City pay structure to use Barca Model

[JamesA]

This could work or it could be a big failure. As others have said, end of the day players will go for the better basic salary most times. It only works at a club like Barca where people just want to join because it's Barca and basically the players already know they have a very, very high chance of success anyway.

I'm also a little worried about the barca blokes being the 'saviours' we are all looking for in the transfer market. Have Barca really conducted that great transfer activity in recent seasons? Mainly they've done well because of their academy.

I suppose though I still have much higher hopes for them than bloody marwood.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

James,

I think the point of "the Model" is to actually PAY top salaries, but commensurate with doing the business on the field, which helps the club do the business in the Revenue Dept. I think we forget that VERY FEW of the world's top players make the bulk of their money from income from actually playing the game and actually make it from being a commercial product for sale on Monday through Friday. In fact, if IIRC, most of the top players contracts, IF they hit a snag, it is over who controls their "image rights," which has nothing to do with what they do between the lines, but a byproduct of that such, just like paying them performance bonuses.

One good commercial contract with a global brand can easily produce £5M, or the equivalent of £100,000 per week. However, the BIG THING is that the player CONTROLS the company that owns the player's image rights in an offshore location, making the money TAX-FREE and thus more valuable than his direct football income! And that is just ONE contract (Nike, Adidas, Gillette, etc..), and the impetus behind the rumblings of United talking to their sponsors about Ronaldo.

Anyway, I guess the whole point of the article and the thread is that CIty have ALREADY established themselves as one of the top teams in the Premier League and, with further support from top sponsors and a club that has been reinvented from A to Z, are in the position to not NEED to pay an upfront premium for international talent.

As has been ably pointed out in this thread by others, this movement to "Stage Two of The Project" has been made possible by the on-field success that has arrived earlier than expected, and which was the impetus for Mancini's 5 year contract signed LAST YEAR! THis means that, like Madrid's, Barca's, Bayern's and even United's of this world, we are moving into a phase where we have the cash to buy ONE WORLD CLASS ADDITION to the squad every season, plus making some second tier changes to shape the squad going forward. Whether we are quite at that point today, I'm not sure, but I do not envisage seeing handfuls of £20M-£30M players every season going forward. Rather, ONE marquee signing that is in the top tier wage structure above £100,000 and a supporting cast that is in that £60,000-£90,000 range. Next season MIGHT need more than one marquee signing IF WE LOSE ONE, but I think that is where we are heading.

Seems like we need a marquee goalscorer from the handful being shopped around, and some support in midfield and center back, but beyond that, we also have a handful of young players who are on the cusp of first team action and who will have to be blooded sooner or later if this Project is going to come to fruition.

Next season is going to be a BIG, BIG SEASON all around. The Top 4 may be morphing into a Top 6 all vying for the 4 spots (City, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool) and nearly all of them will have the ability to splash some cash this pre-season in order to make their 2013-14 season successful.

My only hope, and belief, is that Mancini, the Executives and the Chairman all understand we are SO CLOSE to building a long term success here that we NEED to consolidate our recent success with the clean out and rebuild needed for that long term success. We did the best we could with the best we could afford that would come here for the past few seasons, but to cement our position is going to REQUIRE 3-5 serious signings, with at least one top shelf acquisition on the front line.

 

[BluessinceHydeRoad]

James,

I think the point of "the Model" is to actually PAY top salaries, but commensurate with doing the business on the field, which helps the club do the business in the Revenue Dept. I think we forget that VERY FEW of the world's top players make the bulk of their money from income from actually playing the game and actually make it from being a commercial product for sale on Monday through Friday. In fact, if IIRC, most of the top players contracts, IF they hit a snag, it is over who controls their "image rights," which has nothing to do with what they do between the lines, but a byproduct of that such, just like paying them performance bonuses.

One good commercial contract with a global brand can easily produce £5M, or the equivalent of £100,000 per week. However, the BIG THING is that the player CONTROLS the company that owns the player's image rights in an offshore location, making the money TAX-FREE and thus more valuable than his direct football income! And that is just ONE contract (Nike, Adidas, Gillette, etc..), and the impetus behind the rumblings of United talking to their sponsors about Ronaldo.

Anyway, I guess the whole point of the article and the thread is that CIty have ALREADY established themselves as one of the top teams in the Premier League and, with further support from top sponsors and a club that has been reinvented from A to Z, are in the position to not NEED to pay an upfront premium for international talent.

As has been ably pointed out in this thread by others, this movement to "Stage Two of The Project" has been made possible by the on-field success that has arrived earlier than expected, and which was the impetus for Mancini's 5 year contract signed LAST YEAR! THis means that, like Madrid's, Barca's, Bayern's and even United's of this world, we are moving into a phase where we have the cash to buy ONE WORLD CLASS ADDITION to the squad every season, plus making some second tier changes to shape the squad going forward. Whether we are quite at that point today, I'm not sure, but I do not envisage seeing handfuls of £20M-£30M players every season going forward. Rather, ONE marquee signing that is in the top tier wage structure above £100,000 and a supporting cast that is in that £60,000-£90,000 range. Next season MIGHT need more than one marquee signing IF WE LOSE ONE, but I think that is where we are heading.

