John Stones

How many of the ‘obscene’ mob are Sky subscribers?

 

I'll put my hand up and say that I am. The thing is, we're way beyond Sky money being the biggest driver that is affecting the game. We've got BT, Amazon and most lucrative, overseas rights that all pay into the Premier league trough.

The problem with Man City, they are even beyond those incomes too. I posted earlier they made a £126m loss to June 2020. And that's without questioning the validity of the revenue streams for sponsorships and partnerships. £730m of losses and building. Wage increases, Grealish and likely Kane will just make those losses even worse.

 

It’s all relative - yes it is an obscene amount of money (and it’s not just paper speculation, the figure was doing the rounds a while ago from various sources. It will be broadly accurate).

I don’t really have an issue. Footballers in my lifetime have always earnt a ridiculous amount more than most other jobs - maybe the top rock and movie stars exceed them and the top executives at the biggest global companies. But that’s about it.

Is it fair they earn in a week what I’d like to be able to earn in five years? Probably not. Is it right they earn five times more in a week than some hospital consultants do in a year? No - I guess not.

But entertainers are always highly remunerated. They generate a lot of money. Football is swimming in money. Not enough is filtered down - but many on here, me included, don’t agree with parachute payments rewarding failure, so why should the premier league throw a massive proportion of its money down the ladder? They need to support the clubs that feed them, and they do. You can see from their point of view why they wouldn’t want to fund it any more than they already do. There has to be an incentive to get to the top, a reason to succeed. The premier league has to be aspired to - but I do agree the balance isn’t quite right. The money isn’t distributed completely fairly or correctly - but if the players weren’t paid at this kind of level, there would be a lot of men in suits creaming the top off of everything and making billions. I’d rather the top players earn the money than some invisible ownership group.

And as for this example, instead of criticising the figure, which is arbitrary really, I’d sooner congratulate one of our own on being signed on for another five years by one of the biggest clubs he could play for, and that his salary reflects his standing as one of the most sought after and rated footballing centre backs in the world game. Well done and well earnt John Stones, he’s arguably had to prove Pep wrong, he’s definitely at least had to prove himself again just to get back in the side, and is showing his worth at the highest level for club and country. I’m pleased for him and very proud our club has produced such a Rolls Royce of a player.

 

Rolls Royce made a £4bn loss in 2020. Quite fitting.

 

You will never, ever convince me that that sort of money isn't obscene for kicking a football around.
There's plenty of ways that amount could be reduced or redistributed but as long as people are willing to pay £60 for a shirt, thirty ot forty quid for a match ticket and more on top for Sky and BT the players will laugh their way to the bank and who can blame them?

 

While ever those at the top are interpreting rules to say that the things going on are not corrupt and the bodies that hold them to task are either silent and even complacent nothing will change and will probably get worse .
The actions of this and other prime ministers and ministers are giving green lights to mass corruption in other buisnesse and arts of the world .
The actions of Camereon , Johnson and Osborne are possibly criminal but yet friendly watchdogs are put in place to stop independant investigations taking place .
Some Players are making g a lot of money sometimes to the detriment of their fellow team maters especially those on the fringes .
But make no mistake there are faceless people making lots more that are unconnected to our game .
Money through the turnstiles is almost immaterial to the vast amounts of money involved much of it laundered .

 

Don’t worry he can buy the club of Chein Lee when he retires he’s one of our own after all. Johnny Stones red and white army

 

In an interview last week, one of Blur claimed they were basically living hand to mouth for the first 20 years as a band. This was in a period when they were one of the biggest bands in the UK and had 5 No 1 albums and 13 top 10 singles (2 #1s).

Many of the top rock stars are not making as much money as their lifestyle suggests.

 

Football is slowly killing itself and i cant for the life of me see how sustainable this is. Forgetting the absolute levels though and taking a relative view, Stones will be 4th highest paid with Sterling, Grealish and De Bruyne above. Interestingly reports also say its way below that of Varane incoming at Man Utd.Stones doubled his money and extended his contract that will be the peak years of his career