There is no F.A. Premier League (F.A.P.L.) Premier London derby (PLDs match) to report on or preview this week, so let’s continue last week’s theme of looking at the London derbies in the E.F.L. (Sky Bet) Championship. On Wednesday 12 February 2020 Millwall entertained Fulham at the Den. The visitors fluffed their chance to go 2nd when they drew 1-1. Aleksandar Mitrovic scored for the visitors on 3 minutes, making him outright top-scorer in the Championship, only for John Dadi Bodvarsson to equalize after 8, for the Lions from what might have been an off-side position. A missed Millwall penalty meant Fulham were maybe lucky to come away with anything.
Back to the F.A.P.L. where there was an interesting statistic given on players’ wages this week in the form of average earnings per player per year for each club. From this it is possible to calculate, roughly, how much each league point won is costing each club, and directly or indirectly, we the fans. For instance Watford are reported to pay an average of £2 million per player per season, therefore costing £36 million for an 18 man squad for 38 matches, that is about £1m per game. So far their 26 games have yielded 24 points, or each point has costed about £1m. More details are shown in the table:
Club Total annual squad pay Played Points Cost per point Position
Liverpool £99 m 25 73 £0.89m 1st
Man City £126m 25 51 £1.63m 2nd
Chelsea £86.4m 25 41 £1.39m 4th
Sheff Utd £12.6 26 39 £0.21m 5th
Tottenham £72 m 25 37 £1.28m 6th
Man Utd £109.8m 25 35 £2.06 8th
Arsenal £86.4m 25 31 £1.83 10th
C Palace £52.2m 26 30 £1.19m 14th
West Ham £54m 25 24 £1.48m 18th
Watford £36m 26 24 £1.03m 19th
Of our PLDs clubs Arsenal are probably getting/giving the least value for money, closely followed in terms of points and position by West Ham United, but you probably thought that already! Are Chelsea, Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Watford getting what they are paying for? The high-paying Manchester clubs are not this season, with Man Utd’s points costing more than double those of Champions elect Liverpool, and Man City’s almost so. But this statistical comparison was provoked by the extraordinary performance by Sheffield United whose “bargain basement” average earnings per player per season of £700,000 (£0.7m), and on the field performances have led to 5th place on 39 points at £210,000 (£0.21m) per point! Now that’s real value for money! Andrew at PLDs.