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Well done Levy and co.

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DIEHARD

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May 17, 2004
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Everyone is acting like we have absolutely no money to spend, WE SPENT 30M ON SISSOKO.

We have money, the issue is is that we dilly dally when we try to get our first choices and when we don't get them and it gets nearer and nearer to the end of the window then it's like... shiiiiiiit... then we overpay for shit.

I'd rather have spent 70m on two players than 70m on four so so's.

People talk about us as being financially savvy etc and whilst we're are secure which I appreciate I also think it's exaggerated. We have spunked alot of money, yes we may recoup that cash but ultimately it's taking one step forward two steps back. We really should have made a statement in the summer after a magnificent season.
 
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danielneeds

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May 5, 2004
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Everyone is acting like we have absolutely no money to spend, WE SPENT 30M ON SISSOKO.

We have money, the issue is is that we dilly dally when we try to get our first choices and when we don't get them and it gets nearer and nearer to the end of the window then it's like... shiiiiiiit... then we overpay for shit.

I'd rather have spent 70m on two players than 70m on four so so's.

People talk about us as being financially savvy etc and whilst we're are secure which I appreciate I also think it's exaggerated. We have spunked alot of money, yes we may recoup that cash but ultimately it's taking one step forward two steps back. We really should have made a statement in the summer after a magnificent season.
Bit a lot of the chat is that Sissoko deal is structured so it's unlikely that we'll ever pay £30m.

The two players that you'd like to spend £70m on will no doubt be ones who'll want £100k+ a week wages, and Levy s not going to break that wage structure at this moment in time.
 

DIEHARD

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2004
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Bit a lot of the chat is that Sissoko deal is structured so it's unlikely that we'll ever pay £30m.

The two players that you'd like to spend £70m on will no doubt be ones who'll want £100k+ a week wages, and Levy s not going to break that wage structure at this moment in time.

All deals are structured though, it's rarely an outright purchase.

I agree they may demand in excess of 100k but that's something I don't know but can only assume. I think there are ways around the wage element though eg signing on fee to supplement their wages. There are players out there that are better than the likes of Sissoko as an example.
 

am_yisrael_chai

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Feb 18, 2006
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Bit a lot of the chat is that Sissoko deal is structured so it's unlikely that we'll ever pay £30m.

The two players that you'd like to spend £70m on will no doubt be ones who'll want £100k+ a week wages, and Levy s not going to break that wage structure at this moment in time.
Why does Levy care about the "wage structure" he should only care about the total wage bill. I'm quite confident that we could manage our total wage bill while having a few stars in the squad who are on more than the bulk of our players. The only current players who could possibly suggest they are underpaid are Kane and Lloris. If any of the rest feel like they could get more if they left then let them go. This argument for socialism in our wage structure is just silly and seriously holding us back.
 

jonnyp

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Jun 11, 2006
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Anyone talking in first XI terms deserves a doh, it's a squad game and now City, after the Scum, have managed to stay in contention in the premier while playing well in the CL group, which requires probably at least 18 players of the required standard depending on injuries, whereas we probably have 10-12. It doesnt matter for example whether Wanyama is in, or Dier, as holding mid, when they are both good enough. What matters is filling the gaps, and in so doing developing some variety to our play.

Really? That doesn't make sense to me. Our rivals are improving their starting elevens (just look at Liverpool, Mane especially has really made them a better team), in addition to their squads. Of course we need a good, deep and balanced squad too, I've never questioned that, but if we are to improve and actually win something we of course have to improve our starting eleven too otherwise we'll fall behind our rivals.

I don't think selling Chadli on the cheap and massively overpaying for Sissoko has improved our squad for example.
 

danielneeds

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May 5, 2004
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Why does Levy care about the "wage structure" he should only care about the total wage bill. I'm quite confident that we could manage our total wage bill while having a few stars in the squad who are on more than the bulk of our players. The only current players who could possibly suggest they are underpaid are Kane and Lloris. If any of the rest feel like they could get more if they left then let them go. This argument for socialism in our wage structure is just silly and seriously holding us back.
I agree that our team needs to win trophies and regularly qualify for CL before they ask for those kind of wages, but in reality it doesn't work like that. If you sign players on much bigger wages, it will take the ceiling off the structure. I mean christ, we're even haggling over Kane - home grown, extremely marketable, one of the top scorers in Europe, what the Americans call a franchise leader.

