Salary caps are the way to go for lower league clubs - Mellor

LEADING football agent Gary Mellor believes League One and Two clubs are likely to bring in salary caps and reduce squad sizes as they try to deal with a financial crisis.

Mellor’s Potteries-based Beswicks Sports agency represents more than 100 players throughout the English game.

They include Burnley’s Premier League striker Jay Rodriguez, and Newcastle duo Sean and Matty Longstaff.

But he’s also well connected in League Two where they represent Cheltenham manager Michael Duff and Colchester boss John Mcgreal.

Their legal team also represented Carol and Kevin Shanahan when they bought Port Vale from Norman Smurthwaite last year.

Some League Two clubs have already released players as they try to cope without matchday income after their seasons were called off because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The standings will be decided on a point-pergame basis.

Mellor said: “We’ve had players released already. Clubs are saying they are releasing them or letting them know now to give them a better chance to find a new club.

“But no-one knows what budgets will look like when they can start getting people back in through the turnstiles.

“All three divisions in the Football League are talking about salary caps and I am pretty sure that would come in, in some form or another. That’s especially in League One and Two because they will have to do something.

“They may see that as being a bit like the MLS (in the United States) where it levels the competition, although in my experience it never does. But I think League One and Two will come out of this with some form of agreed salary cap.”

He thinks smaller squads are also likely, adding: “I think unfortunately it will, and that means fewer British players having the chance of having a professional football career.

“Some of the best players produced in this country have been touch and go whether they were kept on at a certain age.

“I have read many stories with people like Harry Redknapp saying a certain player was going to be released but they gave them a chance.

“Those people might not get that chance again.

“You can be a different player at 21 than you are at 16, but they will be making those decisions earlier.”