Here’s a breakdown of the main 21 Manchester City players utilised so far this season:
8 bought by Sven, 5 coming up from the Academy and 8 being brought in from previous managers.
The cost to the club to assemble this current squad is approximately 50 million pounds.
This amount, for a Premier League side that has aspirations for a European top six finish, is not a great deal of money when comparisons are made with other clubs with similar ambitions.
Investment in good players, especially those at the right age will not only improve the clubs ability to have a realistic chance of winning trophies, but also enables the club to make huge profits on many of these 21 should any be moved on in the future.
That profit can then be reinvested again in new additions. All you need is a top quality manager, and in transfer deals alone, a top quality man at the helm more than pays for himself. In Sven we have that, but lets have a look at our potential gains and losses where player valuations are concerned…
Players bought by previous managers, relate to the likes of: Hart, Issakson, Dunnie, Ball, Hamman, Mpenza, Vassell, and Samaras.
These 8 were brought in for cost of approx 17 million. I would estimate the worth of these is now 25 million.
Profits, if sold would surely be made on at least five of the following: Hart, Dunnie, Ball, Mpenza, Issakson, and possibly, we could break even on Hamman and Vass.
Samaras would be the only one where we would have to accept a lesser fee than the one originally paid. The gain for these 8 would be presently 8 million. Their growth in worth would in some cases actually pay for a year of their contracts. Result? Win, win.
For Academy players, obviously no transfer fee applies. The main five in this category are Kasper, Onouha, Johnson, Ireland, and big Micah. If sold at today’s prices, I cannot see us getting less than 45 million pounds. Nedum, Kasper and Ireland worth anything between 3 and 5 million a piece. Johnson for me is already in the 10 million bracket, and Richards not less than 25 million, so again the Academy provides us with a win, win situation.
Regarding Sven’s buys, you would always expect when buying 8 players in such a short period of time that some will be a big hit, some will take time to settle, and some may under achieve on the expectation.
Sven has spent close on 37 million pounds. The pick of these so far has been Blumer Elano, bought for 8 million. His value has surely doubled and even if sold for 16 million, most, if not all City fans would be against the sale!
For me Garrido for 2 million has been a snip. He has been excellent at left back and must be worth 5 million already. Petrov bought for 5 million is now worth in my view to be at least 7.5 million. Geovanni picked up for nothing, has done very well and now could be worth perhaps 4 million.
Then there is Corluka, who I think will prove to be an excellent buy. However, at this stage his valuation has probably not altered one way or the other.
The negatives at present are Bojinov who unfortunately is out injured, so we cannot comment as yet. But I do believe he will come good.
Fernandes, the young player from Switzerland is still learning, and then there is Bianchi, the big hope has yet to produce and rumours are rife that he is unhappy. Nevertheless, Sven’s 8 players cost 37 million and for me are now worth 50 million, so once again it`s a win, win situation.
In conclusion, to assemble these 21 players has cost altogether around 50 million and is now worth around 120 million.
Offset that against perhaps 10 million
on poor buys, plus the cost of running the Academy, plus agency fees and we should still be 100 million or so ahead. Then of course we have in the coffers the 21 million for Shaun Wright-Phillips, and 6 million for the supposedly best midfield player on the planet.
Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra, has I guess realised that if you buy quality at the right age, you can make huge profits on your investment.
All you need is serious cash, and he has it. Providing you can attract that type of player, and providing you have a top class manager and coaching team its not complicated.
Believe me, City will be bigger than ever inside three years and as a fan who remembers the great Bell and Lee days I can sense without doubt that City are back, and they are ready for take off. Enjoy it!
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