Worth their Weight in Gold?

The 20 Premiership teams spent a combined £470m on transfers last summer but as Benitez, Jol and Keane all know these pounds don’t necessarily mean points.

The biggest talking point of last summer had to be the splurging going on at Anfield. With new transatlantic best friends to cross his palm with silver (and gold, platinum and good ol’ green dollars), Rafa Benitez reacted like a kid in a sweet shop, feasting on the talents of Torres, Babel and Benayoun.

The signings showed promise and teamed with an existing good squad, everyone expected Liverpool to be up there challenging. But it just hasn’t been the case as the Reds sit outside the top four and out of contention in the title race with each point earned coming with a £0.7m price tag.

Tottenham, while still under the reign of Martin Jol, spend £27.4m this summer on players such as Darren Bent Youness Kaboul and Gareth Bale but with a current league tally of 24, every point is costing them £1.1m!

But these two are only the 7th and 3rd biggest ‘wasters’ with Derby in 2nd seeing just 7 points for their £10.8m spending (£1.5m per point) and Sunderland up there in first.

Sunderland had a £34.4m summer shopping frenzy, bringing the notable names of Kieran Richardson, Craig Gordon and Michael Chopra in their attempts to secure Premiership survival.

But their purchases are yet to fully prove their price tags with the Black Cats looking unlucky down in 18th with every single point from their grand total of 17 costing £2m.

And we can only wonder where Man Utd - the fourth biggest spender - would be if it wasn’t for the certain £50.5m (or $98,801,507 and 99 cents) pocket money Fergie had at his deposal? It’s a costly business life at the top. Or is it?

Not if you look at Chelsea and Arsenal who actually made money last summer while still maintaining title contention.

In Chelsea’s case though, it’s not something to boast too loudly about. Currently in third, six points from top, they may view the £9.7m saving a missed opportunity especially if you compare where they are now to where they were last season and the one before.

But it’s Arsenal who are the real rags to riches story! Having made a £17.2m profit through transfers (£16.1m of that was down to Henry’s move to Barca), the Gunners lead the way in the title race and boast a return of £340,000 for every point!

Just goes to show, money doesn’t necessarily buy you love! All you need is some faith in the youth!
In a month or so we’ll be able to see pawned everything in January to sort out the current league standings but until then let’s work out who’d make it into our Fantasy Footie team from the summer signings. They’ve had 5 months to find their feet after all.

Come on, who do you thinks been the biggest waste of cash? Who’s failed to convert their price tags to points in the summer signings? Tell us your views.

Tags: Arsenal, Chelsea, Martin Jol, Rafa Benitez, Roy Keane, summer signings, Transfers

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 16:18 and is filed under Features, Home Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.