A bit of perspective | Page 2 | Vital Football

A bit of perspective

Scotimp said:
Clive is giving the correct perspective on Hopeless Glory right now.

Wages in League One are ridiculous, which is why we have trawled League Two and Ireland for permanent signings.
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Aug 31, 2021
#310

In league 1 we cannot afford to compete for players who will provide on-field success as soon as they come into the team, any attempt to do that risks the entire future of the club. We can probably afford a spine of a squad that can compete immediately at this level (3 or 4 players?) After those players are signed the only way we can have any on-field success and remain remotely viable is to develop players who have the raw attributes to be able to play at this level and then coach them to be able to perform consistently at this level.

Once we have developed them and showcased their talent playing for us it is absolutely inevitable that the reality of football takes over and those players are either sold or (the worst case scenario) see out their contracts and leave for nothing to get a much better pay day somewhere else.

We were the only "small" team in the division last year to make the play-offs and that in a year with even some remote level of salary cap, this year onwards the job to compete just gets financially more and more difficult. The mere fact we are in League 1 for the 3rd season in a row and expectations are to make the play-offs is a minor miracle in itself and (in my opinion) should be judged as a massive piece of success for our "on-field results". We're a tiny fish swimming in a massive ocean and we need to get used to it...
 
Scotimp said:
As a piece of added perspective, Anthony Scully only averaged 5.94 in August in our player ratings; he averaged only 6.20 over the final three months of last season too, which suggests his form has been tailing away for some time for whatever reason. That makes an average of only 6.13 over the last four months, which is barely par. He only scored 8 goals in his final 35 appearances for us, one of which was a penalty. I am not knocking him in any way, but some people are making him into a lost superstar, which is simply not true.
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He's only scored 11 league goals in each of the last two seasons. Good business for us with a player out of contract in May. Which is why Diamond came in- it's clear Scully had been approached weeks ago so we've spent time finding a replacement.
 
In terms of perspective I went to my first Imps match in 1976. Since then I'd wager we've spend as much time in the fifth tier of English football as we have in the third tier (probably more). At the moment we are enjoying a halcyon period. This is being funded by the chairman and his associates who I suspect are smart enough to know that they are unlikely to see any return on their investment beyond the thrill of the ride.

I'm very grateful to these gentlemen for giving me the chance to introduce my daughter to supporting the Imps during a period when we have talented players playing attractive passing football in a high quality league.

LCFC has always had to sell its best players, Huckerby, Hobbs , Hobson (and that's just the H's). We're solvent, in league one, and some of our players are sought after by Championship Clubs. There's not been a better time to support the Imps since Graham Taylors reign.
 
Gene Hunt said:
In terms of perspective I went to my first Imps match in 1976. Since then I'd wager we've spent as much time in the fifth tier of English football as we have in the third tier (probably more).
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Out of interest I've looked at that. Counting from the 1976/77 season to date we're starting out on our thirteenth season in the third tier as against seven in the fifth tier. (And 27 seasons in the fourth tier).
 
the one legged imp said:
Seven years ago we were in the National league at the lower end of the table.
Struggling on gates of 2,000 and sometimes lower.
Paying wages of 4 to 700 pounds a week.

Now we average gates of 8000 plus a game and pay wages approaching 4 to £7000 per week.

I think the turnaround is pretty good for a club teetering on the brink a decade ago.

We are now run by business people who appear to know how to run and control costs within our turnover.
We may show a trading loss overall but it is a business model that is now bearing fruit.
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are we really paying £7k a week? That’s significantly more then I imagined. In fact that’s crazy money. No league one player is worth £364k a year.
 
Pompeyimp2 said:
Clive said it was 40% or our record signing - I think that's right? That would mean we have paid £500k at some point?
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i reckon our record is Hopper who was apparently £150k. Akinde was £100k I read. Some websites record we paid £338k for N’Guessan but that sounds rubbish I reckon he would have been less then £50k[FONT=Apercu, sans-serif]. [/FONT]
 
i can only imagine the pain of running asound sporting club costs have rocketed not helped by no salary cap stupid wages paid in the Prem which has then filtered down
Even look at Wrexham 300k for ollie palmer
It has to end somewhere or your normal football/sports club will cease to exist,

Costs are rising throughout the world and sports could be hit hard as it is probablt listed as a luxury .

The club as i see it is well run but we need to sell to be sustainable . Its still a business end off
 
bristolimp said:
are we really paying £7k a week? That’s significantly more then I imagined. In fact that’s crazy money. No league one player is worth £364k a year.
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Club accounts for year to June 21 have wages and salaries at c£4.5m for all staff 29 players and 87 others.

Others will include match day staff who will get a bit of pocket money (relatively) but also presumably CEO and Manager, DOF etc. Say £1m (you can make your own guess.

So players £3.5m divided by 29 which is an average of 120k pa or 2.3k per week. Including bonuses for reaching the play off final and 3 players being paid off.

So 4k-7k per week seems far from the range.

You could pay 17 players 4k a week with 3.5million but the others would be playing as amateurs.
 
Merthyr Imp said:
Out of interest I've looked at that. Counting from the 1976/77 season to date we're starting out on our thirteenth season in the third tier as against seven in the fifth tier. (And 27 seasons in the fourth tier).
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Thanks for doing the maths - only 5 seasons in the fifth tier - it just seemed longer then!
 
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