Average Wage

[Manchesterlala]

Cant see the attraction of of an unheard team in the first division in Belgium .
At end of the day money talks so they clearly offered more than Argyle and location close to family wasn't a consideration.
Reckon DA fell out with him and gave him a derisory offer

He can probably get back to Bolton quicker from there than Plymouth. If not, there won't be much in it.

Correct. A quick google suggests that even on the slowest of public transport (train, underground connections etc), it would only take 6 hours, assuming he took residence in nearby Antwerp. On my last drive from Ivybridge to Salford, it took 6 hours. And the M6 behaved itself on that day!

Oscar leaving for Belgium is a good move for him. Different culture, potential for European football, a chance make a name of himself and a foot in the door of employment in the EU before the uncertainty of Brexit hits. If he’d have wanted to stay in the EFL he would have, whether it was with Argyle or not, but he didn’t.

 

[Adam R]

I wonder if he chose Belgium because he sees there being a progression from lower/mid team to top team if he proves himself which then in turn opens up more opportunities.

Chances are if he moved to Preston he would struggle to put himself in the window to go onto bigger and better teams in England.

Looking at other leagues in the world, the big teams are more likely to recruit from within their league - in England we seem to go abroad with the odd exception being a player moving between PL clubs or from Championship to PL.

Maybe he sees this as a good career move (for the long haul) as well as offering him the life challenges he wanted to achieve.

 

[Adam R]

Feel free to move this if not deemed Argyle enough,

But in the punditry (term used loosely) last night in the Scunny v Rotherham game, they were talking about the gulf between L1 and the Championship being the biggest step up between any of the leagues.

Apparently the average wage bill in the Championship in the season just finishing was £35m (IIRC this equated to an average salary of 16k per week). I don't recall them saying wha the average in L1 was, but they did say that Blackburns was 8m.

I know salaries dont guarantee success but it shows how much of a step up we will need to compete at that level should we make it in the near future. The other worrying thing is that the longer we aren't in that space, the wider the gap will get i fear.