by Tony Attwood
In an ideal democracy there would be some way of getting information untarnished and unmolested from the source to the populace.
It’s a dream of course, because the mere selecting of some information rather than other information corrupts the model. But it doesn’t stop people trying, and there is an amazing new story in the offing which, as the tripe laden journals put it “will have Arsenal fans gasping with amazement at the audacity of the move” or some such drivel.
To give a bit of background consider this rather modest piece, as an example…
Arsenal reject offer from Southampton to take Chambers on loan
Of course the problem is that with everyone pitching in with new wild semi-skimmed stories the newspapers are desperate to outdo the little bloggettas with their sites aimed at getting more click throughs than they should.
The Telegraph have tried a novel approach today using the same pic three times in one article to try and warp us in heading
Arsenal transfer news and rumours: ‘Karim Benzema’s cryptic Instagram message gets Gunners fans excited’
But it is Jose Mourinho who has finally found his real forte in making fools of all those funny little journalists who scamper around him groveling for bits of information.
The point with Mourinho is that he does like to have a laugh, and he doesn’t mind at whose expense. So he has been telling anyone who listens that Arsenal and others are trying to “buy the title” with transfer dealings.
It is a trait familiar to psychologists – a form of displacement in which you accuse others of doing the naughty habits that you have and secretly wish you hadn’t. And Mourinho is the biggest displacement sociopath that there is in football at the moment.
Under the heading ARSENAL so far this summer... they note as Arrivals, Petr Cech – £9.8m and as exits Lukas Podolski £1.75m giving a Profit/loss: -£8.05m
Now I am not sure if this is totally right since I think there is some sort of a fee involved in Jeff Adelaide, but we’ll take the numbers for now and let them proceed…
Summer and January window of 2014/15 season Arrivals
- Alexis Sánchez – £29.75m
- Calum Chambers – £14.16m
- Danny Welbeck – £14m
- Mathieu Debuchy – £10.5m
- Gabriel Paulista – £10.5m
- David Ospina – £2.8m
- Krystian Bielik – £2.1m
Total: £83.81m
And the exeunt (which is actually the plural of exit when several players leave the stage at once, but don’t tell any journalists that or they might get worried).
- Thomas Vermaelen – £13.3m
- Johan Djourou – £1.96m
- Benik Afobe – £1.81m
- Ignasi Miquel – £1.3m
- Thomas Eisfeld – £1.05m
Total: £8.51m
Profit/loss: -£75.3m
Then they work backwards…. but only including in the details players valued at over £1m. So you’ll find just one name in the next section, but then a total that is higher.
Summer and January window of 2013/14 season – Arrivals
- Mesut Ozil – £35m (an interestingly lower sum than that normally stated)
Total: £36.58m
Summer and January window of 2013/14 season – Exaunt
- Gervinho – £5.6m
- Vito Mannone – £1.68m
Total: £8.51m
Profit/loss: -£28.07m
Moving on: Summer and January window of 2012/13 season – Arrivals
- Santi Cazorla – £13.3m
- Olivier Giroud – £8.4m
- Lukas Podolski – £8.4m
- Nacho Monreal – £7m
Total: £37.1m
Oh, “Exits” if you insist…
- Robin van Persie – £21.49m
- Alex Song – £13.3m
- Carlos Vela – £9.8m
Total: £47.01m
Profit/loss: +£9.91
Summer and January window of 2011/12 season – Arrivals
- Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – £9.66m
- Mikel Arteta – £8.4m
- Gervinho – £8.4m
- Per Mertesacker – £7.91m
- André Santos – £4.9m
- Chu-Young Park – £4.55m
Now I am getting a bit worried about some of these figures. The Park sum I am sure is over inflated – but maybe it all evens out in the end.
Total: £45.83m
Summer and January window of 2011/12 season Exits
- Cesc Fabregas – £23.8m
- Samir Nasri – £19.25m
- Gael Clichy – £5.43m
- Emmanuel Eboue – £2.45m
Total: £54.8m
Profit/loss: +£8.97m
TOTAL OVER LAST FIVE YEARS: -£92.54m
So there we are. Also an interesting note for the people who insist Wenger doesn’t spend enough. Just under £100m spent in five years, three of which were still part of austerity. Less than Chelsea, I think.
