“Watch this space” says Manchester United Executive Vice Chairman Ed Woodward, and given what a successful transfer window Old Trafford just had, we should watch this space. United have a reputation for being the New York Yankees or Dallas Cowboys of World football, just spending madly, and buying championships with their excessive expenditures.
However, that’s a misnomer. Manchester United have won trophies with efficient spending that elicits a fantastic return on investment. And although many of those trophies were not won under Ed Woodward, the Sir Alex Ferguson era elicited a golden age for Manchester United as they have the number one ‘cost-per-trophy’ ratio in the Premier League.
We know turn it over to Metro, who tell us Manchester United
“have hauled an epic 18 titles back through the doors of Old Trafford since the summer of 2003, and having spent £588m in that time up until now, that averages at just £32.7m per trophy.
Previously thrifty Arsenal are the next in line, with their six gongs costing £57.8m each, while London rivals Chelsea follow closely behind having bagged their 13 trophies at a average price of £67.2m.”
Here’s all the information from Metro in graph form:
Money Spent vs Trophies Won from 2003-2014. #mufc pic.twitter.com/FzDL3wRTur
— SirAlexStand (@SirAlexStand) September 8, 2014
Liverpool are next up, spending £100.7m on each of their six honours, and moneybags Man City have shelled out a whopping £144.8m to land their each of their five pieces of coveted silverware.
However, lagging miles behind are poor Tottenham, whose solitary league cup success has cost Daniel Levy an eye-watering £472m.
Paul M. Banks owns and manages The Sports Bank.net, in partnership with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)