BayernMan said:
LoveCity said:
Is it though... yes we have limits but we've still spent a hell of a lot and much of it on junk and squad players. Since FFP became a concern (after our first title win) we've spent something close to £225m I'd wager (£50m-ish 2012/13, £100m-ish 2013/14, £75m-ish 2014/15), which only a few teams have topped. We've probably outspent Bayern Munich since our title win. Bearing in mind we had Aguero/Silva/Kompany/Zaba/Yaya/Nasri/Dzeko before we spent that £200m or so, think of the team we might have built. FFP is a nuisance but it shouldn't have stopped us going from good to great.
To be honest Bayern spend the least compared to top clubs in Europe...
but compared to the rest of your league, apart from Wolfsburg it's a huge gulf, especially when you translate the percentage Bayern spend more to English amounts of money.
There are other advantages to Bayern, already established, with a much better youth setup formed by Germany years ago, and they exploit that and their league to great effect. We're not comparable, to have still spent less than Chelsea in the last 5 years, coming from a position of much less strength, it's not like we've blown our own league out of the water, thus why we're in the position we are.
Anyway, from the stats I collated a few weeks back on Top 4 leagues spending (total, not net), this is for the last 3 seasons:
1) Chelsea ENG £328.1m.
2) Man Utd ENG £305.4m.
3) Real Madrid ESP £295.2m.
4) Man City ENG £243.4m.
5) Liverpool ENG £242.8m.
6) Barcelona ESP £228.9m.
7) Spurs ENG £214.3m.
8) Arsenal ENG £197.5m.
9) Roma ITA £179.6m.
10) Bayern Munich GER £162.3m.
11) Southampton ENG £148m.
12) Napoli ITA £146.1m.
13) Atletico Madrid ESP £139.2m.
14) Juventus ITA £132.1m.
15) Inter Milan ITA £130.1m.
16) Dortmund GER £127.9m.
17) Wolfsburg GER £105.1m.
18) Valencia ESP £99m.
19) AC Milan ITA £97.4m.
20) Fiorentina ITA £91.5m.
so you can see Bayern spend considerably less than big teams from other leagues, but still are top of the Bundesliga spend. What would the table look like if all the other leagues were able to match the spending of the Prem, but keep their own spending position relative to their own league. How much do Bayern comparatively spend against their own clubs to control their league, and how big would that gulf be if the Bundesliga was as financially successful as the Prem? Well...
1) Real Madrid ESP £772.2m.
2) Barcelona ESP £598.8m.
3) Bayern Munich GER £496.4m.
4) Dortmund GER £391.2m.
5) Atletico Madrid ESP £364.2m.
6) Roma ITA £346m.
7) Chelsea ENG £328.1m.
8) Wolfsburg GER £321.4m.
9) Man Utd ENG £305.4m.
10) Napoli ITA £281.5m.
11) Valencia ESP £259m.
12) Juventus ITA £254.5m.
13) Inter ITA £250.6m.
14) Man City ENG £243.4m.
15) Liverpool ENG £242.8m.
16) Leverkusen GER £215.9m.
17) Spurs ENG £214.3m.
18) Arsenal ENG £197.5m.
19) AC Milan ITA £187.6m.
20) Fiorentina ITA £176.3m.
So no, this doesn't show that Bayern spend more money than any English club. What it shows is that the value of Bayern's spending is much more powerful in their own league than the spending of Chelsea's, or ours. So in reality, the English league is more competitive thus the value of the spending is reduced, you have to spend a lot more to stand still, than you do in either Spain or Germany. Thus, whilst English clubs spend a certain amount more than clubs in other leagues, in reality because of the competition, plus other restrictions on HG players, which England lags behind in, their spending is actually devalued compared to the likes of Real, Barca and Bayern, especially within their own leagues. The reality is somewhere inbetween, but it does highlight the power that an uncompetitive league can bring, as well as the power of established clubs, as City have spent only £80m more than Bayern, and less than some English clubs, yet were a lot further behind 3 seasons ago.
Of course there may become a point where the power of English spending outweighs the league's competitive nature, but this is I believe why, at the moment, you don't see English clubs dominating the CL every season. Real, Barca and Bayern can poach the likes of Gotze and Isco from their own leagues and they're HG players, in our league we're behind in that regard so it's more difficult, and because of the financial power of clubs it pushes the price up making it more difficult. Thus Bayern, Real and Barca can afford to compete on huge signings, and the established club power comes into play, but that's partly down to the spending power they have in their own leagues, for them its like supermarkets against milk farmers, in the Premier League, we're the milk farmers. We can only buy a certain number of foreign players (price goes up), and our HG players are ridiculously priced (price goes up), ultimately it all balances out fairly well at the moment to restrict PL spending power, for now at least.