Levy's crunched his numbers and knows what he's prepared to pay, and why. Let's face it none us can match him in terms of budget management.
 

jimmy-jojo

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Jun 30, 2004
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Why does Levy care about the "wage structure" he should only care about the total wage bill. I'm quite confident that we could manage our total wage bill while having a few stars in the squad who are on more than the bulk of our players. The only current players who could possibly suggest they are underpaid are Kane and Lloris. If any of the rest feel like they could get more if they left then let them go. This argument for socialism in our wage structure is just silly and seriously holding us back.

Having a wage structure allows you to control total wage bill, so of course Levy will be interested in it. Probably why he's running a multi-million pound business and you're not?
 

am_yisrael_chai

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Feb 18, 2006
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Having a wage structure allows you to control total wage bill, so of course Levy will be interested in it. Probably why he's running a multi-million pound business and you're not?
How do you know I don't run a multi-million pound business ?

As to your substantive point the term wage structure has been used as synonymous with a wage ceiling. There is absolutely no reason why you can't manage to a total wage bill while not imposing an off market wage ceiling. The resultant issues are other players requesting higher wages and as I said this is primarily about market forces, if they can achieve a higher wage elsewhere then they will be off. So the net financial result of imposing an arbitrary wage ceiling is that you end up either recruiting / retaining players of a similar market wage or you end up overpaying players, you never get a player cheap. The argument has been made that if you have one or two stars on much higher wages this leads to disharmony in the dressing room but this is an issue for the manager not Levy and is an inevitability of progressing as a club e.g. Bale / Ronaldo earn far more than most of their team mates at Madrid, I assume similar story with Messi at Barca.

The bottom line is that if you want stars in your team they will get paid differently to their team mates and it seems evident to me that we need a few stars in our team to get to the next level. I'd rather we had taken the combined wages of Sissoko/VJ/GKN and paid that to one truly stand out player instead of getting 3 squad players (not commenting here on the individual merits of any of the 3).
 

am_yisrael_chai

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Feb 18, 2006
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I agree that our team needs to win trophies and regularly qualify for CL before they ask for those kind of wages, but in reality it doesn't work like that. If you sign players on much bigger wages, it will take the ceiling off the structure. I mean christ, we're even haggling over Kane - home grown, extremely marketable, one of the top scorers in Europe, what the Americans call a franchise leader.

Levy's crunched his numbers and knows what he's prepared to pay, and why. Let's face it none us can match him in terms of budget management.
Kane really serves to prove my point, if Levy thinks he can keep him for the next few years at below 100k per week when he would get paid at least 50% and probably 100-200% more elsewhere simply because he came through the youth ranks then I think he is deluded. We are at the tipping point with both Kane and Lloris where we will have to pay them more than 100k per week because they can get that elsewhere. Would we be prepared to lose them because we can't handle Walker, Rose, Eriksen or any other player throwing a strop and asking for more ? The issue isn't the max we pay a player but our ability to manage wage differentials in the squad. Every other leading club does it and if we want to become a leading club then we will need to manage this too. In fact even smaller clubs than us like Leicester and Wet Spam have been willing to break out their star players (Vardy and Payet). The exercise in trying to delay this has reached the point of no return due to the situations of both Kane and Lloris.
 

matthew.absurdum

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Aug 31, 2012
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Interestingly, I think our transfer these years are really hit or miss, almost 50%, but the problem is that we tend to fail in big money transfer, but get a lot of bargains.
 

jimmy-jojo

Well-Known Member
Jun 30, 2004
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How do you know I don't run a multi-million pound business ?

As to your substantive point the term wage structure has been used as synonymous with a wage ceiling. There is absolutely no reason why you can't manage to a total wage bill while not imposing an off market wage ceiling. The resultant issues are other players requesting higher wages and as I said this is primarily about market forces, if they can achieve a higher wage elsewhere then they will be off. So the net financial result of imposing an arbitrary wage ceiling is that you end up either recruiting / retaining players of a similar market wage or you end up overpaying players, you never get a player cheap. The argument has been made that if you have one or two stars on much higher wages this leads to disharmony in the dressing room but this is an issue for the manager not Levy and is an inevitability of progressing as a club e.g. Bale / Ronaldo earn far more than most of their team mates at Madrid, I assume similar story with Messi at Barca.

