Soccer / glazer

I will start by saying that I have created this thread and carried out the analysis within in reaction to the sheer volume of nonsense out there supporting the view that various Utd managers have been adequately backed by the Glazer family. Every time I turn on the TV, tune in to the Radio or have a click around on the Web, I am bombarded by terribly unscientific analysis of the various investment Utd and our rivals have had in playing staff over the years. I want to try and set the record straight I will also be clear, if you haven't already guessed, that I have long held the view that the Glazers have not invested adequately in the squad and this is almost exclusively the reason for our recent troubles. Before I get into the Data, I wanted to outline what I have done and why. What does the Data below show? A list of every significant transfer in at Manchester Utd, Manchester City and Chelsea and the associated fee. I have started with 04/05 in Chelsea's case as this marked the arrival of Abrahomovich. For Utd, I have started in 2006 as the Glazers completed their takeover in June 2006. For City, the obvious starting point is the arrival of Sheikh Mansour in 2008. All fees have been taken from https://www.totallymoney.com/content/transfer-index/data/ and appear accurate to the best of my knowledge. Rumours abound about significant differences between advertised fees and 'actual' fees at both Chelsea and City, since they are privately owned, however we'll assume the figures are there or thereabouts as it's the best we'll ever get So, what's different about this list? The Data below has been adjusted for inflation. Each yearly investment has been adjusted to represent the figure that the same outlay would represent in today's market. Why adjust for inflation? Economists do this to represent the buying power in real terms of consumers and the cost of goods and services from one year to the next. The reason they do this should be obvious - the price of goods/services increases over time but so does consumer spending power. It is the relationship between the two which is important. To use a very high-level example, the price your parents paid for a house in 1990 would have been a fraction of the cost of the same house today. That doesn't mean one deal was necessarily better than the other, it's simply a reflection of the respective values at the time Why is this important in football? In 2016, a record-breaking new 3-yr TV deal was signed totalling £5.14BN to be distributed between the 20 Premier League clubs. This was an increase of 71% on the previous deal. The impact of this deal was to make PL clubs very wealthy and meant that even the smaller clubs no longer relied on selling players to make ends meet. You often hear that certain clubs or managers have 'ruined the market' which is absolute nonsense. It's simply a result of clubs in general being far wealthier. As a result of all this, transfer fees rocketed and in 2018, even an average CB from a mid-table club will set a club back £50m+. No longer can the big boys pick off their rivals best players, as SAF did so effectively many times (Cantona, Keane, Yorke, Berbatov, Carrick, Ferdinand etc...etc...) So....what's the point then? The point is to enable fans to be able to quantify and compare transfers across seasons. Simply saying "City's squad cost XXXX and Utd's cost XXXX" is not enough because it doesn't take into account inflation. City, for example, regularly field the likes of Aguero and Silva who commanded big fee's once upon a time but who now look like bargain buys. United, on the other hand, have done the majority of their spending at a time when fees are much higher, which artificially enhances the lazy view that we have invested a tonne of money. Why choose City and Chelsea? Simply because Utd, Chelsea and City have dominated the PL since 2004. People will rightly point towards the progress Liverpool and Spurs have made on what I assume are much 'lighter' budgets, however they haven't won anything and until they do.....it's kind of a moot point! So what about Leicester? I'm not saying it's impossible to win the league without spending billions, there will always be anomalies. I'm saying it's unlikely