A club has a balance sheet. It has income and expenditure. If our income is x and we spend x minus y million pounds in a year on costs (which are mainly footballers wages), then we have the option to spend y on "net spend", increase wages (as in the case of Salah) or spend more than y by going into debt.
Other clubs find ways of getting around this - for example Abramovic's one billion pound 'loan' to Chelsea - otherwise this is the constraint. Wages and Net spend. they can't be seen in isolation, which is what the average football fan wants to do.
Even in our case fans like to omit the fee on Diaz in this summer's net spend as it suits the complaint.
If rumours are to be believed, we were intending to spend big on Tchoumeni last summer but couldn't. One would assume we have that spend burning a hole in the pocket for someone else - presumably there is some anxiety at the club that their planning hasn't worked well this season and one wonders if they have contemplated going into debt to bring forward their future plans.
But the wages of somone like Tchoumeni would be a part of the calculation of what we can afford, not just his transfer fee. Only considering one aspect of the spend is, frankly, retarded. Have you seen the spend on Haaland's wages? It can only be that the agent was so bowled over by them that his low transfer fee was forced upon the club in some way.
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