Well, noone whose contract expires will be offered a new one until relegation is avoided/not avoided. And if it's not avoided, I doubt any of them will be offered anything new.

Least we're in a relatively decent position in terms of contracts if we do end up going down.

I.e Not paying John Utaka 80k a week like Pompey etc.

Yeah but Taylor was good and Eagles is crap.

Also if we get relegated, about 6 on your list would have to go to get the wagebill from 56mil down to around 10mil.

Yeah but Taylor was good and Eagles is crap.

--

But he wasn't for the last couple of seasons though was he, he was not worth 30-40k a week for that time. We got some money and the wage bill down considerably.

I'll use a Coyle stylee excuse Moses.

He had glandular fever.

I'll use a Coyle stylee excuse Moses.

He had glandular fever.

--

For a bit of the first season I mentioned ......

He was not worth 30-40k a week. End off,

I think we would have over 50% of the wage bill available to work with, think of the possibilities..
.........

its all good and well trying to reduce wages...and i understand why we need to do it, that's not the point of this particular post however.

the issue with refusing to have players on big wages is this - players on big wages are usually 'better' players than ones on low wages...in the same way a photocopier salesman that sells more photocopiers than the rest of the salesmen in his firm earns more money and is considered 'better'

our refusal to pay big wages to good players means they will not sign for us, they will go to one of our rivals who will pay them the wages they desire.

this means we are left with a squad on low wages, but lacking in the necessary quality to keep us up...hence why we are staring relegation in the face and, if by some miracle we stay up this season, we will always be close to the trapdoor and quite possibly fall through it next season instead.

they say you have to speculate to accumulate. we should be weighing up what a particular player is worth and weighing that up against relegation. we seem unable to do this we just want the cheapest option all the time.

im not saying pay stupid wages to everyone, but i feel (when fit and if the same quality as they were before there respective injuries) that lee and Holden simply HAVE to be signed up to new contracts at the earliest opportunity - paying them more money, you can bet neither of them are on over 15k a week considering were they came from.

a time will come when another club is sniffing, and if they offer them a contract to double the money they earn - they WILL be off. we will let them go because we will think 'wage bill' instead of 'relegation prospects' we will then try and replace them with players that are one thing before anything else - cheap.

jems like lee and Holden are not easy to find, the next batch of 'cheap' players, I fear - may not be so good.

of course the next batch may be good as well, i just think we are playing with fire.

we need a decent striker too - we should be willing to pay the wages that will make a decent proven striker come here, instead of going after struggling ones like ngog who will settle for less money due to the fact they are regarded as failures and struggler's at their current club.

just my thoughts on the matter, obviously nobody will agree with me, people seem to think that the best and recently scouted young players are queuing up to sign for us and play for peanuts. they are not, we were lucky with lee and Holden because nobody else was interested in them...

Its funny how everyone was saying Taylor was useless last season.

He was earning silly money like Elmander was, earning money well beyond his ability.

Taylor was v.poor last season, being offered £2.2m was a great deal for us.

Eagles has 3 goals and 5 assists this season, i reckon thats more than Taylor the whole of last season.

I can understand where your coming from Rebel. Im not saying we have to just reduce the wages in general.

But if we reduce our current bill by 50%, that means we have a current 50%, or £30m to try and spend effectively on wages. So rather than spending £90k a week on Taylor and Elmander we could be spending it on 3 players who are equally as good or better. When Megson was in charge we massively over spent on wages and gave people such as Taylor much more than they should...Thats why our wage bill doubled from Allardyce reign to Coyle's

Rebel, a couple of examples. Elmander, Taylor, and Davis all on big wages whilst at the club. Not exactly covered themselves in glory.

Its not big wages but the quality of players you buy.

I find Bricks latest theme about Coyle and excuses highly entertaining.

Bricks, there was not one poster on here bemoaning the sale of Taylor. The vast majority of posters on here saw it as good business.

And HH is right, Taylor was rubbish last season. Now he's not here, he was the best thing since sliced bread.

Someone who rewrites history is far more feckless than someone who excuses their performance.

Its not big wages but the quality of players you buy.
.......

this is why in my post I didn't mention elmander, Taylor or Davies.

I used lee and Holden as examples as I feel they will justify being possibly the highest earners at the club.

I didn't think elmander was worth 5% of his wages...the point im trying to make is, if we manage to find a gem or want a quality 'proven' player - we simply MUST pay them the money they are worth.

by worth i mean not what you or any other fan 'thinks' they are worth - but what other clubs will pay them...

By having all that money available though Rebel, We would never hear the speech you hate hearing from Coyle.

We could afford to sign whoever then and actually buy our ambitious targets rather than just look at them, thats the big difference Rebel.

