Berbatov best buy of last season
It is one of the most common arguments between football
fans up and down the country: who was the best foreign buy of the
season? Now supporters can point to university research to back up
their claims. Prof Tom Cannon from the University of Buckingham and
his researchers calculated who was the top foreign transfer last
summer, but their findings are likely to cause even more
disagreement.
Purchase price, transfer costs, number of starts, total playing
time, success brought, key contributions, goals, key events, cards
received, impact on merchandising, points won and transfer value
were all taken into account to work out the value of each
player.
Unsurprisingly, Dimitar Berbatov and Benni McCarthy topped the
list, but the presence of the disappointing Michael Ballack ahead
of West Hams inspirational forward Carlos Tevez will raise
eyebrows.
It is also questionable how the "transfer costs" of Tevez and
Javier Mascherano can be calculated given the lack of clarity over
their moves.
The presence of Idan Tal, who started just four Premiership games,
ahead of £30m Andriy Shevchenko, highlights how big a flop the
Ukrainian was for Chelsea.
THE PROFESSORS TOP 10
BUYS
1 Dimitar Berbatov (Spurs, £10.9m)
2 Benni McCarthy (Blackburn, £2.5m)
3 Javier Mascherano (Liverpool)
4 Obafemi Martins (Newcastle, £9m)
5 Michael Ballack (Chelsea, free)
6 Idan Tal (Bolton, free)
7 Carlos Tevez (West Ham)
8 Andreas Isaksson (Man City, £2m)
9 Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal, £6.8m)
10 Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool, £9m)
