"Not in the Summer He Isn't":

“Not in the Summer He Isn’t”:

When Footballers Could Only Earn £20 a Week

There’s a wonderful old football story about Tommy Docherty and Tom Finney which, whether you’re interested in football finances or not, is worth knowing simply because the punchline is so good.

The two were together at Preston North End and Finney — quite rightly, given that he was one of the finest footballers England has ever produced — was being paid more than Docherty. The bit that annoyed Docherty was that Finney was apparently also being paid more during the summer months, when neither of them was actually playing football.

So Docherty went to see the manager and asked why Finney was getting more money than him.

The answer was fairly difficult to argue with: Tom Finney was a much better player.

Docherty apparently thought about that for all of about half a second before replying:

“Not in the bloody summer he isn’t.”

It’s a great line, but behind it sits a part of football history that seems almost impossible now. Professional footballers really were paid less during the summer, and by the beginning of the 1960s even some of the biggest players in English football could earn no more than £20 a week.

Not £20,000.

Twenty quid.

A very different football world

For decades English football operated a maximum wage. By 1961, the ceiling was £20 a week during the season, with players receiving a lower amount in the summer.

It didn’t matter whether you were an average squad player or an England international. There was a limit, and that was that.

Clubs also held an extraordinary amount of control over their players. Under the old retain-and-transfer system, reaching the end of your contract didn’t necessarily mean you were free to pack your boots and sign somewhere else. Your existing club could still retain your registration and effectively prevent you from moving.

Try imagining that conversation today.

“Good news, son. Manchester United want to sign you.”

“Fantastic. When do I leave?”

“You don’t. We’ve told them no.”

Jimmy Armfield experienced something remarkably similar when Manchester United showed an interest in taking him from Blackpool. Different times indeed.

Jimmy Hill changes the game

Long before Jimmy Hill became the familiar television figure that generations of football supporters knew, he was chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association and one of the driving forces behind the campaign to abolish the maximum wage.

The players were prepared to strike over it and eventually, in 1961, the restriction was removed.

That opened the door to one of the most famous wage deals in English football history.

Johnny Haynes was Fulham’s outstanding player and captain of England. Fulham chairman Tommy Trinder had previously said that Haynes was worth £100 a week, which was a relatively safe claim while football’s rules made it impossible to actually pay him that much.

Then Jimmy Hill and the PFA succeeded in getting the maximum wage abolished.

Presumably Tommy Trinder had one of those moments when you remember something you said several months earlier and rather wish you hadn’t.

Haynes became English football’s first £100-a-week footballer.

The previous maximum had been £20.

Suddenly one player was earning five times that amount.

So what is a footballer worth?

This is the part of the story I find most interesting.

Johnny Haynes didn’t become five times better at football overnight. Nobody woke him up the morning after the maximum wage disappeared and discovered he could suddenly dribble past another four defenders.

What changed was his bargaining position.

Once an artificial ceiling disappeared, his club had to confront a much more interesting question: what was Johnny Haynes actually worth to them?

And despite everything that has changed in football over the last 65 years, that question hasn’t changed very much at all.

What is any footballer worth?

It depends on who wants him, how badly they want him, what alternatives they have, his age, position, ability and potential, his current contract, the league he plays in, the buying club’s budget and, ultimately, what somebody is prepared to pay.

That is why two players of apparently similar ability can end up on completely different contracts.

The market isn’t always logical and it certainly isn’t always fair, but it is a market.

It isn’t just the weekly wage either

Modern contracts can obviously contain far more than a basic salary.

There may be signing-on fees, appearance bonuses, goal bonuses, promotion bonuses, accommodation, flights, options, release clauses and all manner of other terms.

And different players will value different things.

One player may want every possible pound added to his weekly wage. Another may prefer slightly less money if the club provides accommodation and flights home. Somebody else may place enormous value on a release clause because he wants the freedom to move if the right opportunity comes along.

That’s why I’ve never particularly liked the idea of treating a football contract as simply:

“They’re offering this. Sounds alright. Sign there.”

The important part is understanding what the player actually wants from the opportunity and then understanding how far the club is prepared to move towards it.

Somewhere between those two positions is usually the deal.

From £20 a week to today

The sums involved in football have obviously changed beyond anything Tommy Docherty, Tom Finney or Johnny Haynes could have imagined.

At the very top of the game, the numbers now being discussed every week would probably have sounded completely absurd in 1961.

But the basic principle underneath them remains surprisingly familiar.

A player has a career to look after. A club has its own interests to protect. Both sides want the best possible outcome, and eventually somebody has to work out where those two positions can meet.

Which brings me back to Tommy Docherty.

Tom Finney undoubtedly was the better footballer.

But Docherty still managed to find the one period of the year when he thought the argument might not apply.

And to be fair to him…

not in the bloody summer he wasn’t.

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