Profit collected at White Hart Lane’s revolving door
It was revealed today on Sky Sports that just four Premier League teams made a profit over the summer and not one of them was Arsenal.
Blackburn made a net gain thanks to the £15 million they received for David Bentley and West Ham made the biggest profit of anyone after selling half of their first team. It is also being claimed that Chelsea made a profit but The Spoiler’s calculator doesn’t come to that conclusion (surely the £24.2 million spent on Deco and Jose Bosingwa exceeds the £19 million gained on Shaun Wright-Phillips, Steve Sidwell and Tal Ben-Haim?). The other team to have received more than they spent were Tottenham.
Much is made of the net profit that Arsene Wenger has produced at the Emirates in recent years while creating a team that came close to winning the title last season but while the Frenchman’s ethos in recent weeks has been that it’s better to sit still than start spending, Spurs have shown that you can make a profit without only signing unknown youngsters.
The decision to replace Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov with Roman Pavlyuchenko and Fraizer Campbell is a risky one but as Spurs are playing 4-5-1 so far this season it could pay off. Elsewhere they have upgraded Paul Robinson for Heurelho Gomes, brought in the impressive Vedran Corluka for the sulky Pascal Chimbonda and heavily strengthened their midfield with the arrivals of Luka Modric, Giovani dos Santos and David Bentley.
So what technique is better: completely overhauling a squad that underachieved last season or sticking by a thin squad that came close last year in the hope they will improve this year? Let us know with a comment below.
33 responses so far
1 oz // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:32 pm
yes spurs the best they buy lots of players good job but maybe thats because they get a different manager every year.so all this buying when was the last time they fininished above arsenal and did they have color tvs then lol.
2 Neutral Observer // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Don’t think the article is saying that Spurs are going to finish above Arsenal, just that they’ve been a lot more proactive this summer in trying to improve their squad. Yes they lost Keane and Berbatov but Arsenal lost Hleb and Flamini. In terms of players coming in, Spurs have done better this summer, while making a profit - unlike Arsenal.
3 Cescinator // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:39 pm
yeah they sure taught us how to work the transfer window, losing their best striker and failing to sign ANY top class replacements.
4 Prabu // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:42 pm
AW’s self beleif hus rubbed off!!! from players to managers to club managements.AW is a victim of his own success at transfers!!! Flamini paid him back for what he gained in Anelka.If he had shown enough desire he could have held on to proven talents and now sold to Man City. Dont worry he stii has Fgas to sell to Man City next year if he is still in Arsenal.
5 Galway Gooner // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Berba and Keane went for about £50million and scored over 40 goals between them last year. They have been replaced by one player who cost £14million. If he can score over 40 goals this year then fair play to him.
Despite having “heavily strengthened their midfield” they have been crap in their first few games.
Ah Jesus, I couldnt be arsed. this site is not worth the effort of replying.
6 mjc // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I think you’ll find that Sky Sports figures are hopelessly wrong: Arsenal received 50% of the profit on the Bentley deal, taking Blacburn’s net earnings down to £9m. Arsenal also recived £1m sell-on from the Fabrice Muamba deal. Overall Arsenal made a profit of ???:
Income:
Hleb: £12.5m
Hoyte: £3m
Traore Loan Fee: £0.75m
Other Loan Fees: £0.5m
Bentley Sell-on: £6m
Muamba Sell-on: £1m
TOTAL: £23.75
Outgoings:
Nasri: £11m
Ramsey: £4.8m
Coquelin: £0.6m
Silvestre: £0.75m
Bischoff: £0.5m
TOTAL £17.65m
TOTAL NET INCOME: £6.1m
7 Neutral Observer // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Interesting Cescinator. Who was your ‘TOP CLASS!!!’ replacement for Flamini?
8 Benito // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I’m a Spurs fan, but Arsenal will finish above us this season. I think we’ve f**ked up the transfer season by not replacing our outgoing stars with anything near equivalent class. now we don’t have the firepower to win games.
We’ve only been successful in business terms - Levy’s shown us to be a great selling club.
