Football wages - wow!

[southportcdm]

Just seen the list of wage bills for Wigan Athletic from 2010-2019 on the Wigan Today site. Ranging from 43.7 million £ down to 11.9 and then back up to 19.4 million £). I appreciate that when they were in the Premiership and receiving huge TV money, their relatively low wage bill may have been sustainable. However, the wages paid whilst in the championship (and league 1) would surely make any investor/new owners think twice. I hope Mr Lenagan's involvement in this latest survival bid doesn't involve him paying any of the wages. If it does, the losses involved in running the Warriors will seem like a drop in the ocean.

[fozzieskem]

Whoever takes over control of them is basically signing a blank cheque and will see little return on their investment, plus side I suppose is they do seem to have taken a page out of the warrior handbook and are proving their own young talent, most of which I presume can be sold off to PL clubs for silly money so that'll help balanced book for awhile I suppose.

[ian.birchall]

The principal reason Lenagan should have nothing to do with it but there is another very strong reason as well.
Many years ago I was in the foyer out of season talking to Gary Connolly. Past us walked Emile Heskey, even then a former England international and Gary remarked that Heskey was no longer an international, he himself was as were many other players yet Heskey was pocketing more individually than the RL salary cap allowed for the entire squad.
I brought this up with my contact at the Club saying that this surely had to cause resentment among the players seeing that they were all sharing the same training and changing facilities.
I was told this wasn't the case as the Warriors players accepted it was a totally different game.
Personally I would have been a little more than narked if the man in the next office to me at work was pocketing 20 times more than me because he was perhaps a computer geek not an accountant.
That's just me though

[nathan_rugby]

The principal reason Lenagan should have nothing to do with it but there is another very strong reason as well.
Many years ago I was in the foyer out of season talking to Gary Connolly. Past us walked Emile Heskey, even then a former England international and Gary remarked that Heskey was no longer an international, he himself was as were many other players yet Heskey was pocketing more individually than the RL salary cap allowed for the entire squad.
I brought this up with my contact at the Club saying that this surely had to cause resentment among the players seeing that they were all sharing the same training and changing facilities.
I was told this wasn't the case as the Warriors players accepted it was a totally different game.
Personally I would have been a little more than narked if the man in the next office to me at work was pocketing 20 times more than me because he was perhaps a computer geek not an accountant.
That's just me though

So Lenegan shouldn’t go anywhere near Latics because their wages are higher than rl players and you’re using the example of an ex England international who has over 400 premier league appearances, over 100 prem goals etc.

Football is much more popular than Rugby League. They get bigger tv deals, more sponsorships, wealthier owns, more revenue, more money from competitions. This results in higher wages.

Why would you have a problem with it?

The issue I see it is spending beyond your means.

[ian.birchall]

Perhaps you hit the nail on the head at least once Nathan.
Wealthier owners you said, but the problem is he is our owner and already quietly grumbling about having to fund our much smaller losses.

[DaveyGolb]

Personally I would have been a little more than narked if the man in the next office to me at work was pocketing 20 times more than me because he was perhaps a computer geek not an accountant.
That's just me though

Sooo, essentially what you're saying is that everyone should be paid the same, regardless of the job?
Sounds suspiciously like communism that.
That's just my opinion though

[DaveO]

Personally I would have been a little more than narked if the man in the next office to me at work was pocketing 20 times more than me because he was perhaps a computer geek not an accountant.

Seems a fair evaluation of the relative merits of the two jobs

As to the wage bill while I personally think RL players have a harder job than footballers and merit more money than the sport can afford to pay in the UK, I don't see the connection between Latics wage bill and the RL club.

By this I mean it's obvious IL can't fund Latics out of his own pocket. He's wealthy but Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan he isn't.

As an accountant wouldn't you expect the Latics and the RL club to be run as completely separate financial entities? So if IL is aiming to take over Latics then I'd expect him to be doing so having worked out where the income to run it is coming from, which won't be him personally as he hasn't a hope in hell of funding it and that the income will be sufficient.

That income will just go into the Latics pot and Latics will sink or swim depending on if the pot is big enough. I don't see what it's got to do with the RL club.

[the pieman]

i was listening to talk sport yesterday and part of the conversation mentioned QPR and that they had the 5th highest wage bill in Europe at one point when they were in the premiership.

if ever there was a case of mis-management and paying over the odds then that must be it. i can only see Utd, City, Barcelona and Madrid having bigger wage bills at that point as i dont think PSG wealthy owner had arrived by then.

i know the football model that is often talked about mentions "sustainable loss (es)", but how long can the TV money fill that void in relation to football. Surely by now, someone must be thinking that the wage bills across the football league are too high and it isnt a sustainable scenario. You only need to look at teams relegated from the premiership in recent years to see that chasing the dream, isnt always worth it, as they end up in serious financial trouble, whether that be mismanagement or not.

i agree with DaveO in regards to a the salary of rugby league player. i have said for many a year that they dont get paid enough, but unfortunately rugby league isnt a rich mans sport. They are at the top level of a professional sport, and whilst we may think some of them are well paid, in comparison to football, rugby union, cricket, the RL salary is a pittance and the players IMO deserve more, but we need to have a game that is sustainable to be able to pay that.