Now I am not going to reprint the whole buying and selling cycle for every club it is all in the Independent article, and you can look up each player if you wish but here are the totals in a bit of detail for Chelsea, and then after that just the overall five year figures…
CHELSEA
So far this summer… Arrivals
- Asmir Begovic – £7.7m
- Nathan – £3.15m
- Total: £10.85m
Exits
- Petr Cech – £9.8m
- Thorgan Hazard – £5.6m
- Gael Kakuta – £4.2m
Total: £20.33m Profit/loss: +£9.48m
Summer and January window of 2014/15 season
- Arrivals Total: £96.39m
- Exits Total: £102.34m
- Profit/loss: +£5.95m
Summer and January window of 2013/14 season –
- Arrivals Total: £88.97m
- Exits Total: £56.3m
- Profit/loss: -£32.67m
Summer and January window of 2012/13 season –
- Arrivals Total: £75.39m
- Exits Total: £17.82m
- Profit/loss: -£57.57m
Summer and January window of 2011/12 season
- Arrivals Total: £72.7m
- Exits Total: £22.68m
- Profit/loss: -£50.02m
Chelsea: TOTAL OVER LAST FIVE YEARS: -£124.83m
As for Man Utd: TOTAL OVER LAST FIVE YEARS: -£287.16m
Next Man City: TOTAL OVER LAST FIVE YEARS: -£200.29m
And Liverpool: TOTAL OVER LAST FIVE YEARS: -£149.67m
And just to remind you from above, Arsenal: -£92.5m
So what we find is that Chelsea have the second lowest expenditure, but it is not a pittance. They have managed this, as we know, by having some extraordinarily high sale values on leaving players, and some clever (but perfectly legal under FFP) use of the revaluing system allowable when players get extended contracts. This was something Arsenal could not do with players like Fabregas, Nasri, RVP, Clichy who were not going to sign new contracts following pressure from Barcelona, Man C, Man U… Chelsea are also much deeper into the loan market than other clubs.
At the start of all this I said
So two things to do then: first find out if it is true (generally too much trouble for most newspapers) and then if not, ask what Mourinho is trying to hide.
We can see it is not true. But what is Mourinho trying to do? I think like most displacement sociopaths he craves attention at a distance. He wants to be the news manipulator.
I suspect also that he holds most journalists in about the same regard as I do. A journalist who manipulates the details to reflect the whims of his publisher is what we have had in British newspapers for 200 years, but a journalist who can’t be arsed to sort out the facts and just prints what anyone tells him – that is more of a post 1970s phenomena. Mourinho knows it and exploits it.
And just for once it is a newspaper that has caught him out. 1-0 to the Indepenent on this occasion and a bit splodge in the eye for Mourinho.
Anniversary of the Day
- 29 July 2014: Arsenal signed Calum Chambers from Southampton for around £11m. He played 23 times for Arsenal in his first season – more than in his entire Southampton career before this.
- Each days anniversaries appear on the home page, and you can also follow us on Twitter @UntoldArsenal.
Not necessarily for publication, but on reading and enjoying this I thought I should share a previous blog.
http://michaelpatrickclark.com/2015/05/03/on-being-there-jose-mourinho-and-the-folly-of-english-footballs-intelligentsia/
Sincerely,
MPC
Michael – certainly worth sharing. Thank you.
Oh, “Exits” if you insist… Yes i do insist. 🙂
That man is a closet pundit in reality, and is practicing for when no club wants him to manage anymore.
Still as my gran used to say a long time ago: “Even those who have bad intentions towards you sometimes all they do is reveal your goodness to the world”.
Michael – July 29, 2015 at 8:43 am – A very nice article .Will wait for the end with glee . And the exiting at stage left of those stupid ostriches ; that is if they can get their heads out of the comfort Moanin’inho’s arse !
Here is the Indian version of that tale .The dolt in this instance did attain great knowledge and became famous .
http://myfavestories.blogspot.com/2011/07/story-of-indias-shakepeare-kalidas.html
a similar list on sky sports
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/9927249/arsenal-spend-less-than-chelsea-despite-jose-mourinho-claims
I’d love to see the figures for the last 10 years … I think that might be even more of a stark contrast …
@michael ,clark is a class apart if only these whorelists could read that then we will never hear anything from that prick again talking when gentlemen are talking.