Right now, because of the wages certain players are earning, we cannot afford to say to Hoilett for example, here have £40k a week, now Cahill has gone thats a possibility.

I imagine Ream will be on a very very low wage. £5k a week perhaps? Thats a massive raise from £800 a week he currently earns. Hopefully he adapts quickly like Holden aswell.

We could afford to sign whoever then and actually buy our ambitious targets rather than just look at them, that's the big difference Rebel.
...............

no, I understand we are not going to be going for the same players as say united, city or Chelsea.

im saying if coyle wants a player, we should be offering wages to match what our rivals are/would offer - we dont do this, we would rather offer half the money they are 'worth' (I feel that if a club is paying a good proven player 60k a week - than that's what he IS worth.) and have them walk away making one of our rivals better and not us.

for instance...we need a striker, strikers dont come cheap, instead of looking at the lower leagues or players nobody has heard of and hoping to get them here for next to nothing, paying them peanuts and 'hoping' they come good...we should be offering a good package to a proven striker - one we know HAS performed at this level before and is going to continue to perform - I dont see the point in paying say, a player from the Cypriot 4th division 5k a week who turns out to be totally useless and his lack of goals assist in our relegation compared to paying someone who is going to score enough goals to keep us in this division 50k a week and staying up.

I understand there are flaws in this argument such as players like Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres who have not exactly been as good as expected, but i just feel the general rule is - you get what you pay for.

Rebel, sometimes i think you need to think alot more before you type lol.

'get them here for next to nothing,'

The point im trying to make is, we cannot afford to offer the going rate because we are paying some non-starters and deadwood players too much because of megson etc.

Once these players go, we can afford to offer the going rate for top quality players, but right now we have to skimp about, surely you understand that?

And the Cypriot league example was horrendous, come on what a silly example.

if we ever get a striker who scores over 35 goals a season, we would have to pay him over £30mil to keep him so lets get vaz te back now

And the Cypriot league example was horrendous, come on what a silly example.
........

i wanted the most sarcastic example, if im honest though, i dont even think Cyprus has a football league does it?

Cyprus will have....but i imagine i could play in the 4th division.

I understand your points, but we never focus that low, when you consider weve targeted:

Jeffren
Thiago
Jese
Giovani
Hoilett

etc, it shows weve been trying to sign that player to make a difference...not once have we made and effort to sign grfhdasdbiakos vasikas from Ayia Napa Nutjobs FC,

grfhdasdbiakos vasikas from Ayia Napa Nutjobs FC,
.............



i understand we are going 'in' for decent players, but unless we can afford to offer them a package better or at least equivalent to what they are on now/what other potential suitors are offering...then we will always be on to a loser...

Yeah but Taylor was good and Eagles is crap.
------------------------------------
I love how people seem to go through a revisionist period of players once they leave, despite them being lambasted when they are here. I don't think Taylor was in anyway 'good', we got a good amount of money for a player entering the last year of his contract, and is 5 years older than Eagles.

We replaced him with a younger, cheaper player and whilst he might not be amazing, was only intended as cover for Lee anyway. I'd rather have Eagles over Taylor anyway.

We replaced him with a younger, cheaper player and whilst he might not be amazing, was only intended as cover for Lee anyway. I'd rather have Eagles over Taylor anyway.
...........

i do agree to a certain degree...

however Taylor WAS, for all his flaws...our best set piece deliverer. we miss this.

I always said to my mates if you could combine petrovs technical ability and pace, take away his general laziness and add tailors set piece delivery and work rate...you would have one hell of a player.

sadly the genetic engineering of footballers is something that is not really done...and if it was, we probably couldn't afford the technology...

maybe asking carlsberg to run our acadamy would help?

after all....if carlsberg did footballers...

Taylor was rubbish, Petrov has a much better delivery than him. £2.2m was an amazing deal. Also we need to be careful with our cash when it comes to handing out contracts, wages are not directly linked to quality.
As for the OP, I think we will keep a few players. Jussi, Steinsson, Ricketts and maybe a couple others. We should try to offload Pratley too, he is Coyles worst signing by a long way.

I think Pratley will probably go... I cannot believe how good he was in champ and how useless in PL. I thought he coul make the step up..early not

I think this question is academic until we know which division we're playing in next season.

There are players who will leave if we go down - including the ones most people would rather have kept. There are also players who would still be more than good enough for Championship football that I'd strive to keep, but who might not get a look in much if we stay up.

In other words, there's a Prem list, a Championship list ...and a ' doesn't matter which division we're in, they can go ' list!!

in answer to the original question if we stay up would offer ricketts and jussi new deals,the rest would release without question.would use the freed up money to bring in younger players.it does not look a bad squad of players we have under contract if all fit.something to build on.