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He was pointing out the injustice of Leicester City being effectively allowed to form a new company, write of their debts by offering creditors a fraction of the sums they owed, and all the while maintain the squad which were relegated from the Premier league the previous season.
Admittedly, Leicester were unable to bring in a single player during the time they were in administration, and Mickey Adams certainly did a fine job in order to achieve promotion. But the point Warnock was making was simply that whilst Leicester cocked up their financial management, they got away with it at the expense of more prudent teams.
Now, Burnley have suffered in a similar manner. Drissa Diallo was superb for the Clarets in the second half of last season; in no time at all he became the lynchpin of our defence, and was no doubt the man around whom Stan hoped to rebuild the back four. But all of a sudden, Ipswich entered the fray, and were able to comfortably out bid us.
How? Having been in administration for much of last season, how on earth were they able to outbid a club who, by hook or by crook, managed to stay solvent? Quite simply, they screwed their creditors, offered them 5p in the pound, and suddenly found that once they came out of administration, they had the cash left over to sign one of the better centre halves available this summer.
It is quite clear that the current state of affairs is unacceptable. It is clear that administration currently acts as a get out clause enabling any team to wipe out their debts and start afresh. Given that every team in the league has some sort of debt, it is a sharp practice which must be stopped.
Some draconian measures have been suggested. Some have argued that clubs should not be allowed to go into administration, but instead should pay the full price of their incompetence and cease to exist. In the current climate, however, such a policy could have the effect of halving the number of league clubs overnight. No-one wants to see clubs go to the wall, and in that respect, administration must have a role to play in allowing clubs to get their houses in order.
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What is needed is a system whereby clubs that enter administration are handicapped once they emerge from it. Perhaps they should be forced to offer new contracts at below the existing lowest earner in the division, or at least at their club for a period of time. The difficulty with that is that it would see clubs building up a war chest which they could spend once the period expires.
The best system may well be one which links the money they have written off to the monies they are allowed to maintain. Once a club leaves administration, they should be given a certain number of years to reduce the wage bill to a figure proportionate to the percentage of their debts that they are actually going to settle, and only once it has been reduced to that level should they be allowed to begin to increase it again, subject to close scrutiny from the authorities. The requirement should be maintained regardless of whether a club gains promotion or not. Perhaps if their income rises beyond that projected as a result of promotion, the excess should be placed in a collective pot.
Whatever solution is favoured, it is crucial that it is implement quickly. Administration is making a mockery of the need for clubs to manage their finances responsibly. Rewarding incompetence is not what football is about, whether that incompetence is on the field or in the boardroom.