<h1>How failure has cost you</h1> <div class="viewarticlepanel"><div class="multiimageon" id="MainMultiImage"><div id="MainImageDiv"></div><div class="offinline" id="ThumbDiv"><div class="thumb"></div><div class="thumb"></div><div class="thumb"></div><div class="thumb"></div><div class="thumb2"></div></div> <div class="offinline" id="Navigation"><div class="off" id="PreviousBlock1">« Previous </div><div class="off" id="PreviousBlock1Inactive">« Previous</div><div class="off" id="NextBlock1">Next » </div><div class="off" id="NextBlock1Inactive">Next »</div></div><div class="off noprint" id="divGalleryLink">View Gallery</div></div><div><div class="MPUTitleWrapperClass" id="ds-mpuTitleWrapper"><div class="advertisement" id="ds-mpuTitle">ADVERTISEMENT</div><div id="ds-mpu"><div id="mpuholder" style="display: block"><div class="dartiframe" id="WctlDartHtml4" style="width: 300px; height: 250px"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div>Published Date: 01 June 2009 </div><div class="byline" id="ds-byline">By Bob Westerdale</div><div class="ds-bylinetext" id="ds-bylinetext">Football</div><div class="ds-firstpara" id="ds-firstpara">SHEFFIELD UNITED'S failure to achieve Premier League promotion will have a "huge impact on and off the field" at Bramall Lane - claims Sheffield Wednesday chairman Lee Strafford.</div><div class="va-bodytext" id="va-bodytext">In an interview on the Owls' own website, Strafford strays into rival territory to make a point of how finances will make the Championship a more competitive league - a situation he feels Wednesday can exploit. His remarks are unlikely to win him favours among the Blades' ranks, still smarting from the Wembley defeat to Burnley. And Blades chairman Kevin McCabe, while accepting wages will tumble, insists they will have the same promotion aspirations as last season. The situation was far from disastrous, said McCabe. Strafford commented: "If you look at the situation across the city at our neighbours, they were on a parachute budget and had they won the play-off final everything would have been rosy. "But they didn't and there is a lot of money that has to come out of that business model now, upwards of £10 million a year across the board, and that will have a huge impact on and off the field." Strafford said of England's second-flight division: "Over the last four or five years, you have had clubs benefiting from parachute payments and then you have eight to ten other clubs willing to lose lots of money each year to try and get into the play-offs for that one place to go up. "Some of those clubs are not going to be in that position next year, there is going to be a much smaller number." Brian Laws had been talking to fellow managers, said Strafford. He added: "They are pretty much saying they have to cut back 20 to 50 per cent of their first-team budgets. It will be hard to motivate teams if you are having to shed players and that goes a long way to explaining how compacted the Championship has become, especially in the second half of last season." There was a great opportunity for Wednesday to "overtake some clubs, said the chairman. McCabe accepts United boss Kevin Blackwell will have to reshape his squad. "We have a smaller budget than last season," he said. "Any football club who refuses to understand what is happening in the economic world is heading for disaster and Sheffield United cannot be caught - you cannot go and borrow money from banks now. "We are not going to have a high wage bill next season, but people should not take that as if we are skint club. We will have a wage bill amongst the highest in the division." Will the Owls overtake the Blades in the Championship pecking order? e-mail your views to starsport@sheffieldnewspapers.co.uk </div>