As always thorough Tony…wonder why they (The Media) don’t ask Mourinhooo how he only mentions 3 years (as it suits his stale comment) and not a realistic period like 5 years!!!
Mourinhooo is a disgrace and a bad example of a Manager!
Minesy
Maybe this will help from an article back in May regarding the net spend at Chelsea, per season, by each manager and the trophies won:
Jambug
Since the oil money arrived in West London.
’03/’04 Ranieri: Net spend £153 Million loss, 2nd
’04/’05 Mourinho: Net spend £47 Million loss, 1st
’05/’06 Mourhino: Net spend £91 Million loss, 1st
’06/’07 Mourhino: Net spend £7 Million profit, 2nd
’07/’08 Grant: Net spend £7.5 Million loss, 2nd
’08/’09 Scolari: Net spend £10 Million profit, 3rd
’09/’10 Ancelotti: Net spend £17.5 Million Loss, 1st
’10/’11 Ancelotti: Net spend £94 Million loss, 2nd
’11/’12 Villas Boas: Net spend £63 Million loss, 6th
’12/’13 Dimatio/Benetez: Net spend £72 Million loss, 3rd
’13/’14 Mourinho: Net spend £49 Million loss, 3rd
’14/’15 Mourinho: Net spend £5 Million loss, 1st
So that’s a total Net spend, or LOSS as I prefer to call it, over 12 years of almost £600 Million, or £50 Million EVERY SEASON, of which almost £200 Million of it was spent/lost by the genius that is Mourinho.
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/43361
So from now one we can say that each and every title Mourinho has won since coming to Chelsea was a bought title. He has spend most of all managers so he has bought all his titles. He has admitted so himself
José, no longer ‘the special one’ from now on ‘the spending one’
@WalterBroeckx
July 29, 2015 at 11:45 am
🙂 🙂 There is something to that about thinking properly before opening your mouth Mourinho 🙂
What you also have to remember is that back in 04/05, 05/06 when Mourinho won those 1st 2 PL titles, Chelsea where the ONLY Cub with those enormous funds. There only competition financially was Man Utd, and not surprisingly it was those 2 fighting it out for the major Honours, with Arsenal falling away on the back of that influx of money, and of course the building of the Emirates.
It’s worth mentioning here that before Chelseas rise it was solely Arsenal competing with the United juggernaut, and doing so on a fraction of there budget, and a tiny fraction of what it took Chelsea to challenge.
Then came the money at City, and as Genesis might say: ‘And Then There Where Three’
And now we have Arsenal back in the game. NOT you understand with the limitless spending of some, so it wont be easy, and certainly doesn’t warrant the comment I’ve heard a few times that ‘Arsenal have no excuses now’, but at least in the game.
The fact is even ‘with the money’ we are competing with 3 others (possibly 4 if you look at Liverpools spending )who still have more money than us. So yes we do have an excuse, in fact 3 or 4 of them.
Lets hope we don’t need it.
displacement sociopath 🙂
Almost as if he knows that everyone everywhere knows that he is a classical cheque-book manager. Nothing more, nothing less.
A really interesting table is one that shows how many players in each squad cost over £15M, and £25M respectively. Very intriguing.
Perhaps the specialist in signing players from the Special Agent is worried that some meagre hack-dwarf may one day muster up the footballs required to ask him about the secrets of his success, what are the odds? Will I get a Skybet ticket from a transfer-mongering website?
“er, simple question please. Why have you overspent upon so many overpriced Mendezian Mules in your career? Were you inspired by Godolphin Stables?”
Even more intriguing is the effort put in by the hack dwarves over the past decade to present the petro-clubs as normal solvent business’ or even just traditional football clubs, when they are anything but.
It’s a bizarre phenomenon. Why do they do it? The hack-dwarves religious or extreme political philosophy, especially those writing upon the behalf of oligarchs, it appears on all accounts to be more important to them then the Football. That is a simple and easy to make observation, not an opinion! The rational mind can only conclude that it appears as if they want to encourage a philosophy that advocates debt peonage.
@finsbury
July 29, 2015 at 12:31 pm
hahahahahahahaha perfect!!!
propagate > encourage
I just want to know fellow Untold/ers…are we due to give this man and his team a spanking they won’t forget quick???
