supporters, for example, are still waiting for us to spend the alleged £1.5million we received for Brayford when we have been told that 15% (£225,000) went to Crewe and we used some to fund the difference between the wages of Smith and Brayford.  We probably have less than £1million to re-invest in transfer fees - who will be the first to accuse "the Americans" of pocketing the missing £500,000?  I'm sure this is why football clubs in general now tend to go down the undisclosed transfer fee route.

 

I thought it a useful exercise to think about how any transfer fee for Will Hughes could be spent, to me it is clear that x incoming transfer fee cannot equal x outgoing transfer fee.  Let me explain the logic, the numbers I use do not need to be correct for the principle to apply.

 

Let's say Will is on c£5,000 per week.  In the three years post his possible sale he will save the wage bill around £750,000.  The wage bill does not have much, if any, slack in it i.e. we simply do not have £20,000 a week extra to spend on additional players - we know this because we struggle to balance the books year-on-year and the owners have often needed to top-up the income to meet the outgoings.  So assuming we use the incoming fee to fund four players on say £8,000 per week on three year contracts we would need to find £5million pounds.  Less the saving on Will's wages that's around £4.25million.  Let's assume those players also each require c£250,000  in signing/agents fees that is over £5million.  Of course, we could also cut other heads from the squad to save wages elsewhere, I doubt that we would cut anywhere near the £5 million though.

 

Assuming we get £10 million for Will, we could only realistically afford to spend about half of this on transfer fees for incoming players e.g. just over a million average each if we sign the four players I suggest above. 

 

As I say the actual numbers may be out, the principle applies if we bring in more players, especially if these are established Championship or fringe Premier players they will cost us a lot in wages and signing fees -  even if they are "free" transfers and so the money left to be reinvested in transfer fees will reduce. 

 

The point of the post - I was a bit bored at work.....

[Dimmu]

Silver, perhaps you've missed holy and unwritten rule of the forum:

We don't like sensible posts here.

 

Otherwise great post.

[BOB BIGGS]

 

 

Assuming we get £10 million for Will, we could only realistically afford to spend about half of this on transfer fees for incoming players e.g. just over a million average each if we sign the four players I suggest above. 

 

Done

[RodleyRam]

Pretty fair assessment on the breakdowns, as you say the actual figures may change but I think you're right about taking into account wages and signing on fees. If the figure is indeed £8-£10m though I would think this give us a good chance to add in 3 quality players to improve the squad.

 

I wonder what the feeling with the coaching staff is on Hughes, he's not been playing to the best of his ability but he has still created chances / goals that few from our current squad could. It would be interesting to know whether they'd rather cash in and strengthen overall or if given the opportunity keep him and develop him for another season or two.

 

I have to say my biggest worry about Shteve is his transfer dealings, probably unfounded but I do fear that our solid base of a squad could be undone with an influx of high cost / high risk global signings. I know under Nigel we rarely looked beyond a very tight scouting network but in a way I felt more comfortable with this as a policy.

 

Basically I would just hate to see any forthcoming Hughes money wasted and have us lumbered with a load of wasters on high wages, that would have rendered the rebuild and austere times pretty pointless.

[ChaddesdenRam]

Oh not another one of these if will Hughes leaves threads!

[Ramshankered]

Loan him out to Sheffield United I say.

[archram]

I know there was discussion on this, but can't remember who pays the agents -the club or the player. If it's the club then those fees have to be found as well.

[t'oldu]

What I didn't realise until recently was that VAT is payable on players bought within the country but not on those bought from abroad.

It was being cited as a reason so many foreign players are bought over and above our own.

I'd be happy for this to be refuted  -  can't remember where I saw/heard this.  Didn't even know that Vat was charged on player fees.

[Cisse]

Let me be the first one to accuse The Americans pocketing all the money they can get.

[Dcfc111]

Ideally keep Will, if not I would certainly take 3 fringe prem players for Will.

[Cisse]

Ideally we get the promotion.

[rammieib]

I don't think VAT is a major problem. As a club we lose money so the amount we recoup and spend will offset each other.

I think a major one you are forgetting is National Insurance.

[G STAR RAM]

What I didn't realise until recently was that VAT is payable on players bought within the country but not on those bought from abroad.

It was being cited as a reason so many foreign players are bought over and above our own.

I'd be happy for this to be refuted  -  can't remember where I saw/heard this.  Didn't even know that Vat was charged on player fees.

 

Makes no difference as the VAT would be reclaimed anyway.

[Archie]

It's a tough one to get into this as everything would ultimately change if we manage to get promoted in the next few seasons when we would be looking to replace Will. Granted we would get far greater revenue but we couldn't realistically sign 3 good players to play in the prem and expect to pay 8K a week.