Where is our wage bill relative to rest of league?

[MagicMartinoWoods]

Just started reading Soccernomics, and there's some really interesting insights into what makes a successful football club, and what ends up being wasteful money.

A key point of the early chapters is that the biggest consistent predictor of a team's final league position is wage bill. Final position doesn't correlate well with things like amount of money spent on transfers for instance.

Given all the points continually being made about the board not backing the club with enough investment, do we know what our wage bill is like relative to the rest of the division?

The book would suggest if you have aspirations to gain promotion then you want your wage budget to be in the top three/four in this division. Have the board provided us with this kind of budget? If so, it would suggest they are doing the right thing by providing such a budget and trying to use it wisely. If they haven't and we are 7th/9th/12th biggest wage budget in the league, then they shouldn't be expressing aspirations towards promotion.

Very interesting book, I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't read it.

[5minstogo]

I think its been said before that our budget sits within the playoffs places if you were to view it as a league table.

Or at least it was when were in League 1. I'm sure Gavin had said that if you are regularly getting into the playoffs its only a matter of time before you are promoted so that's what the aim was.

[nice one rovers]

We’re paying them?

[Padge_DRFC]

Clubs I'd say probably paying more.

Orient
Bradford
Gillingham since Jan
Salford
Stockport

Then probably similar to

Mansfield
Carlisle
Northampton
Wimbledon

Other teams have caught us up for sure versus the last time in league 2

[ncRover]

Clubs I'd say probably paying more.

Orient
Bradford
Gillingham since Jan
Salford
Stockport

Then probably similar to

Mansfield
Carlisle
Northampton
Wimbledon

Other teams have caught us up for sure versus the last time in league 2

Replace Carlisle with Swindon and Walsall

[Padge_DRFC]

Clubs I'd say probably paying more.

Orient
Bradford
Gillingham since Jan
Salford
Stockport

Then probably similar to

Mansfield
Carlisle
Northampton
Wimbledon

Other teams have caught us up for sure versus the last time in league 2

Replace Carlisle with Swindon and Walsall

Completely forgot about Swindon. Agreed. Averaging 9k crowds

[ForsolongaRover]

Fundamental question: Proving the connection requires definitive data on total wage bills which could be accessible at PL level because accounts may well be published. At lower league level no one on here knows what the figures are. So has the connection been proved at, say League 1 and League 2 level?

It may follow, but you might also expect that the overall budgets of the big clubs, the squad sizes, the quality of the facilities, recruitment, management and staff, would also be success factors - not wages alone.