By Tony ATtwood
Here is a list of PL clubs for the coming season showing the amount spent, how many players have been bought, and in the case of the top six clubs in the league last season, who has been bought.
| Club | Amount spent | No of players | Names |
| Arsenal | £71.4m | 5 | Lichsteiner (zero) Leno (£19.2m) Sokratis(£17.7m) Torreira (£26.5m) Guendouzi (£8m) |
| Bournemouth | £11.5m | 1 | |
| Burnley | Nil | 0 | |
| Cardiff City | £28.5m | 4 | |
| Chelsea | £50.4m | 1 | Jorginho |
| Crystal Palace | Nil | 1 | 1 player on a free |
| Everton | Nil | 0 | |
| Fulham | £32.5m | 2 | |
| Huddersfield T | £25.5m | 6 | (Two players have undisclosed fees) |
| Leicester City | £45m | 3 | |
| Liverpool | £106.3m | 3 | Fabinho, Keita, Shaqiri |
| Manchester City | £60m | 1 | Mahrez |
| Manchester U | £64.3m | 3 | Dalot, Fred, Grant |
| Newcastle Utd | Nil | 3 | (Two free and one loan) |
| Southampton | £51m | 4 | |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 0 | 0 | |
| Watford | £23m | 6 | (One undisclosed) |
| West Ham United | £83.5m | 7 | |
| Wolverhampton Wands | £39.6m | 7 | (Includes Afobe from Bournemouth) |
Of course how many you buy doesn’t actually mean anything by itself. But still, it is of some interest. Here’s the top five of the table based on the number of new players
- Wolverhampton Wands: 7
- West Ham United in their tax payers funded stadium: 7
- Huddersfield Town 6:
- Watford: 6
- Arsenal: 5
Expenditure however gives a different take on reality…
- Liverpool!: £106.3m
- West Ham United: £83.5m (its a wonder what you can do if you don’t have to pay for your stadium)
- Arsenal: £71.4m
- Manchester United: £64.3m
- Manchester City: £60m
I’m just doing the top five here, as one has to draw the boundaries somewhere, but it is interesting also that Southampton are on £51m.
Tottenham at the moment are holding the whole thing in a haughty disregard with no money spent at all and no players coming in. They posted record revenue of over £306.3m for the year ending June 30, 2017, a significant rise on the the previous year of £209.8m. But those forthcoming stadium costs… That’s perhaps why season ticket prices at White Hart Lane in 2016/17 were between £795 and £1,895 while now they are between £795 (and let’s be reasonable and acknowledge that holding that price steady is good) while the most expensive is £2,200, an increase of just over 16 per cent.
Burnley, Everton, Palace and Newcastle all fall into this position of zero money outgoing as well but stadium issues are the last things on their mind just now.
As for Arsenal, the story has always been that there is a strict limit on expediture from the owner, which started at £50m and rose to £70m but in both cases, plus income from sales. However so far there has been no income from sales. Our list of departures is
- Takuma Asano to Hannover 96 on a loan
- Santi Cazorla to Villarreal on a free
- Jack Wilshere was a free agent and went to the taxpayers stadium
If we did manage to sell anyone that money could well come back into the pot for the manager to spend, but the trouble is that so many players were attacked as being utterly useless by both the media, the bloggettas and ArsenalFanTV that their value has dropped so low we might as well keep them.
As for the clearing out of players we can see that Chelsea have loaned or released ten thus far, Liverpool have sold one for an undisclosed fee and loaned out five, and Manchester City have let 13 go of whom four are on loan.
Manchester United have sold two and loaned one, and Tottenham have sold one (for £2m).
Thus by all measures Tottenham is the club not doing business, and it will be interesting to see as the season starts whether that is a case of absolutely doing no deals on the grounds they have a perfect squad, or a case of doing deals at the very last minute.
While the Arsenal bloggettas are filled with stories about Arsenal failing to get their man, the Tottenham blog sites are more positive with tales such as:
- France ace Benjamin Pavard linked with summer move to Lilywhites
- Tottenham Hotspur Considering Shock Transfer Move For France World Cup Hero
- Levy must take risk and propose sensational Tottenham swap deal with PL giants – Verdict
- £35.2m-rated international wants to join Tottenham, he loves Poch style of play – Transfer Talk
There is some negativity as with
- Tottenham and Manchester City have reason to fear World Cup fatigue
- Levy must avoid big mistake with WC star as long-running Spurs transfer saga nears end – Verdict
But much of the time the news is of pictures of the new stadium. It seems that for some journalists that is more interesting than the players and deals.
And of course perfidious Football London, with its desperate need to supply 4o Arsenal stories and 40 Tottenham stories a day to an unsuspecting public kill two stones with one bird (or maybe that is the other way around) by telling us
- Arsenal ‘open talks’ with Tottenham target Andre Gomes over £18m summer transfer
It is a funny old game when “open talks” is actually put in inverted commas. That suggests that the club has not “opened talks” but the phrase “open talks” actually means something else. Like what for example? Like, “not opened talks” I suppose. I suspect, given the source of the story, that is exactly the case.
- Arsenal in crisis as the media even struggle to find make believe stories! Is this the end?
- Boreham Wood – Arsenal 0 – 8. The Untold report
Have u got any evidence that their value has dropped as a result of people criticizing their performance or is this ‘evidence’ based on you wanting to cause a divide amount supporters so this blog has something to moan about every day. Some of our players (iwobi,Mustaphi,Jenkinson,possibly xhaka, Perez and campbell) aren’t up to standard so any money raised from them would be usefull and would free up spaces for players that actually know what to do with a football.
