Premier League clubs: money on the table?
Spending v table position
As per the recent Deloitte report, Premier League club’s gross spend of £815m during the 2023 January transfer window was the largest ever, almost triple the previous January window. The gross (£2.8bn) and nett spend (£1.8bn), was also at a record high.
But which club has benefitted most, or indeed, which club has performed best relative to net spend? A snapshot is presented, and discussed, below.
Snapshot
I took spending figures from Transfermarkt (in € million) for the 2022–23 season and mapped it against the current league position as at GW34. Teams have played between 31–34 games and the battles at both ends are quite tight. While the standings can change, this does not matter too much for our analysis. With 80% of the season complete, we have a good idea of the broad “zone” a team is in, or has been for a while, and that level of precision is sufficient for our analysis.
The nett spend (incomings minus outgoings) is for this season only. Spending and recruitment strategy cannot be timeboxed per season. While context is important, the net spend for this season shows the outlay a club has made, specifically for this season, based on their situation or aims.
The graph and supporting table are presented below.
Highlights
The startling outlier is Chelsea whose €611.49m of outgoings and €543m of net spend, most of which was made during a frenzied winter transfer window, has only yielded them 12th place. Chelsea invented “financial doping”, and combined it with a ruthless approach to managerial sackings. This season, they’ve unashamedly taken both these aspects to new highs.
Contrast this to Manchester City, often accused of “buying” trophies through “oil money”. They have a negative net spend i.e., a gain of €11.67m and are in 2nd place with 2 games in hand.
Taking it one step further is Brighton, with the highest net gain of any club (€82m), 8th place but with 3 games in hand. What a season they’ve had and one hopes, for the sake of football, that they can qualify for Europe.
Relegation zone clubs show contrasting examples. Two have negative net spend, indicating a priority for financial conservatism over positional aspirations. Maybe funding sources have dried up? Maybe they feel their existing team can survive without extra cash outlay? Maybe they’re saving for something in the future, or balancing books?
The Premier League’s basement is a dark place and it’s not surprising for clubs to focus on financial prudence, the lack of which can make them bankrupt; rather relegation than dissolution. Newly promoted Forest have bucked that trend, but have only a goal-difference based separation from relegation slots to show for their considerable spend and bloated roster; shades of Aston Villa from some seasons ago.
“I feel a little bit for Chelsea to be honest, because it’s not going well, I think they’re a top, top team, but on the other side it’s good to see that you cannot just bring top players together and think it works out. You have to build a team and that’s what the guys there underestimated and gave their coaches a nearly impossible job to do.” — Klopp on Chelsea transfers
The net spend-to-position is an interesting comparison. While each club has its circumstances, the graph above shows two things.
Firstly, quality matters over quantity.
It’s not how many players can be procured and for how much, rather what quality players can be procured to enhance the team overall. We “know” this but this season proves it again — and with numbers.
How the signings integrate is also important.
Arsenal successfully and almost seamless integrated Jesus and Trossard. Brighton did the opposite but with same result. de Zerbi sold Trossard but identified readymade internal replacements. Brighton earned revenue, avoided additional transfer, AND got a performance uplift. Liverpool offered a contrast of a different type. Nunez was a good transfer but the collapse of form due to injuries and tactical upheaval, meant their spending did not give the instant ROI that we’ve come to expect.
Overall, the graph presents an interesting perspective based on which we can make our own conclusions on how successful (or not) a team has really been, when their performance is contrasted against nett spend.
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