Holy Grail no poisoned chalice for promotion hopefuls

“Definitely the Holy Grail,” says the 46-year-old, who during spells on the board of three clubs has experienced the full range of emotions that can accompany a place at the top table of English football.

“If managed properly, reaching the Premier League can set a club up for a new period in their history. It can get you a new Academy, an improved stadium and an improved player roster.

“What is not to like about that?”

It is a fair point, though perhaps one that the good people of Bradford, Hull, Sheffield and Leeds will not choose to reflect on for too long following their own stints in the Premier League.

All four cities saw their clubs come out of the English top-flight in much worse shape than they had gone in, hence why, the Yorkshire Post points out to Pearson, his instant reply of ‘Holy Grail’ came as something of a surprise.

He ponders for a moment, before adding: “Of course, there have been a host of clubs, and not just ones from Yorkshire, who have paid a heavy price for being in the Premier League.

“But that doesn’t change the point that winning promotion has to be a good thing, especially if a club goes up with a low debt level.

“That is the thing about Hull (in 2008 when the Tigers won the Championship play-offs). The club may not have had any assets but it also didn’t really have any debt.

“That it eventually racked up the best part of £50m debt is what went wrong, not winning promotion in the first place.”

Pearson’s first brush with the Premier League came in 1996 when, following Caspian’s takeover of Leeds United, he joined the Elland Road board as commercial director.

During his five-year stint, the club’s annual turnover soared four-fold to reach £80m. That, in turn, allowed United to post a net profit of £10m.

Following that success, it was perhaps no surprise that Pearson should seek to strike out on his own and he took over Hull City, then of the basement division, in 2001.

Six years and two promotions later he sold the Tigers to Russell Bartlett, paving the way for his own return to the Premier League in October, 2007, as the chairman of Derby County.

Pearson stayed two years at Pride Park before answering an SOS call from Bartlett as the finances of Hull, then in their second year among the elite, careered out of control.

This wealth of experience means City’s head of football operations, who also owns Hull FC rugby league club, knows better than most what makes the Premier League tick in its 20th season.

“It is up there as the best league in the world,” he says. “And if done properly, a great place for a club to be.

“I think back to when I came into Leeds and how much difference just being a Premier League club made to everything.

“With a turnover of £80m, Leeds were the third biggest club in the country. That shows what can be achieved when things were run properly.

“In that respect, the job (Premier League chief executive) Richard Scudamore has done in bringing things together is phenomenal. To me, it couldn’t have gone better in any commercial sphere – and that says it all.

“From my personal viewpoint, though, I do believe clubs could have invested that money a little bit better.

“Certain rules should have been in place, stating how a certain percentage had to be spent on things such as youth development, facilities, developing the community aspect of a club and keeping prices down.

“If that had been done from the start, the potentially enormous debt problems that surround us now would not have happened and too much money would not have gone to players and agents at the expense of key elements of the game.”

The Football League acted this summer in an attempt to curb a debt level among its own 72 member clubs that, according to financial analysts Deloitte, stands at £700m. A salary cap that was already in place for League Two clubs was extended to League One, while UEFA’s financial fair play system, whereby all clubs must break even over a three-year period, will be introduced to the Championship in the near future.

It is an admirable effort to curb ruinous spending on wages, though Pearson does not believe a similar plan would work in the Premier League.

“The horse has bolted in that respect. It is too late. I almost feel like that for the Championship as well, to be honest,” he says.

“Financial fair play may temper things a bit but if you have £60m of debt then you have £60m of debt and you have to manage around it. Considering the money that has come into football over the past 20 years, the debt level is really disappointing. At some point, I feel there will be an enormous correction in the game – similar to what is happening in every industry across the world right now.

“The banking crisis and lack of liquidity is going to hit us all, in the end.”

Pearson may, in common with many, have a pessimistic outlook towards the wider economy. But, in terms of the Premier League, he believes some vital lessons have been learned and points to the three most recently promoted clubs as proof.

He said: “I think everyone has learned from the Portsmouths and the Hulls of this world.

“Now, whoever goes up knows exactly what is needed to survive on and off the pitch. The message has finally sunk in.

“Just look at the clubs who went up this time. I watched Norwich on the television (last week against Sunderland) and they had a team full of very good English players.

“Anthony Pilkington, Steve Morison and Bradley Johnson are all good British talent that Norwich have invested in. It gives them a platform to build on.

“I think Norwich will stay up but, God forbid they come down, they will be in fantastic shape to come back up again. Swansea are the same and QPR have bought really, really well. I think all three have benefited from the ‘crater moment’ that Hull suffered.”

The Tigers are, of course, a cautionary tale for all aspiring clubs with only a £51m bailout by the Allam family last year ensuring the club did not go under. Pearson, by bringing the Allams to the negotiating table with previous owner Bartlett, played a part in that rescue job and he still cannot understand why the club got it so wrong.

He said: “I look at the players that Hull bought when they went up and how promotion was handled compared to Blackpool, Burnley and now Norwich, and I struggle to understand what the thinking was.

“The thing that really stood out on the playing side when I came back was the five contracts with no relegation clauses built in.

“I looked at it and could not understand how someone could gamble to such an extent, especially as none of the five players had a re-sale value.

“In terms of individual deals, the Kamel Ghilas one was extraordinary. To take a 25-year-old player from the Spanish Second Division with no real track record and pay £2.6m and £600,000 of agents’ fees is quite staggering. And that’s without his wages.

“We are still having to deal with that now. We are trying to find a club in the French Second Division, which is the boy’s level and always has been. It is not Kamel’s fault but if that money had been invested in young, British talent then it could have been very different.

“Call that hindsight if you like but I don’t think it is. I think, at the time, we had already been set an example by other clubs who had been burnt by spending on overseas talent without resale value.

“It was a painful lesson and one that I believe every newly-promoted club should never forget.”

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