Wanderers slash wage bill by £5million a year

WANDERERS shaved-off an incredible £5million-plus from their annual wage bill yesterday by releasing 13 players from the books.

Matt Mills, Andy Lonergan, Jermaine Beckford, Keith Andrews and Craig Davies were the biggest casualties of a cull which will save the club more than £100,000 a week.

Wanderers had the Championship’s biggest wage bill at £37.4m in their first season after relegation from the Premier League but have now brought that down by around 35 per cent in two years.

Not only has that helped the club fall into line with Financial Fair Play but it is hoped the most recent cuts will give Neil Lennon some breathing room in his budget this summer to repair a squad that has looked painfully thin in some positions over the last few months.

He will definitely be looking for a new club captain after the departure of Mills, who played 41 games for the club this season.

And with Lonergan also gone, extra emphasis has now been placed on contract negotiations with number one goalkeeper Adam Bogdan, which are no nearer a conclusion.

Manchester United’s Ben Amos remains an option for Wanderers in the summer if the Hungary international turns down the contract offer currently on the table.

The decision to release Wales international Davies came as the biggest surprise to Wanderers fans but was almost certainly based on his chequered fitness history with the club which restricted him to just three starts since December 6.

Two of the squad’s biggest earners, Beckford and Andrews, have been on loan elsewhere at Preston North End and MK Dons respectively and their exit had been mooted for some time.

But there was also a clear-out of younger players, with Chris Lester, Georg Iliev, Luke Woodland, Glenn Matthews, Ryan Sellers, James Ball, Carl Kennedy and Kieran Nolan all cleared to move on to pastures new.

As expected, Wanderers also confirmed that contract talks are ongoing with midfielder Darren Pratley and veteran strike pair Eidur Gudjohnsen and Emile Heskey.

Wanderers will release details of their pre-season schedule early next week but two dates have already been made public, with a trip to League One Port Vale planned for Tuesday, July 18.

A Whites XI will also visit Alder House on July 4 to face Michael Clegg’s recently-promoted Atherton Colls.

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/wanderers/12954583.Wanderers_slash_wage_bill_by___5million_a_year_after_13_players_shown_the_door_at_Macron_Stadium/

That tells me that mills was on the wedge that website said he was. 40000 a week. Id rather have one of bryans donkeys at cb

it just goes to show what a mess our previous managers have made, lets hope Lennon can use the money saved wisely

That's a vast amount of money - Andrews was on a decent whack too wasn't he, am I sure Beckford was too.

Beckford wasnt on as much as you think. Mills 40k though is sickening

y2johnny wrote:Beckford wasnt on as much as you think. Mills 40k though is sickening

ITK....?

That link that was payed the other day
I think it is more accurate than people think going off figures recently quoted

The thing though the article is misdirecting somewhat.

Yes, maybe we have got the wage bill down by £100,000 BUT we will have to get other players IN and they won't be playing for free.

We probably will make a net savings on wages but it won't be anything like £100,000 per week.

Oh, and we will still be playing all those thousands of pounds a week to all those players that Lennon said who cost us all those late goals and doesn't want at the club.

Wum

Takes one to know one.

Why do you wum a site you've "worked so hard for free on"

Boggersbelief wrote:Why do you wum a site you've "worked so hard for free on"

I don't.

You do though.

I think it's a bit pathetic myself, paricularly as you 'pretend' that you aren't doing it.

If you have a problem with me then just ignore me.

Better for everybody and the site if you do.

Thank you.

You do exactly what you just said I do. How ironic

Does this mean that Boggers is actually........

Oh my god....

The things is sluffy we can get 4 decent (probably better) players than mills on the saving we are making on mills alone.  Same with baptiste and spearing.  Both on 30k a week.  Sack them off too.  Thats 100k saved off three players alone that would pay 10k a week to ten players who would be a country mile better.

Don't take the bait johnny

What Johnny said

If we do get rid of spearing and baptiste too (which after seeing what they are on too i would) then i wouldnt think for one second we could invest all 160k a week in wages. But even half of it would be 8 decent players on 10k a week that would make the squad feel more like a squad rather than a constant jigsaw and juggling act.

Boggersbelief wrote:You do exactly what you just said I do. How ironic

Not sure exactly what you mean.

If you're saying I'm a wum then I'm not. I don't say things deliberately to get a reaction - unlike you.

I have mentioned (a number of times) a fact.

Namely what Lennon said about giving away last minute goals and what he thought of those that had - and that he did not want them at the club.

The facts however do not stack up to me on this issue in that different players were involved in those games, some of which he's said he wants to keep at the club (Mills), others of which he's praised after games (Dervite), yet again others who he's consistently played out of their normal positions (Danns, Feeney, Ream).

At the end of the day Lennon coaches the squad, picks the team and the tactics - and if he can identify something that is going wrong should do something with the resources available to him to rectify things.

You know all this anyway.

We both know also that you are not stupid and that your 'target' is not what is being said but who is saying it.

So either please ignore me, let matters drop or find somewhere else that is more to you're liking.

Thank you.

Only had a problem with you since you claimed I was a WUM with no reason to do so. I don't try to wind people up, maybe I am just misunderstood