Following City’s brave exit from the FA Cup this week at the hands (or left boot) of Harry Maguire – it occurred to me with some bitterness that it was a player who’d cost £80million who made the difference.
Failing miserably to avoid wallowing in self-pity after yet another glorious failure, I decided to check the records to see how long it has taken NCFC to spend £80M on players over the years. Perhaps never?
I reckoned a reasonable period of time to research from would be from the turn of the century. So, do you reckon NCFC have spent more than £80M or less than £80M on players in the 20 years since 2000/01?
Mmm. I was surprised… Perhaps you will be too. Here’s the data:
(Figures sourced from transfermarkt.com)
Now, we all realise these figures are unlikely to be entirely accurate – they don’t include wages and they may or may not include agent’s fees, signing-on fees, loyalty bonuses, appearance-related payments, sell-on clauses, etc, etc.
But – at the risk of many of you (and the head of accounts at Carrow Road) shaking your heads and yelling, ‘What utter poppycock, you loon!’ at me – could we just assume for the time being these figures are not unreasonable estimates of a vaguely ballpark figure?
Very kind. Thank you.
The interesting thing is City have spent far more than £80M on players since the turn of the century – £190M to be (ahem) exact. That works out a smidge under £10M per season which – as this period covers some lean times – isn’t an amount of money to be sniffed at.
Perhaps a way of assessing this better would be to see how much each manager spent to spend time in the Premier League?
– Nigel Worthington managed one season in the Premier League in 2004/05 and spent almost £19M over his tenure to achieve that.
– Paul Lambert also managed a single season in the top flight in 2011/12 and spent £19.5M doing so.
– Chris Hughton managed two seasons averaging £18.5M per season from his total spend.
– Alex Neil spent an ludicrously extraordinary £85M(!) to get his one season at the top table (2015/16).
– And so far Daniel Farke has spent £26.4M to earn his first year in the Premier League (2019/20).
In conclusion, Danny Boy hasn’t done too badly with what he’s been given in what is an extremely competitive financial market. So, well done DF! Let’s hope you stay a while longer and are rewarded with the luxury of some loosened purse-strings in the near future.
Money, money, money….
OTBC
Enjoyed that, Chris and it has really surprised me.
I’d be keen to see who the players were (and amounts) that each manager spent in the prem.
Hadn’t realised Neil spent that much! Crazy!
Alex Neil spent crazy amounts – by our standards anyway!
The three that stand out for me are Naismith, Wildschut and Oliveira – but there were quite a few more as well.
Another good one Chris.
Thanks MP. The roll of fame (according to transfermarkt) over that period includes:
Naismith £9.9M
Klose £9.9M
Brady £8.9M
Pritchard £8.5M
Wildschut £7.4M
Oliveira £5.3M
PLUS two players £4-5M
PLUS four players £3-4M
AND two more at £2-3M
Looks like the wallet was given a tough workout in training. Shame, as it’s been sat on the bench ever since!
I’d honestly forgotten that Robbie Brady was a Neil deal. Same with Timm Klose – I had always thought he was one of CH’s but obviously I’m wrong.
And as for Pritchard… oh well. How’s he getting on these days?
While I don’t necessarily approve I completely understand the seemingly permanent benching of the corporate wallet.
Thanks Martin MacBlain. I was surprised that the club allowed any manager to spend £85M! It must have been with the proviso: ‘This will ensure we stay in the Premier League won’t it?’ (focussed stare). Alas it didn’t, hence he was gone soon after, and we’ve been following austerity measures and near administration measures since. A big gamble. A route Villa have tried and now have a massive headache (understatement of the century).
Best wishes.
A good point but if you balance the books by comparing money in and money out then Hughton’s debit is around £32M for two years, Neil’s debit is £15M for two years, where as Farke is in credit by approx £66M for his three years in office.
Herr Cutttz , with three t’s has nailed it , often spending is a direct result of selling. Say a club sells its three goalkeepers it has to go and geta couple more.
We also have the skewing of first team buys as against purchases for the U23 squad to consider.
Agreed Bernie. Good point. The headline numbers don’t give anywhere near the full story; ie. the possible league position at the time, the financial situation, the amounts spent by contemporary clubs, club pressures, manager pressures, injuries, variances in commercial or crowd income, players wanting to come or leave etc etc.
Agreed Herr Cutz. That is the very important other side of the coin. On that basis, the main players performed as follows:
Daniel Farke has made a profit of £39.7M over his term so far
Nigel Worthington lost £6.4M
Alex Neil lost £15.1M
Paul Lambert lost £18.0M
And rather surprisingly, Chris Hughton was the least effective, losing £32.33 – although you could argue that should be spread across his two Premier League campaigns which would bring him down to only a £16.2M loss per season and nudge him above Lambert at a £18.0M loss in the table.
Thanks HC.
Farke hasn’t really sold anyone of value that he signed though.
That will change, of course.
I thought Scots were supposed to be tight. Is that only with their own money?
Chris, for me stats like knowledge show that the more you learn the more you realise how little you actually know. But one thing I’m sure of is that Danny has done more with less even though we will go down, and staying up requires big bucks. But then what about Vanilla? Maybe it is in the lap of the Gods.
I think Alex Neil is getting rough treatment here. If you look at the players he bought, or began playing from youth, he did well. Most of that is being attributed to Farke here. In comparison he inherited quite a few Hughton and Adams failures.
Yes and neil bought maddison and we got a third of the £84 spend back nice read chris
£7930000 in a season is basically Maguire’s left foot.
Makes me laugh how much profit Delia’s favourite backstabber and all round bloody useless
Bryan Hamilton made.
Lies, damn lies and statistics.