The Cost of Loan Players

Both this and last season Hereford United have taken players on loan from higher placed clubs.

One of the details which has to be agreed before such a player might come to Edgar Street would be what percentage of his wages Hereford United might have to find.

No doubt it varies from club to club, player to player. Sometimes the 'lending' club may have good reason to allow a player to come to somewhere like Hereford especially if it is part of a getting fit/match practice process after an injury and not charge too much for the player's services.

And the lending out of a youngster such as Darren Randolph from Charlton might not be too expensive as the hope would be that by playing first team football he would return to the Valley a better player by the end of his loan spell.

But that isn't always the case as the story of the loan of Kevin Kyle, the Coventry striker, shows.

6ft 3in Kyle was wanted by at least three different clubs - Leyton Orient, Yeovil and Hartlepool. All were looking for a striker with a physical presence and Kyle would have fitted the bill.

But there was one sticking point - his reported £8,000 per week at Coventry.

The Northen Echo claims that Hartlepool had tracked Kyle for much of last month but were unwilling to pay 'the majority of Kyle's weekly wages.'

Now a deal has been done with Coventry paying 'a significant proportion of the striker’s £8,000-a-week wages.'

That probably means that Hartlepool are folking out about £3,000 a week for Kyle.

If that is what a useful striker can cost a League One club, it's little wonder that Graham Turner isn't always able to bring in the loan players he might want.

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