Im really dissapointed by that article. I would have hoped that
Greeny had some contacts or connections in the UK - or even some
players from the spanish league which is generally in the
shitter right now.
Yeah Spain would be a good place to recruit from. Their second division would be A-League standard
Although clubs in the
Spanish Second Div. have a lot of financial woes with about half
being in administration, they still pay much higher wages than the
A-League. And for those players not being paid due to Spanish
bankruptcy laws which allowed clubs in administration to not pay
their players without legal repercussions (a loophole closed by the
government late last year) they would have to stick around to take
legal action to have the wages owed paid.
A smaller Spanish First division club like Deportivo la Coruna
pays players on avg. $US 18.000 / week !!!! The avg yearly pay in
the Spanish First Div is about Euros 1.5 million...only 10% of
players earn less than Euros 300,000 /year. Some earn more , some
less but it's still a lot of dosh compared to even the top end of
the A-League. The eight smallest wage bills of the Spanish First
Div. way back in 2000 were between 3.7 million Euros to 10 million
Euros.
Second Div wages harder to come by - but if even half that of
smaller First Div clubs would be out of the Nix's ability to
afford.
One of the bigger Second Div. clubs Racing Santander, was
paying its players about $US 17,000 / week despite going into
administration last year.
"Phoenix till they lose"