and I'm also saying it's not fair to hammer our managers constantly because nobody is hammering any of the other 17 who also win nowt! Is this a defence of Jose? Yes and also no, it's a defence of all of our managers, including to a certain extent SAF, all of whom have been boxing with one-arm behind their back whilst being expected to win every game! The Data 2003/04 Wayne Bridge, Geremi, Glen Johnson, Hernan Crespo, Adrian Mutu, Damien Duff, Juan Veron, Claude Makelele, Scott Parker, Joe Cole, Alexei Smertin £116.6m (£507.7m) 2004/05 Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Jiri Jarosik, Alex, Didier Drogba, Mateja Kezman, Petr Cech, Tiago, Arjen Robben £112.5m (£488.9m) 2005/06 Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Edwin van der Sar, Ben Foster, Park Ji-Sung £21.4m (£93.3m) Asier del Horno, Slobodon Rajkovic, Michael Essien, Lassana Diarra, Shaun Wright-Phillips £62.1m (£276.7m) 2006/07 Michael Carrick £18.5m (£90.2m) Khalid Boulahrouz, Ashley Cole, Andriy Shevchenko, Ben Sahar, Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel £59.7m (£288.7m) 2007/2008 Branislav Ivanovic, Juliano Belletti, Nicholas Anelka, Franco Di Santo, Florent Malouda £40m (£137.7m) Manucho, Tomasz Kuszczak, Nani, Anderson, Owen Hargreaves, Rodrigo Possebon £61.5 (£215.7m) 2008/2009 Ritchie De Laet, Dimitar Berbatov, Zoran Tosic £35.8m (£94.2m) Bosingwa, Deco £24.4m (£63m) Wayne Bridge, Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Tal Ben Haim, Jo, Shay Given, Robinho, Craig Bellamy, Nigel de Jong, Shaun Wright-Phillips £125.5m (£326.5m) 2009/2010 Daniel Sturridge, Yuri Zhirkov, Nemanja Matic £23.7m (£59.7m) Antonio Valencia, Mame Diouf, Gabriel Obertan £24.3m (£54.1m) Joleon Lescott, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry, Adam Johnson £131.1m (£294m) 2010/2011 Chris Smalling, Chicharito, Anders Lindegaard, Bebe £25.4m (56.2m) David Luiz, Tomas Kalas, Fernando Torres, Matej Delac, Ramires, Yossi Benayoun £104.1m (£236.9m) Aleksandar Kolarov, Jerome Boateng, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli, Yaya Toure, David Silva, James Milner £158.1m (£357.5m) 2011/2012 David De Gea, Ashley Young, Phil Jones £54.3m (150.8m) Gary Cahill, Romelu Lukaku, Patrick Bamford, Thibaut Courtois, Lucas Piazon, Juan Mata, Raul Meireles, Kevin de Bruyne, Oriol Romeu, Ulises Davila £83.8m (£229.8m) Stefan Savic, Gael Clichy, Sergio Aguero, Costel Pantilimon, Samir Nasri £78.8m (£220.8m) 2012/2013 Alex Buttner, RvP, Angelo Henriquez, Shinji Kagawa, Nick Powell, Wilfried Zaha £61.9m (£151.8) Cezar Azpilicueta, Wallace Oliveira, Demba Ba, Eden Hazard, Marko Marin, Thorgan Hazard, Oscar, Victor Moses £88.8m (£214.49) Matija Nastasic, Maicon, Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair £50.2m (£123.4m) 2013/2014 Juan Mata, Marouane Fellaini £65.5 (£115.4) Kurt Zouma, Cristian Cuevas, Stipe Perica, Andre Schurrle, Christian Atsu, Nemanja Matic, Marco van Ginkel, Willian, Mo Salah £110.7m (£194.5) Martin Demichelis, Stevan Jovetic, Alvaro Negredo, Fernandinho, Jesus Navas £98.6m (£174.2m) 2014/2015 Felipe Luis, Diego Costa, Loic Remy, Cesc Fabregas, Mario Pasalic, Juan Cuadrado £111.7m (£178.6m) Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, Ander Herrera, Angel Di Maria* £152m (£244.4) Elaquim Mangala, Wilfried Bony, Willy Caballero, Fernando, Bruno Zuculini £71.6m (£114.1m) 2015/2016 Matteo Darmian, Anthony Martial, Memphis Depay, Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger £114.1m (£198.8m) Abdul Baba, Michael Hector, Matt Miazga, Papy Djilobodji, Nathan, Asmir Begovic, Pedro, Kenedy £60.7m (£105.5m) Nicolas Otamendi, Florian Lejeune, Enes Unal, Ruben Sobrino, KdB, Patrick Roberts, Fabian Delph, Anthony Caceres, Raheem Sterling £158.2m (£276.3m) 2016/2017 Eric Bailly, Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan £151m (£205.1) David Luiz, Marcos Alonso, Michy Batshuayi, N’Golo Kante £109m (£144.9) John Stones, Pablo Mari, Gabriel Jesus, Claudio Bravo, Geronimo Rulli, Leroy Sane, Nolito, Marlos Moreno, Ilkay Gundogan, Oleksandr £174.9m (£234.6m) 2017/2018 Antonio Rudiger, Davide Zapacosta, Emerson, Alvaro Morata, Olivier Giroud, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater, Ross Barkley £226.5m (£202.5m) Victor