Highest earners

All this talk of Bogle returning and Vernam leaving I was wondering the other day which player would have been on the highest wages whilst playing for Town.

Now this can be split into two.

Players who are/were contracted to GTFC

and

Players who have been loaned to GTFC at little or no cost to us.

Of course we have to take into consideration the wage increases across the years.

My guess would be Ivano (contracted) and maybe Dave Beasant (loaned)

I believe Zhang Enhua was on silly money?

Not sure where this thread might take us.

Pre 1960s there were wages caps even though we were in the top league of the day. Who knows what Jackie Bestall would have been worth in today’s terms.

Since then football economics have been all over the place, but right now we have a COVID crisis on our hands, so the real issue is how much can we afford today. If James  Hansen happens to be the biggest earner, so what?

I am sure that Ollie will concentrate on what’s in front of him, rather than look backwards. If we end up getting Omar Bogle at £5k a week, so beit

Time to move on.

Zhang Enhua was on £13500 just before the ITV Digital collapse

Quoted from barrattstandman

Zhang Enhua was on £13500 just before the ITV Digital collapse

And anyone of a young age who believes this to be Chinese Whispers,  think again,  it really IS true.

To put the Zhang Enhua thing into context, around the same sort of era we had Danny Coyne,  arguably the best keeper outside of the Prem, on £3,000 per week,  and the club were touting him around on the promise of a free transfer,  they were that desperate to free up the wages. Now think about the 13K Zhang was on.....

Quoted from Heisenberg

To put the Zhang Enhua thing into context, around the same sort of era we had Danny Coyne,  arguably the best keeper outside of the Prem, on £3,000 per week,  and the club were touting him around on the promise of a free transfer,  they were that desperate to free up the wages. Now think about the 13K Zhang was on.....

Yeah heard he was on 13k, back then the Chinese league wasn't even as popular as it is now so amazing to pay that for someone unknown.

David Nielson was on big money too I believe. As far as players we owned, I imagine we paid decent money to a lot of the Wembley 98 squad.

Not a player but I got told Buckley was on £3k per week last time round.

A fair few of that 1998 side were on decent money compared to our current crop, although it wouldn’t look much compared to wages at that level now.

I’d imagine Badback Butler was on a decent screw...

Quoted from Meza

Yeah heard he was on 13k, back then the Chinese league wasn't even as popular as it is now so amazing to pay that for someone unknown.

He was obscure to followers of the English game, that’s fair, but he wasn’t a total unknown quantity. He was the Chinese national team captain - by no means a Goliath nation in international football, particularly back then, but I don’t think he was a total punt in that respect.

He was a good Division One defender to be fair to him. Just not worth that kind of money in the early noughties, nor was he any better than Peter Handyside who he effectively displaced.

It was clearly an ill-thought out commercial ploy. He was obviously a big name in Chinese footballing circles, and interest in English football was growing rapidly in the Far East at the time. The problem was, there was no way of actually monetising that interest.

Second tier games would not have been readily available to Chinese audiences back then, and internet streaming was yet to become a thing. We didn’t even have an online shop in 2001, let alone the logistical capability to ship GTFC merchandise en masse to the other side of the world.

As has often been the case with Town, it was an interesting idea in principle, just haplessly implemented.

Quoted from Poojah

He was obscure to followers of the English game, that’s fair, but he wasn’t a total unknown quantity. He was the Chinese national team captain - by no means a Goliath nation in international football, particularly back then, but I don’t think he was a total punt in that respect.

He was a good Division One defender to be fair to him. Just not worth that kind of money in the early noughties, nor was he any better than Peter Handyside who he effectively displaced.

It was clearly an ill-thought out commercial ploy. He was obviously a big name in Chinese footballing circles, and interest in English football was growing rapidly in the Far East at the time. The problem was, there was no way of actually monetising that interest.

Second tier games would not have been readily available to Chinese audiences back then, and internet streaming was yet to become a thing. We didn’t even have an online shop in 2001, let alone the logistical capability to ship GTFC merchandise en masse to the other side of the world.

As has often been the case with Town, it was an interesting idea in principle, just haplessly implemented.

Yeah i knew he was an international and their captain, i should have mentioned that really.  Yeah i didn't see him play but got told he was good player, who had a hell of leap on him.

Quoted from Meza

Yeah i knew he was an international and their captain, i should have mentioned that really.  Yeah i didn't see him play but got told he was good player, who had a hell of leap on him.

He was decent in the air at both ends, but sadly Handyside was the better defender, and we ultimately lost him due to the crazy decision to pay and play Enhua.

Enhua was brought over with the intention of selling merchandise to China as captain of that country. Also ITV Digital was promising mega bucks.

Thought he was a good player and remember him scoring a great goal against Burnley.

Don't know about highest earners but anyone we had on loan from Crawley was on £50 a week

Quoted from IlkleyMariner

Enhua was brought over with the intention of selling merchandise to China as captain of that country. Also ITV Digital was promising mega bucks.

Thought he was a good player and remember him scoring a great goal against Burnley.

https://mobile.twitter.com/onthisGTFCday/status/1138353583987077120
There you go. Suspect marking.

