This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.

The 10 games that matter.

The home defeat last night for Charlton Athletic couldn’t have been better timed from a Leeds United perspective. Tonight’s game with Swindon Town starts a 10 game period between now and the end of February which could define the whole season. The Spurs replay speaks for itself in terms of importance and by his previous team selection and post match comments Grayson is committed to a strong line up in the JPT 2nd leg game. That leaves 8 league games in which we need to reproduce the pre Old Trafford form to ensure any concerns about promotion, generated by the recent league dip, are short lived. 8 games is a lot of points to win or lose in such a short time period, nothing is decided yet.

Given that we will enter this period with the squad that entered the new year, and if anything a couple of people, like Robinson and Huntingdon, are more likely to leave than we are to add anyone (Gradel’s signing, another “undisclosed fee” that makes you suspect the transfer fund is low, will ensure the best we can expect between now and February 1st is maybe another loan in) Leeds need to take a pragmatic approach to this vital period. For me it’s a simple equation, 4 points out of every 6, win at home, draw away. Obviously the league fixtures don’t come out that way always but in essence if we have 73 or more points at full time after Huddersfield away, then we have really cemented the climb out of this horrid division.

However if we replicate Wycombe or Exeter the wobbles can only increase, tonight is where we have to start that pragmatism, I’ll take a draw.

Seeing it through.

A little nugget that didn’t quite get the publicity it perhaps should have was a story suggesting Newcastle United were to install a policy of a unofficial maximum wage for any players signed of £30k a week (and that apparently is the PL level not the consequence of staying in the CCC). Before the chorus of criticism starts, that is still being paid £1.5m a year for being a 44 game a season mid-table player, times that by 30 professionals then you still have a first team squad wage bill of £45m (or the same as it was at Elland Road in 2002). Notwithstanding the clear relationship between madness wages and PL debt levels some will suggest such a policy amounts to a limit on the quality of player they attract, perhaps but it also has the potential for being ground-breaking in bringing some sanity back to PL finances,

Obviously the words sanity and Mike Ashley are not usually used in the same sentence but as this site has suggested before the godfather of the cockney mafia is not as stupid as some would have you believe. It looks like Ashley has decided to install some of the business practices that helped him make his millions, the lower profile he has achieved suggest some lessons have been learnt. Should the toons achieve promotion back to the “promised land” at the first time of asking the temptation to fudge that policy and have it as “an average” will as likely as not be succumbed to but even then that will still be a significant change not only for that club but the whole culture of that division.

Once one club starts the process the ripple effect could well kick in and soon enough average PL players will have a simple choice, a decent millionaires wage at Newcastle and other clubs that reign wages in or potential unemployment!

Top heavy.

Interestingly the quickest way to cut down on overall wage levels is to have more home grown players that have progressed out of the youth system. Teams like Arsenal and West Ham United show what can be achieved in this respect, some others, like Chelsea seem not to have the slightest idea how to balance between £100k+ a week “superstars” and promising youngsters. Even when playing Preston in the cup only Terry (now on £150k a week) was brought through the ranks and that was a decade ago. The likes of Taiwo and Sinclair are either sold on or loaned on, this hardly looks like the investment in Frank Arnesen has paid off!

In some respects I shouldn’t care what the consequences of this is for Chelsea, if they continue to need being bailed to the tune of £80m a year by sleight of hand equity deals then at some point an implosion is inevitable. But something else is at stake, not just the future of clubs or even the future of young footballers, it’s about aspiration, if you make the odds of a local kid getting into a London team playing in the PL almost impossible that will start to affect how the whole game is perceived. Without the process of development, where lads from normal lives can dream of playing for the club they support, there is no soul.

I detest Manchester United for lots of valid reasons but so far the one thing they can show which Chelsea can’t is a commitment to developing youngsters regardless of how profligate they are elsewhere.