Ashley's spending spree (or lack of)

A good article on the amount of money spent of on transfers going in and out of the club since he arrived; http://www.nufcblog.org/2011/07/mike-ashleys-transfer-spending-currently-stands-at-48-7-million/

(And for those who cannot see the page for one reason or another, here it is in full)

On looking at Mike Ashley’s transfer spending in the last four seasons, it appears that in total, the club’s overall spending on transfer fees have been by far the lowest in the Premiership, with the club showing a profit of approximately £48,700,000 in the club’s transfer dealings for the 08/09, 09/10, 10/11 and the current 2011/12 seasons (so far).

Just to qualify the above, this figure does not include a series of diasastrous signings made under the previous regime of Freddy Shepherd, Douglas Hall and Sam Allardyce, some of which, though technically finalised shortly after Ashley gained control of the club, but were made under the previous administration. These include players such as Geremi, Alan Smith and Cacapa. However, if all the signings made in that season were included whether they were made under Ashley or the previous owners, spending would still show a deficit of approximately -£41.05 million from the the 07/08 season to the present day, as the clubs spending in that season amounted to approximately £7.65 million. It should also be mentioned that the club’s overall wage costs have also fallen dramatically since Ashley assumed ownership of the club, though in defence of this seeming lack of expenditure on the club’s playing staff, a Mr A.Pardew had this to say on the club’s transfer dealings:

“I was listening earlier when you was talking about the money being spent and I just want to sort of make something clear. When you sign someone like Demba Ba and someone like Marveaux there’s huge fees involved in that, it isn’t just tranfer fees. This is unfortunately how the Premier League works and alot of money in those deals doesn’t come back through the system. Ideally, in the old days we would sign someone from the Championship and it would go back into the English game but this money’s going out through agents and stuff like that. But we spent a fair amount this Summer on those three players in particular, more perhaps than the fans realise and I need to mark their card on that because if you’re going to start adding up the money and thinking ‘Oh we ain’t spent that £35 million’ you’re going to be way off the figures, you really are. Mike promised to put all that money back in, I know what the figures are, I know what we spent on the training ground and everything will go back into the club. We’re trying to locate one or two development players that cost perhaps more than you think as well. Now, I want to say that because I think Mike and Derek’s backing has been very strong this Summer and I’m very pleased with it so far. The noises we’re making on perhaps the last signing, or perhaps the last two are still very very good and it bodes well.”

Below is a breakdown of the players who have moved in and out of the club, along with the figures.

2008/09 Season

In: Jonas Gutierrez (£7,000,000), Danny Guthrie (£2,500,000), Fabricio Coloccini (£10,300,000), Xisco (£5,700,000), Peter Lovenkrands (£0), Kevin Nolan (£4,000,000), Ryan Taylor (£0). Total: £29,500,000.

Out: Emre (£4,000,000), Abdoulaye Faye (£2,250,000), James Milner (£12,000,000), Shay Given (£8,000,000), Charles N’Zogbia (£6,000,000). Total: £32,250,000.

Total spend: -£2,750,000.

2009/10 Season

In: Danny Simpson (£500,000), Mike Williamson (£1,000,000). Total: £1,500,000.

Out: David Edgar (expired), Michael Owen (£0), Sebastien Bassong (£8 million), Obafemi Martins (£9,000,000), Habib Beye (£2,500,000), Damien Duff (£4,000,000), Geremi (undisclosed). Total: £23,500,000.

Total spend: -£22,000,000.

2010/11 Season

In: James Perch (£1,000,000), James Gosling (£0), Sol Campbell (£0), Cheick Tiote (£3,500,000), Hatem Ben Arfa (£5,750,000). Total: £10,250,000.

Out: Andy Carroll (£35,000,000). Total: £35,000,000.

Total spend: -£24,750,000

2011/12 Season

In: Mehdi Abeid (£0), Sylvain Marveaux (£0), Demba Ba (£0), Yohan Cabaye (£4,300,000). Total: £4,300,000.

Out: Kevin Nolan (£3,500,000), Patirck McLoughlan (£0), Daniel Leadbitter (£0), Ben Tozer (£0). Total: £3,500,000.

Total spend: £800,000

Grand total: -£48.7 million.

This means that in the last four seasons, the gross (non)spend on players has averaged at aprroximately -£12,175,000 per season, though as Mr Pardew has explained, much of this £12.2 million per season deficit has no doubt been spent on agents fees, signing on fees, undersoil heating and various other sundry expenses which haven’t been deducted from other revenue streams such as gate receipts, merchandising, sponsorship, catering and hospitality and so on…

 

Very detailed stuff..

 

Said it on a similar article just before, very naive to just add up transfer fees, and of course the figure will look bad when we had to sell loads of players when we got relegated.

 

James Gosling?

 

Poor lad never saw it coming.

Wouldnt mind him back as cover for the back four, decent little player, dont know why we didnt at least keep him for the Championship.

 

We got more than that for Nolan surely?

 

Think we got roughly 4.5m

 

I heard £3 million, with another million in add-ons

 

That list is missing Wayne Routledge, Leon Best, and Fabrice Pancrate from the 09/10 list. There were also loans that came in, which would have cost money (Ignacio Gonzales, Danny Simpson, Marlon Harewood, Fitz Hall, Zurab Khizanishvili, Patrick Van Aanholt).

It's also missing Bassong coming in in 08/09.

And due to the fact that they're private, is missing all the signing fees that every playing coming in would have had.

 

That's what I thought and also thought that was what be paid for Cabaye.

 

I'm sure David Edgar left because he wanted to stay in the premier league. Went to Burnley.

 

We should all stop being so quick to judge this situation, but Ashley should be giving us more money to spend, simple as.

Some people say he doesn't owe us, but he renamed our club sportsdirect.com@stjamespark and painted his **** all over the stadium, and in return he should give us cash to spend on players.

If he's going to use our stadium to profit his own business, then he should give us money to spend.

 

He should but he wont.

 

Agreed. But i wish people would stop saying that he doesn't owe us anything and "it's his cash". It technically is his dosh, but if his company is getting rich from all the crappy ad's around the stadium then we deserve a split of that cash.

 

While that figure looks truly staggering. If you take away £20 million on account of Liverpool's stupidity, then it doesn't seem so bad considering our relegation.

 

this plus take into account the players we were still paying for in instalments that fat mike hated and put a stop to then you might come to a more realistic figure

 

Hes a very good business man, thats about the only compliment I can give the man.

 

please log in to view this image

 

...all hail King Mike!

Of course, when you factor in the huge money made from ticket sales and sponsorship...

<sheep>