Burnley's £15k per week salary cap bucks football's freakonomics

Just read this article, it's a great read and I hope we can pull it off.

Burnley's £15k per week salary cap bucks football's freakonomics ​

Cristiano Ronaldo's £100m, six-year salary offer at Real Madrid? The apparent £140,000-a-week on offer to Carlos Tevez at Manchester City or, equally, the £110,000-a-week deal that Manchester United were prepared to offer him to stay at Old Trafford?

Or how about the £15,000-a-week pay ceiling that Burnley are ready to impose at Turf Moor this summer as they prepare to enter the Lion's Den of the Premier League?

It is a damning indictment of how accustomed we have become to the Monopoly-style economics of football that the figures related to Ronaldo and Tevez so far summer this have barely raised an eyebrow.

But the instant reaction to Burnley's bold, and probably sensible, approach to their financial well-being has been along the lines of, 'they must be mad' or 'where is their ambition?'

Turf Moor manager Owen Coyle threw his weight behind the club's low-risk policy by revealing that â I took five pay cuts during my career to just to play football.'

Coyle also quite rightly pointed out that, although Burnley's top wage next season will place the club rock-bottom of the Premier League's pay league, the sums that they will pay are still huge in comparison to the wage packet of their average supporter.

Burnley will struggle to attract players to the club this summer if they stay loyal to their pay policy, but at least those that do agree to wear claret and blue next season cannot be accused of doing it for the money.

In difficult financial times, perhaps the Premier League needs a club like Burnley to act as a reminder of the real world, albeit through football's distorted lens.

A small working-class town in the border of Lancashire and Yorkshire, Burnley can no longer count on the cotton mills to employ its 72,000 population.

Classed as a 'sleeper town' whose inhabitants flock to Manchester and Leeds for employment, those left behind would struggle to command wages of £15,000-a-year in Burnley, never mind £15,000 a week.

So even if Burnley's admirable plans prove disastrous on the pitch and result in the club's relegation after just one season in the top flight, they will at least have attempted to bring some sanity back to the game.

And if the worst does happen and the club are relegated, then a prudent approach to life among the big boys will ensure a much more stable base from which the club can attempt to bounce back the following season.

But without a team of those mercenary figures that have blighted the Premier League stories of the likes of Barnsley, Bradford City, Derby County and even Newcastle United, m maybe Burnley can succeed in the top flight with a group of hungry players more interested in the league table than their wage slip.

If they pull it off and avoid slipping into the bottom three next season, then it will not just be a tale of success for Burnley. It will be a result for the game itself.