9 frostyspur // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I can’t contain my anger about this transfer window, I was waiting until 1:00 am to hear about a top quality striker replacement for keane and berba. We have been far from successful in this window, we needed a CB, DMF and two quality forwards to replace the aformentioned, we didn’t even get the players we needed to maintain the level we had last year, let alone to improve the squad. I’m sure Ramos is secretly scathing as yet again the management have messed around with the squad and failed to bring in the players we genuinely needed. We have become used to skillful attacking play, creativity and guile, we now have three strikers that would happily sit on the books of your west broms and shefiled uniteds, poor poor transfer window, there has to be an enquiry of some kind as this is just not good enough, we had ample time and resources to get the players we needed and yet haven’t managed it, so what went wrong!
10 Tommy Harmer // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I am prepared to be a hopeful Spurs supporter (as ever), but PLEASE don’t try to get me to celebrate our current situation ….. we have lost the best two strikers in the PL. We have sold dross because we had to get rid of poor buys; this isn’t skill, it’s skating on thin ice. Comoli should be called CONoli!!! And I still think Martin carried the can for this makeweight …..
11 mjc // Sep 2, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Arsenal could play an overweight donkey next to Fabregas and he’d look FIRST CLASS.
Maybe should have bought Huddlestone????
12 john // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Huddlestone is a young improving player mjc. Now let me overweight donkey. Gallas springs to mind but sorry I don’t think donkeys sit on the pitch after a game and cry. Perhaps donkeys don’t like to be captained by a cry baby ASS.
13 angryspur // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:04 pm
bye bye comolli, if the board don’t sack you the fans will revolt against you, your choice.
14 Catcher // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Think Ar5ena1 look a weaker team than last year, lost more than they gained in the transfer market even there smart fans think otherwise
COYS
15 greekos // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:14 pm
To be fair weve made a profit on this summer and we can only really judge properly at the end of the season how sucessful it all has been. For all we know after playing a really good game at Chelsea could culminate in us having a really sucessful season. Darren Bent could get 20-25 goals with good service and RP could bang in 5 goals or 25 we just dont know. I think this season hindges on our midfield chipping in with a few and DB, GDS, LM are all capable of getting 6-7 goals each. I’m not worried just anxious to see how it all works out.
16 anthonyOA // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:15 pm
comolli is a moron. and the spurs board cared more for the money they were going to get off berba than the well-being of the club. £25,000,000 should have been snapped up for dimi early doors. it would have given us time and plenty of money to acquire another top class and proven striker. instead we’re left scratching around in the night for an underage and underfed boy. a compromising position for Levy to say the least.
17 tim // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:23 pm
At the end of the month, you can write this article:
” Already 15 points ahead, Arsenal once again show Spurs that they are in a different class… YAWN”
18 spursfan45 // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Oz. You’re so fucking funny mate. I bet no one ever calls you a cunt.
(By the way, thats sarcasm. Look it up).
19 starman // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Benito you are 100% correct ,no firepower up front . We should at least have done the descent thing and tried to buy back Defoe he is still head and shoulders above anything we have now .
20 Erichero // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Perhaps Spurs have bought some wonderful players in Dos Santos, Modric and the Russian guy. Pity they will be selling them as soon as they start playing well….
21 Wrighty // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Sp*rs show us how to work the transfer market by being a bunch of bottle jobs, selling their two good players and refusing to report both clubs that bought their good players for their illegal approaches? Yeah, they sure showed us. I’d be ashamed to support Sp*rs after they so limply gave up their best players, and I’d be even more ashamed to be a United fan, for showing the moral values of a rapist in the way they handled themselves with the Berbatoss transfer. Absolutely disgraceful. Sp*rs shouldn’t need to file a complaint, FIFA should show the balls that our FA will never do and punish United very harshly. They will not learn and will continue to use disgusting tactics like this year in, year out. I hate that club.
22 Ben // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:24 pm
ok, so the transfer window’s finished and spurs have sold a player who’s been a deadweight since march for a shade under 31m (berbatov, for those of you who can’t guess) and keane who’s seemingly struggling to fit in at liverpool for 20m. 2 players who wanted to leave and we couped a little over 50million. Critics will say we haven’t spent that money on any good strikers, however only time will tell how it all pans out. bent could well score 20+ goals a season - he doesn’t ooze with flair but he can be in the right place at the right time.
will spurs finish above arsenal this year? probably not. but on the other hand, lets not forget that arsenal looked so out classed last season in their trophy challenges
23 Sir' eat my asshole right out' bumlord // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I have only three words for Arsene Wenger ” Ass to mouth”.
