English Clubs Ranked by Transfer Record

[mazrimsbruv]

Apologies if someone else has done this. I'm not exactly a prolific poster.

Got to thinking about where we now rank in terms of club record transfer fees. By my reckoning, we've gone from well down the ranking to 5th overall. Anyway, here's the top ten (source: transferleague.co.uk):

1. Man Citeh - Robinho - £32.5M
2. Man Ure - Berbatov - £30.75M
3. Chelski - Shevchenko - £30M
4. Bin Dippers - Torres - £26.5M
5. Villa - Bent - £24M
6. Leeds - Ferdinand - £18M
7. Spudz - Modric - £16.5M
8. Barcodes - Owen - £16M
9. Arse - Nasri - £15.8M
10. Blue Scouse - Fellaini - £15M

Some surprises there, especially the Leeds deal, when you consider how long ago it was. Also, how nice is it to see the likes of Spurs, Arsenal and Newcastle trailing in our wake?

Bent's transfer doesn't appear on the website yet (hopefully it'll be updated at the end of the window) so I've used £24M as the fee for Bent. It's certainly the fee being quoted in the press now, especially when someone's saying he's overpriced or are slagging off our club for it's 'panic buy'.

At any rate I'm sure we'll pay some or all of the add-ons eventually and it still makes us equal-5th at worst.

Might go and do some work now.

[Concrete John]

I though Torres was cheaper that that - circa £20m?  I'm sure someone mentioned when we got him that Bent meant only three clubs had paid more for a player, which were Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea.

Most noticable thing to me is that two of the top three were flops.  And if you looked at it before this season you could say all the top 3 were! 

[Hookeysmith]

If that is the list for the Premiership then there are a good few missing

Shearer - Barcodes - 18M
Veron - United - 28m
Ferdinand - United 30m
DRogba - 28m
Essien - 35m

Dont want to piss on your chips but what was the scale regarding - highest purchase for each club then put in a league format - if so then i get it

[Brend'Watkins]

Why is Bent shown as £24M?

Isn't it £18M and goes to £24M if he wins Britain's got talent or something?

[The Situation]

If that is the list for the Premiership then there are a good few missing

Shearer - Barcodes - 18M
Veron - United - 28m
Ferdinand - United 30m
DRogba - 28m
Essien - 35m

Dont want to piss on your chips but what was the scale regarding - highest purchase for each club then put in a league format - if so then i get it

lol Essien wasn't £35M nor was Drogba £28M.

[Billy Walker]

Shearer was £15 million, I am sure.  Torres? £22 million max!

That's the thing with transfers, all sorts of figures get bandied around and we all hear different figures quoted in the press.  Not only that but we then have to ask ourselves whether the clubs actually end up paying the whole quoted figure.  Did Leeds actually pay a whole £18 million or just a couple of installments prior to moving Ferdinand on?  In the same way I think Liverpool only paid about £8million for Robbie Keane despite the recorded transfer fee being £20 million.  It's a similar story with their signing of Aqilani, I believe.

Either way, Bent is a very effective statement of intent that will make football folk listen and think again about Aston Villa.  It's a big, big signing.

[Countryside Villain]

If that is the list for the Premiership then there are a good few missing

Shearer - Barcodes - 18M
Veron - United - 28m
Ferdinand - United 30m
DRogba - 28m
Essien - 35m

Dont want to piss on your chips but what was the scale regarding - highest purchase for each club then put in a league format - if so then i get it

lol Essien wasn't £35M nor was Drogba £28M.

No, they were both £24 million each.  With figures like that its also easy to forget about the £17 million on Duff, £17 million on Crespo, £21 million on SWP and going way back, £15 million on Jimmy Floyd H.  Not to mention that they've spent more on left backs that our entire squad is worth.  The club record hides the true depth of investment for all those clubs listed.

[nick harper]

Arshavin was £20m.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

If that is the list for the Premiership then there are a good few missing

Shearer - Barcodes - 18M
Veron - United - 28m
Ferdinand - United 30m
DRogba - 28m
Essien - 35m

Dont want to piss on your chips but what was the scale regarding - highest purchase for each club then put in a league format - if so then i get it

lol Essien wasn't £35M nor was Drogba £28M.