Apo, am just appreciating Mr.Atwood’s article 🙂
According to the Spanish “Marca” magazine, Mourinho has been by far the biggest spending football manager since his first arrival at Chelsea in 2004, with £639M, ahead of Anceloti and Pelegrini.
It would be interesting to see where Arsene Wenger is on that list since 2004, but I would imagine probably not in the top ten.
apo Armani
yeah 3-0 would just be fine
@finsbury
July 29, 2015 at 12:45 pm
yeah…provoking man that Mr.Atwood is 😉
It’s all here Tom
http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premier-league-2003-to-date/transfer-league-tables/premier-league-table-2003-to-date
@Samrat Jha
July 29, 2015 at 12:46 pm
Yep – sure would!!
As jambug says the popular media mantra now is ‘Arsenal have no excuses now’, but I do not hear the same said for the other three main contenders. Not that Wenger has ever used the lack of financial clout as an excuse, a reason maybe, but never an excuse.
For some reason I couldn’t find season 14′ 15′ but I’m sure it will be there as it’s usually pretty good. No time to look. Off to work.
@Mick
July 29, 2015 at 12:54 pm
As you well know Wenger is a highly educated fellow…sadly, the same can’t be said about all of the media put together and not in the least the Portuguese fisherman!
Mick
Exactly
If we have ‘No excuses’ then surely nor do Man City, Man Utd and Chelsea, or indeed Liverpool.
So that’s FIVE of us with ‘no excuses’, but it’s only US that anyone seems to say it about.
Hmmmm? Something doesn’t add up here me thinks?
Jambug
Loading up on excuses already? 🙂
Would you take Man U, City ,Liverpool or even Chelsea ‘s squad over Arsenal’s? Because if you are like me ( I wouldn’t) then the spending excuse is not a valid one any more.
Arsenal have something those other clubs don’t, and that’s spending power and continuity.
On one hand you seem to advocate Arsenal don’t need any new players, but on the other hand you say we can’t compete , presumably for the very same players we don’t need. Confused much?
After Arsenal so comprehensively destroyed Villa in the FA cup I visited some Aston Villa blogging sites, mainly to see if anyone had noticed Tim Sherwood’s major blunder of telling some of his squad players and starters before the season’s end that they won’t be a part of his next season team,
thus effectively killing any momentum they might’ve generated before the FA cup final( no one noticed or mentioned it). Curiously, not a single blog or commenter mentioned the vast financial disparity between Arsenal and Villa, and instead they all focused on Villas poor performance on the day.
FA cup final is just one game of course and anything can happen in one game, but Arsenal have what it takes to go the distance in the league and barring injuries , no excuses needed.
Jambug
Thanks for the PL spending tables, I’m familiar with these.
I was thinking European clubs spending during that period.
Jambug & Mick
“Something doesn’t add up”
The commission from a special agency?
Can’t recall much critique over what happened withdi Maria, he was only motm in a recent CL final. “Is LVG stealing a living?” Or are those who hunt for clicks desperate to make a living?
Can’t imagine that the special agencies are the biggest fans of the Arsenal, especially as the club and gaffer keep on buying playersike sanchez or chambers etc. at half the rate of their peers *coughs*
can’t imagine why these people who are only in this game for the wonga would be upset at such practice that only halves their profits. Perhaps an experts in finance, football and physiotherapy (the three sacred F’s) could explain it to me?
*cue bales of rolling tumbleweed*
Jose Mourinho, aka The Spending One.
The last ten years (2004 to 2014) he is top of the cheque book league table. He has spent 900 million during his jaunts at Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid, much of which was negative net spend. The media often gloss over this because he gives them instant headlines and provides them with useful ammunition to fire at Mr. Wenger. Meanwhile Mr. Wenger, who battled austerity between 2005 to 2013 and oversaw one of the biggest achievements in our history, is ridiculed for finishing third and fourth despite having a lower net spend during that period than over half the teams in the league. Mr. Wenger is not a cheque book manager, he is a finder and developer of talent who builds teams with skill and judgement. The fact other teams have bought so called TOP players who have flopped, while Wenger buys Sanchez and Ozil who have not, is never mentioned.
Forgot the link. This is a good read about The Spending One.
http://www.givemesport.com/420702-jose-mourinhos-not-the-special-one-hes-the-spending-one
proudkev
Did you read the disclaimer, at the foot of the article?
