While Premier League clubs were spending £2.36billion on transfers, Maidstone United were struggling for the money to replace two outdated toilet blocks and wondered how they would raise the £250,000 they need to replace theirs next summer 3G playing field needed.
Grimsby signed a dozen players but did not have the £100,000 needed to build a new roof on the pontoon stand when a safety inspection revealed this had become an urgent matter after years of neglect from previous owners.
A further £100,000 has already been earmarked for replanting the playing surface at Blundell Park and the training grounds.
At Lincoln, they tried to maintain their chances of advancement while asking their owners to put in £500,000 to help offset losses stemming from the cost of living crisis and inflation, which have pushed costs up about 18 per cent since the start of the season.
The ecosystem of English football is changing.
Joao Pedro’s £30m move from Watford to Brighton was the highest transfer fee paid to an EFL club
Alex Scott was another big move from the EFL to the Premier League, joining Bournemouth
Teams further down the pyramid like Maidstone struggle to find money to sustain themselves
At the rate, they normalize the transfer fee to £100m and salaries to £450,000 a week. Down in the foothills, they struggle with renovating the bar, new women’s restrooms, or an upgrade as a center forward.
It feels like the two extremes have never been so far apart. Yet they are still connected. They are still interdependent, but various incremental changes over time have placed all power in the hands of the elite.
Of record spending by Premier League clubs this summer, less than five per cent went to EFL players.
The big ones were Joao Pedro from Watford to Brighton for £30m, Alex Scott from Bristol City to Bournemouth for £25m and Gustavo Hamer from Coventry to Sheffield United for £15m.
Andrew Omobamidele left Norwich for £11.5m for Nottingham Forest and Luton spent around £10m for four players, but the top half of the top flight appear to have given up investing in established players at this level.
Chuba Akpom and Viktor Gyokeres, top scorers in last season’s championship, both went abroad.
Since the rules for such things were changed, the wealthier clubs have found that it is far better for them to take the best of the EFL players for a pittance during their academy days.
Among the hundreds of millions spent this summer, Manchester City have signed 16-year-old goalkeeper Spike Brits from AFC Wimbledon, Chelsea have signed teenage striker Alex Matos from Norwich and Aston Villa have signed teenager Rico Richards on a free transfer from West Bromwich Albion.
Brighton signed Jacob Slater from Preston and Brentford brought in some promising players from Rochdale and Oxford for their B team. There are others that are often more discreetly acquired at an even younger age.
They are all involved in youth development programs and receive high salaries, are then loaned out for high fees in the later stages of their development cycle and are willingly paid by clubs who do them a favor, help players introduce them to real football while also covering their wage costs decrease and increase their market value.
Aston Villa are set to raise around £35million for Cameron Archer and Aaron Ramsey. Fees are boosted by her loan spells at Middlesbrough, who are now struggling. Last summer Villa sold Carney Chukwuemeka, a Northampton Town player, to Chelsea for £20million.
Tracey Crouch has proposed introducing a stamp duty on Premier League deals
Top clubs still depend on talent from the lower leagues, but they have found a way to make money while balancing their lavish spending habits.
The outflow of wealth through the pyramid has practically stopped. Champion clubs are looking to recruit from overcrowded Premier League academies rather than buying up-and-coming talent from League One. And so forth. The funds donated in the form of solidarity payments flow upwards again.
This does not bode well for the clubs at the lower end. The system needs to be restarted to help them, the communities they serve and the history that supports the Premier League and makes it a spectacle.
Thousands more watched League Two football than at the Etihad on Saturday to watch Manchester City take on Fulham. No wonder there is growing support for introducing a stamp duty-like tax on Premier League transfers. It was an idea brought up in Tracey Crouch’s fan-led review that deserves serious consideration.
Ten per cent of £2.36 billion would go a long way towards redressing the imbalance.
Alongside the usual hamstring and groin injuries, there was a new category of team news on Saturday: players absent due to emotional distress.
Joao Palhinha, Lloyd Kelly, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Luke Armstrong were all unavailable and suffering the pain of missing out on dream transfers.
With Preston North End topping the championship table, it’s only natural to wonder who was number 1 on the charts when they were relegated from the top flight in May 1961.
Wonder no more, because it was The Marcels’ Blue Moon, the doo-wop classic, that now underscores Manchester City’s relentless march.
Irish talent is firmly established in Brighton
Brighton’s flair for Irish youth goalscoring talent runs deeper than that of Evan Ferguson, who continued his progress with a hat-trick against Newcastle on Saturday.
Mark O’Mahony, also 18 and signed from Cork City in January, scored the only goal for the Under-21s, his fifth in four games, against Nottingham Forest on Friday.
They also have goalkeepers Killian Cahill and Andrew Moran, on loan at Blackburn, in the latest Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad.
Evan Ferguson is in charge of the Ireland side in Brighton, with two other youngsters waiting in the wings for the Seagulls
Lucas Moura has wasted no time focusing on the title following his departure from Tottenham.
Moura’s semi-final winner against Corinthians secured Sao Paulo a place in the Copa do Brasil final. Sao Paulo will meet Flamengo in a two-legged final later this month.
Full marks for his persistence but who in Birmingham thinks it’s a good idea for Scott Hogan to take a penalty? The miss in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Millwall was his fifth of the last seven.
Will Evans worked on the family’s dairy farm in Mid Wales less than two years ago, getting up at 4.30am to milk the cows and playing up front for Bala Town. Now the 26-year-old leads League Two’s goalscoring tally with eight goals out of seven for Newport County, who signed the former Wales C international last year.
Mousehole is the pride of Cornwall
Mousehole roars far out west.
After being promoted from the Western League, English football’s westernmost side have arrived at Tier 4 of the pyramid for the first time, started unbeaten and reached the FA Cup second qualifying round for the first time in their 101-year history by beating Bashley on Saturday.
Mousehole, a fishing port south of Penzance with fewer than 700 residents, is the best-placed side to play in Cornwall as National League South’s Truro City stay in Devon while work is being done on a new Cornwall stadium, a project that will be den Change sport in the county
