Bradford City

Phil Parkinson critical of bloated wages handed to young players

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 14 September 2015

Bradford City boss Phil Parkinson claims that a constant rise in wages handed to young players "is a problem which needs to be rectified".

Bradford City manager Phil Parkinson has called for clubs to rethink how much money they pay young players.

Parkinson believes that youngsters are seeing their development stunted by a reluctance to drop down to a lower playing level.

Premier League wages have continued to increase in recent times all over the board, which the Bantams boss claims is a worrying trend that needs to be altered.

"There's so much money in the game at the moment and I think we've got to be careful that we don't give our 18, 19, 20-year-olds fantastic salaries," he told Press Association Sport. "It's a problem which needs to be rectified.

"My view on it is that English football has a great pool of talent, but there's a big problem in that we pay our young players far too much money before they've actually done anything.

"You get players who are 19 or 20 in the Premier League who are multi-millionaires before they've achieved anything and that, for me, takes the hunger and desire away from them."

Bradford signed Devante Cole and Greg Leigh this summer after the young duo left Manchester City.