Nice one Tony. Even if Chelsea are now on an even financial keel, it has cost them, or their owner near £1bn to get there. Of course not all that spending is down to Jose, but much of it is.
Jose’s defenders, quite reasonably Chelsea fans, but the most vigorous coming from the AAA/ media will point to the fact that he won the ECL spending very little with Porto, but since then he has become the cheque book manager’s chequebook manager. And everyone knows that whatever his protestations or psychological disorder.
Tom
‘On one hand you seem to advocate Arsenal don’t need any new players, but on the other hand you say we can’t compete , presumably for the very same players we don’t need. Confused much?’
Making things up again are we?
Show me where I said we cant compete just once?
You really are sad.
Tom
Re read you post again. I think you’re saying I said we cant compete for signings, not the title. Miss understood so I’ll answer that instead.
It’s simple. Of course we can compete for available players but our money isn’t unlimited.
If City, United or Chelsea want the same player the chances are they will get him. They have MORE money.
I do not subscribe to the notion of ‘pay whatever it takes’ I think that’s a recipe for disaster. I trust Wenger to know what the Club can ‘go to’. If you don’t that’s up to you.
I have also NEVER said we should not buy players. I have never said our squad could not be improved (but that holds true for EVERY SINGLE SQUAD out there). But I have said, and still think, our squad is good enough as it stands.
Chelsea fans seem to think there squad is good enough as it stands, but don’t you think they would welcome the likes of Benzema, Lewandawski, Messi Ronaldo, etc. etc.? As indeed I would. I have never said I am against making signings.
You cant seem to comprehend the notion that a team can be good enough to win the PL even if it could be improved.
If a team COULDN’T be improved, by definition you are saying it’s perfect, and I’ve yet to see such a team….ever !
You should read my posts closer before making your comments.
I am glad Wenger did not fall for Jose’s tactics designed to put pressure on Arsenal. I took Jose’s comments as a compliment. He acknowledges Arsenal can now challenge, so wants to derail our focus by putting pressure on Wenger. He forgets that if winning the title is a function of cost, then those that spent more, would always finish ahead of Arsenal. I am equally pleased with Wenger’s response. Reminding the media, on one hand, they’ve always accused him of not spending enough. Meaning, those jumping onto Mourinho’s comments, cannot at the same time tell Wenger, he needs to spend to challenge. Classic response from Wenger
Tom
This from Walter on his ‘Avoid Cold Porridge’ Article.
“Let me say this about the transfer window: I will welcome any new player to Arsenal. But I think even without any additions this team can fight for the title. The only things that can come in between us and winning the league are injuries and referees. And both are linked. If we keep our players reasonably fit we can go all the way. If we are being kicked to pieces by thugs who are allowed to do this by lenient referees then we could be in trouble. I hope that the refs will do their job and not the PGMO’s job.
What I am mostly looking forward to is seeing if any of our younger players will develop this season. That is for me far more satisfying than to seeing a big star arrive on the scene. I get more satisfaction from seeing Le Coq finally fulfilling his potential (long ago predicted by Tony). [Kind of you to remember Walter. Did I mention that once? – Tony]. I get an even bigger kick from seeing Bellerin growing in to the player I had predicted he would become. Of course the likes of Özil and Alexis also set me on fire but the feeling with them is different from a lad who joined us young and has now made it. I think most readers of Untold will understand the difference between the two types of players. I want all our players to be great but I just want our own lads to be great also.”
The only thing I would add is that there is the small matter of competing with 3 or 4 other very good, very expensively assembled teams, that could also come between us and the title. Just spending what we have doesn’t automatically make us the best team/squad. All it means is that hopefully we will be in there pitching and giving Chelsea a better run for there money. Much the same as City, Utd and Liverpool will be hoping to do.
Other than that I agree with every word. This perhaps why you and eye often fail to see eye to eye.
The point is, at the end of the season only one of 4 or 5 very good sides can win the League.
Lets hope it’s a good clean fight and may the best team win.
I hope and think that will be us, signings or no signings, but if it isn’t, I will still support them all the way.
The original Independent article has a summation error.
Arsenal’s exits in 14/15 total £19.42m not £8.51m (TV5 was sold for £13.3m so the printed total is obviously incorrect). Therefore Arsenal’s 5 year position should state a £81.63m loss not £92.5m.
I really dislike Chelsea.