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"I had a family, three kids, a mortgage. I think I lost about a stone in weight, it was devastating. None of us wanted to leave - but everybody wanted Bristol City to remain."( Geoff Merrick)

 

Premiership and Championship players please take note.

Get your snout out of the trough right now and support your club and the community that pays you and make the same sacrifices as so many are making.

 

My love affair with football is being severely tested

Angry rant over

 

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3 minutes ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

"I had a family, three kids, a mortgage. I think I lost about a stone in weight, it was devastating. None of us wanted to leave - but everybody wanted Bristol City to remain."( Geoff Merrick)

 

Premiership and Championship players please take note.

Get your snout out of the trough right now and support your club and the community that pays you and make the same sacrifices as so many are making.

 

My love affair with football is being severely tested

Angry rant over

 

I was thinking this earlier. Football at the top has bred a bunch of self important selfish individuals who are about as useful to society as an inflatable dartboard (witness Jack Grealish). I figured that Football (at some point) would financially implode....this may be the start

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36 minutes ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

"I had a family, three kids, a mortgage. I think I lost about a stone in weight, it was devastating. None of us wanted to leave - but everybody wanted Bristol City to remain."( Geoff Merrick)

 

Premiership and Championship players please take note.

Get your snout out of the trough right now and support your club and the community that pays you and make the same sacrifices as so many are making.

 

My love affair with football is being severely tested

Angry rant over

 

Mate, they've got 5 years - or 5 months, or something - to pay off their mortgages try and think about that as well, will you?

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10 hours ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

Mate, they've got 5 years - or 5 months, or something - to pay off their mortgages try and think about that as well, will you?

There is nothing stopping  them getting another job after there short career or downsizing the size of the house they live in  ,many industries are making tough decisions why should footballers be treated any different

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11 hours ago, Moments of Pleasure said:

Mate, they've got 5 years - or 5 months, or something - to pay off their mortgages try and think about that as well, will you?

So a player aged 20 gets 5 years income?  

 

If you can't see that the workers at a Football Club getting furloughed or binned or have a zero hours contract whilst playing staff carry on earning more in a week than these people would earn in a year is morally  bankrupt then you must be a Banker.

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I’m sat at home earning nowt and most probably won’t go back to work for another month or two. What keeps me going though is the thought of some premier league football players earning more in a week than I do in five years! Fair play to them, straight up!

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In fairness footballers are no different to the rest of us, including those on grossly hideous salaries in the Premiership. Some of them are thugs and morons while others truly care. We know that Marcus Rashford is doing something for kids but there may be many others assisting which hasn't been publicised. Past players like Jurgen Klinsmann (who gave a third of his salary to children's causes) and Dirk Kuyt (who with his wife ran a charitable foundation) didn't shout their work from the rooftops. 

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1 hour ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

So a player aged 20 gets 5 years income?  

 

If you can't see that the workers at a Football Club getting furloughed or binned or have a zero hours contract whilst playing staff carry on earning more in a week than these people would earn in a year is morally  bankrupt then you must be a Banker.

Did Geoff Merrick have to find the money to have a Range Rover valeted - two, including the missus's (inside and out) -every fortnight? Do you know how much that costs?

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1 hour ago, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

So a player aged 20 gets 5 years income?  

 

If you can't see that the workers at a Football Club getting furloughed or binned or have a zero hours contract whilst playing staff carry on earning more in a week than these people would earn in a year is morally  bankrupt then you must be a Banker.

I’m a Banker!!

I’m stuck on the fence with this one.  But please hear me out.

Football is a business, so are entitled to apply for CJRS if they furlough workers (whether that be playing or non-playing staff).  This scheme does allow the employer to continue to pay the employee their full salary, a fact often missed.  So an employee on £35k, could have his salary reduced in the period he is furloughed to match the 80% of the £2.5k per month, meaning he would get £24k, a shortfall of £11k.  The employer, not hamstrung with having to pay the full £35k, could voluntarily top-up that £11k if they choose to.  Some businesses will be doing just that.

In some cases the other options (to not using CJRS) are:

  1. ride it out and pay (possibly deferring some) the employee full-whack
  2. ride it out, but reduce the employees wages
  3. make some or all employees redundant

That final one is pretty stark, when that now ex-employee ain’t gonna find any new employment (not at £35k anyway).

So I think we need to be careful whilst criticising some businesses for taking the CJRS route.  Some clubs will require serious financial help to get through this period.

Of course much of the above is relevant to your everyday worker, not a professional footballer.  If we take the youngsters out of the equation, I doubt there are many / any players in the top 3 leagues in this country on less than £30k per annum.  However their football contract will be different to many ‘normal’ workers contracts, plus accounting wise they are also an asset in the club’s accounts.  That requires a different approach.

If we ignore the lifestyle they’ve got used to and the cost of that lifestyle for a moment, morally the vast sums they earn (Spurs average salary is £70k per week) could be sacrificed to help the club continue to pay the non-players.  One month of an average Spurs player wage pays 104 employees earning £35k, their monthly amount.

