Good thread from Kieran Maguire on state of League 1

Kieran Maguire from the price of football podcast has put together a thread on the state of league one from the most recent accounts.

Grim reading.

https://x.com/kieranmaguire/status/1929914046553137373?s=46&t=9vHtWEqvXpo1VECEWtBB7Q

 

Average weekly wage is far too high for division three, and when figures come out for last season it will be even higher.

 

That's why the football pyramid, as currently structured, is unsustainable. BFC are not exceptional in this regard.

English football is FUBAR, and we have the greed of the Premier League to thank for that.

 

I u

Unfortunately, as I don’t have X, I can’t see the full thread. Is there any other interesting points he made?


I quite like what I’ve seen of Kieran Maguire and the way he speaks, admittedly only seen him on 1 or 2 overlap episodes mind

 

Eye watering numbers, you could see many clubs no existing in a professional capacity within the next decade if things don't change.
Football can not simply keep relying in wealthy owners pumping money in, it isn't a sustainable model.
Wages simply have to come in line with turnover.

 

Wages to revenue 125%. That’s a real eye opener and there’s no wonder we are losing so much money.

Average weekly wage being £4,328, or £225k per year. I wonder what the top end players (such as Kane and Cole) were on?

Hopefully the reduction in wages from off loading the high earners will be a lot greater then any fall in revenue, seeing the wages to revenue fall for last season.

 

Don't know about Cole but Kane was on £6k plus bonuses.
Williams
Kane
Benson

We're all good earners

 

Which figure were you looking at? The £8,300 in the original tweet is wrong, he's corrected it to £3,700 in the replies.

 

People think I'm envious of Brum when I asked questions about their spending this year. But, in every sense, circa £35m net spend in League 1 is an obscene amount. I don't understand the praise they got for "breaking points/scoring records"

 

I personally dont mind the club paying 4/5/6k a week if the players are actually good and we haven't got a million players in a bloated squad (thanks Mladen) but we have being paying these kind of wages to players who are often kak, or, at the very least, mediocre for quite a while. 4000 quid a week is obviously 16000 a month! How many people from 'normal' backgrounds earn money like that when they're mediocre at best? Bonkers.

 

Well I do mind. Nation average salary is circa £37k. £2K per week means your paid 3 times better than average. I realise tax plays a part and the correlation is not straight forward but it is an extremely good basic remuneration .

 

Championship contracts. Which we're finally clear of now. Plus the end of Cosgrove who wasn't on buttons.

The wage bill must now be the lowest it's been in a decade.

Trouble is, the simplest way to compete at the level is to compete for the better players. And the better players at this level will be on Kane/Benson money.

Whatever direction the club go on recruitment, I hope they bring in players to strengthen the first XI. Players Conor wants. That fit his system. Some pace, a bit of ba***rd in them, hunger, willingness to work hard. For the last few years we've seen far too many brought in who have been fillers and fannies. Second halves of games, when they're a bit tired, poor mentality etc. Not every recruit needs to tick technical boxes or whatever xG they are looking at. There's more to football, at this level especially. The best Barnsley 'teams' didn't necessarily have the 11 most talented lads in it.

 

Game's gone.

 

Said it time and time again it needs clubs to start standing up to players and stop paying daft money for average players.

 

Whilst you're right, that would only work if every club took a united stance. Which of course they won't, as if they did one club would just break ranks, hoover up all the best players, and piss the league.

 

Couldn't agree more with all of that

 

Bang on. Hunger, work ethic and a strong mentality should be massive tick boxes. To hell with stuff like this xG crap that has seen us lumbered with the likes of Watters.
Players with a bit of self belief and back bone this summer please.

 

Exactly this. Favouring a technical style over physical (even though our director insists we play high press) is just a way of being average and pissing money up the wall

 

Shez basically?