No, they were both £24 million each.  With figures like that its also easy to forget about the £17 million on Duff, £17 million on Crespo, £21 million on SWP and going way back, £15 million on Jimmy Floyd H.  Not to mention that they've spent more on left backs that our entire squad is worth.  The club record hides the true depth of investment for all those clubs listed.

I'd forgot that Crespo was even at Chelsea. They have also recently signed Ramires and Zirkhov for around £16-17m. It puts our signing of Bent into perspective when Chelsea have been spending around and above that fee for years.

[Billy Walker]

Arshavin was £20m.

I though he was £12million?  According to The Daily Telegraph at the time it was £15million (link's too long to post).  As I say, transfer fees are a murky business wrapped up in all sorts of fine print and legal speak.  I'd say all of the fees we have mentioned here are far off the actual marks.

[mazrimsbruv]

Arshavin was £20m.

As I said, I used a particular website as the main source and cross checked where I could. The site lists Arshavin's transfer as £15M. I believe that Zenit St Petersburg claimed at the time they had been paid £16.95M. This was the highest estimate I could find. No sources quoted the fee anywhere near £20M.

[mazrimsbruv]

If that is the list for the Premiership then there are a good few missing

Shearer - Barcodes - 18M
Veron - United - 28m
Ferdinand - United 30m
DRogba - 28m
Essien - 35m

Dont want to piss on your chips but what was the scale regarding - highest purchase for each club then put in a league format - if so then i get it

Highest purchase for each club - so yes you get it

[mazrimsbruv]

I though Torres was cheaper that that - circa £20m?  I'm sure someone mentioned when we got him that Bent meant only three clubs had paid more for a player, which were Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea.

Most noticable thing to me is that two of the top three were flops.  And if you looked at it before this season you could say all the top 3 were! 

Torres was listed as £22.5M cash plus Luis Garcia who was valued at £4M.

[mazrimsbruv]

If that is the list for the Premiership then there are a good few missing

Shearer - Barcodes - 18M
Veron - United - 28m
Ferdinand - United 30m
DRogba - 28m
Essien - 35m

Dont want to piss on your chips but what was the scale regarding - highest purchase for each club then put in a league format - if so then i get it

lol Essien wasn't £35M nor was Drogba £28M.

No, they were both £24 million each.  With figures like that its also easy to forget about the £17 million on Duff, £17 million on Crespo, £21 million on SWP and going way back, £15 million on Jimmy Floyd H.  Not to mention that they've spent more on left backs that our entire squad is worth.  The club record hides the true depth of investment for all those clubs listed.

If you visit the website there's a whole host of information on net spend per season, total investment by the current owners versus previous owners (so you can compare Randy's investment with Doug's) and all sorts of other stuff.

[KevinGage]

Shearer was £15 million, I am sure.  Torres? £22 million max!

That's the thing with transfers, all sorts of figures get bandied around and we all hear different figures quoted in the press.  Not only that but we then have to ask ourselves whether the clubs actually end up paying the whole quoted figure.  Did Leeds actually pay a whole £18 million or just a couple of installments prior to moving Ferdinand on?  In the same way I think Liverpool only paid about £8million for Robbie Keane despite the recorded transfer fee being £20 million.  It's a similar story with their signing of Aqilani, I believe.

Either way, Bent is a very effective statement of intent that will make football folk listen and think again about Aston Villa.  It's a big, big signing.

It's big, but I think only a sustained period of (a) either competing for big name players or (b) bringing through an Arsenal-like conveyor belt of talent would make football folk reassess.

Graham Taylor said years ago that part of his reasoning in signing Cascarino for a then massive fee was to ensure that Aston Villa would have a squad that would always be in and around 6th, and if you do that more often than not, there is always a chance that one season you might go on to win the thing. Different times then, of course. The league was much more open. And the less said about Cascarino's actual contribution the better.

BFR put it even better, around the time he signed er, Earl Barrett. That is, if the best players in the country become available, Aston Villa should be one of the first clubs in for them. In his three and a bit years with us, he was pretty much true to his word. Except for signing John Fashanu. Dunno what was going on there.

The Bent deal could be a catalyst for us, but not in isolation. We'll need to follow it up with other big deals.