By Tony Attwood
The activity figures are looking a bit more usual, but only a bit. As we shall see there are certain imbalances in spending which are different from anything we have seen before.
Here is the chart for the top six clubs using such data as we can find across the media.
| Club | In | Cost | Out | Income | Loaned out |
| Arsenal | Lucas Torreira | £26.4m | Santi Cazorla | Released | Takuma Asano |
| Stephan Lichtsteiner | Nil | Jack Wilshere | Released | ||
| Bernd Leno | £19.2m | ||||
| Sokratis | £17.7m | ||||
| Matteo Guendouzi | £7m | ||||
| Chelsea | Harvey St Clair | Released | Nathan Baxter | ||
| Jordon Houghton | Released | Reece James | |||
| Jonathan Panzo | Undisclosed | Trevoh Chalobah | |||
| Dujon Sterling | |||||
| Lewis Baker | |||||
| Jake Clarke-Salter | |||||
| Liverpool | Naby Keïta | £52.8m | Emre Can | Nil | Ovie Ejaria |
| Fabinho | £40m | Yan Dhanda | Unknown | Adam Bogdan | |
| Jordan Williams | Released | ||||
| Jon Flanagan | Nil | ||||
| Man City | Riyad Mahrez | £60m | Yaya Toure | Released | Anthony Cáceres |
| Pablo Maffeo | £8.1m | Ashley Smith-Brown | |||
| Will Patching | Released | Pablo Marí | |||
| Olarenwaju Kayode | £2.6m | Manu Garcia | |||
| Angeliño | £5m | Aleix Garcia | |||
| Javairo Dilrosun | Unknown | ||||
| Jacob Davenport | Unknown | ||||
| Angus Gunn | £10m | ||||
| Man United | Fred | £43.7m | Joe Riley | Unknown | Dean Henderson |
| Diogo Dalot | £19m | Sam Johnstone | £6.5m | ||
| Lee Grant | £1.5m | ||||
| Tottenham H | Keanan Bennetts | £2m |
Thus the PL top six clubs divide into two groups – those spending money and those having no activity or a slight profit through virtually no activity.
Net expenditure clubs
- Liverpool £92.8m
- Arsenal: £69.7m
- Manchester United £57.7m
- Manchester City £34.3m
No activity and Net income clubs
- Tottenham: £2m
- Chelsea £0
The behaviour of Tottenham and Chelsea can be explained for different reasons – but both look odd. Tottenham had a very successful season by their standards last time around, but now they have the costs of the stadium to start paying back, and so it is not surprising that they have not spend anything. But whether that will be enough to see matters through for the coming year for them, is hard to say.
Chelsea have an owner who has just cancelled their stadium project and there is uncertainty about their manager. Maybe as and when a new manager pops along matters will be resolved.
Latest expenditure figures by league (not taking sales into account)
Taking figures from the Guardian we can see how each league is doing in terms of expenditure.
- Premier League: £610m
- Serie A: £669.6m
- Ligue 1: £542.8m
- Bundesliga: £461m
- La Liga: £596.3m
Whereas in the past the PL has exceeded the other leagues by quite a margin, at the moment everything is much closer together with Serie A in the lead and the Budesliga slipping further behind.
Another way of looking at matters is through comparing the activity of last season’s (and more than likely this coming season’s) top clubs:
- Kylian Mbappé; Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain. £159.3m*
- Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid to Juventus. £88.5m
- Riyad Mahrez, Leicester City to Manchester City. £60m
- Naby Keïta, RB Leipzig to Liverpool. £52.8m
- Thomas Lemar, Monaco to Atlético Madrid. £52.7m
- Fred, Shakhtar Donetsk to Manchester United. £43.7m
- Vinícius Júnior, Flamengo to Real Madrid. £40.2m
- Fabinho, Monaco to Liverpool, £40m.
- João Cancelo, Valencia to Juventus. £35.5m
- Arthur. Grêmio to Barcelona. £35.5m
*This of course was a transfer that was undertaken last year but through a fiddling of the books left over to this year to avoid FFP. It was in fact the transfer that brought FFP into total disrepute in Europe.
