Should the senior players have offered to go unpaid to help the club?

Let's face it.  The majority of our costs are the huge wage bills for the senior players.  Those same players who are currently demanding massive salaries but performing at a level which will put us in league 1. 

In many ways the players could save the club.  It is in their hands.... 

Collectively they could have said we will go unpaid for 3 months until the mess is sorted out. They are not skint and they could take it on the chin I am sure.  Even if they had an agreement to be back paid later down the line it would have helped.  

Not only that but they could have even offered to agree new contracts on half pay until the end of the season to keep us ticking over.  

And in a way they could see it as being in their own interests as well as the clubs because there is no guarantee that they will end up on decent money somewhere else.  They would be securing their future and that of the club.  

It seems to me that there it's no loyalty and the players don't play for the fans or the club.  They simply have a job.  Instead of digging deep and pulling through a difficult situation together half of them are getting the first taxi out of here...

In an ideal world maybe, but would you go unpaid for 3 months to help out the company you work for? 

No, me neither, i couldn't afford to. 

As you said, to them, it's just a job. They get paid a lot of money and live relative to their wages. They could have massive monthly payments on cars, mortgages etc and although I don't feel particularly sorry for them, not all of them will have been putting money aside for a event like this and could put their homes and whatever else at risk. 

Footballers are not the type to move into a two bed terrace to save a club they have no affinity with.

Yes the senior players could have deferred their wages.  I'm sure a couple might have done, probably The ones who are from Bolton.

BoltonTillIDie wrote:Yes the senior players could have deferred their wages.  I'm sure a couple might have done, probably The ones who are from Bolton.

BTID even if they deferred their wages we'd still have to pay them in full at some point to get out of admin. After the Leeds Utd saga the FA changed the rules about deferred payments so they couldn't be avoided by administration. However, the players do have the option of foregoing them entirely but how many of us would really do that for our employer? 

I remember (I think) David James giving up some sort of appearance related bonus at Portsmouth. They couldn't afford to pay it and therefore wouldn't pick him but he wanted first team football to keep him in the frame for England so he agreed to write it off but I'm pretty sure it was just a bonus and not his wages. 

Deferring wages is a short term answer at best and only adds to the debt a new owner would have to pay if one came in.

No... if my employer called me into his office one morning to inform me that due to his monumental mismanagement of the business (running up 180m of debt) and general incompetent twattery (sticking his head in the sand for years) that there was no way he could afford to pay my wages until further notice but he really really really wanted me to stay and work for free - I would tell him to FUCK the FUCK OFF!

But... they're stupid footballers and have sat around long enough knowing full well that this day was coming (as we all did) instead of seeing the signs and getting the hell out of there.

Only an idiot would stay with a company so mis-managed and hemorrhaging money at the rate Bolton has for so many years now. If you didn't see the signs and get out, you're as dumb as a footballer.

Maybe they are not that dumb though (or their agents anyway!).

Doesn't the players contracts get paid up in full as football creditors whether the club sinks or not?

If that was the case - and nobody else will pay anything like the stupid money we are paying them - then maybe it is best for them to stay put and cry all the way to the bank each week!

I really can't believe that sitting around and waiting to find yourself unemployed before trying to secure another position is the smart move. Leaving yourself with zero bargaining power with a potential future employer isn't good for anyone. Wheater at the close of his career maybe the exception.

finlaymcdanger wrote:I really can't believe that sitting around and waiting to find yourself unemployed before trying to secure another position is the smart move. Leaving yourself with zero bargaining power with a potential future employer isn't good for anyone. Wheater at the close of his career maybe the exception.

In the real world I would agree but in the world of football who knows!

I doubt many of our lot are going to get better than what they are on now and most are sitting on their last big pay day for as long as they can. Most I think will end up at lower league teams at a fraction of what they are currently on so I guess for them it does make some sort of sense.

As if.