How Expensive Was Your Team’s Bench in the English Premier League Last Week-End?
Echoing with my Europe’s Most Expensive Benchwarmers article, this week the Daily Mail thought about taking a look at the added values of players selected on the substitute bench, for last week-end’s English Premier League matches. Or, in other words: “How expensive was your team’s bench at the weekend”? The results are pretty frightening.
According to the Mail, “players who cost their clubs a total of £300.5m (€416m) in fees —including 58 internationals— were on the bench in last weekend’s 10 top-flight games. Shivering stuff. And those figures do not take into account Bosman free transfers or the value of players developed by a club’s youth system!!
The Mail’s article points the spotlight to Sunderland’s Craig Gordon (tagged as the “most expensive goalkeeper in Britain” with his £9million (€12.4m) transfer), who was named among the substitutes for the game against Derby. Meanwhile the combined cost of Chelsea’s replacements for the visit of West Ham reached a huge £67.6m (€93.6m) (that’s Sheva (£30m), Wright-Phillips (£21m), and Makelele (16.6m)… Hilario and Ben Haim were bought on a free transfer).
Second in the rankings we find Liverpool, who totalled £37.5m (€52m) with their superstar benchees Javier Mascherano and Ryan Babel, while completing the podium, none other than Manchester United (£34m, or €48m, with their Michael Carricks and Louis Sahas). Reading were the only club without an international among their subsititutes, while Bolton were the only club whose replacements did not cost a transfer fee.
The Mail’s article concludes on a nostalgic note: “How times have changed. In the first season of the Premier League (when only three subs were permitted), the bench at most clubs was populated by a combination of young emerging players, journeymen pros and and cheap squad players — with the occasional big-money signing returning to full fitness. These days it is not uncommon for a former European Footballer of the year, World Cup winner or Britain’s most expensive teenager to be on the sidelines“.
Here’s the full ranking:
Rank . | |||
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| Shevchenko — £30m; Wright-Phillips — £21m; Makelele — £16.6m; Hilario — free; Ben Haim — Bosman free | |||
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| Mascherano — £17m; Babel — £11.5m; Kuyt — £9m; Hobbs — nominal fee; Itandje — free | |||
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| Carrick — £18.6m; Saha — £12.2m; Kuzsczak — £4m; Fletcher — youth team; O’Shea — youth team | |||
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| Walcott — £12m; Gilberto — £4.5m; Senderos — £2.5m; Lehmann — free; Bendtner — nominal fee | |||
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| Defoe — £7m; Boateng — £5.8m; Huddlestone — £2.5m; Lee — £1.3m; Cerny — free | |||
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| Gordon — £9m; Chopra — £5m; Stokes — £2m; Miller — free; Harte — free | |||
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| Davies — £8m; Harewood — £4m; Maloney — £1m; Berger — free; Taylor — free | |||
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| Johnson — £8.6m; Jagielka — £4m; Wessels — free; Hibbert — youth team; Anichebe — youth team | |||
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| Enrique — £6.5m; Emre — £3.8m; Carr — £2m; Harper — nominal fee; Viduka — Bosman free | |||
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| Ashton — £7.25m; Ljungberg — £3m; Collins £1m; Spector £0.5m; Wright — free | |||
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| Bianchi — £8.8m; Jihai — £2m; Hart — £0.6m; Etuhu — youth team; Ball — free | |||
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| Savage — £3m; Roberts — £3m; Reid — £2.5m; Pedersen — £1.5m; Brown — Bosman free | |||
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| Kapo — £3m; Forssell — £3m; O’Connor — £2.6m; Parnaby — Bosman free; Doyle — youth team | |||
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| Nugent — £6m; Taylor — £0.4m; Kanu — free; Ashdown — nominal fee; Hreidarsson — free | |||
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| Huth — £6m; Cattermole — youth team; Tuncay — Bosman free; Steele — youth team; Hutchinson — youth team | |||
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| Earnshaw — £3.5m; Mears — £1m; Fagan — £0.75m; Leacock — £0.375m; Price — nominal fee | |||
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| Baird — £3m; Healy — £1.5m; Warner — nominal fee; Bocanegra — free; Seol — £1m | |||
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| Cotterill — £2m; Taylor — £0.75m; Pollitt — £0.2m; Granqvist — £0.75; Skoko — free | |||
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| Cissé — £0.6m; Long — £0.5; Bikey — nominal fee; Federici — youth team; Rosenior — £1m | |||
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| Stelios; Al Habsi; Wilhelmsson; Teymourian; Alonso — all Bosman free transfers | |||
Marco Pantanella writes for the mCalcio blog
you do know that i posted this about a week ago right? But good job anyways.