However when we look at the top 10 for the Premier League we see Arsenal is the only team with three transfers in that top ten. Not a position we are used to.
- Riyad Mahrez. Leicester City to Manchester City. £60m
- Naby Keïta. RB Leipzig to Liverpool. £52.8m
- Fred. Shakhtar Donetsk to Manchester United. £43.7m
- Fabinho. Monaco to Liverpool. £40m
- Lucas Torreira. Sampdoria to Arsenal. £26.5m
- James Maddison. Norwich City to Leicester City. £24m
- Issa Diop. Toulouse to West Ham United. £22m
- Bernd Leno. Bayer Leverkusen to Arsenal £19.2m
- Diogo Dalot. Porto to Manchester United. £19m
- Sokratis Papastathopoulos. Borussia Dortmund to Arsenal. £17.7m
Finally we can have a look at the spending of the highly sponsored or highly profitable clubs…
- Juventus -£178m
- PSG -£103.5m
- Atletico Madrid -£38.3m
- Barcelona -£24m
- Real Madrid +£10.5m
- Bayern Munich +£35.2m
It may well be of course that some very big deals will go through once the WC is flushed out. We shall see.
Boreham Wood v Arsenal this weekend. Who will be available for Arsenal as football returns?
We seem to have spent the £70m transfer budget. Have we covered everthing?
Some transfer stories make no sense while others are like the wheels on the bus
‘It may well be of course that some very big deals will go through once the WC is flushed out’ No comment, that’s because I think the aim of the writing is to be serious.
In recent years there has been a call for a ‘winter break’ as happens in most countries on main land Europe.
Also there has been a call to close the summer ‘transfer window’ before the start of the season.
So what do the flour puff men of the FA do.
Adopt both with a season that is preceded by a World Cup summer.
In a summer in which the World Cup is held many players return later then normal to their respective clubs.
To fit in the ‘winter break means having to start the season earlier. So that is what they plan.
Then what do the flour puff men of the FA do.
Agree that the transfer window should close before the start of the new season 9th August. That is the closing date for buying but would you believe it, the selling date is not till the end of August or even later. Crazy.
I think closing the transfer window before the start of the season is a good idea. However when there is a World Cup Summer and players are returning late then the closing date should be put back to the end of August.
The flour puff men of the FA!
Unfortunately I cannot browse since morning but a little bit now to read article posting a bit but maing any comment. Is as if they beat me beat me beat me and pushed me off saying: get out! Thus leaving me to battle with a headache. Hmmm.
OT: Let’s Go Croatia (as he walks out door to go build fence)!
A reminder to Gord good fences don’t always make for good neighbors!. -)
Thanks Colario. I’m building fences around some of my new trees, to keep the deer away.
Go Croatia!
What have Belgium and England in common as losing semi finalists….??? Yep, too many spuds in their team. You just knew it had to end in tears for both of them…
Well they put the pressure on…
Croatia 2 – 1 England
Croatia
22 Shots
7 on target
England
11 shots
2 on target
They fact is England were crap.
2…….. thats TWO shots on target in 120 minutes.
The only way we can score goals is from set pieces.
We played nobody and still failed.
Yet apparantly they will come home heroes. WTF.
Kane and Ali. How much are they supposed to be worth?
HYPE HYPE HYPE.
Apparantly we missed a ‘creative spark’ in midfield.
Well I’m sorry but the only real ‘creative spark’ England has has been battered and beaten into submission at the behest of the English media and his name is Jack Wilshere.
In the end we played no one. Beat no one.
HYPE HYPE HYPE.
Thank God for Roy Keane. One sane voice in a cacophony of insanity.
A good idea to keep the deer away
For me not a good idea. Football is coming home to – Croatia.
However all credit to the Garth Southgate the manager.
recognising the limited ball skills of the English players, he set in place the long ball game. I think this tactic was the right one.
England played well as did Croatia, who were more skillful. For that reason I think the best team won.
I hate to think what France would have done to us If we had got to the final.
