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Revealed! The biggest bargains of the January transfer window.... and who paid over the odds for their signings!
It’s a stretch to suggest any bit of movement in the January transfer market was a bargain. Good business for sure, but it can hardly compare to three Easter eggs in Sainsbury’s for £2.99 now, can it? That’s what we call value for money.
When billions of pounds are swilling around the top end of the game, you hope they kept the receipt after some of the eye-watering deals in the land where being careful with your cash is merely an after thought.
But the whiz-kids at the Football Observatory have undertaken some transfer market analysis – and their findings make for interesting reading.
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They don’t usually get stuff like this wrong. Players were measured between estimated true values and their exclusive algorithm and fees actually paid by clubs.
The Football Observatory uses various statistics, like the player’s age, for strikers goals and points won by the team to calculate a true value.
Using that information they have been able to reveal the clubs that got the most bang for their buck and the answer is….. Arsenal!
The Gunners’ deal to bring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to the Premier League for £60m sees Arsene Wenger come in with a +19 rating. The €64m they actually shelled out comes a lot under his €83m worth.
In second spot – and just in time for the north London derby – is Tottenham’s sole January purchase, Lucas Moura.
That means the £28.5m signing from PSG actually came for over £11m less than he is worth – Daniel Levy has done it again!
That, we’re sad to say, is where the good news ends for the bean counters. Well, perhaps except for the money men down at Southampton.
In a window when transfer expenditure increased by 36 per cent compared to January 2017, Liverpool’s €84 for Saints defender Virgil Van Dijk got the ball rolling.
His true value, the stats say, is actually nearer €63m – even if Jurgen Klopp admits he’s paid over the odds for the Dutchman.
It’s not all bad news for Liverpool. Rating the top ten transfers across Europe, the Football Observatory believe Philippe Coutinho’s overall deal to join Barcelona stands at €160. It’s estimated his true value comes it at €147m.
Everton aren’t shy of a penny or too at the moment, so they won’t be too worried by paying £7m more than they should have done for Theo Walcott – even less so after his solid start to life at Goodison!