Lindelof, Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matic £145m (£127.8m) Aymeric Laporte, Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker, Danilo, Kayode, Ederson, Douglas Luiz, Luka Ilic, Bernardo Silva, Jack Harrison £279m (£247.5m) 2018/2019 Fred, Lee Grant, Diego Dalot £74.1m (£72.5m) Kepa Arrizabalaga, Jorginho £122m (£116.8m) Phillipe Sandler, Daniel Arzani, Riyad Mahrez £63m (£62m) What are the results? The Data shows the following; Chelsea total adjusted spend under Roman = £3,466BN an AVG of £215.37m per season Utd total adjusted spend under Glazers = £1.91BN an AVG of £136.4m per season City total adjusted spend under Mansour = £2.43BN an AVG of £220.1m per season Observations City have the highest adjusted average under Mansour with £220.1m Chelsea follow closely behind with an average of £215.37m under Roman United lag some way off the pace under the Glazers with an average of £136.4m That means that City and Chelsea are signing, broadly speaking, two additional high-level players EVERY single season What about Net? I haven't done net for two reasons; 1. I couldn't find the Data on Totally Money for Transfers Out 2. 'Net' can be misleading when dealing with the artificial money clubs. They can spend more and therefore take more gambles, increasing the likelihood of finding a superstar to sell on at a large profit Incidentally, Point 2 hasn't happened. I certainly don't believe the net figures would look any less damning for the Glazers. In fact, when you bear in mind that we sold Ronaldo for the equivalent of £200m and Angel Di Maria after one season for an equivalent £61m, their 'investment' looks even more pitiful So am I saying we've spent well? Yes and no. We could certainly have spent better but just look at that list of in's at City and Chelsea. For every Kompany there have been several Mangala's, Stones' and Demichellis'. For every Diego Costa there has been several Torres', Shevchenko's and Crespo's. Utd are operating with a relatively poor budget whilst trying to replace most of our outfield players and it is totally unreasonable to expect ANY manager to get every signing correct. I would say 50% is an exceptional strike rate and even then with £134.6m at our disposal every year, it's going to take a serious amount of time to get the team where we all want it to be So why can't we beat Brighton, West Ham and Derby then? We've outspent them! In truth, Jose has taken the lack of investment exceptionally badly. He has criticised just about every player individually and who knows what's going on behind closed doors. This has obviously destroyed morale and his relationship with the players. But consider this, Jose is a winner. We finished 2nd last year and Jose would have expected to kick-on and go after City. What have we done? Spent £65m! We've basically given up! My opinion is that the Glazers/Woodward have settled for spending just enough to guarantee top-4 and Jose has seen his arse massively. At times, I wish Jose would just get on with making the best of what he has. Other times I think 'hang on, the man's right....were Man Utd! Why are we settling for 2nd/3rd/4th best?!" Conclusion Facts are, we haven't invested anywhere near enough in the squad under the Glazers. The likes of Keane, Ferdinand, Vidic, Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo, Rooney, RVP, Michael Carrick, Patrice Evra, Gary Neville, and Ole Solskjaer have all left under the Glazer's ownership. They either haven't been replaced at all or we've shopped around for bargain replacements not worthy of their shirts. We are the richest club in the world and we're operating on a comparative shoe-string. There's nothing we as fans can do about it but the point of this thread is that if we are to blame anyone it certainly should not be the managers but the people in the Boardroom! They are solely responsible for leaving us in this position. The manager's job is a poisoned chalice. You've got £136.4m a year to invest in a crumbling squad and oh, by the way, you have to win every single game whilst you do it or get crucified publicly Make of it what you all will, but please don't fall for the lazy narrative put out there by journalists who should be doing the above!!!