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The Premier League's Most Expensive Benchwarmers

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papo

papo

Posted
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9/12/2007 13:08

The Premier League's Most Expensive Benchwarmers

 

How much talent is unused on the bench of Premier League clubs each week, and how much is it potentially worth on the transfer market?

 

The Premier League's Most Expensive Benchwarmers

 

 

 

The Daily Mail newspaper this week looked at the added values of players named as substitutes for their teams for last week-end’s (Matchday 15) English Premier League matches.

 

The question, in essence, was:  “How expensive was your team’s bench last weekend”?

 

The answer, according to the Mail, was that, “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."

 

Moreover, those figures did not take into account Bosman free transfers or the value of players developed by a club’s youth system.

 

The Mail highlighted Sunderland’s Craig Gordon, the most expensive goalkeeper in Britain at a cost of £9million (€12.4m) from Hearts in the summer, who was on the bench for the victory over Derby.

 

And the combined cost of Chelsea’s bench for the visit of West Ham was a cool £67.6m (€93.6m), made up of Andriy Shevchenko (£30m), Shaun Wright-Phillips (£21m), and Claude Makelele (16.6m).  Hilario and Ben Haim were bought on free transfers.

 

Second came Liverpool, whose bench totalled £37.5m (€52m) in value, including Javier Mascherano and Ryan Babel.

 

Manchester United's subs came in at £34m, or €48m, including Michael Carrick and Louis Saha.

 

Reading were the only club with no international player among their subsititutes. And Bolton were the only club naming five substitutes of whom none cost a transfer fee.

 

The Mail compared this situation with that in the inaugural season of the Premier League (1992-93), when only three subs were permitted, and the subs  at most clubs were a combination of emerging youngsters, fringe players and the odd big-money signing coming back from injury.

 

Now, in the era of large, "in-depth" squads whose members are routinely rotated, it is not unusual to find such superstars as former European Footballers of the year or World Cup winners - or players whose transfer fees broke records - waiting for a cameo appearance from the bench.

 

The full ranking from the Daily Mail's report is as follows:

 

1 CHELSEA £67.6m

(Shevchenko — £30m; Wright-Phillips — £21m; Makelele — £16.6m; Hilario — free; Ben Haim — Bosman free)

 

2 LIVERPOOL £37.5m

(Mascherano — £17m; Babel — £11.5m; Kuyt — £9m; Hobbs — nominal fee; Itandje — free)

 

3 MANCHESTER UNITED £34.8m

(Carrick — £18.6m; Saha — £12.2m; Kuzsczak — £4m; Fletcher — youth team; O’Shea — youth team)

 

4 ARSENAL £19.0m

(Walcott — £12m; Gilberto — £4.5m; Senderos — £2.5m; Lehmann — free; Bendtner — youth team)

 

5 TOTTENHAM £16.6m

(Defoe — £7m; Boateng — £5.8m; Huddlestone — £2.5m; Lee — £1.3m; Cerny — free)

 

6 SUNDERLAND £16.0m

(Gordon — £9m; Chopra — £5m; Stokes — £2m; Miller — free; Harte — free)

 

7 ASTON VILLA £13.0m

(Davies — £8m; Harewood — £4m; Maloney — £1m; Berger — free; Taylor — free)

 

8 EVERTON £12.6m

(Johnson — £8.6m; Jagielka — £4m; Wessels — free; Hibbert — youth team; Anichebe — youth team)

 

9 NEWCASTLE £12.3m

(Enrique — £6.5m; Emre — £3.8m; Carr — £2m; Harper — nominal fee; Viduka — Bosman free)

 

10 WEST HAM £11.75m

(Ashton — £7.25m; Ljungberg — £3m; Collins £1m; Spector £0.5m; Wright — free)

 

11 MANCHESTER CITY £11.4m

(Bianchi — £8.8m; Jihai — £2m; Hart — £0.6m; Etuhu — youth team; Ball — free)

 

