Gareth Bale

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People say we paid a lot for Bale, salary too high, money better spent etc.. and I wasn't so sure given we didn't need to pay a transfer fee - so felt like working out some estimated figures & thought I would share them with the forum.

But what's the point valuing a player per season. We pay players to play football matches, so have weighed the annual costs by appearances. Not an exact science, easy to scrutinise - but looking at the list it feels about right with a few surprises.

I heard we paid him £250k p/w. He joined 19th Sept. so about 42 weeks I think?
£10.5million for 34 apps (& 16 goals). Call it £309k per appearance.

For an example: Ndombele cost £63 million~ & 200k per week on a 6 year deal. Divide the transfer fee by the 6 years of his contract, that's £10.5mil per year, and £10.4mil in wages - so £20.9mil per season. We have had him 2 seasons so multiply that by 2 (£41.8mil), then divide that by his 75 appearances and we've paid £557,333 per app.

Another example: Harry Kane. Using www.spotrac.com it only goes back to 2014 when he was on £50k p/w. Given he was a kid on loan except 1 season before, I will say he was on £50k from 13-16 (£7.8m). £100k from 16-18(£10.4m). £200k from 18-21 (£31.2m). Total £49.4m divided by 336 games = £147k per app.

All other calculations use a similar system to those 2 examples.
This doesn't take bonuses, signing on fee, agent fees etc into account, but I don't know those figures or if a loan player even gets them?

It's a ballpark figure - find me copies of their exact contract details & I could be more exact, but for simplicity the same calculation can be used to work out a rough 'per appearance' cost for the following players;


Club Cost Per Appearance:

£942k Sessegnon
£833k Clarke
----
£557k Ndombele
£358k Bergwijn
£333k Lo Celso
£309k Bale
£279k Sanchez
£260k Hart
£252k Son
£251k Sissoko
£248k Lamela
£219k Reguilon
£166k Lloris
£162k Alderweireld
£157k Hojbjerg
£147k Kane
£144k Dele
£95k Dier
£72k Winks
-£245k Bale (first time he joined)

Resale value is important but you sign players on contracts expecting to pay x amount for their services. Don't think we have made many sales for profits recently, certainly not as significant as Bale - but for context we were essentially paid to nurture & develop him for each of his appearances by the Madrid transfer.

Clarke & Sessegnon's figures are ridiculous even when offsetting their complete salaries while on loan (which is highly unlikely). We have Sessegnon contracted for another 3 (+1 extension) seasons at least, but Clarke only has 2 years left on his deal. Regardless, we paid £10mil~ and got a 4 year contract where he has made 3 appearances over half of that contract. The verdict is still out but it's looking like extremely poor business;

I can't be bothered taking all contract renewals / improvements into account which would lower figures for some players, but did with a few like Winks & Kane for example because they didn't have transfer fees and have been here long enough for their salaries to have increase far more than other players we signed that started their Spurs careers on already high salaries.

Then of course you need to value the cost per appearance against the quality of those appearances - which is totally open to opinion.

My conclusion is - yes we did pay quite a lot for Bale. We could have got more games from him but his performances & returns make the money quite well spent, making another season on a similar deal a very financially viable proposition in my opinion.

Sorry it took a long way to get there. I just wanted to explain what could have been a very simple post saying..

"I think Bale was worth the money & we should go for him again next season."
 
I reckon he will have a conversation with Ancelotti to see what his chances of minutes on the pitch are next season.

Go back and play for Madrid next season, get Wales to the World Cup 2022, retire after the world cup would probably be Plan A.

What is in it for him to go and play in America? He doesn't need the money that's for sure. Is it that interesting to play in the same team as Ryan Shawcross, currently doing the donkey shuffle at the bottom of the MLS Eastern Conference.
 
Mampi said:
People say we paid a lot for Bale, salary too high, money better spent etc.. and I wasn't so sure given we didn't need to pay a transfer fee - so felt like working out some estimated figures & thought I would share them with the forum.

But what's the point valuing a player per season. We pay players to play football matches, so have weighed the annual costs by appearances. Not an exact science, easy to scrutinise - but looking at the list it feels about right with a few surprises.

I heard we paid him £250k p/w. He joined 19th Sept. so about 42 weeks I think?
£10.5million for 34 apps (& 16 goals). Call it £309k per appearance.

For an example: Ndombele cost £63 million~ & 200k per week on a 6 year deal. Divide the transfer fee by the 6 years of his contract, that's £10.5mil per year, and £10.4mil in wages - so £20.9mil per season. We have had him 2 seasons so multiply that by 2 (£41.8mil), then divide that by his 75 appearances and we've paid £557,333 per app.

Another example: Harry Kane. Using www.spotrac.com it only goes back to 2014 when he was on £50k p/w. Given he was a kid on loan except 1 season before, I will say he was on £50k from 13-16 (£7.8m). £100k from 16-18(£10.4m). £200k from 18-21 (£31.2m). Total £49.4m divided by 336 games = £147k per app.

All other calculations use a similar system to those 2 examples.
This doesn't take bonuses, signing on fee, agent fees etc into account, but I don't know those figures or if a loan player even gets them?

