Compare and f**king contrast

1 December 2006

Norwich receive the same parachute payment this season. But it stops in 2006/7 - sparking a chastening warning from City's director of finance Shaun O'Hara. He said: "Failure to win promotion at the end of 2006/7 will reduce our income by a minimum of ?7m. While the club remains in the Championship it will be necessary to generate surplus funds for future players by selling assets."

Chief executive Neil Doncaster said: ?In the year covered by these accounts, and despite a ?7m parachute payment, the club's cash position worsened by ?1.5m.

?However the board believed that it should back the judgment of former manager Nigel Worthington and did so, sanctioning player wages during 2005/6 which were only marginally lower than during our year in the Premier League.?

20 May 2005

?And it's worth reiterating that we are under no pressure to sell anyone,? said Doncaster, as years of careful financial planning bears fruit ? in particular the club's insistence on a tiered wage structure that takes account of the likely ?13 million shortfall in income between the Premier League and the Championship that accompanies relegation.

Suddenly, each and every player on the club's books finds himself back on Championship wages ? still very good Championship-standard wages, but not potentially crippling Premiership-style packages.

?For a number of years now we've structured our finances so that we could not only survive but, hopefully, thrive back in the Championship if we did have the misfortune to be relegated from the Premiership,? said City's chief executive, all too well aware of what has befallen others on their way down ? a scenario that could yet find Southampton having to sell players simply to cover their debts. How much Saints boss Harry Redknapp sees of, say, a Peter Crouch transfer fee will do much to determine the strength of Southampton's promotion challenge next year.

?In the past, other clubs have either banked on being in the Premiership and not going down or, if they do, they then rely on selling players,? explained Doncaster, a policy that is fraught with peril with potential buyers either unwilling or unable to pay the long-term, Premiership-style wages enjoyed by, say, a Finidi George or a Pablo Counago ? whose non-tiered contracts helped propel Ipswich Town into administration following their relegation to the Championship in 2002.

?We are not relying on having to sell any of our players,? said Doncaster.

Posted By: Old Git, Dec 1, 16:12:02