Quality stuff considering that the wage bill for 3 or 4 or their higher profile players would probably come to more than our entire wage bill.

For those who bought a programme last night check out the Eastleigh page and the comments from their manager....priceless!

Looking on this link at the Silverlake Stadium

The Main stand is not far off looking like the E&B stand
The South Stand I admit does look good
The Clubhouse end is a based on the stand behind the goal at Thamesmead
and The East Terrace is a poor mans version of Dirtford's ground.

www.footballgroundguide.com/leagues/conference/conference-premier/eastleigh-silverlake-stadium.html

Off topic but I see despite their vast wage bill it looks like Webbedfeet didn't have enough pennies for the meter.

www.kentonline.co.uk/gravesend/sport/ebbsfleet-v-weston-41871/

ide rather have our worn classic old school ground than eastleighs souless ground

A Millwall keeper who is from the development squad on a few hundred pounds a week. Although you wouldn't pay his wages, you are happy to pay a defender who made 8 appearances in the Championship last season, who would be commanding a very sizeable 4 figure sum a week (by all accounts he was on 2.5k a week at Nottingham Forest if you look around some online articles)

Knowing our budget and the wages that you pay some of your players, the wages your subs on Tuesday earn in a week is likely more than our entire team budget.

A certain forward you signed in the summer had stayed full time on the same money he was earning at Luton, £1,200 a week by all accounts. Many of your players would most likely be on far more than this.

I really have no sour grapes regarding teams who have financial backing. If you have an owner who can keep spending and maintain it then good luck to you, but how many teams in non-league football have attempted to spend there way to success and then gone bust? See Rushden, Weymouth et al

Finally, we do meet the conference grading. We had an inspection at the end of our first season in the Conference which we passed after paying out around 50-60k in costs to add better terracing etc.

back4more wrote:

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I'm guessing Polo that you are referring to Dan Harding. Here's a link to the club's announcement when he joined us. It makes interesting reading I think and includes Dan's own comments which give a bit of insight into the life of a player in his late career who has to look at life's priorities.

http://www.eastleighfc.com/2015/08/06/eastleigh-sign-dan-harding/

We do by the way encounter a lot of people who, like yourself, give the impression of knowing what Eastleigh players are paid. None of them ever admit to where their "information" comes from. I'm always tempted to advise them not to believe everything they read in the local rag.

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So do you know what the £astleigh players do earn then?? If so please do tell - if not you will have to leave others to continue to speculate.

Do you seriously think for example that Constable left Oxford, Drury left Luton, Midson left AFC Wimbledon for the "challenge" as we are so often told............zzzzzzz. They were in the middle of lower league professional careers with some of the bigger clubs in league two so for what other reason did they decide to sign for £astleigh other than the rather significant (sorry that's speculation again) financial rewards?!?!

It will all end in tears as Polo has said and don't expect a lot of sympathy from the wider circle of non league clubs. It is not jealousy (although I expect that does exist) but the fact that it is not sustainable and when Mr Donald toddles off to Oxford (which we all know he will do) your players won't be able to get out of Hampshire quick enough.

The misconceptions arise from the kind of terminology which you choose to use, Polo, in saying:-

"I would be very nervous about a money man coming into the club and throwing huge sums of money around".

No one at Eastleigh has been "throwing huge sums" around and after all, everything is relative. Stewart Donald backed the manager to put together the team which got us into the Conference. He saw our attendances more than double last season and has responded by enabling the manager to further strengthen the team. If you rank clubs across the division, our wage bill probably fits into the same position as the size of our support. That's based on the open information we get from the owner at Fans' Forums. It's as sustainable a situation as you can get at our level.

Other expenditure has been on the stadium facilities which are permanent and are there to prepare us for a better future. The club probably has a smaller backroom staff wage bill than most of the rest of our league so money isn't wasted on excess overheads which is a problem for many clubs.

As to the future, who knows. You could reel off many white elephants. Colne Dynamos were another example to add to those you mention. We have experienced downs as well as ups at our own club across the years. As a group of supporters with a healthy dose of realism, our assessment of the owner's plans and intentions for the club are totally positive. There are many reasons for this assessment which you don't want me listing on your forum. I can though recommend the book at the following link which tells the story of our Connie South Championship year.

 http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=2945

The book is written for anyone who might be interested in reading about the realities of non league football and not just for those who support the club. It can be ordered online either from the linked website or from Waterstones, Smiths, Amazon and the other usual websites. One of the things which does come across in the book is the philosophy on which Eastleigh's progression over recent years has been built.

Something which encouraged those of us who were there on the day was seeing your club celebrate winning the South division when we were the visitors for your last home game of the 2012-13 season.

 

-- Edited by back4more on Thursday 20th of August 2015 05:01:03 PM

Save your breath Mark, if an Eastleigh fan can't see that the quality of signings and probable wages offered to them, has escalated 3/4/5 fold in the last two years then nothing you say to them will open their eyes to it.

Clearly, as others have said, Eastleigh are spending big. If they want to do so that's up to them, but with several others doing the same and only one automatic spot, there are going to be some big spenders disappointed come the end of the season, and if you are one of them you better hope your money man is in it for the long haul.