Burnley look as if they are heading for relegation, but manager Sean Dyche has said that the club will not splash the cash in the January transfer window.
Burnley look as if they are heading for relegation, but manager Sean Dyche has said that the club will not splash the cash in the January transfer window.
Even if he had £30m at his disposal, he would not spend it because of the pressure it would put on the club’s wage structure. The club’s wage bill in 2012-13 was £15.4m, with Arsenal having a wage bill ten times higher. No doubt Burnley’s wage bill has gone up since then, but the gap will still be a huge one.
Is this, then, the future for smaller clubs that are promoted to the Premier League? Spend cautiously and take the cash and the subsequent parachute payments so that one can be a stronger force in the Championship. But what is the strategy then? Try and become a yo-yo club?
What this brings home is not just the gap between the Championship and the Premiership, but that between smaller and bigger clubs in the Premier League.