Despite an underwhelming transfer window so far, one thing NUFC have achieved – and deserve credit for – in 2021 is the amount of deadwood they have managed to shift off the club’s wage bill.
Mike Ashley has always set a regimented wage structure on Tyneside and any potential transfers must consider agent fees, signing on fees, wages and, finally, the transfer fee itself!
We have had too much deadwood on our books for several years now who, despite being on astronomical wages, have done very little in return for our cause.
Players whose contracts have expired in recent months are Henri Saivet (£35k), Andy Carroll (£20k basic, but £70k when he starts) and Christian Atsu (£35k).
On top of that, we have shipped out Yoshinori Muto (£55k), Achraf Lazaar (£35k), Rolando Aarons (£10k) and Florian Lejeune (£35k). The latter wasn’t ‘deadwood’, but a sale was needed when he clearly wasn’t in Steve Bruce’s plans.
Sone of these players you had likely forgotten about or perhaps didn’t even realise had still been on our books at some point this year!
With all seven exits in mind, around £200,000-per-WEEK has been freed up. A quick calculation shows that the likes of Muto, Atsu, Saivet, Carroll, Lazaar, Atsu and Lejeune would’ve cost us just over £10m per year in wages had they hung around, highlighting the significance of their exits.
Wages aside, a whopping £30m+ was spent on transfer fees alone for these players. We’ve had to release the majority of them, with Lejeune and Aaarons the only two to be sold for a small price, however shifting their wages along is a good job done.
Joe Willock’s arrival is pending based on personal terms being agreed and, make no mistake, the deal will be a lot easier to do now our club has more chips at the table to play with.
Creating a problem (signing poor players on high wages) and then solving that problem (releasing them on a free) is not cause for celebration or praise. This isn’t a job well done, it’s symptomatic of a pathetically run football club.
AW(Quote)
The deal won’t be easy to do at all, if he wants to be one of the highest paid players in the team.
Regardless of the cash available they are hardly going to agree to bring him in on much higher wages than Wilson, Miggy and ASM.
Helen Clarey(Quote)
Wouldn’t surprise me if Ashley is delaying the Willick deal to save a couple of weeks wages. And spring his signing on deadline day ti deflect the fact no one else was signed because they got bogged under getting this deal across the line.
Nufc 11(Quote)
Good point! Although this isn’t so much being celebrated, more just a good job done?
Olly Hawkins(Quote)