The best of the transfer window in the Premier League

Well from my point of view it couldn't have been much worse. Liverpool have let their only out and out front man go on loan to West Ham without replacing him. You could excuse Brendan Rodgers for thinking Clint Dempsey was a shoe-in to come to Anfield, but we'll only know in time whether not having a contingency will cost Liverpool. With Fabio Borini, Joe Allen, Oussama Assaidi, Nuri Sahin and Samed Yesil coming in, I think the rest of the team is looking strong, but if Borini or Suarez get injured it could be Spain's 'no-striker' for us! 

Top transfers

New Chelsea man Eden Hazard

 Chelsea's new starlet may have been the most expensive signing of the summer, but even at £32m there does look to be value in it. Having played a part in all of Chelsea's goals so far he could be worth every penny. Last season while he was a team-mate of Hazard at Lille, Joe Cole suggested that Eden was the best player he'd ever seen and would one day be regarded as the best player in the world. Time will tell!

Tottenham's new midfielder Moussa Dembele

I think Tottenham paying £15m for the services of Moussa Dembele will prove to be an absolute steal in the long run. I would not be surprised if Spurs get a few good seasons out of the Belgian midfielder, and then a marquis club (Barca, Real, Man Utd) will come calling with about £30m; And Daniel Levy has never been shy of selling players for a substantial profit.
 

Michu has scored four goals already!

 Not being a huge viewer of the Spanish La Liga, I was not overly aware of Miguel Pérez Cuesta. Better known as Michu, he was the top scoring midfielder in La Liga last season and for MIchael Laudrup to relieve Rayo Vallencano of his goals for £2m he could be the signing of the summer. 

New Black Cat Adam Johnson

 Why Manchester City have let this young man go is beyond me. He has looked one of the most exciting and talented English players to emerge for quite a while, and as well as having ball-dribbling skills to bamboozle full backs, he's not shy in chipping in with a few goals as well. £10m is a bargain, and I think Sunderland will have to be playing European football before long to keep him. That said, with Martin O'Neill at the helm there's a chance that may happen. 

Best Bargains

Jack Rodwell Everton to Man City £12m, If Everton weren't so cash strapped they could have paid twice that. 

Dimitar Berbatov Man Utd to Fulham £4m, Should get enough goals to keep them up. 
Hugo Rodallega Wigan to Fulham FOR FREE! Enough said.
QPR signing Andy Johnson from Fulham and Ryan Nelsen from Spurs for free. Vital experience that could keep them up.
Reading managed to get Fulham forward Pavel Pogrebnyak on a free. He scored goals for fun last season. 
Stoke paid £4m to take Charlie Adam for Anfield to the Britannia. After never really getting back in to the side Liverpool after getting injured last year, and Joe Allen coming in at Liverpool sealed his fate. Good luck Charlie.

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Football finance: How long can it go on?

With events last week seeing two massive clubs in Britain entering administration (Portsmouth and Glasgow Rangers), this week saw a Football League founder member Aston Villa reporting a loss of £53.9 million for the 2010/11 financial year. The Birmingham based club claim to be happy with the situation, and on the face of it they have no reason not to be. They have increased overall revenue by 1.3% and commercial revenue by 15.9%, as well as decreasing borrowing by 8.3% so Randy Lerner is certainly steering the good ship Aston Villa in the right direction; but with the Aston Villa fans becoming increasingly unhappy with things on the field it highlights the balancing act that club chairmen have to perform. 

Villa Park Stadium

This led me to look a little deeper in to the general finances. I sought out the Deloitte report on finance for the top twenty clubs (based on revenue) in Europe and it does make interesting reading. (read the full report by clicking here or see overview below) Perhaps the most interesting point to note is that broadly German clubs take the large part of their revenue from commercial exploits, as where around the rest of Europe most clubs see Broadcast rights bringing in the lions share. Also, if you'd asked a group of people to guess the top ten in this Money League, not many would have put Schalke 04 in there; I'd also hedge my bets that nobody would have put Hamburger SV in the top twenty bearing in mind that they haven't even played European football. Manchester City fans will constantly tell you that they are now the richest club in the world, but they haven't even made the top ten;in fact their revenue is only just over a third of that of the top club Real Madrid. 


Perhaps the most interesting fact I found in this report is that in the group of teams between places 21-30 in this list, (see full report) you will find Everton and West Ham United. I don't think fans of these clubs would place them in the financial European top 30, bearing in mind that the lack of money at Everton has been making headlines for years and West Ham were nearly bankrupt a few years ago. It brings to mind a phrase said many times by Duncan Bannatyne of Dragons Den fame; "Turnover's for vanity, profit's for sanity!"

I think this phrase hits the proverbial nail right on the head, and I think if British football does not get its act together we will start losing the 134 professional clubs in England and Scotland at an alarming rate. Eighteen months ago, my club Liverpool were days away from administration and our £350 million debt being called in by the bank before Fenway Sports took over the club and rescued the situation. If this situation can nearly happen to Liverpool it can happen to anyone. To return to my points at the start of this article, Aston Villa are reducing debt and increasing revenue but their fans are probably as unhappy as they've been for years, so I guess my over-riding message is - Be careful what you wish for!

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The Deloitte Sports Business Group presents the Football Money League 2012