Smart money

In the summer of 1973, Barcelona broke the world football transfer record by paying £922,000 to bring the world's best player, Johan Cruyff, to Catalonia.

At 26 years old, the Dutchman was coming into the peak of his career, and having won three successive European Cups with Ajax, Barcelona obviously thought that paying such a high sum for his services would be worthwhile.

Fast forward to January of this year.  Serie B club Atalanta have just splashed out €5M on the services of Sampdoria's reserve striker, Guido Marilungo.  Though undoubtedly talented, Marlungo has only played a handful of games in the Italian top flight, and has never represented his country at the highest level.

Barely anybody blinked an eye.

It's no secret that football is becoming more expensive.  Television deals worth billions of pounds have encouraged clubs to operate like businesses.  Nowadays, the top clubs choose to play pre-season games not on the basis of where they will find the best facilities and the best quality of opposition, but rather on where they feel they can attract the most commercial success.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp summed this up quite well:

"If I had my way, I would be in Scotland having a couple of games, or down to Devon, where we used to stay at [the former Formula One world champion] Nigel Mansell’s hotel and play Plymouth, Torquay or Exeter.  But that is the game now – we just go where we are told. Teams go all around the world now – Everton were in Australia."  

Football is becoming globalised and commercialised.  With that, clubs have more money to spend to bring in the best players.  The best players will then help them win prizes to generate even more money to buy the next big players, and the cycle continues.

However, the transfer market is not very efficient.  When buying cars, for example, the general rule is that, the more you spend, the better the car.  Although this does transfer itself to the football market in a general sense, it does not always hold true.  Time and time again, the wealthier clubs are shown up by their savvier rivals.

Lille is not that big a town.  It has a population similar to that of Aberdeen, while the average Lille OSC match will attract around 15,000 spectators- a similar amount are attracted to Tynecastle every other week to watch Hearts.  However, under the stewardship of coach Rudi Garcia, the team have played the transfer market perfectly, and it has most certainly payed off.

Last month, an extra time goal from midfielder Ludovic Obraniak brought the Coupe de France to the northern town for the first time since 1955.  A week later, a league draw at PSG (who they had beaten in the final) confirmed their status as French champions for the 2010/11 season, bringing an end to a wait that, like the Cup, had been going on since the fifties.

The entire squad cost just €14.6M to assemble.  Put another way, this was less than three quarters what third placed Lyon paid Bordeaux to sign Yoann Gourcuff in the summer.  Another fun fact is that the Lille back four cost a grand total of €10,000 (the amount paid to amateurs Fréjus for the now French internationalist, Adil Rami).  In selling Rami to Valencia for €10m, they have made a 100 000% profit on him.

The clever scouting has not been limited to Rami alone.  Talents such as Eden Hazard and Yoann Cabaye were spotted as mere children, and have both progressed to international football, with the former subject of interest from the likes of Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

Meanwhile, a manipulation of the Bosman market has allowed the club bring in the likes of Ligue 1 top scorer Moussa Sow, while internationalists such as keeper Landreau and cup final hero Obraniak were each signed for under €2m.

Lille are not alone in the list of thrifty champions.  In Germany, BVB romped to glory with a first XI that cost less than the €35M third placed Bayern paid to Stuttgart for the services of striker Mario Gomez in the summer of 2009.

Equally, in Scotland, Rangers succeeded in the league with a total wage bill which came to less than half  of dear neighbours Celtic's total.  Genk achieved a similar feat in Belgium, whilst in Italy (Juventus), England (Manchester City), Spain (Real Madrid) and of course France (Lyon), the highest spending clubs in that year's summer transfer window (bracketed) all failed to win the league.

There are some further interesting examples to show the inefficiency of the modern day transfer market.  In the summer of 2010, Serie A club Genoa had a gross expenditure on players which came to just under €42M.  Further north, 2009 German champions Wolfsburg similarly spent big, 'achieiving' a gross spend of €39M.  Genoa finished 9th, while for a decent amount of time on the last day of the German season, Wolfsburg were mathematically relegated.  A late rally coupled with good results from elsewhere saw them finish 15th, with 38 points.  €39M spent and only 38 points to show for it?  Proof, if any more were needed, that spending is no guarantee of success.

Whilst not being crowned champions, honourable mentions must go to the likes of Udinese, Athletic Bilbao, Sochaux, Bayer Leverkusen, Cesena and Lazio, who all earned credit throughout the continent for successful seasons that didn't involve massive summer spending.

Of course, there are limits.  Arles Avignon had a wage budget of just €6M last season, and finished dead last in the French top flight by a distance.  Equally, St. Pauli, Blackpool and Brescia all found themselves relegated due to financial weakness.  Similarly, the richest clubs, the likes of Bayern, Manchester United and Real Madrid, are all the most successful in the long term.  That being said, the lesson is plain for all to see: £1 of smart money can beat £5 worth of blind spending.