How much would it cost to guarantee promotion?

If money was no problem, how much do you think it would take to guarantee promotion from League 2?

If you wanted the best manager to get a team promoted, what sort of salary would they command in this league? And what would the transfer fees and wages be for the kind of players who would stroll this division?

I know Fleetwood and Rotherham have splashed the cash this season and brought in some decent players for this level, but I doubt that you could say with certainty that they will go up, so it would have to be better players than they have both recruited.

I'm just wondering what the cost would be to have players who could get into most Championship sides and a decent manager, and what the income would have to be to keep within the 55% cap, and whether the increased gates that a table-topping Argyle side would attract be enough to bankroll this, or how far away we would still be on gates averaging 12k or so?

Lots of questions I know but I genuinely how no idea what sort of income we have currently, or what our wage bill is, and how much more it would take to get us up quickly.

I'm not sure you could ever guarantee promotion whatever you paid Jock. However, I think I read somewhere that our income was estimated to be around £4.2m this season. So, 55% of that would be around £2.25 ish without doing the sum properly. 25 man squad equates to around £2k per week per player. Not that high in terms of Championship players. Obviously if the crowds doubled then that would double the weekly wage available. I assume the manager and all the other staff don't come out of the 55%. I'd guess you would need around £4k per week to attract much better players. I can't see any side in this league getting that sort of income to be honest.

I think the manager and coaches do come out of the 55%, but I could be wrong.

I was thinking of players like BWP, who wouldn't be looking at a Premier League club anytime soon, but would be deadly in League 2, plus some other experienced players who wouldn't be on massive wages at clubs like Cardiff or Wolves.

I see Paul Gallagher has been loaned out to Sheff Utd by Leicester, so players like him who are out of favour at bigger clubs.

A manager like Dave Jones or Mick McCarthy who have had some success but probably wouldn't get any Premier League job.

sensible is right in saying that you cannot guarantee promotion.

With quality players in every position they then need to be honed into a team.

A manager able to do that can put together a promotion team on paper, but that isn't always enough.

There is then required a blend of players who can respond to that managers leadership and that at times doesn't mean that they are the best players on paper, how do you achieve that mix....every team in the country would like to know the magic formula for that question.

Crap managers with a good team can spectacularly fail. I am reminded of Glenn Roeder at West Ham who managed to get a team which included Jermaine Defoe, Freddie Kanoute, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Lee Boywer, David James relegated in 2003 (although there was of course Rufus Brevett too ) Of course promotion can't be guaranteed but you can greatly increase chance of promotion by investing in good L2 standard players and bringing in a manager who actually knows what he's doing. Unfortunately Argyle have neither.

Manchester City have spent billions on players, but if the referee in their game against QPR on the last day of last season had blown his whistle 30 seconds earlier, Manchester Utd would now be champions.

Money helps, but there are too many other factors and variables that go into a season-long campaign - injuries, suspensions, refereeing decisions, errors (even the best players make them) and the like - for anything to be guaranteed.

A good manager can achieve much without breaking the bank - one of Brian Clough's specialities was taking players who'd under-achieved elsewhere and moulding them into a team - think Kenny Burns, Larry Lloyd, Brian Robertson. So whilst it would be nice to think that a sugar daddy could just rock up to Home Park and start throwing £50 notes around like confetti, the reality is that the overall blend has to be right. Sturrock Mark 1 achieved it, by getting in players with the ability to play at a higher level than the club was at, the team spirit and unity, throughout the club, was remarkably good and the squad had the right mix of youth, experience and ability. And all this without breaking the bank, either. I doubt we'll see anything like Sturrock's first spell in charge again in my lifetime.

Billions not quite Andy.......but certainly an easy to hate team.

ZYPH wrote:

Billions not quite Andy.......but certainly an easy to hate team.

They've spent £700 million on transfer fees alone. Add on the signing-on fees and wages and I'd suggest that 'billions' is about right.

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

I'm not sure you could ever guarantee promotion whatever you paid Jock. However, I think I read somewhere that our income was estimated to be around £4.2m this season. So, 55% of that would be around £2.25 ish without doing the sum properly. 25 man squad equates to around £2k per week per player. Not that high in terms of Championship players. Obviously if the crowds doubled then that would double the weekly wage available. I assume the manager and all the other staff don't come out of the 55%. I'd guess you would need around £4k per week to attract much better players. I can't see any side in this league getting that sort of income to be honest.

Those figures don't add up as no way are our players on 2K a week on average, more than likely barely half that.

our team could fluke it with a couple of championship type midfielders and every one fit,,,,,so another £ 3/400,000,

Ask Swindon or Crawley, as they bought their way out of this league last season

See last seasons final league table, pretty much finished on what each club spent, as did most of the leagues, money talks in this game I'm afraid


Expect Fleetwood & Rotherham to be there, or there abouts come May

It does play a huge part, no doubt about it. It makes you wonder sometimes why clubs don't all get together and agree on a manager's salary cap of 50K a year as it is the money and the players it brings that guarantees promotion and any manager could do the same job with the right resources at his disposal. OK it doesn't work quite like that, but as you say the league tables are quite closely related to budget expenditure on players with a few exceptions in each league.

Certainly too much to risk for the rewards then?

My feeling is that Leagues 1+2 wouldn't take that much winning really and the momentum gained by winning promotion from League 2, with a decent squad and our crowds, would pretty much be good enough to get out of League 1 also.

I wasn't actually thinking anyone would be able to do it, but Fleetwood are certainly spending a huge amount of money trying it this season, just like Crawley did last year, and on gates of usually under 3,000.

If they get promoted this season I could see them going up the following season as well and all on gates that surely wouldn't make it worth the outlay. Then there's the issue of the 55% rule to get around, and I don't know how they are going to explain their expenditure to the football authorities.

Then there's the question of whether it would be worth them reaching the Championship? Their official capacity is 5,500, so they are never going to recoup what they outlay.

This points to a smaller scale Manchester City or Chelsea, where the owners money is lost forever and the club is just their plaything.

With the big Premier League clubs there are huge rewards for success. The TV money alone is massive, and then there's the Champions League which is another cash cow for the elite, and multi-million pound sponsorship deals, but none of this is nearly enough to cover what the sugar daddy owners have ploughed in.

Fleetwood are small fry compared to most clubs and have just had their stadium upgraded at a cost of around £5 million pounds, just to reach the capacity of 5,500.

So we have a small scale Roman Ibramovic buying success who can only take them so far, so what's in it for the owner?

I didn't have a clue who their owner was and it turns out to be Andrew Pilley who is boss of an energy supply company, and just a couple more clicks brings this story about the owner.

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There are lots of other similar stories about Pilley and his business practices and I can quite confidently say that if ever there were a club headed for disaster it is Fleetwood Town.

For me, the best manager with an average budget is more likely to get promoted than an average manager with the best squad.

Mock Cuncher wrote:

For me, the best manager with an average budget is more likely to get promoted than an average manager with the best squad.

The City's going up, e i ad e o the City's going up

That's about right Sandford you guys have more chance of going up than we have - you have strikers that actually score! All the best for the coming season I reckon the Grecians against the Gulls will be a tasty game, home and away.

Oh yes I nearly forgot, don't think you can actually guarantee promotion, although Man City are working on it.

I've no real answer to OP but I do wonder why we couldn't afford one luxury player like McLeoud (sp) when we could afford so many players to sit on the bench or out of action at all?

Not paying players what they were worth led to our decline.