Staff and Payroll
There are two areas to watch. The obvious one is that that the wages just don't get too high. The 2006 figure shows the club brought in players on higher wages in a attempt to maintain a position in the Premier League. This was not a problem though as the amount of money coming in to the club also rose dramatically. The 2007 and 2008 leaps are not so easy to explain. That the club doubled it wages from 2006 to 2008 makes it look like the wages are out of control.
The second area to keep an eye on is the ratio of the wages to the income. Deloittes who do some in-depth analysis of football finances reckon the target for this ratio should be 50%. This allows the club to cope with the costs of running the business, buying the occasional player, running a youth development system, putting on games, maintaining the ground etc.
The West Ham figures again point to problems. The 2006 figure showed the club giving 52% of its income to the players. This low % came from having a high income that year, and the wages being reasonable. Subsequent to that the % going to players has just not been managed at all. By 2008 80% of all the money coming in to the club went out to the players. This is a ridiculous way to try and run a football club. The number of people employed within the footballing side of the business comes to 74. This works out as an average of £628,000 each !! This covers everyone down to trainees, and all the coaches as well as the first team players. Being a bit kinder to the club would be to look at all the employees.
The graph below shows the number of staff employed by West Ham. This has been fairly flat up to 2006. In 2007 and then again in 2008 there was a big leap in the amount of playing staff on the books. If the admin staff are included in the average wage calculation then every employee of the club is on an average £250k per year!! This explains David Sullivan's concern at the situation they have inherited.