Some footballers have got on the front foot like Rashford, fair play.

But football, the PFA, the PL, the EFL and the clubs have been on the back foot on this.  They are now (very much like the government - not being political, just stating my view) having to react to public outcry and are on the back foot.

What was to stop them holding an emergency meeting 2/3 weeks ago and the issuance of a holding statement similar to the one that came out yesterday?  Instead they just met to postpone fixtures.  These financial decisions aren’t easy, but just keep ahead of the public and you restrict / reduce criticism.  We could all then sit here and be comfortable in the fact that they are on the a case, just awaiting communication.  But over the past 2/3 weeks they’ve left us in the dark, allowed some clubs to do their own thing....and “football looks bad”....which is fact!!

If there is a silver lining, it’s the hope that “football” finds its moral compass through this.  The well-run clubs will gain an advantage, rather than the “big-clubs” (unless they are well-run too).

 

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Thanks Dave

Some good points which I agree with and my typing is not good/quick enough to go through them all!

I think the overall feeling I have is precisely what you say " football looks bad" ( a comment usually reserved for an OTIB match day thread!).

There are so many people who are going to suffer on so many levels that I just would like to see players - predominantly in the Championship and Premiership do more to either help their Club or Community. The wages in football are,imo, just far too high and transfer values of fast approaching quarter of a billion quid just silly.

In terms of a number of business's - football or otherwise which are not going to survive, however sad and unfortunate, many are operating on a flawed business model or are paying the price for a previous gamble or over stretching.

I really hope that this terrible period for us all has some silver linings- and I hope a re-boot of football is one.

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I remember the Ashton Gate 8 episode as a mad 13 year old City fan. I still have the paper cutting.

Everyone should remember how close Bristol City came to folding. COVID 19 may well send a few clubs to the wall. Quite frankly, some of these Premiership players should be ashamed of there attitude to what is going on. Interesting read the other day about how even clubs like Brighton in the Prem are gonna struggle if this virus goes on indefinitely. 

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1 hour ago, GasDestroyer said:

I remember the Ashton Gate 8 episode as a mad 13 year old City fan. I still have the paper cutting.

Everyone should remember how close Bristol City came to folding. COVID 19 may well send a few clubs to the wall. Quite frankly, some of these Premiership players should be ashamed of there attitude to what is going on. Interesting read the other day about how even clubs like Brighton in the Prem are gonna struggle if this virus goes on indefinitely. 

BFBFE0AA-B998-47A2-98CD-12A55C8822E0.jpeg

Good post- nice bit of historical context too.

Have to say, there's two big contrasts in the PL so far that stand out to me. Putting aside Mike Ashley and his usual standards...

Tottenham- Post tax profits in the last two seasons ie thje last two completed seasons, not this one:

£68,552,000 last season and £112,953,000 in 2017/18.

Furloughing non football staff and yet no wage cuts for players...Government at this stage should be nowhere near subsidising wages for such a profitable club IMO- and especially not when they posted such huge profits in each of the last 2 seasons- profit after tax!

Burnley though profitable have:

  • Joined the 1k tickets to NHS workers.
  • Still committed to non playing staff and casual staff in full for the season.
  • Players donated to a foodbank and club matched.

Two very different clubs right there- one (Burnley) have been exemplary, the other, ie Tottenham- well very hard to defend.

A lot of clubs probably somewhere in the middle right now but that's two big extremes.

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2 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Good post- nice bit of historical context too.

Have to say, there's two big contrasts in the PL so far that stand out to me. Putting aside Mike Ashley and his usual standards...

Tottenham- Post tax profits in the last two seasons ie thje last two completed seasons, not this one:

£68,552,000 last season and £112,953,000 in 2017/18.

Furloughing non football staff and yet no wage cuts for players...Government at this stage should be nowhere near subsidising wages for such a profitable club IMO- and especially not when they posted such huge profits in each of the last 2 seasons- profit after tax!

Burnley though profitable have:

  • Joined the 1k tickets to NHS workers.
  • Still committed to non playing staff and casual staff in full for the season.
  • Players donated to a foodbank and club matched.

Two very different clubs right there- one (Burnley) have been exemplary, the other, ie Tottenham- well very hard to defend.

A lot of clubs probably somewhere in the middle right now but that's two big extremes.

Not surprised to be honest - Great club Burnley. Worked across that region for a few years and they have a very close connection to the local community. Nice touch by the club to do this. Clubs like Tottenham just stink. One of the reasons why I quite like the Championship as generally clubs are still in touch with reality and grass roots football.

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On 02/04/2020 at 18:02, GasDestroyer said:

Not surprised to be honest - Great club Burnley. Worked across that region for a few years and they have a very close connection to the local community. Nice touch by the club to do this. Clubs like Tottenham just stink. One of the reasons why I quite like the Championship as generally clubs are still in touch with reality and grass roots football.

Missed your post on Friday but though I don't know a huge amount about them, I've always get the impression they are inclined to do the right thing. Good club, always had a similar feeling about Preston, heard decent things.

