ON SOCCER:With 14 players about to be out of contract at Cork City there are concerns over what the new wage structure will be

A QUICK glance at the website of Urban Green, the development company owned by Cork City's new chairman, Tom Coughlan, reveals that it is dedicated to "sustainable urban lifestyles".

It seems a somewhat funny thought in the circumstances because, as it happens, quite a few of the businessmen who have previously decided to take on a League of Ireland club have found that their own lifestyles have quickly become entirely unsustainable. And around Cork these days there are those who wonder whether Coughlan, too, has bitten off a little more than he can chew.

The man himself, an enormously amiable character if his demeanour immediately after City won the Setanta Cup on Saturday night is anything to go by, insists not. Sceptics suggest that he is a man more associated with great wealth through connections than a possessor of it himself, but while Coughlan doesn't readily get into specifics, he gives a very strong impression of somebody who is undaunted by the challenges, financial or otherwise, that the football club he rescued from examinership might present over the next few years.

Having said that he is clear about the fact that he has not arrived on the scene with the sort of blank chequebook manager and fans tend to dream about. What remains far less certain is just what he sees Cork City being able to spend next season as they look to consolidate after such a financially turbulent few months.

He is quoted by some as having told a gathering of players that, rather than the €20,000 a week mentioned in a local media report, he anticipates the weekly wage bill for next season being closer to €15,000. It is currently around €35,000 and with 14 players about to be out of contract, there is huge concern that if the figures are accurate then squad members are facing into either having to move on or accept drastic wage cuts. Most immediately, though, there is widespread concern around the camp that he has not made his thinking on next season known in any detail directly to the club's employees.

Coughlan actually denies having mentioned the €15,000 figure and insists he has not settled on a likely or appropriate weekly figure for 2009. What he is fairly adamant about, though, is that the current figure will have to be reduced as, he says, it was a key factor in the club getting into such severe difficulties in the first place.

The bill, of course, has already declined significantly since its peak with the likes of David Mooney, George O'Callaghan and John O'Flynn all heading for England as the crisis set in. What is left is a squad clearly lacking in depth with young players and others who might otherwise have remained on the fringes.

What they, manager Alan Mathews and the bulk of the established players have achieved has really been quite remarkable and Saturday's defeat of Glentoran will, according to Coughlan, have a bearing on the talks he hopes to initiate with players within a matter of days.

At least as pertinent, perhaps, is how the team does between now and the end of the week with wins at Inchicore tomorrow night and at home to Sligo on Friday potentially putting City in a strong position to qualify for Europe next season. It is a prospect, he suggests, that would have an impact on the money available.

However, some of the players still seem certain to be asked to accept some cuts in their wages.

On Saturday players Liam Kearney and Dan Murray made it clear that the bulk of the squad want to stay on but if the cuts sought are considered unreasonable then a few of the most prominent players may yet seek to get away.

The problem for them is that the options are likely to be limited next year with several other prominent clubs certain to be trimming their budgets in the area of player wages.

In other circumstances, such an attempt to consolidate might make for a short-lived honeymoon between new proprietor and old fans. But leading members of Foras, the fans' trust established a few of months to help safeguard the club's future, suggest that their priority just now is the S word: sustainability.

One describes the events of recent weeks as "a real wake-up call" and gives the clear impression that the future expectations of supporters are likely to be moderated by their awareness of how easily City might have gone out of business.

Coughlan insists that, while he is still getting to grips with the task confronting him, he doesn't want to substantially change things. He repeats the comparison to Kilkenny's hurlers that caused so much concern recently (the gist of which is that they achieve so much while being technically amateur) but when pressed on the matter he insists that football is a professional game and that City needs to have a professional squad. What is required, he adds, is a change of mindset.

We shall find out over the coming weeks, of course, whether he has something more concrete in mind but much of Coughlan's talk about the club's future is hugely aspirational with suggestions that the club's future prosperity can be secured by qualifying for the business end of European competitions.

On balance, those Foras people who have dealt with him seem satisfied that he has the wherewithal to move things forward and point to the scrutiny his plans were subjected to as part of the examinership process.

Whether the players end up agreeing will doubtless come down to how the pay talks pan out.