The College Dropout

I had major doubts over his physicality. But from the summer he looked fitter strong and sharper. From the little I’ve seen. He’s kept that.

He’s just so consistent. He’s scored 3 in 3 I think but he’s not really had a proper purple patch. Just consistently scoring and assisting throughout the season. Thank god for his fitness levels too.

It might have been to protect Burn’s remaining confidence? It doesn’t matter much what Livra does. He’s warming bench. Shame for the lad.

Thought Almiron deserved a start after Tuesday. He was great. Murphy was bad. I wouldn’t mind the Burn thing except he started Livra at Arsenal. That doesn’t look great in retrospect.

Yes. I am personally invested.

Wolves account released for 22/23. Losing over £180k a day. Wages are 142m. Ours is 187m. Arsenal 235m for comparison.

Because Inaki is relevant to me and Nico reminded me of the useless lad.

I’m personally invested in some of the awful displays I’ve seen from Williams. I’m obviously being OTT he’s had a very fine career in Spain. But lad is not good.

Have you watched him specifically? For several games? Hes awful. Joselu is better than him.

Inaki Williams is awful.

Foden has always generally been considered the bigger talent right? I think Sancho was considered a bigger talent than Saka too. Saka has played himself into "generational" discussions.

Most posts in this thread suggest we should've been ruthless and sold Wilson last summer.. no? In other threads for other people.... most people are advocating patience.. no?

I'm not sure either. I think we have finally accepted the most accurate reports that have us with the 7th highest wage bill and 6th highest squad cost in the league.. and that should probably correlate roughly with league position in some way....

This board is weird. For one person - we want patience and understanding. We would never want to become Roman-era Chelsea. For someone else - we need ruthless overlords, take no prisoners Which one is it?

Yes what you're saying is correct. But that increase in revenue - also increases the quality of the league/team. I agree there is greater value to be found abroad but there's also greater risk in terms of quality (and other social and physical aspects).

Oh but it is. Particularly once you get below the elite clubs in other nations and European regulars. West Ham aren't anything special in terms of squad, management and leadership. But their finances mean they should be able to give the Europa League a good go.

Wages are too high for most teams fighting relegation. He'll want 2-3 years at around£4-5m p/a. Agree he's good business he's a great player for a side who need depth to attack the league and a European competition..............

Toon1892 the accountant using estimates about wages rather than financial accounts.

Never claimed wages are everything. It gives us *some* context. Our wage bill is as close to Arsenal, as West Ham's is to us. All things being equal, we should be somewhere in between (obviously things have changed since March 2023 financially too). A particularly bad ride with injuries and CL football we'll be closer to the chasing pack, maybe behind 1 or 2 - totally understandable. But more than that is pretty bad like. I think the European football for West Ham & Brighton inparticular will be a huge disadvantage for both. Brighton have a ton of injuries too. I back us to catch both.

Is Hall athletic? i don't think he's particularly tall or fast. from the little I've seen of him, he looks a technician first and foremost.

This is the most reliable data on football wages https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/status/1762492809121280064/photo/3 We need to outperform 3 teams to finish top 4. 2 to finish 5th. 1 of which is Chelsea.

This is true for all clubs. If the quality for £££ ratio is bad, that's because of poor contract management by those clubs leadership. That's Everton, Chelsea. That's a failure. Brighton is one of the best-run clubs in the league top to bottom. So they are exceeding their financial output. If Man Utd used their resources as efficiently, they would be challenging for the CL year-in year-out. What's so hard to understand?

You have to take other teams performance into consideration. And miracles and bad management are too simplistic and extreme. But fundamentally yes - every club should settle around their wage bill. Significantly higher or lower performance means something extreme has happened at squad, management and leadership level. E.g. it has all gone to pot at Chelsea from the top to the bottom. Same for Everton. We got nearly everything right last season from top to bottom as did Brighton.

You're ignoring what i've said and the evidence I have provided to fit a false narrative of consistently getting top 4.

This is free baby. @Toon1892 "The wage bills for each club come via FBref, with estimates coming from Capology. In the case of some clubs also, there is limited data out there, meaning some of the figures given are estimates. So, with that being said, GIVEMESPORT have taken a look at the annual wage bills of each Premier League club in order from lowest to highest." These are estimates from Capology. "Where does Capology get salary data? We source salary data from all over the web, news, social, industry experts, and a network of sources who help us verif.." So based on unreliable data. Kieran gets his data from football clubs official financial accounts. Kieran's data is more reliable than GIVEMESPORT. As an accountant, you should know that. Injuries: Nick Pope played every league game until we confirmed 4th. Bruno G played 40 games last season, 32 in the league. Joelinton 32, Trippier 38, Burn 38, Botman 36, Schar 36, Willock 35, Almiron 34. We had at least 1 fit of Wood, Isak & Wilson all season and the latter two for the entirety of the run-in. Transfers: Yes net spend doesn't account for the fact we didn't have much saleable assets under Ashley. But we still spent £400m on a squad that had finished 11th-13th the previous 4 seasons. Took a midtable wage budget into the top 7. If you spend £400m well on Wolves + a good manager - they'll compete for Europe too. Again - Howe has done excellently. But we have spent a lot of money on both fees and wages. Like... a lot.