Blues boss Kieran McKenna believes owners being able to put greater equity into clubs without falling foul of Financial Fair Play rules would be a step towards bridging the increasing gap between the Championship and Premier League.

The last six sides promoted from the second tier into the top flight, including Town, have all been relegated in their first season with the gap between 17th and 18th this season standing at 13 points going into the final match.

Asked what he feels could be done to reduce what’s now a chasm between the two divisions, McKenna said: “I think there are probably people in better positions in terms of knowing all the financial models and Financial Fair Play aspect.

“But if you want my uneducated opinion, having experienced it this year, I do think that a newly promoted team, especially one in our position having by far the lowest Financial Fair Play threshold, it’s limiting to the level of the competition. That would be my one opinion on it.

“I think if a club comes up from the Championship, and certainly a club comes up from the Championship without parachute payments and the owners want to put equity into the football club to try and bridge the huge financial gap that there is between the Championship and the Premier League, then I don’t think there should be a limit on that ambition.

“How that equates going back down and parachute payments is a really complicated issue complicated issue. But if you ask what could be done, that would be my opinion. I won’t speak for [chairman and CEO] Mark [Ashton] on that as he might have a different opinion.

“But I even thought that in the Championship. I think if the owners want to put equity into a club, as long as they are not loading debt onto a football club, if they want to put their own money in to level with the ambition that they have for the club, that should be allowed and without limits. I know there are discussions around it.

“Maybe my answer was more eloquent than the thoughts in my head because I haven’t given it that much thought, but if you ask me my opinion on parachute payments and Financial Fair Play, I know how frustrating it can be for Championship clubs seeing teams come down from the Premier League.

“But I also understand that to have any level of ambition, you need to have a level of protection going down from the Premier League to the Championship.

“It’s only my reflections and thoughts from a manager’s perspective and knowing how ambitious our owners want to be.

“There are people that are more informed than me and I am sure Mark will give his feedback to the Premier League, both for the football club and for the benefit of the game.”

TWTD

Edmundo added 18:06 - May 23 FFP was a very sneaky way of protecting the status quo. And moreover, it's worked. The media have, of course, swallowed it whole, saying the bottom 3 are "the worst ever" etc.
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OldFart71 added 18:36 - May 23 There is obviously a serious problem for promoted clubs. That's not a finger in the air guess it's a fact borne out of six teams gaining promotion and six teams being demoted in the last two seasons. Players don't want to join a newly promoted club if they are established at another Premier club unless like Phillips who was basically loaned to revive a flagging career and to get some of the costs off Man City's wage bill. That means that newly promoted clubs can only lure players from other Championship clubs or as in Town's case players that have performed to a reasonable standard in the Premiership. Of course there will always be the situation where even if it was possible to compete financially with a big club if both they and yourselves are in the market for a player they will 99 times out of 100 go to the bigger club. I have advocated a handicap system whereby clubs finishing top start minus 9 points the next season. Second, third ,fourth, fifth and sixth start minus 6 points. From seventh down to 15th minus three and 16th,17th and the three promoted clubs start at zero. Not saying that is the exact model but you have a system in horse racing where handicap horses are given weight dependent on their finishes in races.

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Karlosfandangal added 19:59 - May 23 But Town still spent £150 million
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tetchris added 21:00 - May 23 Town spent over £100 million on transfer fees last summer. If we could have spent £150-200 million would we be looking at PL football at Portman Road next season. I doubt it as KMC’s team selection and tactics were naive at times and he did t seem to have a plan b, substitutions were like for like rather than tactical.
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grinch added 08:18 - May 24 paying a manager with no experience the sum rhat MCK gets are some of the problems it will also be that the other coaching members costs are some of the highest in PM let alone EFL. As for no spending limits just match owners ambition that is pur lunacy and why footballbis where it is today. Man city were allowed that years ago and they became the blue print ruins football at all levels when you are paying 100 million for players it exposes the problem which is not sustainable. Town have been effected by MCK recruitment of english only young players that exposed all areas of weakness across the pitch other previous promoted teams suchvas Brighton Bournemouth and Crystal P bring in players from abroad we did 1 player that has been our problem self inflicted as players outside of UK leagues are more VFM we didnt tap in so dont try and deflect blame on FFP. This season poor showing is MCk fault with lots of poor decisions on and off pitch as good as previous 2 season were he has been over the full season the worst prem manager in 24/25 as he wasnt sacked he got quite rightly plaudits previously but is alsk the reason we are getting relegated his tatics were exposed and he also with hod coaching team push players so hard that muscle injuries are sustained and a big point is his tatics have exposed all our goalkeepers to ridicule they have all looked so poor but he didnt change the plan leaving each one exposed big failing imo. He must learn quick or will be replaced in Oct this year as owners will not carry on asvit currently is. Perfect solution would be a team comes kn for him this summer and we pay no buy fee for his coaching staff and him will save us largr sum of money for something that currentlh seems inevitable

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atty added 09:31 - May 24 Farcical that the owners of clubs are limited in the extent they can invest (not loan) in their clubs. What other industry does that? It reflects the bureaucratic nature of those running our game. Newcastle, arguably the richest Club in the world, are limited I what they can spend.
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PortmanTerrorist added 12:15 - May 24 For all those that criticise McKenna consider we were underdogs in nearly every game this season, but he managed to set us up in such a way as we often lead in games. Yes, decent managers were able to adjust tactically in game, and use their far superior benches toom, so hardly surprising (e.g.) we did not always hold on to leads. So I just find some comments on here really glib and thoughtless. We would/will clearly need 4-5 windows of investment to get closer to Prem clubs, and even then we would be fishing in a weaker pool, hoping some of the signings grow into Prem standard players. As it turns out, our signings in past year have been mostly disappointing, but not to say they won't develop, but the strategy was decent, our manager HAS been flexible in his approach, but our squad is still way off the quality level to be truly competitive as evidenced by our League 1 players still shining! promotion has allowed recruitment level to be accelerated but a year in the Champ to give room for our signings to grow and maybe a chance for a couple of Academy players to be tried out, may prove to be a blessing in disguise as our owners (thankfully, after ME) won't stop investing and the Club won't stop growing !

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warfarinman69 added 00:27 - May 25 Sense and factual assessment by Portman Terrorist. You must actually watch most of the games! There really has been rubbish on here about McKenna. The injuries obtained - in matches and in a number of cases in tackles - have nothing to do with high intensity training We need to stop players helping with the washing up too!
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PhuketPete added 05:16 - May 25 @grinch don’t agree KMc is the problem but kudos for your longest continuous punctuation-free sentence in twtd history (108 words)
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Wooly74 added 07:40 - May 25 Opinions are like ar*eholes, everyone has one, but it’s also true that many of them stink. Those plastic fans who slate the best young coach in the country are clearly not the smaller section of us real fans who stuck by the side in the depths of League 1. Go back to your PlayStations and play out your dreams on there please and leave the real football to the rest of us!!!

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Carberry added 12:15 - May 25 Real fans, eh, Wooly. Grow up, mate.
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