Why Croatia for you?
My bet is on spud Lloris to mess up in the final…. 😉
How did England play well ?
Team: FIFA Ranking
Tunisia: 22
Scrapped through with last minute winner.
Panama: 55
Yes we stuffed them but they are ranked bellow Burkina Faso and Jamaica
Belgium: 3
Lost.
Yes it was the reserves so hard to judge, but either way, England lost.
Columbia: 16
Scrapped through on penalties.
Sweden: 24
Well deserved win I agree, but a 2 – 0 win is surely the least we should expect.
Croatia: 20
Lost.
We played teams with the following rankings:
3 = Lost
16 = Drew (won on penalties)
20 = Lost (AET)
22 = Won (Took a last minute winner)
24 = Won (Comfortable)
55 = Won (Stuffed them)
And this lot are apparently comming home heroes.
The Worlds going mad I tell ya.
How to go Croatia!
Danny should be ready to play, once he gets the slivers out of his butt from sitting on the bench all the time.
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Walter, I thought this might be of interest a couple of days ago.
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/69758#comment-946848
Nitram, you’re correct and indeed its your opinion. But this is a young English team making it to the semifinals of the greatest football tournament on the planet and you call it hype? OK agreed. Yet you praise an arsenal team that perennially can’t make it past the round of 16 of a smaller tournament in the champions league? I just can’t take you seriously man.
Kane ‘Gutted’ as England’s World Cup Dream Dies
It was a dream, it was only a dream.
Kane didn’t dive enough. Deli Alli didn’t dive enough. Ashley Young played the 90, was subbed out and didn’t dive enough. Sterling subbed at 74 minutes, didn’t dive enough. Vardy comes on at 112 minutes, didn’t dive enough.
You should not be able to win a football game by diving. Above are 4 divers, not doing their job. Or maybe it is the officials ignoring their diving.
Wouldn’t England have been better finding 3 players who know how to play football, instead of being skilled in the art of diving? Oh, the only other England players just know how to “stick it up them”, and they would have all been fouled out for this game.
—-
I don’t know what Welbeck’s future is with Arsenal. Having rode the bench the entire time, his frustration level has to be fairly high. The only injuries he should have picked up are in practice. But as England likes to be physical, those injuries could easily be serious. Who would expect The (sweet) FA to announce injuries picked up in practices?
But, if he is actually not injured, he could be available for play earlier than Tony expects.
—-
I’m hoping for France for the win. And Giroud getting a highlight reel goal in the final.
In my dream, it was the perfect dive. We should have won.
This was sent to me just before the semi-finals –
An Englishman meets a Frenchman in a pub , and starts talking about the World Cup.
The Englishman says ,” We play Crotia on Wednesday.”
The Frenchman replies , “What a coincidence ,we play them on Sunday!”
The power of prayer –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSa5der7sG8
Gbenja
“Just can’t take you seriously man”
The fact that you not only felt compelled to respond to what I said, but actually AGREED with me, suggests otherwise.
Gord watch out. There is the 3/4th place game to come and Danny might play in that.
Gbenja, I think you’ll find that most people in Europe consider the CL to be a much more important and much more competitive tournament than the WC.
Andy Mack
Exactly.
And anyway it’s not about how I am reacting to England but how the Media, and on the back of their hype, the ‘fans’, are reacting.
More on Tonys next article as he touches on that very subject in that.
@Andy Mack, in my opinion I think you’ll find it to be true everywhere in the world(including europe) that the world cup is considered to be a bigger and more prestigious competition than the champions league, despite the less money involved. More money involved doesn’t necessarily mean a bigger sports event. Some hockey, baseball events in the USA draw bigger funds
https://www.sportskeeda.com/amp/football/5-most-presitigious-football-tournaments-in-the-world/5
I’ve browsed many prestigious sites, and none have the champions league as a more prestigious tournament than the world cup
But that doesn’t mean they are right. If one defines how size is measured then one can come up with the results, and different parameters will give different results. Personally I find Arsenal under 23s more important than the world cup.