The bottom line is that if you want stars in your team they will get paid differently to their team mates and it seems evident to me that we need a few stars in our team to get to the next level. I'd rather we had taken the combined wages of Sissoko/VJ/GKN and paid that to one truly stand out player instead of getting 3 squad players (not commenting here on the individual merits of any of the 3).

I don't know whether you run a multi-million pound business...which is why I put a question mark at then end of the sentence.

My substantive point was questioning how Levy can manage the total wage bill if he doesn't 'care' about the supposed wage structure/ceiling? The two go hand in hand, is all I'm saying.
 

DIEHARD

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2004
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To manage someone wanting more than we can afford is simple... Signing on fee to supplement the weekly wage and adding the signing on fee to the transfer fee or just not add it on at all. That way you won't run the risk of oh he is getting 20k more than me players... boohoo
 

jonathanhotspur

Loose Cannon
Jun 28, 2009
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I read elsewhere that only 4 out of the 15 players we've signed since Poch took charge are regular starters.
 

cliff jones

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Aug 31, 2012
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Really? That doesn't make sense to me. Our rivals are improving their starting elevens (just look at Liverpool, Mane especially has really made them a better team), in addition to their squads. Of course we need a good, deep and balanced squad too, I've never questioned that, but if we are to improve and actually win something we of course have to improve our starting eleven too otherwise we'll fall behind our rivals.

I don't think selling Chadli on the cheap and massively overpaying for Sissoko has improved our squad for example.

Give you Mane, Pogba, Kante, Mustafi, but I'm starting to struggle after them. Not quite enough to make bold claims with. But of course the addition of a key player makes a big difference. Which position and player would you have addressed last summer?
 

philip

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Jan 4, 2009
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Why does Levy care about the "wage structure" he should only care about the total wage bill. I'm quite confident that we could manage our total wage bill while having a few stars in the squad who are on more than the bulk of our players. The only current players who could possibly suggest they are underpaid are Kane and Lloris. If any of the rest feel like they could get more if they left then let them go. This argument for socialism in our wage structure is just silly and seriously holding us back.
Really? You clearly don't understand the way it works.
There are a host of reasons why a player is happy to stay at a club even if at a slightly lower wage. If he grew up at the club, or has family settled there, if he specifically wants to live in that city, if he's good mates with others at the club, if he sees a clear progression at the club, if the club are on TV or ate watched by their national manager, etc etc.

However, they will always expect to be paid fairly in comparison with their club colleagues.
If the wages of one player rises, eventually they all rise. If our average wages are 50k per week, that's 65m wage bill a year. A 10% rise is 6.5m onto the wage bill.
 

JUSTINSIGNAL

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Jul 10, 2008
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Not sure it is that in this case. Chelsea wanted Lukaku or Morata, but couldn't get those deals done, so they went to their third choice, ironically meaning we end up with our 2nd or third choice. Of course, if Levy wasn't playing chicken with Marseille to get him on the cheap, we could have done it before Chelsea came in, but...

The rest of your post was spot on though.

I don't agree when people say this. Marseille/Batshuayi + his agent would have known that they were on Chelsea's list. Therefore it was in all their interests not to take the deal with us straight away.

Levy always does try and get the best deal for the club as that's his job. I accept that sometimes we might miss out on players because of this but fans also need to understand that transfers include other parties as well and they will wait to get the best deals for themselves. It's not always in their best interest to take the first deal put on the table, especially if they are aware of interest from more wealthy clubs.
 

cliff jones

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Aug 31, 2012
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So it emerges, yes I do believe it, that Levy was responsible for Sissoko.

Of course Poch is not going to oppose the signing. Faced with no one at all to compete with Lamela or someone who can turn in a good performance on the right occasion all of us would have done the same?

Clearly Levy thought the deal could be done in a way which represented a low risk, so he did it. If Sissoko don't play, loses hiss France squad place he'll either Buck his ideas up or go to China.
 
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