Johnson celebrates promotion

The main area of discussion amongst Leeds United fans before our match at Turf Moor this weekend was the war of words between Ken Bates and Bradley Johnson.

Further fuel was thrown onto this raging inferno of a debate, by some suggested figures that the Leeds United fans were throwing around.

It’s claimed, that Bradley Johnson’s current deal earns him £3,000 p/w. At £156,000 a year, this could be validated by Ken Bates’ own claims that Bradley currently earns ‘more than the Prime Minister’ who is on around £140,000 per year.

It’s believed that Leeds United’s ‘final offer’ (I use the term loosely, as I suspect another one will yet be forthcoming) was somewhere in the region of £5,000 per week – or £260,000 per year – but Bradley’s agent was demanding a quite frankly ridiculous £12,000 p/w  – £624,000 per year.

Now, to put all this into perspective, the last stats we could find on an average Championship players salary were £200,000 per year. This is somewhat misleading however, because it doesn’t include bonuses and the average is also taken from the earnings of youth and reserve team players. With this is mind, I think it’s safe to assume that a regular first team player will, on average, earn double that figure which takes us to £400,000 per year.

Given the amount of match time Bradley gets, I would assume the ‘parity’ he asks for is probably based loosely on the £400,000 per year figure, which would mean his agents demands aren’t quite as ridiculous as they initially appear.

The demands are even more understandable if Leeds’ final offer was indeed £5,000 p/w, as the agent would be hoping that he and the club could find some middle ground. If you split the difference between the agents demands and the final offer from Leeds United, then you’re left somewhere in the region of £8,500 per week which would not be too far away from the average yearly earnings at £442,000.

The above is of course highly unreliable as it was only talk amongst fans, and this kind of talk can often be widely wide of the mark. It does, in many ways, make a lot of sense however, and even if we’re only talking in a hypothetical sense it does present an interesting basis for further discussion.

I guess it all depends on how highly Simon Grayson rates Bradley Johnson? Considering the amount of playing time he gets (second only to Howson) then I’d have to label him a key player in Grayson’s Leeds United.

With this in mind, is it really unreasonable for Johnson to ask for a salary that is in line with an average Championship player? Or would the money be better spent replacing him – even if it does mean losing a regular first team player and upsetting the balance at a key time?

POLL: What is a reasonable new contract offer for Bradley?

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.