Additional contributors: Daniel Taylor and Luke Bosher
Michael Jolley declared himself satisfied as he reflected on a first transfer window as Barrow manager last week.
Nine new players had arrived at Holker Street during the opening month of 2021, injecting fresh life into a squad mired in a relegation battle at the foot of League Two.
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By the end of the week, however, Barrow had taken unusual steps to complete the remodelling of a team that impressively won the National League title last season.
The Athletic has learned at least six players who were no longer in Jolley’s plans have been offered furlough under the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and at least two of them have accepted.
Connor Brown and Sam Hird are understood to be among the group to receive this proposal. The pair helped the Cumbrian club end a 48-year spell in non-League football with promotion last season but have not played since January 9.
Players are understood to have been told that, if they did not accept the furlough scheme, they would no longer have a squad number and would be expected to train away from the first-team group. Barrow say “several” have accepted, but have chosen not to identify who is involved.
The players impacted will continue to receive their full salaries from Barrow but the Government will now pay 80 per cent of their wages up to £2,500 per month.
The controversial cost-cutting step will attract criticism, given Barrow’s January shopping spree. The furlough scheme was created as a means of providing job security for companies unable to operate at full capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than helping to fund recruitment.
“The club, like many others, is struggling to survive through an unprecedented season and is exploring every lifeline at its disposal,” Barrow told The Athletic in a statement.
“The players outside our named squad have been offered furlough, which the club has made clear is entirely discretionary, in order to save them travel costs and the potential risk of commuting to training during the pandemic.
“No player who accepts the club’s offer, which several have so far done, will be financially disadvantaged as a result.”
Barrow’s decision comes after it was revealed 58 of the EFL’s 72 clubs claimed back money from the CJRS during the final weeks of 2020.
First launched by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last March, the scheme has provided vital support to UK businesses large and small during the pandemic, with close to nine million employees furloughed at its peak during the first lockdown.
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Football clubs across the EFL used the scheme extensively for players and non-football staff last season as Leagues One and Two were cut short and the pattern has been extended into 2020-21.
Government figures have revealed the identities of 740,000 companies to have used CJRS during December and among them are the majority of EFL clubs.
All of Championship’s 24 clubs barring Bournemouth, Coventry City, Reading, Stoke City, Swansea City and Watford were listed, along with 20 of 24 clubs from both Leagues One and Two.
The lower-league clubs who did not claim furlough for staff in the final weeks of 2020 were Portsmouth, Fleetwood Town, Burton Albion, AFC Wimbledon, Bolton Wanderers, Harrogate Town and Salford City. Barrow completed the set but have since changed their approach.
The number of staff placed on CJRS — and the cost to the taxpayer — is not revealed but football’s dependency on financial support is made clear by the clubs benefitting in a season played predominantly behind closed doors.
Barrow’s decision to furlough players mid-season follows on from Chesterfield drawing criticism for taking the same steps at the end of last month. The National League side confirmed “a small group of players who do not feature in the manager’s plans have now been placed on furlough”.
Chesterfield said the decision had been taken in “consultation with the (players’ union) PFA”, and they also claimed other National League clubs had done the same. As with Barrow, Chesterfield’s furloughed players will continue to receive full salaries.
Six new signings were still recruited during the January window to bolster the squad, with Chesterfield saying their ability to ship players out on loan was being inhibited by the doubts facing National League North and South clubs, who have voted in significant numbers to curtail the season at those sixth-tier levels.
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“It was never a strategy of ours when we were bringing players in,” said manager James Rowe. “It was no consequence of our recruitment coming into the club. It is a business decision.”
Leagues One and Two were both grateful of a bailout from the Premier League before Christmas, guaranteeing £375,000 to clubs in the third tier and £250,000 in the fourth. The ongoing uncertainty over when fans will be allowed back into stadiums, however, ensures the strain is being felt across the EFL.
“It’s been really challenging,” says Kieran Maguire, an academic and host of the Price Of Football podcast.
“The only realistic money coming into Leagues One and Two has been the solidarity payments, the EFL TV deal and the grant from the Premier League. In the Championship, it’s club owners effectively bailing clubs out.
“Because clubs in the EFL don’t have the benefits of a ridiculously successful TV deal, they are more dependent on match-day income from ticket sales and season tickets, commercial and sponsorship deals. Fans still can’t attend matches and that continues to have a huge impact.
“The official title of furlough is job retention, so the aim is to put people into a form of hibernation, which will allow them to keep jobs. Anyone in the entertainment industry, and I include football in that, has really been curtailed and often closed down.
“This scheme allows them to tick over, to a certain extent, in the hope they can bounce back when a vaccination is successful and the authorities allow people to congregate again.”
Perceptions of clubs using furlough in the EFL are noticeably different to those doing so in the Premier League. Liverpool and Tottenham both reversed initial decisions to use CJRS in light of public pressure but two top-flight clubs did continue to claim back money in December.
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Sheffield United and Newcastle United were listed in the Government’s records, despite netting in excess of £100 million from TV deals this season.
“The Premier League has not handled itself well from a PR perspective at times, but the EFL is a different beast,” added Maguire.
“They’re almost different sports, especially League One and Two. You can put the EFL into a different silo as far as professional football is concerned.
“There’s an understanding from supporters that they want their clubs to financially and physically survive as entities.
“If furlough is part of the process for that to be achieved, then I don’t think there’s any objections from fans or politicians, who seemed to pile in quite quickly into the Premier League, when Liverpool and Spurs, the two Champions League finalists in 2019, were early to use it.”
That outlook, though, will be challenged by Barrow and any other clubs placing unwanted players on furlough.
“I think it goes against the spirit,” said Maguire. “They’re effectively using the furlough scheme on the basis of which players the manager thinks are not up to it.”
(Top photo: James Baylis/AMA/Getty Images)