12 BLACKBURN £10.0m

(Savage — £3m; Roberts — £3m; Reid — £2.5m; Pedersen — £1.5m; Brown — Bosman free)

 

13 BIRMINGHAM £8.6m

(Kapo — £3m; Forssell — £3m; O’Connor — £2.6m; Parnaby — Bosman free; Doyle — youth team)

 

14 PORTSMOUTH £6.4m

(Nugent — £6m; Taylor — £0.4m; Kanu — free; Ashdown — nominal fee; Hreidarsson — free)

 

15 MIDDLESBROUGH £6.0m

(Huth — £6m; Cattermole — youth team; Tuncay — Bosman free; Steele — youth team; Hutchinson — youth team)

 

16 DERBY COUNTY £5.6m

(Earnshaw — £3.5m; Mears — £1m; Fagan — £0.75m; Leacock — £0.375m; Price — nominal fee)

 

17 FULHAM £5.5m

(Baird — £3m; Healy — £1.5m; Warner — nominal fee; Bocanegra — free; Seol — £1m)

 

18 WIGAN £3.7m

(Cotterill — £2m; Taylor — £0.75m; Pollitt — £0.2m; Granqvist — £0.75; Skoko — free)

 

19 READING £2.1m

(Cissé — £0.6m; Long — £0.5; Bikey — nominal fee; Federici — youth team; Rosenior — £1m)

 

20 BOLTON £0.0m

(Stelios; Al Habsi; Wilhelmsson; Teymourian; Alonso — all Bosman free transfers)

 

 

Mark Hinton, Goal.com

 

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=508250

 

nice

 

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Guest sittingontheball

Guest sittingontheball

Posted
Posted

Have Liverpool bought Mascherano and did he cost 17M? I thought he was still on some wacky loan and Benny was miffed because the Yanks wouldn't pay.

 

I also thought we paid a lot more than 2M for Carr. We were ripped out how ever much it was.

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Dokko

Dokko

Posted
Posted

mascherano is on loan

 

 

The article must be basing it all on current market value ?

I think they just got their facts wrong.

 

Aye, as who would pay £30m right now for Shevchenko? £21m for SWP, or £16.6m for Makelele?

 

You'd think though, the people who get a chance to be paid for writing about a sport they love could at least get a basic fact like that right before going to print. Its not like Rafa hasn't recently been shouting from the rootops he wants to secure the transfer of him permenantly.

 

Do these people live with their heads up their arses? Do the editors? Fuking clueless considering.

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Dokko

Dokko

Posted
Posted

mascherano is on loan

 

From which club?

WHU?

 

corinthians i think

 

All wrong he is on an 18 month loan from Media Sports Investments group run by that Iranian businessman kia koorbchian (sp). Apparently some sources say that this loan is costing Liverpool £17-18m.

 

Bit in bold is my understanding of the deal as well.

 

However i think the loan fee was £5m, with Liverpool to pay £17m to make the deal permenant.

 

Similar deal to Tevez, or am i confusing the two? (only Rafa bleating on that he wants him permenant suggests they've still to pay the £17m fee)

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bulivye

bulivye

Posted
Posted

could make quite a starting 11 from those "benchwarmers".  kind of frustrating that we don't get to see all of the best players in the league actually play...  i understand needing depth in a team, just wishing it weren't that way...  :undecided:

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rocksammy

rocksammy

Posted
Posted

mascherano is on loan

 

From which club?

WHU?

 

corinthians i think

 

All wrong he is on an 18 month loan from Media Sports Investments group run by that Iranian businessman kia koorbchian (sp). Apparently some sources say that this loan is costing Liverpool £17-18m.

 

Bit in bold is my understanding of the deal as well.

 

However i think the loan fee was £5m, with Liverpool to pay £17m to make the deal permenant.

 

Similar deal to Tevez, or am i confusing the two? (only Rafa bleating on that he wants him permenant suggests they've still to pay the £17m fee)

 

yer thats right thought u meant were he came from because you were asking for a clubbbbbbbbb

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