[Albion] Useless Albion stat of the day.

[The Large One]

Not sure any Albion stats are 'useless'.

Some more useful than others, maybe.

 

[el punal]

Yes it has but it has rapidly escalated in the last 25 years

( Record transfer fees v how many houses ( average UK prices ) it would buy at the time.

1957 John Charles...........£50,000......x 25
1961 Dennis Law............ £110,000.....x 44
1970 Martin Peters......... £200,000..... x 45
1977 Kevin Keegan.........£500,000..... x 39
1979 Trevor Francis........£1m............ x 50
1992 Paul Gascoigne......£5.5m......... x 120
1996 Alan Shearer..........£15m........... x 285
2009 C Ronaldo..............£80m........... x 535
2017 Neymar..................£198m......... x 890

I agree. Back in the day, even in the 1940s and 50s when there was a wage cap on footballers’ wages there were all sorts of underhanded financial shenanigans. I read that Neil Franklin in 1950, when he was an England player, was enticed to play for Independiente of Santa Fe of Colombia for a signing on fee of £2,000 - he accepted. Several famous players including John Charles and Gerry Hitchens and then Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law went to Italy for the same financial lure.

Of course there were always the below the counter inducements for players paid for by the clubs in question - cars, TVs, “expenses”. And one alleged incident involving the Albion - the signing of Bobby Smith, then an England international, for a mere £5000 from Spurs in 1964. According to rumours the reason for such a low fee was that the club (Albion) would pay off Smith’s gambling debts, reckoned to be around £30,000 in some quarters.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Someone was asking me about how much the Albion have spent on players since getting to the Premier League (answer: We don't know...yet) so I thought I'd work out how much has been spent since returning to Brighton.

When the Albion rocked up at 'The' Withdean in 1999 the total cost of the squad was zero, no players had been signed for fees whilst we were at Gillingham, and the high paid players in the final season at the Goldstone such as Jason Peake, Craig Maskell and Ian Baird had been jettisoned.

In the first season at Withdean the club spent £106,000 on the likes of Danny Cullip, Charlie Oatway, Paul Watson and Paul Brooker, which turned out to be bargains. BZ was signed the following season, but in 2001/2 and 2002/3 it was back to nothing and the begging bowl was out in the shape of the 40 note fund.

With Tony Bloom at the helm the purse strings became looser, and by the time the club was finally promoted the total spend from 1999-2017 was £45.91 million, which is likely to be eclipsed in the club's first season in the Premier League.

View attachment 101192

Great work.

Is it possibly to do a graph on Managers spend and position finished?

 

[El Presidente]

Great work.

Is it possibly to do a graph on Managers spend and position finished?

It’s tricky when managers were sacked during the season, but if I get a chance will see what can be done.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

It’s tricky when managers were sacked during the season, but if I get a chance will see what can be done.

I realise there is a bit of trickier in there, but with your mathematical porn brain, I am sure if anyone can do it you can!