Should We.....

[Royal Rother]

I don't WANT to see us relegated but but I DO want to see the likes of Ikpeazu, Samuel, Obita, D'Ath, Ugwu, Hector et al play for the 1st team, preferably all at the same time, and that has zero chance of happening if we stay up.

[Cypry]

Secondly, with the TV money increasing heavily next season we could see the gap between the Championship and Premiership stretch even further (and we already seem to be struggling with the gap!).

I'm not convinced that the increase in TV money will affect us too badly if relegated this year....
As far as I understand it, the level of parachute payments are not proposed to increase from their current level of £16M in years 1 & 2, and £8M in years 3 & 4, even after the TV deal increase.

So for next year, at least, the status quo is maintained regarding teams relegated to the Championship. In our case, this would mean limited impact, we'd almost certainly be able to afford to maintain the core of the team as it is today, with a wage bill that wouldn't need slashing dramatically giving us a decent shout at bouncing straight back up.

Yes, we would miss out on an immediate windfall next year from the increased deal, but that's not a disaster IMO.

It's my opinion that the teams who will be worst affected will be those relegated in May 2014 onwards. The temptation, from next year will be to massively increase many teams wage bills in the PL to match the increase in TV money. So what will happen to these teams on relegation? The likelihood is that they'll have to slash their wage bills significantly on relegation, perhaps ripping the heart out of the team in the process, and making it a lot harder to bounce back at the first time of asking. We would not suffer anything like that if relegated this year.

When people talk about the increase in TV money increasing the gap between the PL and Championship, the gap is actually likely to be mostly reflected in the gap in wage bills. Not something that will have much effect on teams other than those who achieve promotion, who will have a decision to make as to whether they increase their wage bills massively or not, and mostly on those relegated after the increased takes effect, who will almost certainly have to undergo massive belt tightening....

Perhaps this gives us some insight into why the club has taken the approach it has this year. Relegation would be more of an inconvenience than a disaster this year, whilst, if we could stay up "on a budget" if would be a massive bonus. Teams like Southampton, who have spent much bigger than us, will be much harder pressed to maintain their level of spend if relegated, putting them in a much weaker position to bounce back....


I have a feeling that AZ really is playing the long game here, looking at a gradual building of the club into a "proper" PL side in a steady and sustainable way, rather than trying to do it in a rush, and risking the viability of the club in the process.

I also suspect that it'll mean long term security for McDermott, even if we were to be relegated this year....I really wonder if the approach of the club, owners, management etc ths year has, from the outset been, "let's try to stay up spending as little as possible, and if we can it's a bonus - if not, it won't be a disaster, we'll keep the core of the squad and the management team together, and look to establish ourselves as a real PL prospect in 2014/15..." - if that were the case, it would explain a lot....