Date: 16th July 2008 at 11:04pm
Written by:

Something I keep seeing repeatedly, and that has followed to this site now, is the fact that we SPENT 40 MILLION QUID LAST SUMMER!!!!

This may be true, but if I give you twenty dollars and then you give me a twenty and a five, how much money did you just give me? That’s right, 5 dollars, not 25. Still with me? Good.

Breakdown after….you guessed it, the break.

We bought the following players:-
Torres – £20.5m
Benayoun – £4m
Babel – £11.5m
Lucas – £6m
Itandje – £1.4m
Leto – £1.8m
Skrtel – 6m

£51.2 million spent

Then there were the sales – we gained £35.65 on sales taking our net spending to under £16m!:-

Garcia – £6m
Gonzo – £4m
Bellamy – £7.5m
Cisse – £6m
Palletta – £1.2m
Pongolle – £2.7m
Sissoko – £8.25m

Ok, now between all that as you can see, we spent somewhere around 16 million as opposed to 40. Now, toss in Mascherano and we’re up to approx 34 million. This offseason is as follows with Masch in and sales out:

In: Mascherano – £18 million

Dossena – £6 million

Skrtel – 7 million

Cavalieri – 3 million

Total : 34 million

Out:

Crouch – 11 million

Riise – 4 million

(Alonso – 14 million)

(Carson – 4 million)

(Finnan – 2 million)

(Pennant – 6 million)

Out (including probably sales): 41 million

Ok, now that we’ve done all that and give or take a few million here / there, we find ourselves 7 million ahead from January onward to this day. Take that out of the 16 million and we’ve spent….get ready for it….wait for it…..yes, that’s right 9 million on a squad meant to compete with Manure, who spent 50 million plus last summer alone.

Granted, some of our sales are yet to happen, but I have to think that most of them will, if not in terms of cash straight up then as make weights in some deals to come. Players leaving our squad are certain to be coveted by those less fortunate than ourselves, and they could make a serious impact on lesser EPL sides or abroad.

My point, simply, is this:

We haven’t spent anywhere near what people like to think, so suggesting that last summer’s “spending” will impact us this season is rather foolish. The question is what it always has been; will our owners put some of their own money, or at least some of their refinanced loan flexibility onto the pitch?

I am leaning more and more towards the idea that we are going to open some eyes and spring some surprises here as the season gets underway. People are going to start offloading now that they’ve sniffed out the market. Now that’s not to say that our owners won’t pocket every dime they have and make me look foolish for having faith that in them to at least somewhat support Rafa and the team, but then that’s up to them.

Think happy thoughts.

 

One response to “2007 spending breakdown”

  1. Ron says:

    Thanks a lot for breaking that down for us Ben. Looking at it now it makes sense that we have not spent that much. I would love to see a similar break down for Chelski and Manure. I hope we do get a couple of millions from the owners to spend but surely if we they were going to give us some money they would have done so by now so we can tie up Barry and Keane and even Aguero.