Interesting article in the FT today about football clubs and which ones have (and have not) spent most wisely on players and salaries.
Manchester United is not among the wisest spenders you won’t be surprised to learn although there are worse: Sunderland’s record is the worst in the UK. Best are Tottenham and Everton, reassuring for an Everton supporter. Mind you, the fact that they seem to be consigned to a Groundhog Day – like existence of seventh each season shows how far they’ve fallen in the money stakes. Not that Sunderland, say, would object to this.
Best in Europe is Athletico Madrid which has challenged the hegemony of Real Madrid and Barcelona despite spending far less. One of coach Diego Simeone’s many skills is unloading players to other clubs for far more than they’re worth. Arsenal are after his star striker Antoine Griezmann.
Which reminded me of an ad I saw the other day with our old fave Jose Mourinho, this time plugging Jaguar. It’s from CAA Sports Marketing rather than Spark44 – maybe Jose is a CAA client. It shows “the special one” being chauffered around a grey Manchester looking for something – his accountant?
Jose’s supposedly special magic has so failed to revive Man U although he’ll no doubt be given another season. Unless, as in his most recent stint at Chelsea, the players down tools as he goes from the special one to the not-very-nice-one-when-he’s-losing.
MAA creative scale: pass the sickbag – 2.
