Kieran Maguire talks Championship clubs, who are cause for concern and financial danger

Kieran Maguire talks EFL Championship clubs, who are cause for concern and financial danger in an interview with Benjamin Bloom this week.

Benjamin Bloom spoke with Kieran Maguire from the Price Of Football podcast which second tier clubs could be facing financial danger and possible sanctions next season.

Or will we have a second consecutive season without any points deductions in the second tier (albeit an announcement of Sheffield United’s points deduction for the 2024/25 season was announced prior to their relegation from the Premier League in 2023/24.

Benjamin: Kieran I ask you every year our watch list for points deductions and thankfully we’ve got none last year, I had a look at who spent big outside the parachute teams, Coventry dropped a lot of money but then they raised a lot of money last year. Hull I’m interested in your take on because they appeared and Mr Ilicali appears to be a ambitious fella let’s just say and um removes managers and he I think spent bit you’ll know better than me Middlesborough had an expensive forward but Steve Gibson always seems to get it right hopefully you’re going to tell me you’re not incredibly worried about anybody going into next season

Kieran: Yeah I’m pretty chilled as far as those clubs are going, you know with regards to Ilicali at Hull, he’s in a hurry I get the distinct impression you know I’ve met Liam Rosenior and and I think very highly of him so perhaps my uh again I put something out on social media and I was actually quite surprised at the ferocity of the reaction of Hull City fans who said ‘look he was given some loan signings in January we didn’t make the playoffs he had to go’ and that’s fine provided you got a better alternative, that’s always you and I do think that there is a it’s a trap that we fall into as football fans and perhaps this is an indication of broader issues in society but change is not the same as improvement so just because you’re sacking a manager and getting a new one in doesn’t automatically make things better, when people talk about the new manager bounce as an academic we’ve got the data that indicates that that is not the case, yeah are just as many managers who come into a club where the the points don’t increase per match as they do increase and also if you think about it from a logical point of view why do we sack managers we sack managers because clubs haven’t been performing very well now it could be you had somebody out injured it could be that you’ve had a run of tough opponents in the last four or five games and that tends to be ignored so yeah Hull clearly have got ambitions which is great, swapping the managers around doesn’t necessarily turn those ambitions in doesn’t crystallise them into success With regards to Boro, Steve Gibson every year he puts his hand in his pocket yeah managers don’t tend to last too long but you know the managers last anywhere in the championship you know for a long period of time

Benjamin: Carrick has signed a three-year contract in the close season so maybe right maybe this one might

Kieran: Yeah but I mean you know earlier in earlier last season there was an awful lot of Carrick out viewpoints held by some Boro fans not all of course um and also I think Carrick is seen as one of those coaches who is progressive and therefore to a certain extent you’re protecting your own interests by signing into a long-term contract because that increases the amount of compensation payment you know had McKenna gone to Chelsea, Manchester United, Brighton whoever it was going to be yeah was looking around about 6 million pounds payment yeah which is

Benjamin: I think that might just have quadrupled um since the new thing signed Kieran…

Kieran: Yeah absolutely protect protect your interest yeah bright Brighton got 23 million for Potter that went well didn’t it I’m glad we’re talking about Championship it’s give me a chance to not have to mention the word Chelsea so I think that those clubs are in a solid position I don’t see anybody necessarily being close to breaching the rules, Hull under the previous ownership ran a quite tight ship so given that PSR is assessed over a three-year period you can have sort of you know a year 18 months of profligacy because you’ve inherited a scenario which was actually from a sustainability point of view okay but from an ambition point of view I think this is you this is the case for Hull City fans you talk to any fans of a club which is run on a sustainable basis well I don’t want a sustainable football club I want a winning football club and and the two things don’t go hand in hand

Benjamin: In my other concerns list Sheffield United fans are not confident, they are telling me they’re going to come down they’re not going to spend any money and it’s going to be a problem. I heard you talking on the Price of Football about Watford and the parachute payments have expired although we think they’ taken out big loans against them anyway um before this has even happened and a strange share issue let’s just say and this I still hear from Blackburn fans that Venkys can’t get money from India to um the northwest of the English peninsula in order to keep things going you got any worries about those three

Kieran: Sheffield United under the current ownership are a concern because Prince Abdullah nobody seems to know what his motivations are getting promoted to the Premier League, selling your two best players, not really investing in replacing them, yeah this is not vindictive, they stank out the Premier League last season, you know and it must have been really awful because they they were getting done four and five and more on a regular basis

Benjamin: Eight by Newcastle!

