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That means 21of the 24 clubs are unable to say with any confidence that they will still be around on the last day of the season in just over six months time.
Watford were the latest club to publicly reach crisis point and their Chief Executive Tim Shaw has said that they have spoken to six other clubs in a similar position whilst the PFA have already had talks with ten clubs who are in significant financial difficulties. Although we cannot confirm this we have been led to believe that Burnley are certainly one of the ten and in all probability are one of the six that Shaw mentioned.
Most clubs are now accepting that the ITV Digital collapse is nothing more than part of the problem as clubs report debts way in excess of the lost revenue from the television deal. Many are saying that the collapse of the transfer market is a far more significant problem and that has been worsened by the introduction of the transfer window.
Having said that it is years since Burnley made any money out of the transfer market, we are a club unable to nurture young talent and the only player in recent years to come through the youth scheme and earn us money in the transfer market is John Mullin. There have though been the occasional profits on players such as Marlon Beresford, Andy Cooke and Adrian Randall.
Much as I dislike the man Crystal Palace Chairman Simon Jordan he has certainly identified one of the problems at Selhurst Park. Jordan is spending over £4 million of his own money this season just to keep them afloat and says his target is to reduce the players’ wage bill.
It is, he says, currently averaging £297,000 per annum per player and he needs to reduce that to no more than £200,000. With a squad of just 20 players earning around £4,000 per week it would save Palace around £2 million per year.
The last day fixtures this season are a reversal of yesterday’s games. I wonder just how many of them will go ahead.