Im going to simplify things here for those who don't understand football, financially.
*These figures are made up. But *probably not far off of the mark.
Current wage bill. Circa 2.5million. Down from over 3million back end of last season. When we were in league1. We had 'Chinese investment
'. We were g@mbling to stay up. We were 'feeding' a demanding high profile manager. We had more income. In no particular order.
Next seasons wage bill. Circa 1.6million. Maybe a bit more, who knows.
KVV - 200K.
Taylor - 150k
Crookes - 200k.
Turnbull - 150k.
Total 700k.
Keep all four, you've got around 900k to share around 16 other players. Average wage for each of those players would be circa 55k. Pretty much bang on the average player earns in league2. BUT. You've got a number of other players that are already on more than that who are already contracted, eg Pierre. So the average new player is gonna be earning less than a grand a week...
You then, as the manager, look at those 4 big earners. Are they 'performing'? Are they justifying their wage? Do they have a re-sell potential value if they improve?
Other than Turnbull, they have been inconsistent at best, sh1te a lot of the time at worst. Do you sell them in order to be able to re-proportion the budget more evenly across the squad, thus giving yourself and your team a better overall chance of success? Or do you keep them, and have an even more weaker squad next season than this because you've got to work with a league2 budget, not a hefty league1 club that turns over 50% more than NTFC?
I will get accused of making the numbers up etc. By the usual suspects. To counter that, I will 100% confirm that these are my numbers, my assumptions etc. I doubt Crookes, Taylor or KVV will be here come August. Clearly KT g@mbled on a good start to the season, he told me that himself right at the start of it. He didn't use the word g@mble but that was implied. It hasn't worked, we are 16th in the league, we re-group financially and move on. Makes total sense.
The sooner we can move on Crookes, the sooner we can move on Taylor...and get rid of the other other 'not cheap dross' like Bowditch, Powell, Waters and Kasim (!) the sooner KC can remould the squad. Until then his hands are tied to a large degree.
I do hope that he brings in 2 or 3 players with a view to next season to plug the gaps (striker now, winger, maybe a wingback) if he can. And bloods the youth. Realistically we need 15-18 points to make sure we stay up from 19 games remaining. After the poor run we've endured, we cannot now assume we are *safe*. So a financial balancing act still needs to be in place. Once our status is all but confirmed, then we can try out these great prospects we have. And see if there are any pieces already at the club that Kieth can add to next seasons jigsaw puzzle!