The Mirror has released an article today and it claims that Aston Villa would lose £17 million to high earners Ireland, N’Zogbia, Bent, Hutton, Agbonlahor and Given if the club gets relegated. These 6 players don’t have a relegation clause in their contracts. They say that Aston Villa are a ticking time bomb and relegation would be a disaster for the club’s finances.
Currently Aston Villa spend £17 million annually on their wages, but Villa would lose another £17 million if we get relegated. The likes of Agbonlahor and Hutton have contracts that extend to 2015. Getting relegated would see a massive change in the squad and this just summarises the importance of Premier League survival.
A Villa Park source said: “The big earners do not have relegation clauses and the club cannot afford to keep paying them if they go down. Their only option will be to find new clubs for them.” Only Richard Dunne’s and Stephen Warnock’s contract expires this year and their contracts will not be renewed.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-face-17m-wage-1519589
Time bomb! Aston Villa face £17m wage bill from SIX stars without relegation clauses
This is another factor to consider if we get relegated. Lambert is undoubtedly going to be under pressure if results in the League don’t improve. The experienced players are back and the likes of Bent and N’Zogbia yesterday displayed their importance to the team. It may not be Lambert’s ‘philosophy’ to play with more ‘experienced players’ but we have no choice and I think that Bent’s goals will actually help maintain us in the League.
We’ve lost five games in the last sixteen, three of those against the Mancs and Chelsea.
So we’ve lost two in thirteen of games that we would have hoped to get something from.
Don’t follow the press agenda, that is not relegation form.
Interesting little comment on Sunday Supplement on Sky today ;
‘When you haven’t been to Villa for some time, it’s quite a reminder of just how big a club they are when you go back’.
That tells you all you need to know about our standing in the media, we’re not in London, and don’t have a worldwide armchair fan base of Liverpool or Man U.
I really do see green shoots in this side, frailties remain, undoubtedly, but I think that we are moving in the right direction.
Just imagine what Lambert could start doing with the side if we didn’t have that £17m albatross around our necks for the players mentioned, none of whom that are likely to be the future of our club.
Footballs not about, not losing games, it’s about winning them. The table doesn’t lie. I will decide if there’s green shoots, after we have beaten Southampton and picked up a few results in the league, not after avoiding a mauling at Swansea and beating a championship team in the fa cup.
On the positive note, good to see the sick note squad back.
Vaze, well said.
This looks like speculation rather than hard facts.
To get to see all the contracts the “Villa Park Source” would have to be either in HR or the legal team. If you are in HR, you won’t get another job if you can’t keep the contents of contracts confidential. For lawyers it’s a Solicitors Regulatory Authority issue.
I suspect it’s a journalist’s guess. He’s seen recent stories about contracts (eg Ba and Diame) and cooked up a new story.
Players talk to each other and to friends and the press. Ive got a villa top signed by the squad for christmas thanks to someone i know who is good friends with Bannan. Most villa fans know how much players are roughly paid, and is it inconceivable that non of those players would have relegation clauses, I’d say no its not, as villa used to be a club that never even flirted with relegation except on the rare occasion of a graham Taylor comeback.
I bet contracts going forwards will have them, on current form.
And to make this signed villa top worth keeping, they better win the cup and stay up haha.
Do you compare your terms and conditions with your colleagues? I don’t.
It’s one thing to have players talk, quite another to know exactly which 6 players have particular clauses in their contracts.
Reality strikes. So now instead of talking about transition, and giving those youngsters a chance and saying how after we get battered each game “their learning”. And also talking about the big wastes of space we have at our club perpetually injured, never in form always paid at least twice as much as they should be.
It’s ridiculous even with cut backs, that we let ourselves get into this position. Because if we go down, it will be financial Armageddon for the club. You tell me of a well run “company” that would adopt a new prudence driven cost cutting exercise, at a cost of potentially losing their biggest income, that coincidentally is due to increase exponentially next season.
I’m praying lambert can pull a few diamonds in the rough in, and to quote him “I just have to believe that villa will be ok”.
I’m not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.
When did reality strike? Do you honestly not think the players are learning? Would it help to pretend that the team is not in a period of transition?
Almost all companies look at their expenditure. If it is too high they try to cut the expenditure.
Likewise almost all companies follow financial strategies. In Villa’s case the strategy is a long term plan to reduce salary costs and invest in promising younger players. The long term objective is a better team with lower overheads.
