Transfer Policies of Premier League Clubs – Best and Worst

Player trade has been an undisputed factor in deciding any Football Club’s fate in upcoming seasons. The most recent incident is Mo Salah’s contribution in Liverpool’s resurgence as the prime contender for Premier League and UEFA Champions League Championships. The Egyptian secured a transfer from AS Roma to the red side of the Merseyside for a club record transfer fee (then) of €42 Million before the 2017-18 season. He netted 44 goals in his maiden season with Liverpool. Salah not only helped his side to finish as fourth best in the Premier League but also carried Liverpool to the finals of UEFA Champions League. The Premier League Clubs have to be very precise while making decisions in the transfer market. Their decisions can lead to immediate success or a disastrous loss of money for the club. Let us check which premier league club is the best and worst in the transfer market on the basis of net spending per point.    

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Last 5 years:

13 Football Clubs participated regularly from 2013-14 to 2017-18 premier league season. Among these, Southampton stands out as the best club in the transfer market. The Saints earned a sum of €34.24 Million in five seasons in the top tier of English football. Not only this, but they also gathered 261 points over this period of time. This means Southampton earned more than €123,000 per point they gathered in the premier league. On the other hand, Manchester City had the worst net spending per point ratio. In the same time frame, City spent a total of €702.54 Million to accumulate 409 points. This means the citizens invested more than €1,717,000 for every point in the premier league. The complete table is as follows:

Premier League Clubs with Net Transfer Spending, Net Points won and Net Spending per point amount in last 5 years (2013-14 season to 2017-18 season)

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Last 10 years:

Tottenham Hotspur spent a net amount of €81.53 Million on the last 10 years while maintaining an average league position of 4.5. Not only this, but Tottenham also secured fifth highest points with a total of 690 in 10 years. This means the club invested just a little over €118,000 for each point in the premier league. The brilliance of transfer policy and decisions of Tottenham can be seen by the fact that the north London club participated in European competitions in 9 out of last 10 seasons. Spurs' net transfer spending for a decade is less than Fulham’s net spending in single 2018-19 season. On the other side, Manchester City spent more than €1.175 Billion in the last 10 years since the takeover of the club by the Abu Dhabi United Group. The citizens secured 764 points over this period of time hence investing more than €1.53 Million for every single point in the premier league.

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Premier League Clubs with Net Transfer Spending, Net Points won and Net Spending per point amount in last 10 years (2008-09 season to 2017-18 season)

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From the data, it can be seen that Tottenham and Southampton are the Clubs with the best transfer policies. The job done by the chairman of Tottenham, Daniel Levy is commendable. The club is not only participating in European competitions for the last 10 years but their move to their new stadium with bigger sitting capacity (62,062) is also imminent.

Tottenham Hotspur's Chairman Daniel Levy and the Proposed New Stadium of Spurs

Southampton is slowly establishing towards becoming a regular premier league team since they earned promotion in 2012. The most eye-catching feature of Southampton’s transfer policy is keeping their net transfer spending negative. They are the only team to register profit in player transfer market while playing in the premier league for at least 5 seasons in the last 10 seasons. A major portion of the earned money is invested in the youth development system by the saints. It will not be a surprise if Southampton maintains its top spot in transfer market policy chart in the future as well.

Southampton has been a factory in terms of producing and promoting players. Here are major players who were sold to bigger clubs hence contributing Million Euros of profit for the Club.

Some predictions for the 2018-19 season on the basis of the study from last 10 seasons –

1.      The chances of Liverpool (net spending of €164.9 Million) to win the premier league this season is 20%. The highest net spenders won the Premier League only twice in last 10 seasons. Manchester City was the highest net spenders in 2013-14 (€104.7 Million) and 2017-18 (€221.15 Million) and won the premier league.

2.      The Club with least spending in the premier league never gets relegated. This means Watford, who are the least spending club this season (€-22.15 Million ) will not be relegated in the 2018-19 season.

3.      Points to ensure safety in the Premier League is 35.7 (Average of points for survival in last 10 seasons). Highest points total to ensure safety was 40 (Wolverhampton in the 2010-11 season) and the least points total was 35 (Hull in the 2008-09 season and West Ham in the 2009-10 season).

4.      Points required to win the 2018-19 season is 89 (Average of points of winners in last 10 seasons). Highest points total to ensure the premier league championship was 100 (Manchester City in the 2017-18 season) and the least points total was 81 (Leicester City in the 2015-16 season).

5.      In general, 2 teams spending less and one team spending more than the average net spending get relegated. The average net spending in the 2018-19 season is €50.137 Million. Predicted teams to suffer the drop are –

a.      One club among Brighton and Hove Albion (€58.2 Million) or Southampton (€50.85 Million).

b.     Two teams among Huddersfield (€37.47 Million), Cardiff City (€30.75 Million) or Newcastle United (€-8.72 Million).   

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