*Apologies in advance for the length but you can’t cover a window in a few short lines …..
Praise the Lord that the windows finally shut and we can get down to the serious stuff of winning #20 + 7. A window that, IMHO, was pretty outstanding for Wards first full window running the whole show. He gets an A from me. Only a top midfielder stopping it from being an A*.
(Now for the boring but highly relevant education bit. Quiet at the back class …..)
The ‘Net Spend’ twaddle that’s so regularly thrown around really is a proper lazy and false way to analyse transfers. A deeply flawed argument which does not represent how football transfers are actually structured. It completely ignores how transfers appear on club balance sheets along with other associated costs for club ‘assets’ (the player) such as player wages.
Basically, football transfers are done via what’s known in accounting as ‘amoritsation.’ Which basically equates to writing off the initial asset (the player), over a duration. (His contract.). Total fee divided by contract + annual wages.
So using say Diaz as an example, the £50 million fee for him isn’t £50 million in one go to Porto. It’s £10 million P/year over the 5 years of his contract plus his annual wages and bonuses. Which his basic salary is £2.91 million a year. So on the clubs balance sheet, that would go down, sans any yearly bonus, as £12.91 million a season through 5 season’s.
Not nearly as simple as just the total fee for player acquisitions minus the total fee for player sales. Which is why using
’net spend’ is a deeply flawed and false way to analyse a transfer window.
That said (and man am I glad schools now over. I’m **** at maths but even my layman’s knowledge of club accounts can grasp the above), as many
do push the ‘net spend’ argument to push their agendas, lets look at Julian Wards opening gambit.
He’s signed £149,560,000
worth of players-
£ 50 M on Diaz. Who’s effectively a signing for this window just brought forward 6 months. His first solo deal Julian conducted last January.
£85. 36 M on Darwin. Smashing the clubs transfer record in the process.
£ 6.5 M on Ramsey.
£ 7.7 M on Carvalho.
Two key members of the next evolution of the front three. The best young talent in Scotland to seriously back-up Trent and push him further. And one of the top young midfield talents in England. The sensational Carvalho from Fulham. (Did some divvy’s say something about
NO succession planning in midfield?
F knows what Elliott, Carvalho, Jones, Morton and co are, like?
But I digress …..).
4 key pieces of Jurgens next vintage added in the on-going evolution of our squad.
Whilst on out-goings-
£35.1 M for Sadio. A superb price given he was in his last year and had told the club he wanted to leave back in January for a new challenge. Absolutely NOTHING they could have done to have kept him by his own admission. So, to make a profit, after 6 golden seasons he helped the club win everything through, on a 30-year-old in his last year, was superb business.
£15.5 M for Taki San. More ridiculously good business. More than doubling your money on a 6th/7th choice striker, after only 2.5 years, is super business in anyones book.
£17 M for Neco Williams. No more needs adding to that fee. Edwards has taught Ward proper well!
£ 4 M for Ben Davies. Another tidy profit in no time on our initial outlay.
£71,600,000 in player sales.
So even using the deeply flawed net spend argument, Liverpool total £ 77, 960, 000. Or if you want to be pernickety, and remove Luis Diaz, they come out of the window on top of the NS by £ 27,960,000 more spent on players than recouped.
You then have 5 major contracts done under his watch-
The biggest of all, Mo Salah, boxed this summer. Along with JMG, Jota and Elliott. (And Milner for added, invaluable leadership stability.). And if we’re talking about Ward per se, the biggest coup of all of them under him the back end of last season ….. Jurgen and his staff boxed until 2026!
Plus a slew of academy extensions handed out tying down our best prospects.
With a record number of 21’s loans to boot at 18. With at least 7 of those getting invaluable experience in the mens game having an excellent chance of being part of our squad over the long haul.
With another midfield addition, Uncle Arthur, arriving on loan in an absolute no-brainer, Juve-esq deal ….. from Juve! Some sweet poetic irony in that one!
So a pretty outstanding first window from Julian for me that Mickey Edwards must be super proud of. You taught your prodigy well mate. Thank you!
The only thing missing was the big midfield signing. But then when Jurgen as good as confirms the other day what some of us have thought all summer long, that Tuchemeni (Sp?) was the man for this window, who they believed they had until Mbappe went and ruined that, with Bellingham boxed for next, you’re put at ease that the succession plan for the midfield, to go along with the top quality youth already added/ club developed in there , is a great one of the very best talents out there.
So now we can put that all to bed and concentrate on chasing down City before the mid-season break.
I’ll finish with Jurgens ever pertinent words the other day to all the reactionary, narking nonsense-
“There's still time but when it's over, whether someone signs or not, I am really happy as it's over and we can just focus on the squad we have. Face the situations we have together. Our fans are active on social media so they can stop doing that. We have a good football team."
NO more needs adding.
Roll on this dinner and P all over the Ev’s Cup Final. AGAIN!!!!!
❤