It's a ballpark figure - find me copies of their exact contract details & I could be more exact, but for simplicity the same calculation can be used to work out a rough 'per appearance' cost for the following players;


Club Cost Per Appearance:

£942k Sessegnon
£833k Clarke
----
£557k Ndombele
£358k Bergwijn
£333k Lo Celso
£309k Bale
£279k Sanchez
£260k Hart
£252k Son
£251k Sissoko
£248k Lamela
£219k Reguilon
£166k Lloris
£162k Alderweireld
£157k Hojbjerg
£147k Kane
£144k Dele
£95k Dier
£72k Winks
-£245k Bale (first time he joined)

Resale value is important but you sign players on contracts expecting to pay x amount for their services. Don't think we have made many sales for profits recently, certainly not as significant as Bale - but for context we were essentially paid to nurture & develop him for each of his appearances by the Madrid transfer.

Clarke & Sessegnon's figures are ridiculous even when offsetting their complete salaries while on loan (which is highly unlikely). We have Sessegnon contracted for another 3 (+1 extension) seasons at least, but Clarke only has 2 years left on his deal. Regardless, we paid £10mil~ and got a 4 year contract where he has made 3 appearances over half of that contract. The verdict is still out but it's looking like extremely poor business;

I can't be bothered taking all contract renewals / improvements into account which would lower figures for some players, but did with a few like Winks & Kane for example because they didn't have transfer fees and have been here long enough for their salaries to have increase far more than other players we signed that started their Spurs careers on already high salaries.

Then of course you need to value the cost per appearance against the quality of those appearances - which is totally open to opinion.

My conclusion is - yes we did pay quite a lot for Bale. We could have got more games from him but his performances & returns make the money quite well spent, making another season on a similar deal a very financially viable proposition in my opinion.

Sorry it took a long way to get there. I just wanted to explain what could have been a very simple post saying..

"I think Bale was worth the money & we should go for him again next season."
Click to expand...

Nice one....

I would counter your comment about Clarke though by saying that he likely wasn't expected to play much initially; so I'd suggest you're pinpointing a fairly standard scenario with players whom were 'bought for the future'.

Sessengon is much more alarming by virtue of the fact we paid 3 times the amount to buy him and he was generally perceived to be of a higher calibre and thus likely to serve the here and now.
 
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Airfixx said:
Nice one....

I would counter your comment about Clarke though by saying that he likely wasn't expected to play much initially; so I'd suggest you're pinpointing a fairly standard scenario with player's whom we're 'bought for the future'.

Sessengon is much more alarming by virtue of the fact we paid 3 times the amount to buy him and was generally perceived to be of a higher calibre and thus likely to serve the here and now.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's right. It just baffles me that we signed Clarke on such a relatively short 4 year contract given his age on supposedly £30k per week.

2 years, 3 loan spells, 27 total appearances (3 for Spurs) later - and I'm not convinced we will be sitting down with him in 12 months to improve on those terms, which is when he would be entering the final year of his contract.

Sessegnon has another 3 years (+ 1 year option) left to run, went to Germany last season and got 29 appearances at a high level. Can't see Clarke being wanted by a Bundesliga or Premier League club next season and probably faces another loan spell to the Championship. Sessegnon on the other hand will probably be in our first team squad this coming season with a couple of years before we would need to offer him a new deal.

But going by Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 2021 Salary Cap
It says Clarke (£30k p/w) is earning more than Tanganga (£23k) & Rodon (£9.6k) which I find hard to believe.

According to What is Ryan Sessegnon's Salary Per Week? | Salary Sport Sessegnon is earning £53k p/w though had far more experience to warrant a higher salary - but you're quite right. You don't pay £25-£30million~ & £50-£60k p/w for a youth prospect you have a bit of hope for. The figures for both transfer and salary are very similar to what we paid for Reguilon.
 
Mampi said:
Yeah that's right. It just baffles me that we signed Clarke on such a relatively short 4 year contract given his age on supposedly £30k per week.

2 years, 3 loan spells, 27 total appearances (3 for Spurs) later - and I'm not convinced we will be sitting down with him in 12 months to improve on those terms, which is when he would be entering the final year of his contract.

Sessegnon has another 3 years (+ 1 year option) left to run, went to Germany last season and got 29 appearances at a high level. Can't see Clarke being wanted by a Bundesliga or Premier League club next season and probably faces another loan spell to the Championship. Sessegnon on the other hand will probably be in our first team squad this coming season with a couple of years before we would need to offer him a new deal.

But going by Tottenham Hotspur F.C. 2021 Salary Cap
It says Clarke (£30k p/w) is earning more than Tanganga (£23k) & Rodon (£9.6k) which I find hard to believe.

According to What is Ryan Sessegnon's Salary Per Week? | Salary Sport Sessegnon is earning £53k p/w though had far more experience to warrant a higher salary - but you're quite right. You don't pay £25-£30million~ & £50-£60k p/w for a youth prospect you have a bit of hope for. The figures for both transfer and salary are very similar to what we paid for Reguilon.
Click to expand...

Again... Nice post. Thx....

Agreed the idea of a payrise for Clarke is unlikely but I could very much see us extending his deal before he enters his last year.

Ultimately, although in this case there's been little, short-term gain, I'd encourage the club to do more deals of this nature..... There's been many worthwhile gambles on champo players we've not seized upon in the last 4/5 years (Madison, Eze, Bellingham, Bowen + other similar foreign deals too)..... Sadly, now that market is starting to be more common amongst EPL teams, we'll continue to see asking prices rise.
 
FightingIllini said:
Great golf courses.

Seriously though, to go play for the LA Galaxy, chill, enjoy his football, play great golf and be not that famous, Bale seems exactly the type to be attracted to that. MLS is not great for the fitness challenged though, there is that.
Click to expand...
Not that famous???:balesnarl: the Muricans love Christian

 
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