Yep, hence the title of the post “last week-end” xerxesk.
A good article doesn’t grow old though, and it’s still interesting I think to look at figures like this. I mean you could make a similar ranking week by week, and it would probably vary a little. The main lesson to take home here though, is realizing just how much money sits in the dugout for each EPL club, that’s the staggering fact.
Just looking at Chelsea’s bench for instance… that’s £67.6 million worth of players. If that doesn’t put things in perspective for you…
Im soryy guys, I do not see much wrong with having an expensive bench since it could mean one of two things:
1) homegrown or cheaper players are doing a good job to keep those milti-milion players out of the team – that is a good thing, right?
2) good players are so attracted to this league that, rather than play week-in week-out at Lazio for example, they would rather sit on the bench at the likes of Tottenham
either of these makes the Premier League stronger than other leagues. After all we I rather see Anderson come off the bench than O’Shea.
Marco, what’s the point in posting a topic with the same content as that already done by XerxesK? Why not simply make your contribution to his topic in Forum? I and others have already done so.
I have said before that this new concept of an expensive bench is down to Chelsea. You don´t need to compare with the beginning of the premiership; just compare with about 5 years ago. Even last year I remember Man Utd having a bench comprising 5 of Kuzsczak, O’Shea, Richardson, Eagles, Fletcher, Brown, Solskjaer, Park. All 8 of those cost about 6M (Kuzsczak was on loan then).
These days to compete with Chelsea (or to play against a rested Milan) you need to bring on players who are 1st team standard. Fergie knows this, Benitez knows this, Wenger knows this. Back in the 90s it wasn´t necessary. You could live with Jordi Cruyff, Luke Chadwick, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville on the bench. Yes times have changed.
An unique posting, although it seems relatively depends on the way of team managed their players.
Sometimes shevchenko dont have to play against weak team, in order to rotate or replaced by some young players. Or in other case, due to different style of opponents, expensive players didnt have to play, cause team needs more hardworking efforts, than just individual technique.
Frankie, Xerxesk:
1) most SL blog readers don’t read the forum – hence for them this would be somewhat fresh
2) New, interesting articles such as this one are the best way to bring in new readers.
3) The SL blog gets far more exposure than the forum – hence reposting any interesting discussions in the forum on to the blog is a natural progression for me.
Don’t see the point in gets all arsed about it, it’s the same site, and Marco hasn’t claimed credit for the story.
Heh… now I understand what you meant xerxesk. For some reason the first time I saw your comment, I read it as “you do know this was posted a week ago”. I realize now you wrote “I posted” and meant the SL forum.
So to comment on that:
1) Ditto what Ahmed said. I, for one, don’t have the time to read the forum. Neither does a vast majority of our readers I presume.
2) The forum doesn’t allow for the fancy formatting which embellishes the article, and makes it easier to read. I’m sure you’ll agree that my article looks just a little better, from the aesthetical point of view, than your forum post.
3) Other sites very seldom link to forums. Like Ahmed said, blog articles get far more exposure.
With that said, had I seen your post before-hand, I’d have mentioned it in the article.
Ahmed:
Don’t confuse having “asked” a question with getting “arsed” about it. If anyone is getting “arsed” about the question, then it might be you, mate. A simple question was asked as to why the same topic was repeated when it had already been posted on Forum. You’ve explained editorial policy (which is useful to know), and more to the point, Marco has pointed out that he hadn’t seen the original post. Fair enough. End of.