Seems like we need a marquee goalscorer from the handful being shopped around, and some support in midfield and center back, but beyond that, we also have a handful of young players who are on the cusp of first team action and who will have to be blooded sooner or later if this Project is going to come to fruition.

Next season is going to be a BIG, BIG SEASON all around. The Top 4 may be morphing into a Top 6 all vying for the 4 spots (City, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool) and nearly all of them will have the ability to splash some cash this pre-season in order to make their 2013-14 season successful.

My only hope, and belief, is that Mancini, the Executives and the Chairman all understand we are SO CLOSE to building a long term success here that we NEED to consolidate our recent success with the clean out and rebuild needed for that long term success. We did the best we could with the best we could afford that would come here for the past few seasons, but to cement our position is going to REQUIRE 3-5 serious signings, with at least one top shelf acquisition on the front line.

This is an excellent post and explains very clearly most of the points I merely hinted at in my earlier post. I think many of our supporters need to remember that City is a very high profile, but low budget part of an enormous business "empire" with truly global reach. It is this reach which will cement City's position in a group of very select clubs with almost magnetic powers of attraction, global support and very high revenues. This will drive the club to serial success, but maybe not just yet. Sorriano and Begiristain were appointed to oversee the transition from trophy winners to superpower on the field, but more importantly off it in the counting house, largely, I suspect because they doubled Barcelona's revenue in four years, while also laying the foundations for the team's massive success. This summer's window will be exciting, I think, but not perhaps in the way supporters, and Stuart Brennan in the morning's MEN, envisage. One truly big name in, some big names out, other young players in and some real attention to the academy, which isn't viewed in an entirely positive light at the moment.

 

[johnmc]

Would we not have to pay a player more than say the rags, barca or real because of image rights - fact being that if you play for one of those teams you will automatically have more interest in you and your image for advertising purposes. In time this might change.

 

[sergiokun]

Quality idea wasn’t Silva’s new deal something like this?? Basic 140k with big bonuses if we win trophies?

 

[johnmc]

Quality idea wasn’t Silva’s new deal something like this?? Basic 140k with big bonuses if we win trophies?

It has its flaws as well. If we win nothing one seawson will they all want to leave? Could lead to player bust ups in that if one players thinks another isnt contributing enough and affecting his chances to acheive his bonus, does a player only playing 10 games in a sucessful season get the same bonus as someone playing 38, if so what if they are injured, also if they think they should be in the team but arent and arent getting the opportunity to get their bonus, players more likely to revolt against the manager if they dont believe tactics are correct etc etc

 

[sergiokun]

Quality idea wasn’t Silva’s new deal something like this?? Basic 140k with big bonuses if we win trophies?

It has its flaws as well. If we win nothing one seawson will they all want to leave? Could lead to player bust ups in that if one players thinks another isnt contributing enough and affecting his chances to acheive his bonus, does a player only playing 10 games in a sucessful season get the same bonus as someone playing 38, if so what if they are injured, also if they think they should be in the team but arent and arent getting the opportunity to get their bonus, players more likely to revolt against the manager if they dont believe tactics are correct etc etc

Yes like you pointed out it can’t cause problems but it’s a decent way to try trim our wage bill because that alone is causing us a big problem. I don’t think we would offer this sort of deals to fringe players only playing 10 games a season. And also if we do have a bad season and we don’t win anything 140k a week is not bad still

 

[johnmc]

Yes like you pointed out it can’t cause problems but it’s a decent way to try trim our wage bill because that alone is causing us a big problem. I don’t think we would offer this sort of deals to fringe players only playing 10 games a season. And also if we do have a bad season and we don’t win anything 140k a week is not bad still

Not bad at all but it works better at a team like barca because they isnt really a season they dont win at least one thing so sucess is almost guaranteed and to a player they know that realistically they will acheive their bonus every year, and if they dont, they will the year after. I dont think we are quite there yet, not far off, buit not there yet in that a player would be happy to sign this tye of agreement knowing that 9 out of 10 seasons they will be getting their bonus.

 

[SuperYaya]

Gives them some extra motivation at the very least.

 

[cleavers]

Arsenal players are on shit salaries by comparison, but their wages are made up with big win bonuses.

That's why Arsenal have so much cash presumably?

Its also why their best players continue to leave them.

Whilst supportive of the idea, I'm also in the sceptic camp that this could fully work at City. Nobody can guarantee success, so if I can see that, then I'm sure top footballers will, and so top players may not come as they might not get the big win bonuses offered. Obviously that is up to them to a degree, but also up to which ever manager is in charge.

I think we'll have to continue to pay higher than most clubs for the foreseeable future, until at least until we have sustained success, and 2 significant trophies while sustained in City terms, is certainly not terms of the "world" clubs.