By Harry Veal
19 May 2011 00:14:00
Mick McCarthy – Wolverhampton (PA)
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Wolves owner Steve Morgan has said he would expect Manchester United to be fined if they play a weakened team in their final Premier League game with Blackpool.
With a Champions League final against Barcelona the following week, it has been suggested that Sir Alex Ferguson may rest a number of his first team stars but Morgan feels United will still be going for the win against Ian Holloway’s Seasiders.
“We can only do what we have to do,” he said.
“I think United put out a second string against Schalke and it didn’t do them much good.
“I don’t know what they will do. United are a very professional club and will not want to lose on the final day, on the day they get presented with the Premier League trophy.
“They are not going to want to lose going into the Champions League final.”
Wolves were themselves handed a £25,000 fine for fielding a weakened team against United last season, and Morgan feels that the Premier League would be ‘hypocritical’ if they didn’t hand out the same punishment to the Old Trafford club.
“It would be pretty hypocritical if they weren’t fined.”
Wolves will avoid relegation if they win at home to Blackburn Rovers on the final day and Morgan revealed that the club have already planned financially for the possibility of dropping down to the Championship.
“The current players’ contracts depend on which division they are in, everybody,” he said.
“I know that’s not true at a lot of clubs where they’ve got certain players who are on the same whatever happens.
“Everyone here has got that sort of contract. That’s what we do. It is financial suicide to do anything other than that.
“Your revenue would drop by £30million if we go down so who the hell is going to pick that up?
“You have to cut your cloth when you go down.
“We have lost players for that reason but not many. Most clubs do try to enforce that anyway.
“The top clubs can afford not to because I don’t think Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal are going to go down next season.
“But for the rest, it would be crazy not to.”
Morgan also warned against clubs spending outside their means, and pointed to the example of Portsmouth of how things can go wrong.
He said: “I wonder how they are going to confirm to the UEFA fair play rules.
“We’ve seen what happened with Portsmouth. They went on a spending spree, brought lots of players in, they won the cup, and then they almost went into oblivion.
“This short-term mentality in football is ludicrous. People have to think longer term and start thinking what they are doing.
“We were the third highest spenders in the Premier League last summer so it’s not as if we are not spending on players. We spent a net £18million.
“Mick McCarthy will have money to spend again this summer but it is all about balance.
“Is it too much of an ask that clubs are run fiscally correct? I don’t think it is.
“The graveyard is full of them who haven’t done that. We can all name the clubs who’ve done it over recent years. I’ve no intention of Wolves being one of them.”