Hutch warning on game’s cash crisis
Friday 30th April 2010, 10:25AM BST.
Walsall manager Chris Hutchings has predicted football’s cash crisis will continue to force clubs into administration – but insisted his club won’t.
Nonetheless, the Saddlers boss will be forced to work with a reduced budget next season as the club try to balance the books.
Tomorrow’s hosts Carlisle will also operate with less cash next season, while League One strugglers Oldham have also revealed this week they will make cuts.
Hutchings’ former club Brighton admitted yesterday they cannot afford to pay big wages, despite being heavily bankrolled by chairman Tony Bloom.
The Banks’s Stadium chief believes more clubs will fall in to administration with a summer of struggle ahead.
He said: “I do, without doubt. There are lots of teams in the red and it probably doesn’t come out, but it will come to the fore sooner or later.
“Throughout pre-season there are going to be clubs who have nothing going on, at least we have something going on. Players are paid for three months with no revenue coming in and it makes you wonder how clubs survive.
“You see teams asking for players to take reduced wages and that’s got to come.”
The Saddlers boss has reassured supporters that the club won’t be following the likes of Stockport, Crystal Palace and Darlington into administration.
He said: “All clubs have got to run a tight ship, so credit to the chairman and the board for doing it and keeping us in the black.
“Premier League sides are in massive debt, so it’s tight and you have to work within your means and budgets will be reduced.
“They might think they might have the same money to spend next year as what they’ve had this year, but you can’t see it if you’re not getting people through the gate.
“We rely a lot on the corporate side and even that’s gone quite because people aren’t spending the money one way or another and it’s massive for the club.”
But Hutchings is confident, despite an anticipated reduced budget, his side can be competitive next season.
He said: “Having money doesn’t guarantee success.
“Look at Brighton, they have a much bigger budget than us and have slowly got away from the bottom of the league but they are a prime example.”
UK Sport
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How are we “in the black”?
We increasingly rely on loans from the directors to keep us afloat. We owe a couple of million. Look at the accounts.
Isn’t it wonderful how these inaccuracies get repeated as gospel?
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Fair Enough…but……can we NOT waste what little money we have on poor quality under achievers that spend most games sat on the bench !!
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Sorry my mistake, Walsall F.C are now in the black, despite what the official accounts say.
For Gods Sake Express & Star, grow a pair of goolies are ask some questions.
You could interview me and I could tell you that Mount Everest is not in Nepal, it’s actually located on the A34 just past the Scott Arms and you’d take it as unquestionable fact.
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A mate of mine – a Wolves fan, as it goes – said back in about 1994 that “football will eat itself”. He reckoned however much money the game got, it’d always want more – especially in the wake of the Bosman ruling and the advent of ‘player power’.
It’s more or less come true. The only people left to convince that the cupboard is bare are the players. Anyone remember the days when Roy Keane’s £50k per week deal made the headlines, and when £10k was the salary for a pretty good Prem player?
Clubs are skint. What players need to realize now – especially when it comes to clubs like us in League One – is that they’ll have to be happy with less (like most of us have had to in the last couple of years). If they don’t want to take it…tough. At least we’ll still have a club, while they might not have a career.
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It is a fact that it will get worse for clubs as it will for the supporters as it as we know the fans that pay the wages, and with the huge deficit the country owes which will take years to repay and joe public who will have to pay it, the inevitable tax rises that will be introduces the continual rise in petrol duty etc…. Football could easily in the not too distant future become a luxury that fans may not be able to afford, players need to take a step back and hold their hands up and take some of the blame for what is happening, reduced wages could easily help to reduce ticket prices for fans which could help attendances and relieve some of the pressure at some clubs, we at walsall are lucky whatever way you look at it we still have a club that is not in massive debt which as fans we should be thankfull and who knows with more and more clubs finding it hard to survive little walsall may find themselves a bigger fish in an ever decreasing pond.
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And couldn’t we do with an extra 350k?
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There are some sensible comments here. A refreshing change from the usual moaners, doom merchants and stayaways. We must support our club, not knock it even if we do not see eye to eye with the current regime. Owners, players, managers, supporters all come and go.Clubs endure (at least we hope they do!)
Up the Saddlers!
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