Its a great point because we routinely competed with Championship clubs when it comes to wages. Only last year, we offered Browne more than Middlesbrough did and he signed with us for three years.
We don’t want to sign permanent deals for players we can then sell for millions in some cases, and get sell-on clauses which could be worth many hundreds of thousands more, when we can just loan a limited amount of players because they’re now easier than ever to be hoarded by those higher up. Why offer good wages for Roofe, Lundstram, Brannagan and others, when you can have your budget slashed and just get some rather than all of them for a single season, before they disappear back to their parents clubs without making you a penny in sales?
That deal you offered Marcus Browne that you nearly got him to sign before Middlesbrough rocked up at the 11th hour? Well, you won’t even be able to offer him that deal he was close to signing in the first place now - you can’t afford the wages you were willing to pay him by law. And now Middlesbrough won’t even have to pay other players what they’ve been paying him to usurp you. You can only offer a player £1500 a week max, so now they only need to pay them £3000 a week to double your offer and vacuum up the asset. Previously they were having to offer double that to snatch them off you, because you yourself could offer that £3000 a week, which also meant they were more selective. So while they might have blocked you off on a Browne, they weren’t so sure on those Roofe’s and Lundstram’s and Brannagan’s that you were able to get over the line before. Now, however, they’re available for half the salary and therefore they’re cheap punts, which means the frequency with which they block you off goes up because they have to spend less than ever to blow your offer out of the water, meaning they’ve saved money on a deal that stops you being able to own your own assets. Thus making it harder for you to actually own anybody of value that hasn’t come from your own academy or some dimly lit backwater, and therefore keeping you as pinned back and restricted as possible.
But then you know all that, you’re just being silly
Enjoy the transfer thread - there’s movement afoot! There will be plenty of time on the correct channels for simple, common sense economics to be broken down and explained repeatedly. I’m even considering getting some hand puppets to help!