Quote Originally Posted by MeForCrewe View Post
Saw my mate who is an Alex employee in town today. Seems like I got it totally wrong. I won't mention actual figures but he told me McDonald was offered a contract with substantially more money on the table than last season. Harrogate have more than doubled that offer and two years aswell. Quite scary and worrying really, I didn't know that they had a sugar daddy and Concrete Rod must think Christmas has come early in his twilight playing years.
Of, course there's always the possibility that your mate misunderstood what he has heard. It may also depend on what he does at the Alex. I was once employed by the Alex but had no access to what was going on behind the scenes.
I do believe that Harrogate, being effectively a 'family' run club, do have a lower player budget than we do but I suppose they could be 'going for broke', over a player they've had their eyes on for a while (and if they are doubling an increased salary, then we couldn't have kept him and we would be able to find a replacement within that salary range). However, considering their relatively low income from gate receipts, their overall turnover must be very low and as we're operating at near the 55% allowed within the financial rules on our wage bill (albeit that figure is supposedly related to last year's outgoings) I find it hard to believe they can stay within the rules by doubling our potential salary to Mcdonald. Of course, they may have a high-returns revenue stream that pushes up their turnover etc.
However, I am only surmising based on 'things' we've heard so it could be true. Who knows?