Recently fourfourtwo.com attempted to create some hype by claiming that since taking over the Club in mid-October 2010, Fenway Sports Group had spent Stg 300 million to purchase the club and a further Stg 144 million on player purchases (when even the squirrels at Hyde Park know that our net spend on players is closer to Stg 35 million given the sale of Torres, Babel, Ngog and Mireilles….to mention a few). Nothing much wrong in that is there, except that the headline was ‘Liverpool spend Stg 7.5 million per point’!
The website also made an unlikely comparison with Man City claiming that even though Mansour spent a staggering Stg 1 billion (yep that’s a ‘B’ not an ‘M’) from September 2008 right up to the last summer transfer window, their cost per point was much lower than ours, way lower.
So let’s make some comparative arguments and considerations to see how this Professor of Mathematical Theory went about doing his homework:
– Man City apparently notched up 188 points in the interim. That’s 188 points in three full seasons plus the current one: a total of 121 games rendering 1.55 points per game. Since 15th October 2011, the Reds played 38 Premier League matches notching up 59 points and that too is 1.55 points per game. These are the stats that matter.
– The difference is that Mansour’s investment is spread over a 3.25 year period while the Fenway investment has only been in existence for 1 year! How can you compare 36 month period with a 12?
– I’m not much into City’s finances but with Mansour spending Stg 793 million on player purchases, can someone tell me: a) how much of this was recovered from players sales, b) how much of this is part of the ludicrous wages Man City have to pay players that are out on loan playing for other clubs?
– How can you not take into account the money recovered from player sales (such as the Stg 75 million recovered for the sale of the four players mentioned earlier), to then say that Man Utd’s owners have not spent a dime on player purchases as these have been ‘internally generated’? Was he referring to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Stg 90 million plus sale for example? Isn’t this being incoherent with your arguments?
Considering Mansour spent Stg 208 million in Sept 2008 for City, the Glazers Stg 790 million for Utd in May 2005 and Fenway Stg 300 million for Liverpool in 2011, one may judge for himself who’s money was best spent, because when you consider that City need at least another 20 years to overhaul Liverpool’s league tally, and perhaps a decade to overhaul European one. Then when you consider that the Glazers’ purchased Utd in 2005 Liverpool were still the most titled Club domestically, and still is internationally, then again: who got the best deal?
Fourfourtwo.com ended up with a sensationalistic yet improbable article with twisted facts and figures used in an artful way the sole purpose of creating awe! At the end of the day it was an unprofessional piece of writing which will not dent our faith in the new owners that in the space of one year have proven to be low-profile, cautious, and who have delivered much more than they promised.
Better luck next time fourfourtwo.com!