Agree mostly in Championship clubs though some quite big ones, in fact arguably half the League who would be quite easy to see in the PL, possibly varies with some of them.

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2 hours ago, Simon bristol said:

This happened before my time, but were those 8 players who signed On top division wages with city and suffered consecutive relegations to the bottom league still on large salaries?  

Essentially yes, though some of the biggest wage-earners (such as Kevin Mabbutt and Clive Whitehead) were sold when we were in the 2nd division.  Two of the Ashton Gate Eight (Marshall and Aitken) were I think signed after we were relegated from the top division and should never have been put on high wages.

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44 minutes ago, The Dolman Pragmatist said:

Essentially yes, though some of the biggest wage-earners (such as Kevin Mabbutt and Clive Whitehead) were sold when we were in the 2nd division.  Two of the Ashton Gate Eight (Marshall and Aitken) were I think signed after we were relegated from the top division and should never have been put on high wages.

Thanks, so we had a core of 8 players who suffered multiple relegations, if they were signed as 1st or 2nd tier players how on earth did we capitulate so badly? 

Is it the case that they weren’t actually much good, but were being paid big money?

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10 minutes ago, Simon bristol said:

Thanks, so we had a core of 8 players who suffered multiple relegations, if they were signed as 1st or 2nd tier players how on earth did we capitulate so badly? 

Is it the case that they weren’t actually much good, but were being paid big money?

Others will be better qualified and placed to answer this than me but I think we had not a bad side, but not to the levels paid.

I've read on here and I believe @Major Isewater has referred to it in the past that we had a top 3 or 4 wage bill...couldn't we attract good players to the South West without paying megabucks?

Also think we lost someone on a free to Coventry- can't remember who- and so we stuck young players on 10-11 year deals. No relegation release clauses, no parachute payments in those days of course...

We also got relegated at the worst time possible- a mixture of social unrest, rising unemployment, attendances falling and crowd trounle meant that crowds and income fell significantly so us going down was the worst possible time. 1980s saw some odd positions- us, Bolton, Sheffield United and Wolves all in the 4th tier at various times- while Chesterfield in 2nd tier and teams like Oxford and Luton in the top!

Not saying it's the whole story by any stretch.

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33 minutes ago, Simon bristol said:

Thanks, so we had a core of 8 players who suffered multiple relegations, if they were signed as 1st or 2nd tier players how on earth did we capitulate so badly? 

Is it the case that they weren’t actually much good, but were being paid big money?

I think confidence and momentum play a huge part in football.

Confidence was lower than a snakes scrotum and we rivaled Ski Sunday for our speed going downhill.

 

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I guess I must have been lucky in as much as I've only been made redundant once  in my long working life, although I have been reduced to 4 day a week working/pay cuts like many others. A young guy I worked with had to cancel his wedding along with his honeymoon and then lost his job. Bristol has seen many people lose their jobs through,redundancies and factory and business closures. How is it that people believe a footballers life comes to an end after their contract ends ? To say they only have a short career to justify them earning more in one week than most of us earn in a year do'es not mean they are not capable of living after football. Work may come as a shock to some of them,but I'm sure they'll survive.

 

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In my opinion the biggest factor in our relegation from the top flight was the loss of Norman Hunter who at the end of the previous season and his contract when he returned north (to manage/player Barnsley?).  he was the best player I ever saw in a city shirt (bar possibly Atyeo who I only saw play in his testimonial).  Merrick was moved from left back to replace hunter and terry cooper in at at left back but he was injured and only played a few times.  in addition collier was lost to Coventry and David Rodgers was not as good.  After relegation it was all downhill players were brought in Like Aitken (from Rovers!) and Marshall (from Hereford!) who were not good enough.

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Was'nt Gary Collier leaving for nothing to Coventry the reason for putting certain players on the long contracts while in the top division , which was the reason for our financial problems and near bankruptcy ? After relegation.

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On 01/04/2020 at 20:47, Marina's Rolls Royce said:

"I had a family, three kids, a mortgage. I think I lost about a stone in weight, it was devastating. None of us wanted to leave - but everybody wanted Bristol City to remain."( Geoff Merrick)

 

Premiership and Championship players please take note.

Get your snout out of the trough right now and support your club and the community that pays you and make the same sacrifices as so many are making.

 

My love affair with football is being severely tested

Angry rant over

 

Absolutely....

'Football' is a crock of shite....and that includes City.

I guess we already in our hearts knew it but the tragedy now unfolding brings razor sharp focus.

Sickened & disappointed by attitudes.

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12 hours ago, fatchers said:

Was'nt Gary Collier leaving for nothing to Coventry the reason for putting certain players on the long contracts while in the top division , which was the reason for our financial problems and near bankruptcy ? After relegation.

Yes it was.  Gary Collier was the first player to walk away under freedom of contract and the club panicked.  Clive Whitehead was in a ten year contract for heavens sake, so as soon as we were relegated we were being bled dry by long contracts and high wages.

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