Quoted by MOT Leeds, Paul Robinson has addressed speculation suggesting clubs that have agreed to defer wages of players should be banned from making transfers.
Leeds United are one club that has agreed with its players to defer wages in order to pay staff on lesser money their full pay-packet, but some have still felt aggrieved by this.
Indeed, some in the league have suggested that the money being saved on player wages should not be used for transfers with other clubs at a disadvantage as they have not reached an agreement with their playing squad.
For former Leeds goalkeeper Paul Robinson, though, the idea of bringing in such a measure is a bit of a non-starter.
He explained:
“I don’t think you can impose sanctions like this on teams.
“Clubs are managed by financial experts, by directors, who know what’s right for the club. If you ban Leeds from making transfers then you’re taking money out of football, it’s money teams would spend in the transfer market.
“But there are other questions too – are we even going to have a transfer window? If you talk about a two-week gap between this season ending and the next one starting, what’s going to happen with transfers?
“There are lots of clubs like Preston making noise at the moment, wanting parity with other clubs, saying, ‘if those clubs are doing that then we want them punished’, or ‘we don’t want to start playing because we don’t want to play in neutral venues’.
“Every single club has their own agenda and they all want the best for their own club. It’s a real web of decisions. There’s a lot of talk but we’re not hearing the decisions from the people at the top.”
The Verdict
It seems more than likely that this summer's window will see a curtailment on the spending we have seen in previous years anyway, given the current global economic situation.
Certainly, to impose measures on clubs that have made agreements to ensure those on lesser wages can be paid in full doesn't particularly sound fair, given the intention behind the deferral.
Robinson, then, is right to suggest that it shouldn't come in and, in all honesty, it is hard to make a case otherwise.