Busting the 'big spending' Benitez myth

I love the 'wind-up' blogs, don't you? The ones that end their post titles with lots of exclamation marks or just have a moronically vague title like 'Is Rafa crazy???' Yes, he is. Wow, that took more brain power than the content of the actual post. Anyhow, earlier this week, some idiot, who claimed to be a Liverpool fan by the way, referred to Rafa as a 'big spender.' I nearly lost the plot I laughed so hard. I wonder, does anyone actually think that? If so, let me rather easily convince you otherwise.

For sake of argument, let's take the period between Rafa's hiring and the end of last season to analyze how much of a spender Benitez is compared to the other big four managers. Rafa was hired in June of 2004, so for instance, I won't include the amount earned through the sale of Emile Heskey since it occurred in May of that year. I also won't include the transactions of this past summer since their affect is of yet not quantifiable in the terms I aim to utilize.

Between the period of his hiring and the final whistle of the Champions League final last May, Rafa had paid out roughly £80 for 16 players, from Josemi to the loan-fee of Javier Mascherano. During that same period, he sold £43m worth of players, 13 in all, from Danny Murphy to Stephen Warnock. I didn't include Djibril Cisse since technically he wasn't sold until this past July. That's a difference of approximately £37m for 1 major trophy (2005 Champions League) and 1 minor trophy (2006 FA Cup).

During that same time frame, Sir Alex Ferguson spent around £75m on 9 players, from Wayne Rooney to Michael Carrick, and rid himself of 8 players for roughly £26m, Van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid being a large chunk of that. That's a difference of approximately £49 for 1 major trophy (2007 Premiership) and 1 minor trophy (2006 League Cup). The same amount of cups won by Benitez only at £12m more.

Jose Mourinho, who joined Chelsea the same summer as Rafa took the Liverpool job, has spent a whopping £209m on players and sold £49m worth. That's a difference of £160m for 2 major trophies (2005, 2006 EPL) and 3 minor trophies (2005, 2007 League Cup & 2007 FA Cup). That's basically £32m per trophy, roughly £8m more per than Ferguson, and a little more than twice as much as Benitez.

The undisputed king of getting the most bang for your buck is Wenger though. The Arsenal manager has spent around £29m during Rafa's reign and, thanks in large part to the sale of Patrick Vieria to Juventus in the summer of 2005, has received roughly £27m for departures. Of course all he has to show for it is the 2005 FA Cup and a 2006 Champions League second place medal, but that's what £2m will get you these days.

Clearly Rafa has not been a 'big spender' and has done wonders with the limited funds and players provided. If one wants to call him a 'big spender' after this summer, well, that's mythical as well. He may have bought 5 players (Lucas, Leto, Torres, Benayoun, & Babel) for a total of £43.5m, but he also sold 4 players (Gonzo, Bellamy, Garcia, & Cisse) for £21m. Compared to Sir Alex at Man U, who spent somewhere in the ballpark of £50-60m depending on how much the Tevez loan fee actually was, £22.5m is chump change.

(By the way, all the data used in this post was collected through hard work. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the official financial data of any club, so I had to peruse numerous sources, checking and re-checking figures I might add. If you'd like to take the time to prove my numbers otherwise, well, I'd appreciate it and make the proper corrections. Otherwise, comments questioning the figures presented will be rubbished. Good day!)