24 anthonyOA // Sep 2, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Did you guys see Fergie speed away with our £30million rated striker in the back of a shiny, black Bentley after having him flew in privately?
It was like a proper gangster flick wasn’t it?
Ferge was like Vin Diesel in wheelman. So awesome.
You guys are right though, spurs (my spurs) are officially a selling club.
I’m calling it now. Dos Santos will be in chelsea next year. £35million.
25 Gooner Ali // Sep 2, 2008 at 6:17 pm
So glad the Arabs bought Man City and not n17. LOL
26 Codswallop // Sep 2, 2008 at 6:56 pm
This is a silly article. Arsenal could easily have sold their prize asset (i.e. Cesc) bought a couple of really good players and also have walked away with a profit… but we all know that would be stupid thing to do.
27 honest abe // Sep 2, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Dos Santos only moved to Tottenham for first team experience. He knew his options at Barca were limited. He knew Ramos is a great coach after how well he’d done with Seville.
As soon as Dos Santos proves how good he is, he’ll be back to Barca, or another TOP CLUB.
28 GunnerGirl08 // Sep 2, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Haha! This whole Spurs finishing above us thing has been going on for the last 2/3 years, and yet I see no new arrivals in the top four. Arsenal don’t need to spend ridiculous money to be successful! Unlike other teams in the Premier League, we make our teams, we don’t buy them. Ok, I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t hoping for Wenger to make one mega-signing this summer, Alonso would’ve been nice, but I’m not freaking out about it. With the talent we have in our squad, there’s no reason why we can’t challenge anyone for any prize. We’ll be winning a lot more than Spurs, there’s one thing that’s certain. Bring it on!
29 si# // Sep 2, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Would echo the earlier poster, Sky Sports got it very wrong. Surprise!
Arsenal have made a profit of at least £5 mill due largely to sell-on clauses from developing so much young talent.
30 eamon // Sep 2, 2008 at 8:58 pm
i guess the spuds must be really excited by the 1 point from a possible 9. looks like saint totteringhams day will come earlier than expected again this season. ah but of course u support this revolving door policy on players and management. when will u ever learn from the big clubs with a real history?
31 Srijit // Sep 3, 2008 at 5:45 am
One must remember Arsenal have a few players to return frm injury(Rosicky,eduardo,diaby),yes their is a problem in the CDm position.. Wenger was never going to spend too much money on somone over 25 who dsnt even know arsenals style of play..tottenham have just made purchases and they believe that all will fit in ..in just one year..its not possible..Also have to give credit to wenger to atleast hang onto Adebayor after all that happened and also get a contract extension..Arsenal will never compete for big signings as wenger himself admitted that he will never be in the cash war..that is only for spurs,manu,city,pool,chelsea
32 Chard // Sep 3, 2008 at 6:48 pm
I think £19m for Keane represents good business -but he was talismanic for Spurs. Are Bentley and Modric going to give as much? I doubt it, they are too vain, and like Berbatov see Spurs as a stepping stone. If you take Berba out of the transfer equation the sums aren’t nearly as good. You can’t rely on making this kind of money with all your players. If Wenger had sold Fabregas and Adebayor we’d be rolling in cash, but to what end? It also represents a poor footballing strategy - you’ll be re-building your team every other year. Spending big money is a sign a weakness for a manager. If he’s any good he’ll improve what he has rather than continually replacing. As Arsenal fans we are used to being criticised for under-spending, but every year we challenge and play some great stuff. Spurs midfield look poor in defense and they’ve lost their two best players - Ramos is celebrated because of the Carling Cup but has had two transfer windows and must now surely deliver. Yet another season of under achievement for Spurs fans? Only time will tell.
33 goonergeezer // Sep 4, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Arsenal will prevail, as we have done that over and over and over and over again. Spuds will be midtable again and come next summer same tosh will be uttered again and again. Too bad spuds it seems dreams of top 4 have just turned into dreams for top 6 as you know Man City and Pompey will finish above you. Anyway what was your last season position as compared to Pompey?