Maybe we are now finding out why MH had to pay OTT wages,

[californiahoop]

players of the calibre we are looking at will only come for mad wages.

[Kevster269]

Once the precedent was set with probably Joey Barton, the bandwagon started its journey....

[qpr4life]

You can pay huge wages if the transfer fee is nothing or small (And we spent very little to be fair)

But you MUST get decent enough pros who are willing to fight for a cause and as a team.

Hughes brought in a real rough mix not knowing what he could do with them, its a team full of unbalanced shape

[Rangers77]

We only got that pr!ck because we paid him mad wages.... You're right. The game's gone mad. Clubs pay silly money for folk from all over the world. If all the clubs in the serious leagues all collectively determined to cut wages in half the players would still be millionaires many times over. Those that objected could go play in Russia.

[jmelanie]

The reason we are having problems attracting people is because we are bottom of the league. We were not bottom of the league in the summer and eveybody was saying we would finish mid league (including MH). MH did not need to pay mad wages. The team we had, had just survived in the premiership, and although we needed some reinforcements in certain positions (none of which he actually got), we did not need the massive overhaul he made.

[QPR71]

The reason we are having problems attracting people is because we are bottom of the league. We were not bottom of the league in the summer and eveybody was saying we would finish mid league (including MH). MH did not need to pay mad wages. The team we had, had just survived in the premiership, and although we needed some reinforcements in certain positions (none of which he actually got), we did not need the massive overhaul he made.

this^^^^^ ...they should start running c rap manager of the month MH could have had much success with that

[DouDou_87]

The more you look at it the more you realise how awful Hughes' transfers were- didnt adress the areas that needed attention and left a massively unbalanced team of underperformers.

I really hate the man.

[Del]

most of our signings were free transfers, and when a successful player goes on a free they can demand and normally get inflated wages. A business can justify this becasue there's not been a huge outlay in the first place.

Don't exclude Harry from reponsibilty here though. Everyone assumed we pay high wages, but reports varied massively as people speculated. It was Harry who deceided to effectively tell the world Bosingwa was earning £65k / week and as a result has set the bar for any player's agend that we want to sign to ask for.

[hogbag]

Look at the teams Swansea and Norwich have assembled - no vast outlays, no massive wages, without the attraction to players of being based in London and doing a lot better than we are

[Captain Planet]

Pretty sure at most clubs it's not the managers offering the contracts. There might be a few exceptions like Wenger and Ferguson who have such a huge influence over how the club is run.

You could say Hughes identified the wrong types of players, but the wages and length of contracts falls with the board.

[MyWord]

Oh so true Hogbag.

More so with Swansea, built a squad of players able to compete at the top level over the course of a few years.Players that are able to play a style of football which is pleasing on the eye`s.A chairman that remains in the back ground and supports his manager, unlike our`s who likes the celebrity high life.

[stanistheman]

Perhaps I am wrong, but why is it MH's fault what the players are earning. he may have chose the players to sign, but wasnt it PB and TF who decided what they can be paid?

MH can take the blame for selecting the players and the unblanced squad, but I am not so sure about the wage bill.

[QPR71]

come to london where the streets are paved with gold

[Bluehoop]

hogbag Look at the teams Swansea and Norwich have assembled - no vast outlays, no massive wages, without the attraction to players of being based in London and doing a lot better than we are

Oh so true Hogbag.

More so with Swansea, built a squad of players able to compete at the top level over the course of a few years.Players that are able to play a style of football which is pleasing on the eye`s.A chairman that remains in the back ground and supports his manager, unlike our`s who likes the celebrity high life.

As much as there is merit in some of this, it puts things into perspective when you actually look more closely at the facts at Swansea. Their current squad includes just 4 players (Williams, Pratley, Monk and Rangel) of their promotion squad. The reality is they have signed as many new players as us since promotion only they have gone about it quietly and obviously haven't signed idiots like Barton and Bosingwa - so nobody has really taken notice of the fact they actually weighed out transfer fees galore to build their now impressive squad. Line up the number of appearances over the 2 EPL seasons of their Championship players against ours and you will see ours have played considerably more games.

[stainrodisalegend]

hogbag Look at the teams Swansea and Norwich have assembled - no vast outlays, no massive wages, without the attraction to players of being based in London and doing a lot better than we are



As much as there is merit in some of this, it puts things into perspective when you actually look more closely at the facts at Swansea. Their current squad includes just 4 players (Williams, Pratley, Monk and Rangel) of their promotion squad. The reality is they have signed as many new players as us since promotion only they have gone about it quietly and obviously haven't signed idiots like Barton and Bosingwa - so nobody has really taken notice of the fact they actually weighed out transfer fees galore to build their now impressive squad. Line up the number of appearances over the 2 EPL seasons of their Championship players against ours and you will see ours have played considerably more games.

interesting point. in fairness to hughes there seemed to be a club policy - because warnock was doing the same in his last transfer window - of refusing to pay competitive prem transfer fees but a willingness to pay big wages. the inevitable result was getting some fairly big names who were either at the tail end of their career (bosingwa) or released for being trouble (barton). fernandes has to take some responsibility for clearly wanting big names but not prepared to pay the money for decent ones.

also in fairness to hughes there were very few signings of his that were attacked on here at the time. in fact, the only one i remember any groans about was nelsen, who has probably been our best player! and for all those now slating hughes (and slating fernandes for appointing him) virtually everyone on here was euphoric when he signed. hindsight is a wonderful thing...