‘Cash strapped’, ‘financial turmoil’, ‘transfer budget slashed,’ these and a whole host of other terms have been used to describe Liverpool Football Club’s woe’s in the transfer window this summer. Once again the press eager to suggest instability within the club have gone full throttle trying to highlight the financial inadequacy LFC have in comparison to the other so-called ‘top teams’. It seems an article cannot be written about the Reds without some sort of reference to Rafa’s frustrations in the transfer market. These headlines hit a nadir last week when rumours circulated that Rafa was about to walk following another bust up over the transfer budget. The speculation of course turned out to be false however it still hasn’t prevented article after article being written highlighting the transfer problems facing the club.However a close look at the financial dealings surrounding the so-called ‘big four’ teams in the Premiership, reveals a different story. A run down of money spent in the transfer window so far see’s Liverpool at the top of the list:
Liverpool:
A Aquilani (Roma, £18m), G Johnson (Portsmouth, £18.5m), S Kyrgiakos (AEK Athens, £1.5m), A King (Rushden & Diamonds, nominal), C Mavinga (Paris Saint-Germain, undisclosed).
Total: £38m
Chelsea
N Matic (MFK Kosice, £1.5m), D Sturridge (Manchester City, subject to transfer tribunal), R Turnbull (Middlesbrough, free), Y Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow, £18m).
Total: £19.5
Manchester United
L A Valencia, right, (Wigan Athletic, £15.25m), M Biram Diouf (Molde, Norway, undisclosed), M Owen (Newcastle United, free), G Obertan (Bordeaux, £3m).
Total: £18.25m
Arsenal:
D Martínez (Independiente, £1.2m), T Vermaelen (Ajax, £10m).
Total: £11.2m
Whilst of-course it can be said that the team still needs plenty of re-enforcements, decent cover for Torres being the most obvious and Rafa would of-course welcome more funds to bolster his squad, however the above table reveals that Liverpool’s activity in the transfer market certainly isn’t lacking.
Agreed but this year offered us a big chance to push on and win he league and with days to go till the transfer window shuts the yanks have luet us down AGAIN by breaking even more promises and taking money OUT of the our club
ReplyDeleteUtter nonsense!
ReplyDeleteYou cant just look at what has been spent by Rafa and ignore what revenue he has generated in selling players. Alonso and Arbola have gone for a combined 30 -34 mil which means that Rafas net transfer spend is about 4-8mil.
As an example Stoke City have sold one player for 3 mil and brought in 3 players for a total of 13 mil.
So little stoke have a net transfer spend that is higher than Liverpools!
Given that Liverpool made record profits last year you would have expected Rafa to be given more than 5-10 million to spend if Liverpool are ever going to challenge.