Personally I would like to see salary / squad size caps in the EPL.
Football is fashionable again and everybody wants to be involved, but with anything in fashion it will go out of fashion at some point then what happens then.
Ambramovich has spent over £2 Million a week of his own money on Chelsea since he has been there, their loss last year was bigger than most of the other EPL clubs TURNOVER other than 5/6. Chelsea owe him something in the region of £500/£600 Million. The same will be happening at City, Manu debts are nearing £6/700 Million, Liverpool are struggling against too much debt.
Players / agents etc are bleeding the clubs dry with little or no thought for the future. A salary cap for squads would help reduce the stupidity that is going on now, as for squad sizes EUFA already have a 25 limit on Champions League entry so there is a precedent for it. There is also a free movement of labour European law but they are bringing in the 6 home grown players rule.
I expect to see more clubs being pushed to the brink over the next couple of years there only hope being a very rich benefactor.
It comes to O if you still don't know what your doing. In 2007 Sunderland were the 4th biggest spenders in the Premier. Also Newcastle and Middlesborough over the years.. Where are they now?
The reason for that was the squad was championship only. The club had manageable debt given its crowd figures and recent relatively cheap buyout. To put that in perspective Liverpool spent 75% of what we spent for all the players on Torres.
Clubs coming up that are going to spend are going to be near the top end of the nett spending charts because usually they are not moving players on that are worth a great deal of money. The trick is when you are in a position to move on decent players for good money how much do you invest in improving the team. The club has probably had its lowest nett spend this year since its return to but is till 4 good players short of a decent team. I suspect keeping a lid on spending is the reason the squad is thin.
The truth came out finally about how poorly Newcastle has been run and Boro came out last season and made the comment whether it could afford to be in the prem rather than be in it. Look at the likes of Blackburn, Wigan etc who have to sell to survive and their only goal is to avoid relegation, if relegated they will be in trouble.
Chelsea and now City are just spending what they haven't got, if they were a normal business they would be bust. Manu and Liverpool are feeling the pinch and will struggle if interest rates go back to more nominal levels. Chelsea owe £600/700 Million, Liverpool and Manu aren't far behind, City no doubt have big debts as that the 2nd takeover and the 1st was funded with debt add to that the £100 Million already spend and massive wages being offered to attract players. Its a situation that cannot continue for the sake of the clubs themselves there has been more than mutterings about making the finance of clubs a provision of being in the league. Look at Portsmouth how much they spent which was never sustainable and made a big profit on transfers and still nearly went into adminastration.
For me I would like to see my club being able to compete, to watch the best players play decent football that the club can afford without putting it at risk. The problem with a lot of clubs fans are desperate to avoid relegation because they are simply not sure whether their club will survive or not and they go in spite of knowing that the club having little or no chance of ever winning anything.