Hereford United manager Jamie Pitman is desparately short of players. As he said yesterday he has just 14 seniors plus two on the transfer list, two non-contract and two youngsters.
The reason given is the 55% salary cap, down from 60% last season.
However a 5% drop doesn't appear to tell the whole story.
Let's go back to August last year when Simon Davey was in charge. He had 21 players, including three youngsters, available for the August 14th home game against Gillingham. A week or so later he signed two more players, Amadou Rabimou and Dominic Werling. The former on a one year deal and the latter on a two year deal.
This gave him a 23 strong squad several of whom, perhaps as many as seven, were on two year deals. It has to be presumed that, in general, those players on two year deals were reasonably high earners.
Fast forward to today. Pitman has 16 senior players, two of whom are on the transfer list, two non-contract (one of whom is already employed as goalkeeping coach) and two youngsters.
In effect that is four less senior players - in any words 20% less players but the salary cap is only down 5%.
This may imply that turnover at the club is expected to be down compared with last season. It might be the case as there may be less income from a cup run and little transfer income.
Or perhaps it could imply that the players Pitman has, in general, are on better money than the average twelve months ago.
However a more plausible senario is that Davey simply spent right upto the 60% cap.
During Graham Turner's last year in charge, to June 4th 2010, turnover was £1,804,852 and wages and salaries £936,141. The ratio of wages to turnover was 52%
Last season's turnover is expected to be similar given the transfer money from Mathieu Manset's move to Reading. So to have reached a salary cap of 60%, some £1,082,400 could have been paid out.
This season turnover could easily drop to £1,600,000. So given a 55% salary cap, Pitman might have £896,000 to spend on players salaries which could be £186,400 less than last season. Probably somewhat more than the combined totals of transfer listed Sean Canham and Janos Kovacs.
Whatever the figures, small clubs like Hereford will find it difficult to operate with a 55% salary cap especially if turnover drops.
In any case it's not a level playing field as for example the Bulls pay very little rent for Edgar Street whereas Oxford for example pay £480,000 which goes into in their turnover figure.
It probably explains why chairman David Keyte is so desperate to increase turnover from off-pitch ventures and why Pitman is at a disadvantage to many other League Two managers.
Text at top (next game etc)
Next Game: Away At Scunthorpe In The League On Saturday 21st December At 3.00pm