Cut Backs In The Prem

[White Noise]

I know its a story about The Dark Side but the below is interesting for the clear indication it gives about where wages are heading overall. OK, cutting Ballack to £60k a week (£80k if he makes more than 20 appearances) is maybe not extreme given that he is 34 but Anelka is 30 and Joe Cole 28 and they have only been offered one year contracts going forward. Abramovich created a lot of the recent wage inflation and maybe his has now called the top of the market?? What do you reckon?


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/sunsport_columnists/2885758/Blues-stars-huge-pay-cuts.html

Blues' stars huge pay cuts IAN McGARRY - The Inside View


Published: Today

Add a comment (29)


WHEN Michael Ballack arrived at Chelsea in the summer of 2006, he signed a contract worth £121,000 per week.
At that time it made him, along with Andriy Shevchenko, the highest paid player at the club.

Four years later, Chelsea have offered the Germany captain a new deal - at HALF his current salary.

Not only that, however, the offer is for one year only with the option of another which has to be agreed by both parties.

Oh, and there's also a clause which makes the basic salary dependent on appearances - as there is an incremental rise to £80k a week if he plays in 20 games.

Now, for a player who will be 34 in September, all of this may sound fair enough. And Ballack, on his part, is more concerned about the length of contract than the money on offer.

He is keen to stay at Chelsea, live in London where his children are very happy at school and retire at the top.

The two years are most important to him because it guarantees him those things but also because his ambition is to play for Germany at Euro 2012.

This season, he has been integral to Carlo Ancelotti's plans and so the will on both sides to agree a deal exists.

In fact, it's highly likely Ballack will eventually say 'yes' to Chelsea's 'one plus one' proposal - but the same cannot be said of Joe Cole and Nicolas Anelka.

Both players are younger than Ballack - Anelka 30 and Cole 28 - and both currently earn less than him.

To say they were shocked when they were offered a one-year deal on less money than they get at the moment is an understatement.

Negotiations with Anelka resumed yesterday but the claim it is for a two-year extension is not entirely accurate.

The French striker has been offered the same one year plus an option on another season that has been made to Ballack and Cole.

It is part of Chelsea's new hard-line policy on contract top-ups which is designed to cut costs.

Roman Abramovich reckons the club have lost as much as £70m paying salaries to players who contributed little. Juan Veron, Hernan Crespo and Shevchenko cost around £41m in wages when they were on loan at other clubs.

And word has come down from Abramovich that the same mistakes must not be made again.

Amazingly, that applies to first-teamers like Anelka and Ballack as well as to Cole whose last two seasons have been blighted by injury. The flipside, though, is the risk of alienating and losing top-quality players who feel they are being harshly dealt with.

Cole's situation is a tricky one given his undoubted talent but failure to reach agreement has seen the England midfielder labelled everything from money grabbing to manipulative.

He cost £6m when he moved from West Ham but replacing him could cost three times that if he decides to leave under freedom of contract.

Nonetheless, he has been given the same one-plus-one-year proposal and told to prove he is worth consideration for a longer deal.

During talks it was pointed out that Didier Drogba, John Terry and Frank Lampard were recently awarded new long-term deals on more than £6m a year.

That argument has had no impact, though, with the club insisting the days of such contracts are 'gone forever'.

With Portsmouth in administration and half of the Premier League up to its neck in debt, even the club which once had the deepest pockets in football is cutting back.

And that, more than any set of accounts, is a sign of the financial reality check hitting football.

[HatterDon]

I really don't care how happy those idiots down the road are, but

1. On the one hand I want to salute their recognition of the economic reality of the present.

2. On the other hand I want to laugh out loud as Abramovich's "stop me before I spend again." It seems to me that the man MOST responsible for getting Sheva to The Undead [where in his first season he scored fewer league goals than did Carlos Bocanegra  :005:] was Roman himself, and that he was almost proud of how much money he spent to get him and how much he was spending to pay him.

3. I've always liked Cole on the pitch. I'd be glad to see him leave The Undead.

4. Anelka is really only 30?  :029:

[Jimpav]

Paying Ballack £60k is ridiculous. Not just for his age but also because of his contribution or lack of to the team.

Anelka and Cole on one year deals makes sense. Anelka has been a wall flower this season since Drogba found form. He's handy to have around but I think Chelski are basically saying take it or leave it to him. He's always been a nomad and this may be his last  season with the scum - anyone else predict a return to Man Citeh or even Spurs?

Cole has struggled with injury and the current team has managed without him. He is a good player but I expect he would rather be playing every match for Spurs or West Ham than warming the bench every other game at Chelski.

[White Noise]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article7056430.ece

Two thirds of Manchester United supporters may not renew season tickets


Ben Smith

26 Comments
Recommend? (7)

Manchester United could be facing a fresh backlash from their supporters as it was revealed that two thirds of fans are considering not renewing their season tickets next season.

The figures, which have been published in a study conducted by Virgin Money, suggest that supporters are stepping up their revolt against Malcolm Glazer's ownership, which has gained fresh momentum over the past few weeks following interest from a group calling themselves the Red Knights.

There has been widespread discontent among the supporters ever since the American and his sons bought the club in a highly-leveraged takeover in the summer of 2005.

Many United supporters have already been driven away by huge ticket price increases, with the average season ticket price going up from £487 pre-takeover to £722 this year. The effect has been that while there has traditionally been a long waiting list for season tickets as demand far outstripped supply, for the first time in living memory a limited number of season tickets were available on general sale last summer.

The survey suggests that 15 per cent of season-ticket holders will give up their tickets completely, while another 44 per cent will only buy tickets for matches occasionally. Wolverhampton Wanderers also rate highly in the survey, with 54 per cent of supporters considering giving up their season tickets.

"The drop in costs is welcome but season tickets are still priced astronomically compared with other major European leagues such as Spain, Italy and Germany," Malcolm Clarke, Chairman of the Football Supporters' Federation, said. "Shamefully, Manchester United was the only Premier League club that put up their prices for the current season. Every other club froze or reduced them.

"They also sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. Huge numbers of United fans are in open revolt against the Glazer family's huge cash drain on the club. They're paying the price for the leveraged buy-out in 2005 that has loaded a massive £700 million debt on to United's books. The Glazer regime has put up ticket prices by half in less than five years. No wonder almost six out of ten Old Trafford season-ticket holders are thinking of not renewing."

According to reports yesterday, thousands of fans are preparing to boycott the opening ten minutes of tonight's Champions League match against AC Milan, leaving the television cameras to pan empty seats in a visual demonstration of anti-Glazer feeling. The prime mover behind the green and gold movement, the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) sought yesterday to play down talk of a mass boycott tonight - although the ploy may be used at other matches.

The backlash against season tickets comes despite figures showing that the cost of attending games has fallen by 6 per cent in the past year. According to the study, fans of Liverpool and Stoke City are the least likely to give up season tickets next year with just 9 per cent of supporters considering cut backs.

Percentage of fans considering cancelling season tickets

Manchester United 59
Wolves 54
Burnley 31
Fulham 29
Everton 28
Blackburn 28
Portsmouth 28
West Ham 27
Aston Villa 24
Sunderland 23
Wigan 21
Tottenham 19
Manchester City 18
Birmingham 17
Chelsea 17
Hull 17
Arsenal 14
Bolton 13
Liverpool 9
Stoke City 9