Kieran: Yeah and Arsenal declared after half an hour didn’t they you know when so it it must have been a really depressing experience and and therefore you wonder about what’s going to happen in 24/25 it looks as if it was an air shot by the owner and what I mean by an air shot, get promoted, don’t spend any money, bank the revenues from the Premier League and that allows for a potential reset this season in the Championship

Benjamin: Kieran can I just jump in am I right in saying that Cameron Archer was signed from Aston Villa for 18 million with a clause that if Blades went down Villa could sign him back for 14 million that seems like a insane deal to do

Kieran: The simple answer is that is I don’t know you know because individual contracts are a private matter between two the two parties um nothing would surprise me um he didn’t have the greatest of seasons but then he wasn’t given any supply so it’s difficult to make a case one way or the other with regards to that so trying to work out Sheffield United’s motivations last season was baffling, the club it’s not explicitly up for sale but it’s one of those ones where we know that if an appropriate offer comes in expect to see a change at the top but then you could probably say that with 18 out of 24 clubs in the Championship you know it’s the same for us if somebody comes and offers me I’m not looking to move house somebody comes and offers me a figure which is you know twice than I’d normally expect to get then then we then that starts a conversation or even you 20% more so it’s not great for Sheffield United they are a cause for concern, and just looking at the other clubs you mentioned, Watford and yeah I’ll be completely honest here I’ve made myself very unpopular at Watford with my assessment of the share issue and again there’s, I’ve not got a dog in fight, it’s valuing the club at 175 million when it’s not in receipt of parachute payment, it doesn’t appear to have saleable stock it was putting out rather the seller the people responsible for the sale of the club were putting out statements which in my view were a significant misrepresentation of the the club’s financial status, was a strange thing to do, whether the owners have more money to put in themselves I think is open to question so yeah I think it could be a rocky few months but I’d rather not say anymore because I’m unpopular enough as it is, Blackburn and the Venkys, I think we’ve probably had this conversation every year the last four years we’ve been chatting

Benjamin: Like clockwork…

Kieran: Why are they doing it because they they they’ve not they’ve not attended a match at Ewood Park for what 10 seasons because somebody once through a snowball at one of the Venkys and they went off in a sulk and yet

Benjamin: Which we don’t condone *laughs*…

Kieran: No no no no no it be milkshakes next

Benjamin: Yeah we don’t condone that either we don’t condone any anything I think it was a brick yesterday Kieran but let’s move on from the politics

Kieran: So do the Venkys have challenges in India yes they do but the club still still seem to manage to pay the bills on a month-by-month basis um last season so what their long-term ambitions are as far as Blackburn Rovers I think he open to question my worry for Blackburn is that if you replace the Venkys with somebody else how willing are they going to be to put a million pounds a month into effectively subsidising the club well

Benjamin: And also Kieran when you avoid relegation on the last day of the season and you’ve got the top scorer in the division playing for your team what happens if said Mr Szmodics is transferred elsewhere as well

Kieran: Yes yes it it does look a delicate position I don’t know how long he’s got left in his contract but uh there will be people sniffing around both both within the Championship and elsewhere

This is how fans reacted as Kieran Maguire talks Championship clubs, who are cause for concern and financial danger…

@michaelabrahams3131: Kieran was absolutely right about his assessment of Watford’s “investment” offer. I also don’t think Gino has or will be putting money into the club. We brought back Luca Nani as sporting director in the Winter following Giaretta’s departure and today is been announced that Nani has been given a new title of Group Technical director with split responsibilities at both Watford and Udinese. Just another weird day as a Watford fan

@Kris_1708: I think your being harsh on Hull could argue it was a risk to appoint Rosenior in the first place.. 3 wins in 13, 2 home wins in 2024…does the owner not have the right to trust him with another window after backing him in January?

@LiamK2292: Blades are already starting 24/25 on -2 points due to defaulting on payments over the last 2 seasons. Whether anymore will happen remains to be seen. From a SWFC point of view I think we’ll be fine financially. Money is there to be spent but it needs to be used wisely, however as we all know anything is possible with Mr Chansiri.

@middlesbrough123: Never saw much of “carrick out” by anyone that said seriously, so I think your mistaken there . We had a lot of injuries than normal yet finished in an ok position considering.

@EliM2908: He’s got the RedAllOver merch on, what a man

@stu_boy: He should say more on Watford. I’d be interested to hear more, unless it’s that they are up the river without a paddle now. In which case maybe he is right to say nothing else!

@connorparsfield7456: FFP is brilliant. But they will scrap parachute payments the day Millwall go up

@Borosmogs: A bit surprised Middlesbrough was an early focal point of this video. We literally made a club profit last season and are one of the most purposeful when it comes to the financial league rules. Also in the last 2 seasons we’ve sold Tavernier, DJed Spence, Akpom and Morgan Rogers all for £10 million plus. We’ve also signed no one over 4 mil in years. Also your guest is being a bit harsh saying we wanted Carrick out at the start of last year. You will always get a few online disgruntled fans (after the no win in first 7 games), but in the stadium and I’d say 98% of Boro fans stuck with him without doubt. We all know he’s the man who will take us up. Any way, I’m not angry but defending the club here. We are fantastically ran financially, possibly too much these days.

@MrDannyMacdonald: Rosenior must have turned into Pep Guardiola all of a sudden given the hype around him at the moment! 3 wins in 13, and some incredibly boring home games (losses at home to Stoke and Swansea with 0 shots on target). He’s a good manager, but he’s nowhere near as good yet as he’s being hyped up to be

@mrwabbit9576: I love FFP! Resetting football to stop fake big clubs spending beyond their means.