How, in all that is holy, can Birmingham pay these sums without falling foul of the financial regulations? Surely they are spending more than their income.
SCMP Limits Birmingham (as a relegated club) to spending 75% of their income on player related expenditure. We are limited to 60%. The full list of player related expenditure is long, but includes pay, NI, tax, signing on bonuses, accommodation and vehicles and bonuses. The salary alone for a player costing £10m would probably blow most of our SCMP budget. https://www.efl.com/documents/efl-handbook.pdf
Most clubs at this level simply can’t afford to, or don’t want to risk splashing all that money and not making it.
I don't know if I would describe it as jealousy as I would not want Barnsley to ever go down this route, but whatever you call it, it is situations like this where I fervently hope it goes t*ts up for them and they end up in the conference.
Let's face it, they've been financially cheating for years and repeatedly getting slaps on the wrist.
From the outside it probably does look like jealously, but honestly, I'm the same as you. I get worried when we pay any fee for a player as I know what a precarious position we're in financially as a club, so I certainly wouldn't want us to go down the same route. It'd be interesting to see what next season brings if they don't go up, because as has been demonstrated countless times before, spending big doesn't guarantee success at this level.
I see they've also signed Lyndon Dykes, the Australian striker who thinks he's Scotch lol. We were linked with him in the 'Val' season, and then we went with Daryl Dike instead.