The reason for a strategy is to achieve planned improvements rather than making reactive and short term decisions. The league table doesn’t look good right now but we are on the right track. It will look much better next season.
This team will not get relegated. It may test people’s patience in the coming weeks but this side will put together a run of good results. That’s because they’re learning. This is a process of transition. The changes being applied will make Villa a better team.
Based on what? If we go by the form books there is nothing to back up your “were on the right track point”. Please explain what the right track is. Oh i guess we didnt get spanked in the last league match, despite swansea tearing us apart. Very very fortunate. Only someone incapable of taking a step back and looking without total bias would see that.
Separate to that you seem to have completely failed to understand the point I’m making. If you lose or risk losing your biggest source of income (by a mile) ,it makes the cost cutting actually an exercise in idiocy and ironically very expensive. Unless were trying to assemble a championship squad (id put our defence at league 1) on championship wages in advance of dropping down there. I’m more than happy to see a more sustainable villa, but cutting back and dropping the quality we have so quickly, we will be staying up only if there’s 3 worse teams below us again. Not because we deserve to be in the top league. There’s a big big difference.
I love the “we will not go down comments”. Because there based on blind faith and their the lynch pin of your argument. Although personally, I’d like to believe it but I’m a season ticket holder and I clearly haven’t got the same rosé tinted view in the stadium you have (if you even go that is) regarding our abysmal form.
We’re taking a big risk and if we go down financially it may hit the club as bad as Leeds if we can’t get back up first time of trying. But then even if we did we would be in mountains more debt anyway.
Why not invest big say £20m in the squad this month. Secure our status as bolster the younger players with some actual quality. Then continue with this cost cutting long term at a more realistic pace, by shedding the likes of Ireland, given, dunne, gabby, Hutton, warnock and others in the summer. I expect most of them gone anyway.
Personally the best I can ever see villa being for the foreseeable future is a middle of the road prem team. It’s real sad that some fans are willing to accept this bumbling running of the club by the mute and that twat Faulkner doing his bidding. It’s a bit like when your a kid and you think your parents know everything. Then you grow up and realise its an illusion. I think some fans need to grow up or wake up to the reality that is randy Lerner custodian of Aston villa, and a total failure at anything sports or financially related.
All this money issues are very difficult to overview for us. Is it usual to fix a relegation clause? Are the mentioned wages true? How high is the total wage bill and how high should it be in terms of income? How high has it to be in terms of relegation?
Many questions which we can´t answer and I am fed up with that stuff. I am concentrating more on football issues. We can judge this part of the game and it makes more fun than this money issues.
I think this story isn’t something that stands out or stuff we didn’t know..
When we signed Ireland Bent Hutton Given etc we didn’t think we would go down.. Dunne and Warnock are out of contract so the figure of 17M is false straight away and hence the article loses its credibility..
The issue would carry more weight if we brought in four players this window on good wages without any relegation clauses..
Bent will def find a club in the summer and so will Given.. Hutton is the only one really..
IF you go down all clubs take a hit.. no matter who you are.. but we would probably lose money on Bent and Benteke.. when i say lose money on Benteke i mean if we stayed in the prem his value will rise to above 20M im sure.. relegation would mean someone could snap him up for around 10M..
The article in mirror is ridiculous really.. he needs to look at QPR if he wants to see a financial disaster………………………….
Warnock & Dunne aren’t mentioned in the 17 million wage bill, so it may well be credible
we knew last season no diffrent this season big earners we cant shift any club relegated will cut their cloth to suit their finacial restraints as the premeir league richies grow season after season players have all the power as the clubs just allow them to take clubs and fans as mugs
It would have been a lot worse if we had gone down last season or the one before. We had loads of average players on stupid long term contracts. These have gradually left the club with only a few remaining.
Anyway lets try and be positive with the players coming back from injury and a couple of additions (hopefully an experienced centre back and defensive midfielder) we won’t be flirting with the drop.
Am I in the minority in thinking that it is Randolph Lerners responsability to make serious investment into the squad which would save us from a relegation possibility.He does control the cash
??
No, you’re the only one who states that like it’s controversial.
IF we go down and IF they don’t leave in the summer and IF my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle.
I imagine such a wage liability exists for most established top flight teams. This is merely A
a scaremongering non story from the mainstream press.
Fuck you all Forex bustards