Nigel Pearson has spoken about the challenges of signing players within a confined wage structure but highlighted how it's creating a competitive culture among the squad.
Cutting the wage bill has been one of the biggest priorities since Pearson's arrival as manager over two years ago in order to help balance the books. At the end of the financial year 2021/22, the club's wage bill had dropped from £30.25milion to £23.81m over a 12-month period.
That figure is again likely to decrease again when the accounts are published later this year, particularly if high earners Tomas Kalas and Jay Dasilva leave on free transfers. If they do extend their deals, then it will be on reduced salaries, similar to Nahki Wells' contract extension in February.
Pearson said there will be times when the necessary wage structure will impact whether or not deals can be done, particularly if other Championship clubs are interested, but insists they can still be competitive. For example, City are just one of the clubs interested in former player Joe Bryan whose deal at Fulham expires in the summer alongside Stoke, Blackburn, Milwall, Swansea, and Cardiff.
City have missed out on one summer target with Pearson confirming the player opted to move elsewhere, although there could be numerous factors behind that decision. When asked if signing players within the structure remains one of the big challenges this summer, he responded: "Only in the sense that we know what we want to pay.
"So there are lots of clubs who are not as well placed as us so we can be competitive but there will be times when we just can't compete with other clubs. You don't hear me moaning about it, all I would do is say 'Right, let's move on, it's not doable.'
"We've worked hard to try and manage what the wage structure looks like and I think it's really important that we continue to work hard to keep it competitive internally too. I don't want a big discrepancy within the squad."
City have worked hard to tie down their talented young players to new contracts with George Tanner, Harvey Wiles-Richards, Tommy Conway, Sam Bell and Omar Taylor-Clarke all agreeing to new deals over the last 12 months. Rob Atkinson and Max O'Leary have also recently committed their futures going forward.
Pearson wants to establish a fairness within the squad while challenging the younger players to maintain their form going forward as new and improved contracts won't be handed out on the back of one good season.
"I also think it's important for players to earn the right to be paid more," Pearson added.
"We're not all of a sudden going to go with young players who have been on an appropriate wage to put them up with the high earners just because they've had one good season because I don't believe in that.
"They've got to do it over a sustained period and that's the big thing. It's important earning your stripes, earning the right, and for our lads who are some of our better earners, the expectation of them is to make sure they don't become comfortable and they keep performing to set the right example.
"So all these things help to create a culture which is competitive and that's what we need more than anything. Because you know, the tactical side of it, people want to talk about football sometimes and what they always forget is that actually the most healthy environments and the most competitive sides are the ones that have an atmosphere and a feeling that is very much moving in the same direction.
"You have to spend as much time developing that and recognising that people don't fit into that."
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