some finacial facts

No particular order to the list below, just some rather eye-opening facts that are worth bearing in mind when we next assess these players, the club, and where they stand (my apologies to anyone for restating the obvious):

1. Blues wage bill was 38M a couple of years ago. 141% of income.
2. Preston NE wage bill 'only' 19.7M. They just beat us, and finished way above us.
3. Marc Roberts paid 662,000 per year. Others on over 1M, including Craig Gardner. Many on 520,000, 100K min, for 1st teamers.
4. The old adage was footballers have a short shelf life not so much applicable anymore, many have gone into coaching, and backroom staffing is an expanding business. Other businesses available.
5. The above wages, totted up over 10 years (longer for some), amounts to 5-10 times more than I will ever make in 40 years full time work. And I've spent ten years in college, and plenty on the dole.
6. Birmingham revenue roughly 10 times smaller than Liverpool, Man City and Man Utd.
7. This gap will grow, which is mainly down to the cancer of Sky Sports, BT, etc.
8. While TV broadcasting brings football to the wider world and that's to be welcomed, it is ensuring that the rich clubs get ever richer and the lower leagues will drift off to irrelevance.
9. Match day receipts (ticket sales etc), actually only amount to 11% of revenue (Man City's case), and 25% at best. A big stadium and big club - on the whole - is only incidental nowadays. That's why the likes of Burnley, AFC Bournemouth, Swansea etc etc are winging it above all the big name clubs stuck in obscurity for years.
10. Commercial revenue - 25% to 50% of revenue - is also ensuring big clubs get bigger. People in Abu Dhabi and KL buy team shirts that have just won the league (with the latest sponsorship deals).

All very depressing. The predicament we find ourselves in at present with nameless, faceless, disinterested owners is actually not even getting close to the sad long-term reality.