Still short of the figure paid for record signing Andrey Arshavin who cost the club a reported figure of around £15 million. Arshavin polarises opinion among Arsenal fans and the wider football community but it is widely thought that apart from his first half-season in England, he has failed to live up to his price tag and has been a relative disappointment. It is clear that Arsene Wenger prefers to spend as little money as possible which leads to less risk and less pressure on the player to succeed. This approach has led to the club reaching the Champions League 14 years running and in every full season under Wenger.
There are obviously instances where spending big money on a player can pay off as they are prove superstars and keep this going at their next club, however there are also many examples of vast swathes of money being spent on a player who doesn’t live up to it and lets down the club’s investment in him. Just looking at the most expensive purchases in world football throws up cases of large amounts of money being spent on players who don’t repay it and the club’s money is wasted.
Two transfers which went through on the last day of the January 2011 transfer window are two of the most infamous and ridiculed instances of large amounts of money being spent and the investment not being paid back in performances. Chelsea paid £50 million on Fernando Torres from Liverpool as they looked for him to continue his regular scoring form he had showed for the Reds. This turned out not to be the case as he struggled to make an immediate impact and despite being given many chances has scored only 3 league goals in 32 games.
Liverpool replaced him by spending £35 million on Andy Carroll. He arrived with an injury and thus, had a slow start at Anfield. But since his recovery, he has failed to show quality worthy of the money spent on him with a return of a paltry 5 league goals in 28 appearances. These are just two examples where Premier League clubs have spent huge amounts of money on stars and it hasn’t worked out. They join an elite, and infamous, group which also includes Andriy Shevchenko, Juan Sebastian Veron and Hernan Crespo among others.
Obviously spending mass amount of money can bring success, as can be seen in the case of Manchester City. However, unless you are buying the very best, it is usually proven to be safer and more successful to try and build a team and less money but just as much quality. This may become essential in future years with the introduction of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules. Well, some managers will hope so anyway.
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