REPORT: NORWICH CITY BUDGET IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

Norwich set £20m transfer limit to avoid repeat of Fulham's wasted spending on Premier League return
By Laurie Whitwell


Wednesday 24t April 2019


Norwich City will take a transfer budget of only £20m into the Premier League


Norwich City will keep faith with the approach that has seen them to the brink of promotion by planning to take a transfer budget of only £20million into the Premier League.

Daniel Farke's side are on the cusp of returning to the top-flight by recruiting smartly and promoting youth, actually turning a profit of £30m last summer after selling James Maddison and Josh Murphy.

The club would not need to make sales during this coming market with their finances boosted by Premier League revenues, but neither will they splash the cash as other promoted sides have done.


Fulham spent £100m after going up through the 2018 play-offs and Wolves broke their transfer record twice by signing Adama Traore and Raul Jimenez, but Norwich will instead continue to look for value in signings as they have done for the past two years.

Among a number of impressive purchases Norwich brought in Teemu Pukki on a free transfer and Emiliano Buendia for £1.5m last summer and the pair have scored 36 goals and provided 20 assists between them. The club, led by sporting director Stuart Webber, feel they can continue to box smart even in the top-flight.

The recruitment team, headed by Kieran Scott, are preparing to work to a total cost for new players of £20m covering transfer fees and wages. Norwich do not wish to risk financial jeopardy by over-reaching, and believe maintaining the squad's profile, maximised by Daniel Farke's coaching, offers the best chance of survival in any case.


All players have automatic wage rises for reaching the Premier League, with some more than doubling their money, but talks on improved contracts will still take place in certain circumstances, including with highly-exciting young players such as Max Aarons and Ben Godfrey, who have attracted interest from elite clubs. Aarons and Godfrey are already tied down to long-term deals but Norwich wish to reward their progress.

The players will share a bonus prize pool of roughly £10m once promotion is confirmed, one of the highest sums in the Championship and significant for a squad whose total annual wage-bill comes in at just north of £20m. That reward money does not change depending on if Norwich finish first or second but there is a determination to go up as champions.

Norwich are six points clear of Leeds in third with a superior goal difference of 10, so just need a draw from their home match against Blackburn on Saturday night to confirm promotion. Four points from their two remaining matches would see them win the title ahead of Sheffield United.

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be shocked if its that low but the amount you have to spend to be genuinely competitive is insane.

its all become a bit stupid

be shocked if its that low but the amount you have to spend to be genuinely competitive is insane.

its all become a bit stupid

Agree; but I think Norwich City are probably THE footballing 'Yo-Yo' club and seem happy with that

be shocked if its that low but the amount you have to spend to be genuinely competitive is insane.

its all become a bit stupid

Agree; but I think Norwich City are probably THE footballing 'Yo-Yo' club and seem happy with that

did you watch the Burnley v Chelsea game and then hear the Sean Dyche interview on Sky ?
was very interesting and thought provoking regarding spending , or at least I thought it was

This will become the norm in future as clubs decide better to keep players they have and be a yo yo club than struggle for couple seasons before going down again! Only clubs like wolves with rich owners and inside agent will spend big money....

They'd probably need to spend that just on their defence

Or the whole thing could just be an opening gambit knowing how other clubs like to hike their prices on newly promoted sides.

I think there are a number of clubs in the Championship that could survive in the Premier with what they have already. That includes Norwich so £20m could be ample for them.

The hard part is keeping your talented players. Also, it helps to have your own players rather than get promoted with loan players from the big clubs. We have shown what can be done on a small budget. Watford and Palace have previously been yoyo clubs but have taken time to establish themselves.

I'll believe the Wolves experiment has been successful if they can keep their top players after this summer - they aren't really big enough to stop the top teams in Europe buying their best players.

By the time they double everyone's salaries there'll be enough funds for one or two players including wages

Very low

I guess the problem is how much is enough, we spent 30-40m and may come up short, Fulham spent 100m and look well short.

How much more would we have had to have spent to keep us comfortably above the bottom 3? another 40m? 50m? 60m? its tough for any clubs to decide now.

I guess the problem is how much is enough, we spent 30-40m and may come up short, Fulham spent 100m and look well short.

How much more would we have had to have spent to keep us comfortably above the bottom 3? another 40m? 50m? 60m? its tough for any clubs to decide now.

some on here put figures on it and insisted X amount was required { X being anything from 20 to 40 extra mill } .

the reality is we played AND beat Bounemouth here who had 80 million pound worth on the bench and a number of clubs bottom half clubs broke their transfer records on players that just did not fit in and down the road Swansea got relegated last season with 42 million pounds worth of misfits out on loan..
heard what Dyche had to say after the Chelsea game about attempting to move to the next level and then deciding as a club to revert back to what worked last season at xmas time..

so agree with pembroke Allen and think the restricted budgets will be seen more and more..

be shocked if its that low but the amount you have to spend to be genuinely competitive is insane.

its all become a bit stupid

I agree with you, there is NO way they could even start compete with such a low budget in the Premier League and if true will come straight back down in my opinion.

I guess the problem is how much is enough, we spent 30-40m and may come up short, Fulham spent 100m and look well short.

How much more would we have had to have spent to keep us comfortably above the bottom 3? another 40m? 50m? 60m? its tough for any clubs to decide now.

some on here put figures on it and insisted X amount was required { X being anything from 20 to 40 extra mill } .

the reality is we played AND beat Bounemouth here who had 80 million pound worth on the bench and a number of clubs bottom half clubs broke their transfer records on players that just did not fit in and down the road Swansea got relegated last season with 42 million pounds worth of misfits out on loan..
heard what Dyche had to say after the Chelsea game about attempting to move to the next level and then deciding as a club to revert back to what worked last season at xmas time..

so agree with pembroke Allen and think the restricted budgets will be seen more and more..

Thanks! but it makes sense limit spending in premier league and if go down will have money to spend on higher quality players for championship or keep squad together with better prospects of promotion? Fans love promotions more than struggling in premier league....

I think 20m is a bit low but if any team can do it its probably Norwich. When you look at their recruitment over the past 2 seasons they've brought in top quality players for very little money due to their recruitment team including Stuart Webber who has an incredible track record of spotting talented players for very little money. They already have a solid young team with not many loans and players who will continue to develop so they don't have to splash huge amounts of money like Fulham did when they lost half their squad.

They have obviously a much better recruitment team and Academy than us? Selling their best two players for 20m last season and getting promoted on peanuts is outstanding, whereas we sold nobody for money spent 50m on 6 new players (including obviously Sala) non of who can regularly get into team and we are still struggling to stay in Premier League. However, at least we didn’t waste as much money as Fulham, it shows that recruiting the correct players it the important factor?
Wolves policy of loaning as many class players as possible with an agreement to buy if they are successful appears to be a winning formula at present!