Quote Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory View Post
There is no natural occurring shape of the wage market. That's determined by whose willing to pay what and the richest clubs set the bar. Real Madrid set the bar a long time ago during their 'Galactico' phase. From then on it got silly and the gap between the rich clubs and poor widened. City and Chelsea are a symptom of the problem. There is no way for the smaller clubs to compete with the elites because the bigger clubs have always been able to poach their players and set wage fees and transfers way above what they can afford. Where is the sport in that? The system has been unfair for years but we're more vocal now because it feels like we're in a hopeless situation where we can't compete.
By "naturally occurring" I mean the way in which players tend to get paid what they're worth. Considering the correlation between wage bill and final league position the natural conclusion is that overall wage bill is a very good indicator of squad quality, and that squad quality is the deciding factor in where you finish.

This is possible because the conditions for an efficient wage market are all there.

Transparency, i.e. football players conduct their business in full view of millions, everyone can see how good a player you are, and players and agents pretty much know how much their peers earn.

Transferability, i.e. their are lots of buyers and sellers, and players are able to move freely between clubs.

Therefore if a player performs above his wages he will either agitate for a wage increase or agitate for a transfer (on higher wages).
If a player performs at a level below where his wages suggest, he will tend to fall out of the team, be sold or agitate for a move elsewhere.

In this way players "naturally" will tend to gravitate to their proper wage and, we know this happens because otherwise the correlation could not exist.

A distortion then would if you overpaid players relative to their abilities.

Oh what is the point.