ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Premier League's Big Spending Days Over?

I've read over the past few days how a number of clubs have decided to tighten their purse strings, even after they've got millionaire/billionaire backers running the club:

Newcastle:? Ashley seems to have told Keegan he will only have £20M to spend IF he also sells players.
West Ham:? Curbishley has to cut the wage bill and sell players to have any transfer money.
Villa:? O'Neill is still waiting for Lerner to back him in the market... after 2 seasons of owning the club!
Pompey:? Have little/no money.
Rovers:? Their transfer spending can't exceed £10 million.

Apart from the obvious exceptions of City (having to deal with a player revolt if Sven goes) and Spurs (who spend huge sums but get nowhere) ? is this signalling a slow down in the huge transfer fees we will have to be paying in the future? Are the owners realising this spending is not sustainable in the future?

It would certainly help Moyes if he didn't have to compete at obscene prices, but I do believe due to the TV deal and the inevitable collapse of Kirkby we will have a better transfer pot to spend that our rivals.
Ric Wallace, Cheshire Posted 10/05/2008 at 11:56:14

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Stefan Tosev
1 Posted 10/05/2008 at 14:45:13

Ric,

Pompey bought 2 players for £12M in January what makes you think that they have no money, Newcastle will as always spend huge amount in the summer, not sure about West Ham.Our only peers in the market are Blackburn (ok, we outspent them last season).

The key for me as Moyes stated is to be good buyers, we need 20- to 23-year-old players with potential. However, with the silence coming from GP I expect £10m budget with 2-3 signings in the low-middle range of the market and at least two loanees with an option to buy.

Ric Wallace
2 Posted 10/05/2008 at 15:00:17

Stefan,

Keegan has stated, continuously in the papers lately that it will be hard to break the Top 4 AND he doesn’t have the money to do it without selling players.
They want Owen to stay on a lower wage as its too high now.

Yes pompey did spend in the transfer window. But Redknapp stated he was only able to buy Defoe and Baros mainly through the sales of Benjani and Matt Taylor.

I’m not saying that teams have suddenly become broke just stating this could be the start of clubs tightening their finances.

Dave Jones
3 Posted 10/05/2008 at 15:42:46

You are doing too much guessing Ric and are quite wide of the mark. Pompey may have recouped through sales but they have spent well in the first place. Diarra, Muntari, Diop, Johnson, Utaka, Nugent etc...these players weren’t free. O’Neill hasn’t been backed you say?? Carew, Young(£11m!!), Harewood, Reo Coker, Petrov etc...thats over £30m worth of players.

Matthew Lovekin
4 Posted 10/05/2008 at 16:16:54

It?s all PR by these clubs. If you went out and said you had loads of money to spend, then selling clubs would up their price for the player knowing the buying club could afford it. Don?t believe the hype.

Jay Harris
5 Posted 10/05/2008 at 16:21:10

Aren't we all forgetting the sky windfall and the statement that we had £12 million to sign Manny last August and £6 million for Faddy.
Outgoing Gardner, Wessels, VDM? Gravesen, Fernandes (if we don't sign him) and possibly Carsley.

So that possibly means we need at least 4 MF players,1 centreback and a GK.

Any advance on £30 million? Or more rabbits out of the hat for £10 million?

Enter "The illusionist"...

Ben Jones
6 Posted 10/05/2008 at 17:22:19

Stefan

Where do you get the £10 million transfer budget from? It?s definitely gonna be more than that... we spent £20 million last year and we?re hopefully gonna finish higher this year. I think the transfer budget will be at least £20 million this year.

Stefan Tosev
7 Posted 10/05/2008 at 18:00:56

Ben,

Simple since January last year we are balancing the books ? we sold S. Davies and with the money we bought Howard and Jutkiewicz. We exchanged Beattie for Jagielka, we bought Baines and paid for him with the money of Naysmith and then were forced to sell McFadden. Our only money transfer is Yakubu and we took out a loan, because we couldn?t afford him. That?s why I think our budget will be near £10m net after sells

Rish Atcha
8 Posted 10/05/2008 at 20:27:09

Everton

2007-08: In

Tim Howard: £3m
Lukas Jutkiewicz: £400k
Phil Jagielka: £4m
Leighton Baines: £5m
Ayegbeni Yakubu: £11.25m
Dan Gosling: £1.5m
Steven Pienaar: £2m

Total £27.15m

2007-08: Out

Gary Naysmith: £1m
James Beattie: £4.5m
James McFadden: £6m
Simon Davies: £2m

Total £13.5m

£27.15m - £13.5m = £13.65m

Alex Spelling
9 Posted 10/05/2008 at 22:09:58

I think numerous non big-4 clubs have realised that getting into the Champions League is a pipe dream and spending large amounts just to finish in the top 10 is counter productive in the long run. Even qualifying for the Uefa Cup via the league is difficult, nor does the Uefa carry anything like the same financial rewards. The extra tv money is increasingly being swallowed by higher wages also.

I hope to god I?m saying this tomorrow night but maybe Everton?s more sustainable model of transfer dealing (influenced by being perennially skint!) and being the current best of the rest has been picked up upon by others. Spurs really thought this season after coming close the previous two that they would break into the top 4 at Arsenal?s expense ? with a full pre-season and some new signings, Ramos might just achieve this next year.

Pompey do have some backing but there?s a lot of wheeling dealing going on there too; I remember Harry saying last year he?d love to get the Yak back but couldn?t afford 11mil (so he spunked half of that on Nugent!).

Ah well, here comes another frustrating, frantic web checking summer!

Ajay Gopal
10 Posted 11/05/2008 at 04:22:11

Ric, I get the same feeling as you that this will be a summer of pragmatism. Most clubs will spend only what they can afford. Even Spurs it seems are banking heavily on the sale of Berbatov to finance their new purchases.

It was also surprising to hear Wenger say that he will not destroy the wage structure to keep his star players.

The real issue seems to be the hugely bloated player?s wages rather than the transfer fees itself.

Expect most teams (except the Manure, Chelsea and RS) to keep their squads compact, rotate their players more to reduce injury risks and invest more in academies to bring in new players. Which suits Everton fine, in my opinion!

Derek Thomas
11 Posted 11/05/2008 at 05:37:16

’ The inevitable collapse of Kirkby ’...Oh that it were so.

The new close season FM merry go round starts here.

Ric Wallace
12 Posted 11/05/2008 at 09:19:05

OK Derek, I might have been slightly harsh on that thing being built in Kirkby.

But the point still remains, that at the moment Kirkby, if it happens at all, will be pushed back at least another year- hopefully freeing up some more transfer money for Moyes.

I don’t get your point about Football Manager- we are just discussing about how clubs are being more pragmatic or not in the close season with their spending!
If you don’t have anything reasonable to add, don’t say anything.