Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Bristol Post

Sport

Richard Forrester

How the value of Bristol City's squad compares to the rest of their Championship rivals

Bristol City Robins (Person) Blackpool Nigel Pearson Bournemouth (Organization) Stoke EPL Kieran Maguire Tomas Kalas Blackburn (Organization)

Bristol City have the ninth most expensive assembled squad in the Championship totalling £36.2million with Fulham topping the bill worth a huge £233m.

The Cottagers booked their return to the Premier League on Tuesday with a 3-0 victory over Preston although it will come as little surprise to many considering the total value of their squad is worth considerably more than the rest of their Championship rivals.

Thanks to data released by Price of Football's Kieran Maguire, the latest information provides further evidence of the mismanagement in previous transfer windows considering the financial and league positions the club finds itself in today.

The costs of the squads are calculated from the most recent available accounts although Derby County's figure stems back to 2018 as owner Mel Morris has refused to publish their accounts.

Above City are Cardiff, Middlesbrough, Derby, West Brom, Sheffield United, Stoke, Bournemouth and Marco Silva's Fulham - all above Nigel Pearson's side in the Championship with the exception of already relegated Rams.

The top five have all benefitted from parachute payments in recent years and therefore have been able to maintain their spending in the transfer windows while keeping hold of players that arrived during their time in the top flight - Aleksandar Mitrovic for example who joined Fulham for £22million in 2018.

From a City perspective, the figures are a reminder of their poor judgement in the transfer windows and further backup Pearson's comments that the club have been passive in the past.

Tomas Kalas is the most expensive player in the squad with City paying Chelsea a club-record £8m fee while midfielder Han-Noah Massengo joined for an initial £2.7m fee, rising to almost £8m with clauses.

City opened the cheque book in the summer of 2019 also paying around £5m for striker Nahki Wells, a reported £3.5m for Kasey Palmer and seven-figure prices for Jay Dasilva and Dan Bentley.

Tomas Kalas is Bristol City's most expensive player (Robbie Stephenson/JMP)

The Robins posted losses of £38.4m in December and put it down to the collapse of the transfer market outside of the Premier League following to coronavirus pandemic. Less than £2m was spent last summer in Rob Atkinson and George Tanner.

The information also highlights the jobs being done by the likes of Luton, who sit fourth in the Championship, with a squad value totalling just £3.4m.

Coventry (£5.4m), Blackburn (£16.4m) and Huddersfield (£17.2) are all arguably overachieving in the league while Blackpool have the lowest squad value in the division worth just £1.4m.

The latest figures come a week after figures were shared exposing the extent of wages Bristol City have been paying their players and staff in relation to the revenue they receive.

City were paying 212 per cent of wages in comparison to the income received last season with just three Championship clubs in Birmingham, Brentford and Reading paying more.

Maguire also released information regarding the average weekly wage of clubs in the Championship - and again it wasn't good reading for Bristol City.

It claims the club were paying an average of £16,419 per player on wages last season with only five teams paying more in Brentford, Stoke, Bournemouth, Norwich and Watford - three of those were promoted while Stoke and Bournemouth still have Premier League wages on their books.

Manager Pearson has been blunt in City's assessment of their finances as he plans a summer shakeup with no, or very limited, funds available.

When asked about transfer plans, he responded: "As it stands at the moment, I can't see us spending any money". He was slightly more positive last week when he said "there may be some money but we have to be prepared, it depends on how things go with the financial fair play situation."