Who doesn’t buy if inflation is way above the recorded values?
City will outspend us, United as well, and liely Chelsea, but it could be Southampton, West Ham, Everton along with Liverpool. and possibly Fulham. Although gross may prove to make it seem a bit better than it is.
We can’t change to any wide formation as is.
0-8 against non football league is just nothing for me but fitness.
Panic Buy seems in good sorts.
And Mbappe will win best player for sure, Oh the french are going to be annoying after this. Macron on the fence on everything, not much happening legislatively, but a feel good summer.
mentally Croatia couldn’t have that secod, 4-2 Lloris no discipline.
One thing, Akpom didn’t feature, the only player, man it’s an Andy Cole, I swear it. How do you sell him even? He even managed to fall out with Brucey.
We don’t have a left footed left back, with Tutu deployed so as to allow NIles to move central. And the ref stops the fast free kick, to aid France who had been caught napping, it’s still rigged. The fouls given at corners, but others not, the Belgiu game distinctly.
Off topic
Howard Webb on the penalty in the WC final (hint: he doesn’t like VAR) source: Cdn network TSN
https://www.tsn.ca/fifa-world-cup/video/webb-on-var-penalty-call-it-wasn-t-a-good-use-of-the-system~1439111
ref: Tottenham – from a sales point of view there is not much upside in criticizing a team that finished second in the league no matter how far behind the leader given that this is a newish thing for their supporters. Their fan base has not yet grown use to these rarefied heights and are pretty content.
Many of our supporters remember our recent past glories and would not find second a good enough finish and as such the online Dementors call out to all those that despaired last year and try to make money off of them. What I find curious is that amongst my Wenger Out friends the mood has switched 180 degrees so they are inclined to disagree with the negativity of the critics. Maybe the numbers of clicks will diminish for these sites and they will be forced to change their tune.
It was absolutely the appropriate ‘use’ of VAR.
Whether the referee came to the correct decision on the other hand is open to debate.
As with so many calls in football it boils down to a matter of opinion, and by and large with this type of subjective decision, whether people are prepared to admit it or not, the decision will be highly influenced by what team you are with.
In this case the hand definitely moved towards the ball, of that there is no doubt.
The only question to be asked is, do you believe he meant to do it or not, and as that requires mind reading to know for certain, all you can do is interpret it as best you can.
Personally I think it was a ‘deliberate’ movement of the hand/arm towards the ball, therefore a penalty was the correct call. But that’s just my opinion, and surprise surprise I wanted France to win.
If you believe it was not a deliberate movement then it was not a penalty.
The bottom line is, as with all subjective decisions, it is simply a matter of opinion.
Given every pundit I heard on ITV and BBC were so obviously in the Croatia camp, it was absolutely no surprise to me that they were almost to a man in the ‘no penalty’ camp, but talk about over the top.
At one stage I thought Sheerer was going burst into tears.
As for Keane, I have absolutely no doubt that given the chance, he would of had no qualms with ending another guys (the referee) career with the use of violence.
I often like Keanes no nonsense approach but over the top (no pun intended) doesn’t even begin to describe his level of righteous indignation.
“Worst decision I’ve ever seen”. Really Roy?
RVN attempting to break Ashley Coles leg and not even getting booked?
The ball 2 yards over the line at OT and no goal given?
Just a couple you seem to of forgotten about.
Gary Neville giving the Ref pelters, yet I’ve never heard him say a bad word about Rileys performance in that infamous match at OT. In fact he still gloats about Uniteds shameful antics, and the referees complicity, to this very day.
Talk about Hypocrites.
As for VAR in general, and it’s possible future use in the Premier League.
From what I’ve seen, used properly it can be a force for good, but in incompetent or corrupt hands it could also be just another tool to be used to implement bias.
Can The FA, the referees or the PGMOL really be trusted to use it fairly?
Can we trust the media, commentators, Pundits etc. to interpret it’s use in a fair and balanced way?
It’s use will be under the same pressures and influences that are currently imposed on the referees by the afore mentioned.
You only have to listen to these pundits today to see how fallible it actually is.
Selective use of ?
Biased interpretation of ?
It could actually make things worse for Arsenal, if that were at all possible.
@ Nitram Imagine if Roy Keane were in the lineup for Ireland on that night of the Thierry Henry handball…worse call ever? 😉
Looking at the “news”.
Infantino left out a word. Russia 2018 was the best World Cup in (his) history.
And quite a bit of grumbling about the VAR penalty.
Congratulations France! Too bad Giroud didn’t score for you.
As for the penalty, I think it was a wrong call. Refs using VAR should not allowed to watch the slow-mo clip. Slow-mo clip distorts the reality sometimes.
ARSENAL 13
I agree slo-mo could change the perception of an incident and as such I can see your point about referees only being allowed to review this type of decision in real time.
That being said when I first saw the incident in ‘real time’ I thought it was ‘hand to ball’ ie deliberate.
I saw nothing in the review to change my mind.
Talking of changing minds, I don’t think, as some have suggested, that the referee changed his mind. I think initially he just didn’t see it from where he was standing and was subsequently advised that he may of missed something and should take a look.
That’s what he did and he, like myself, thought it deliberate.
I don’t think it was, as some are getting uppity about, a case of the ref correcting a clear and obvious error. He didn’t see it.
All that being said I can see why some, as with yourself, don’t think it was a penalty.
But the whinging by Keane and co was way out of proportion, and to suggest it was the worst decision ever, as Keane did, is ridiculous.