The second goal was was in the 2-2 at Bolton. Tuesday night game, it was some sort of anniversary; £5 a ticket, pyrotechnics on the pitch and a fairground outside the Reebok. 25,000 crowd, sold out in both home and away ends. We were unlucky not to win.

With a bit of luck we might get back there next season.

Quoted from Poojah

https://mobile.twitter.com/onthisGTFCday/status/1138353583987077120
There you go. Suspect marking.

The second goal was was in the 2-2 at Bolton. Tuesday night game, it was some sort of anniversary; £5 a ticket, pyrotechnics on the pitch and a fairground outside the Reebok. 25,000 crowd, sold out in both home and away ends. We were unlucky not to win.

With a bit of luck we might get back there next season.

Thanks for that Poojah, some good headed goals, didn't really see him play, i just knew he was on big wages. Around this time i was going through a bad time so football and Town kinda got skipped and i only checked the results really.  This is taken from Wiki although it might not be accurate -

Grimsby Town
In 2000, Zhang was made a transfer target of second tier English club Grimsby Town and was then brought to the club on a 3-month loan deal to play in the Football League Championship.[5][6] The defender would be part of a new wave of foreign imports at the club as newly installed manager Lennie Lawrence brought in David Nielsen, Knut Anders Fostervold and Menno Willems. Enhua was originally sent in as cover for the injured Peter Handyside, and after a nervous first game, he settled into life at Grimsby, even scoring three times for the club. Lawrence admitted talking to the club over a possible deal being made more permanent but his wages were too big for the club, and Enhua departed the club after his loan spell. He is still regarded as a minor cult hero amongst Grimsby supporters, who took very well to the player while he played in England. His goal celebration in the 1–0 victory over Burnley were used by ITV Yorkshire Television in the opening credits for their "Goals on Sunday" television programme throughout the 2001/2002 season.

Return to China
Zhang returned to China to play for Dalian Wanda (who had renamed themselves Dalian Shide) once more in time to go to help win another league title and would also be named in the Chinese squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Following his departure from Dalian in 2003, Zhang went on to play for Tianjin Teda F.C. for several seasons before joining Hong Kong football team South China in 2005 to extend his football career.

International career
Zhang Enhua would make his international debut against South Korea in a 0–0 draw on 19 February 1995 in the Dynasty Cup.[7] After several further friendlies his performances would be impressive enough to see him included in the 1996 AFC Asian Cup squad, however while he would score his debut goal for his country against Saudi Arabia in the quarter-finals he would unfortunately see his team lose 4–3 and get knocked out of the competition.[8] A firm member of the national team he would play a large part in the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC) campaign that saw China narrowly miss out of a world cup spot. He was, however, able to help China qualify for the 2000 AFC Asian Cup and while he started the early stages he would miss the knock out stages of the competition and only play in the Third place play-off game which China lost 1–0.[9]

Coaching career
Enhua retired in 2006 and took up coaching in Hong Kong. On 2 March 2011 it was announced that Enhua would be returning to England to complete his coaching badges with the Football Association, and that he would return to former club Grimsby Town as a special guest for the club's home fixture with AFC Wimbledon on 5 March.[10]

Upon his return to Grimsby he presented the club with a gift that included Chinese writing which translated into 'it might be a long road back, but you can do it and will achieve success eventually'. He also described his visit to the club as a homecoming.

Weren’t we paying an agent 50k a year to find us players at that time. Can’t remember his name but I once overheard him saying he’d offered the club Billy Dodds on loan from rangers but we couldn’t quite afford him.

When we had jemson on loan from Wendy, I reckon he must’ve been on a fair whack, same with Dave beasent. Though, what an impact these 2 had

Quoted from Poojah

https://mobile.twitter.com/onthisGTFCday/status/1138353583987077120
There you go. Suspect marking.

The second goal was was in the 2-2 at Bolton. Tuesday night game, it was some sort of anniversary; £5 a ticket, pyrotechnics on the pitch and a fairground outside the Reebok. 25,000 crowd, sold out in both home and away ends. We were unlucky not to win.

With a bit of luck we might get back there next season.

Don't think I've ever seen clips of him with commentary on. I've always pronounced his name "EN-OOH-AH". Oops.

Apart from the 13,5k per week figure discussed about, I wouldn't look at any of those supposed numbers and say "wow, mega bucks".

Coyne mentioned being on 3k a week - great, but these are hardly eyepopping figures.  £150k pa... for a few years.... then need to get another career at 35.

I guess you dont get rich playing down in League Two...

Must be quite a big thing going from being a pro footballer to have to get a "proper" job once it all ends.

Quoted from Yossarian

Apart from the 13,5k per week figure discussed about, I wouldn't look at any of those supposed numbers and say "wow, mega bucks".

Coyne mentioned being on 3k a week - great, but these are hardly eyepopping figures.  £150k pa... for a few years.... then need to get another career at 35.

I guess you dont get rich playing down in League Two...

Must be quite a big thing going from being a pro footballer to have to get a "proper" job once it all ends.

Unless your a robot like Kevin Ellison haha