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Since the very first season of FFO it's been a key and common feature for teams to sit there and say "I've over achieved" or play down their chances even citing their team "isn't as good as". Many phrases along these lines and in recent seasons a clubs wage structure has been the rational to indicate how good a squad actually is. To some, nothing else matters just where they sit in a wages table vs the league table and claim victory for being one place further up.
This has certainly been an area with much debate, some clubs run with more quality and depth meaning paying for more back up increases the wage where other run less quality doing the exact opposite, decreasing wages. These are both factors which clearly fluctuate the outcomes considering each team has a squad size of 23 players and not all these players are really going to be considered first team players so as a result the overall wages are somewhat skewed to a main team quality with some being masked and covered up by the clutter.
Myself personally, I never found wages to be the be all and end all, but having collated date from EFL2 and subsequently the Premier league (then later EFL 1 (unfortunately I never got round to the Championship)) so see who finished where in the wages cup, but also explored how much of a teams best XI is taken up by their wages.
The table doesn't lie showing the big winners and losers of EFL 2 with Frankfurt having a fine season above expectations and Ajax the biggest losers on the contrary. Now this doesn't show any potential growth with transfers and development happening over the season which could also have some impacts on positions, these figures only compare where the teams finished up with end wages and league positions. The reason I say this is based on club like Ajax for instance, at the time hold 2 GK's, 22 & 23 rated respectively, not many top tier clubs have 2 over 20 rated goalkeepers and the two players were the two highest earners at Ajax at the time.
Does it change when you look at the best XI wages?
Benfica at the time, had what you'd call 3 defenders before dropping to "a squaddie level" so for the purpose of the entire table, the best possible XI had been taken. Usually based on a 442, some clubs had a 532 taken, with maybe 1 343 at the time this was originally collated.
Some clubs have a tied best XI wage so hold the same spot (in these instances there is no sole 13th or 20th) as you can see now looking at the wage of a teams sole best XI it paints a completely different picture, and looking at how much a teams wage is taken up from the main XI gives an idea of who has more depth or players nearer the main squad in terms of skill and wage and those who run a thinner squad.
Benfica absorbed almost 95% of their wages in their best XI alone and fall 9 places bellow where they should do if you look at the starting XI wage whilst 3 teams this time are 8 places above where their best XI should've.
Ofcourse, you could go further, who had the best 16 man squad for instance but I felt it best to examine the overall and best XI given unless of injuries and suspensions, the starters rarely change.
To me, wages are not the only reason to look at as mentioned above because of the bottom table, where more so this season just gone, the new clubs all having squads where each player required minutes and thus, those players carried more wages than some of the established clubs having the players on lesser contracts. In my opinion there are clubs which can hold and hide their true quality behind the narrative of the wages table and if we are to look at this as a running mechanism going forward, I think Frankfurt deserve a trophy for finishing 15 places better off.
947 words
This has certainly been an area with much debate, some clubs run with more quality and depth meaning paying for more back up increases the wage where other run less quality doing the exact opposite, decreasing wages. These are both factors which clearly fluctuate the outcomes considering each team has a squad size of 23 players and not all these players are really going to be considered first team players so as a result the overall wages are somewhat skewed to a main team quality with some being masked and covered up by the clutter.
Myself personally, I never found wages to be the be all and end all, but having collated date from EFL2 and subsequently the Premier league (then later EFL 1 (unfortunately I never got round to the Championship)) so see who finished where in the wages cup, but also explored how much of a teams best XI is taken up by their wages.
