IMO there are 3 parts to the discussion re our wage bill.
Firstly that it is at a level to be expected of a top4 club & was part of AW's strategy for much of his tenure, which is fine so long as you only consider the figures as a total and not the individual amounts;
Secondly that we have a squad with the quality that merits the individual wages paid - if not then we're paying inflated wages - thanx AW; and
Thirdly that the wage bill does not prevent you from working within the transfer market in order to be able to make improvements to the team & squad, which is essentially where we are currently.
IMO we fail the test re points 2 & 3.
We fail point 2 as a result of AW's socialist wage structure despite the total being within expectations as a top4 club. Quite frankly not only do we not have the squad to merit top4/CL wages, we do not have the team either. Then there is the small matter that currently we are not a top4/CL club and we do not have the quality to regain top4/CL as is.
We fail point 3 because we were/are far too conservative regarding our frakking business model which being touted as being a club core belief and tradition. The biggest issue preventing us from making transfers in the market atm is NOT revenue but that we have maxed out our wage increase for the season as a % of TV revenues in regards to the FA FFP criteria.
This points to 2 contributing factors - firstly that our non football revenues are essentially dominated by the TV deal; and
Secondly we failed to act once the base line seasons became known re the FA criteria in order to create a higher base line. Whilst we can sustain our current wages and can probably also increase them, we can't do so because our base line was established before we started to spend, whereas the other contenders had essentially looked to spend ahead of the new criteria in order to give themselves a higher base line and more wiggle room to work with.
Yet again we have been penny wise & pound foolish, although the conspiracy theorist in me would suggest that these decisions were made because it suited the philosophy under previous management (internal youth development, the established wage structure), and essentially locked the club into needing to sustain those philosophies going forward because we could not spend, which then also means that we continue to make annual profits.
This only works if we both retain top4/CL and also the management structures that put these strategies in place. However once we dropped out of top4 not only did we not regain/bounce back we actually regressed which further exposed the fallacy re our wages as an indicator of quality.
