Balancing Act

Dai Young speaking about having to trim his squad to keep to the rules of the wage cap. There's been the recent comments by players willing to take wage drops for fewer games.so I wonder if the next step is the proposition of dropping teams from the top flight to enable fewer games and keep down costs? We've seen a couple of other teams recently struggle with the demands of wage balancing vs challenging at the top so clearly not just an issue at wasps.

The other option is obviously scrap the cap as some want and allow a possible top 4 approach of football in England. Not an option I'd particularly favour as for me it helps cut down on opportunities for true.competitive.

Dai Young: Wasps director of rugby forced to trim squad - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/41430245

One of the biggest earners said he'd take a wage drop. Not sure it applies to everyone.

Limit the top earners to a percentage of the total salary cap. For instance you can't earn more than 10% of the total cap.

Bit rich for spend it like you stole it Wasps to be moaning.

formerly known as Sam wrote:Limit the top earners to a percentage of the total salary cap. For instance you can't earn more than 10% of the total cap.

Bit rich for spend it like you stole it Wasps to be moaning.

If they are spending within the salary cap Im not sure what the problem is with Wasps? It's not like you can say they are outspending their competitors or (allegedly) breaking the rules while doing it

They were outspending their competitors though, through their use of the marquee player system which falls outside of the cap. They, I believe paid Kurtley Beale £1m for his stint there. That type of spending forces the market value of all players upwards and is directly responsible for what Dai Young is moaning about.

marty2086 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Limit the top earners to a percentage of the total salary cap. For instance you can't earn more than 10% of the total cap.

Bit rich for spend it like you stole it Wasps to be moaning.

If they are spending within the salary cap Im not sure what the problem is with Wasps? It's not like you can say they are outspending their competitors or (allegedly) breaking the rules while doing it

Problem is it's not sustainable.

It is strange to see Dai complaining about this when they have very recently paid huge sums for Beale, Piutau, Le Roux, Cipriani, etc. Did they not expect that the other players would start asking for more money when they saw the massive contracts these players were getting?

It was reported between £700k and £750k for Beale

There are plenty of reasons for the rising wages, the influx of cash being the main driver.

That's still an incredibly high sum in comparison the majority of players wages marty.

I have to be honest and say that the phrase you reap what you sow appears to be applicable here.

What percentage of Wasps squad are academy players > seniors.

I think in the case of the falcons, we are starting to get a big swing. Many years ago I bemoaned the number of woeful journeymen foreigners we had dominating our squad.

Now since Deans arrival, this has slowly changed...we are once again producing lots of local academy players who are training on a weekly basis with the seniors and well, people can see we are improving now. And the senior players who are foreigners are top quality!

Im curious if this is the route clubs need to go.

Our budget is much lower than everyone elses.

There are tiers though to what players earn, guys like Piutau and Le Roux will earn more but since Young took over Wasps have went from the bottom half to the top half. With success comes greater rewards across the board and players will want more money you also need to spend money to stay there.

Im sure theres a case of mismanagement of their spending and word is they are cutting Le Roux because he's not value for money and Marty Moore too could be leaving, the problem though he seems to be the stagnation of the salary cap while the economic forces will drive up the wages

The problem is the better these players do, the higher the wages they can command.

I guess one issue with the marquee system is it encourages higher wages for new signings and not for homegrown academy players.

Not as if Wasps are holding onto these marquee signings either with both Piutau and Beale leaving.

Unfortunately with wage inflation, even players who want to stay loyal are forced into the position where they have to choose loyalty to their current club or a much higher wage.

Retaining players becomes harder and harder.

Scottrf wrote:One of the biggest earners said he'd take a wage drop. Not sure it applies to everyone.

David Flatman said he definitely wouldn't have taken a pay cut to play fewer games. Although he knew it wasn't good for him, he said he would probably have accepted more money to play more games.

Suspect most players would agree with Flatman rather than Vunipola. Welfare has to be built into the structure of the sport, because individual players can't be relied upon to make it a priority.

Some good points. Those players outside the cap are going to create some green eyed monsters. And in wasps' case they really have used the additional player as I think it was designed ie top quality additions even if they haven't been long term.

Speaking on his podcast, Alex Corbisiero said he tried to negotiate a contract to play a limited number of games for less money but could never make it work. In particular, he approached Stuart Lancaster, offering to be contracted to the RFU and loaned to a club. Lancaster tried to follow up but the idea was quickly quased by the Premiership, who didn't want to set a precedent.

Corbisiero is very critical of the way talks have progressed on structuring the season. He believes all players need a physical and mental break from the sport, so does not want anyone in action for eleven months, regradless of the actual number of games they play. He always points out a bench players still has to train for a match the same as someone named to start.