Gary Cahill.

He had a stormer.... Whatda playah Jimal.

Worth more than Lescott (£23 million) easy, but we let his contract run out... 7 million with 6 months left is a good deal- he is worth more, but only if he had the contract to buy out.

It comes back to the management at the club at the top level. I still can't fathom why we are in so much debt after 10 years in the richest football competition in the world... No one has yet given me a decent answer.

Brilliant performance sadly!

The price was correct based on his length of contract in my opinion. For a better price we needed to sell last summer or have offered a longer contract previously..

Gaz had a good game but I still wanted Barca to rip charmless Chelsea a new one..ah well theres still the second leg

Can I just refer back to the number of times I said in September that failure to sell or tie down Cahill in Summer 2010 would constitute gross mismanagement, and the number of detractors that point of view got.

The most valuable asset in the club's history and we made nothing on him.

It comes back to the management at the club at the top level. I still can't fathom why we are in so much debt after 10 years in the richest football competition in the world... No one has yet given me a decent answer.

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You serious?

I know nothing about business.

But when you pay 80% of your takings coming in back out in wages, there is no room for profit.

That leaves 20% to pay everything else...

Therefore we've lost about 10 million a season. 10 million times 10 is 100. There you go.

Perhaps I was taking your answer too literally?

As for "why" we spend 80% on wages...

Because we try to compete financially with the big boys. Since when would a small business regional business try to compete with a global brand?

Hi Ed, yes I am serious.

In our current premiership run (2001-onwards) we arrived in the premiership with approx 38 million in debt. After 5 years of sustained premiership football we had managed to reduce this to around £30 million (2006 figures). In other words we turned a profit.

From 2006 to the latest accounts, we have increased our debt to around 110 million.

In 5 years we have spunked 80 million ABOVE our running costs from 2001-6... 16 million a year OVER our incomings.

In that time we have paid over the odds (in fees and wages) for far too many players that do not have a resale value close to what we paid for them:- I call the following to the stand.

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Knight- 5 million
Wages (Estimated) - £25-40,000/week)
Or 1.3 - 2,080,000 per year
Resale - Free in Summer 2012.

Overall cost-
£5 million (* currently as contract expires)
3 years x 1.3= 3.9 Million (lowest estimate wage)
£8.9 Million over 3 years.
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Elmander- 8.2 million-
Wages (estimated) 40-60k week -
Or - £2,080,00- 3,120,000 per year...
Resale- Free Summer 2011

Overall Cost
£8.2 million (no resale)
3 x 2,080,000 (lowest estimate)= 6,240,000
Total cost: £14,440,000

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Matt Taylor- £4million-
Wages (estimated) 25-40k week -
1.3- 2,080,000 million per year.
Sold at 2 million loss for 2 million to West Ham.

Overall cost:-
2 Million lost on transfer fee
3 years x 1.3= 3.9 Million (lowest estimate wage)
£5.9 million over 3 years.

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I have picked 3 players here, Knight IMO is bad, Matt Taylor only slightly better, and Elmander average to good... Their combined cost is 29.4 million (at least) over 3 years, or just under £10 million a year.

I get that these examples are used to illustrate my point and there are holes in my argument, but I think they highlight the fact that if we had signed slightly more sensibly, and tied players down who we since see are worth it (CAHILL!) to a longer contract we wouldn't be in the financial position we are in now.

Our squad is full of over payed, over rated and over bought players- and for every over paid squad player, our debt increases.

Spending money isn't the best way to go, and to be fair I think the club have begun to realise that. Coyles policy of buying young and cheap, lowering wage bills etc is a complete necessity.

Unless you are a big spending club you are never going to win the premiership, and unless we get bought out by a gazillionaire that wont be us, but we can join the ranks of Norwich, Everton, Wigan, Swansea, Blackpool and the rest and give it a go with minimum budget.

Infact I am pretty sure we were doing that in 2001-6.