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We are not the only club that needs to cut costs but our opponents this Saturday are in a right mess and could be close to calling in the administrators. Stan beware because they have come up with a wonderful idea to still include travelling in style. At the recent away game at Rotherham they run up a £2,000 hotel bill. It was left for manager John Gregory to pay it.
Rumours abound in the Burnley area that the players are upset at the failure of the club to pay out the bonuses. This remains a rumour though every bit as much as the £17,000 per week that Robbie Blake is supposedly being paid, is he really going to become our Benito Carbone?
It’s even worse at Derby, their players weren’t paid at all for August and it now looks as though one player, who is believed to be Danny Higginbotham, has had enough and is ready to walk out following this breach of contract. He has now given the club fourteen days notice.
There have been talks of takeovers at Derby with apparently two separate bids. Although Peter Shackleton has a house in Derbyshire it is not thought that he has teamed up with Frank Teasdale again to make a bid although one of his so called football friends Stuart Webb is one of the two bidders. Webb though is struggling to raise the finance to buy out the stricken club who are reportedly around £30 million in debt.
Two former directors Peter Gadsby and John Kirkland were considering an offer of between £10 and £15 million but one proviso was that at least one major sale was made. This has not happened and with the transfer window to the Premiership now definitely closed that seems unlikely.
The PFA are already involved and they could be facing administration. Since the end of last season the other two clubs relegated from the Premiership have tried with some success to cut their cloth. Leicester, also in a mess, have sold Gary Rowett, Robbie Savage and Matt Piper to Charlton, Birmingham and Sunderland respectively whilst Titus Bramble and Marcus Stewart have left Ipswich for Newcastle and Sunderland.
To add to that Leicester have been desperate to get Muzzy Izzett off the wage bill whilst at Ipswich they have also, without succeeding, tried to sell both Matt Holland and Herman Hreidarsson.
Derby though constantly talked of having to sell players but none did leave. They still have players such as Kinkladze and Ravanelli who must be costing a fortune. There are now talks that they will, Carbone style, try to buy out some of these contracts just to get them off the wage bill.
The future is looking bleak at Derby so beware on Saturday they might be trying to sign you up for the Rams Foundation.