| TEAM | LEAGUE POS | WAGE COST | WAGES POS SQUAD | POS DIFF |
| FIORENTINA | 1 | £9,450,000 | 2 | 1 |
| SEVILLA | 2 | £12,200,000 | 1 | -1 |
| ATALANTA | 3 | £7,400,000 | 10 | 7 |
| FRANKFURT | 4 | £6,750,000 | 19 | 15 |
| FEYENOORD | 5 | £7,350,000 | 11 | 6 |
| REAL BETIS | 6 | £8,550,000 | 6 | 0 |
| UNION BERLIN | 7 | £6,800,000 | 18 | 11 |
| VALENCIA | 8 | £8,750,000 | 3 | -5 |
| VILLARREAL | 9 | £8,700,000 | 4 | -5 |
| SPARTA PRAGUE | 10 | £6,850,000 | 17 | 7 |
| BENFICA | 11 | £8,550,000 | 6 | -5 |
| FC PORTO | 12 | £8,000,000 | 8 | -4 |
| SHAKHTAR | 13 | £6,950,000 | 14 | 1 |
| RENNES | 14 | £7,250,000 | 12 | -2 |
| PSV | 15 | £7,500,000 | 9 | -6 |
| AJAX | 16 | £8,600,000 | 5 | -11 |
| LENS | 17 | £7,050,000 | 13 | -4 |
| SALZBURG | 18 | £6,900,000 | 15 | -3 |
| LYON | 19 | £6,700,000 | 20 | 1 |
| SCHALKE | 20 | £6,900,000 | 15 | -5 |
The table doesn't lie showing the big winners and losers of EFL 2 with Frankfurt having a fine season above expectations and Ajax the biggest losers on the contrary. Now this doesn't show any potential growth with transfers and development happening over the season which could also have some impacts on positions, these figures only compare where the teams finished up with end wages and league positions. The reason I say this is based on club like Ajax for instance, at the time hold 2 GK's, 22 & 23 rated respectively, not many top tier clubs have 2 over 20 rated goalkeepers and the two players were the two highest earners at Ajax at the time.
Does it change when you look at the best XI wages?
Benfica at the time, had what you'd call 3 defenders before dropping to "a squaddie level" so for the purpose of the entire table, the best possible XI had been taken. Usually based on a 442, some clubs had a 532 taken, with maybe 1 343 at the time this was originally collated.
| TEAM | LEAGUE POS | WAGES BEST XI | WAGES POS XI | POS DIFF | % WAGE BEST XI |
| FIORENTINA | 1 | £7,800,000 | 3 | 2 | 82.54% |
| SEVILLA | 2 | £9,900,000 | 1 | -1 | 81.15% |
| ATALANTA | 3 | £5,900,000 | 11 | 8 | 79.73% |
| FRANKFURT | 4 | £5,500,000 | 12 | 8 | 81.48% |
| FEYENOORD | 5 | £6,300,000 | 7 | 2 | 85.71% |
| REAL BETIS | 6 | £7,400,000 | 4 | -2 | 86.55% |
| UNION BERLIN | 7 | £5,400,000 | 15 | 8 | 79.41% |
| VALENCIA | 8 | £6,600,000 | 6 | -2 | 75.43% |
| VILLARREAL | 9 | £6,800,000 | 5 | -4 | 78.16% |
| SPARTA PRAGUE | 10 | £5,200,000 | 17 | 7 | 75.91% |
| BENFICA | 11 | £8,100,000 | 2 | -9 | 94.74% |
| FC PORTO | 12 | £6,100,000 | 8 | -4 | 76.25% |
| SHAKHTAR | 13 | £4,900,000 | 19 | 6 | 70.50% |
| RENNES | 14 | £5,500,000 | 12 | -2 | 75.86% |
| PSV | 15 | £5,500,000 | 12 | -3 | 73.33% |
| AJAX | 16 | £6,000,000 | 9 | -7 | 69.77% |
| LENS | 17 | £5,300,000 | 16 | -1 | 75.18% |
| SALZBURG | 18 | £4,900,000 | 19 | 1 | 71.01% |
| LYON | 19 | £5,000,000 | 18 | -1 | 74.63% |
| SCHALKE | 20 | £6,000,000 | 9 | -11 | 86.96% |
Some clubs have a tied best XI wage so hold the same spot (in these instances there is no sole 13th or 20th) as you can see now looking at the wage of a teams sole best XI it paints a completely different picture, and looking at how much a teams wage is taken up from the main XI gives an idea of who has more depth or players nearer the main squad in terms of skill and wage and those who run a thinner squad.
Benfica absorbed almost 95% of their wages in their best XI alone and fall 9 places bellow where they should do if you look at the starting XI wage whilst 3 teams this time are 8 places above where their best XI should've.
Ofcourse, you could go further, who had the best 16 man squad for instance but I felt it best to examine the overall and best XI given unless of injuries and suspensions, the starters rarely change.
To me, wages are not the only reason to look at as mentioned above because of the bottom table, where more so this season just gone, the new clubs all having squads where each player required minutes and thus, those players carried more wages than some of the established clubs having the players on lesser contracts. In my opinion there are clubs which can hold and hide their true quality behind the narrative of the wages table and if we are to look at this as a running mechanism going forward, I think Frankfurt deserve a trophy for finishing 15 places better off.
947 words