Manchester United’s recent record signing Juan Mata would be the club’s NINTH most expensive player if inflation was factored into the transfer fee, according to new research.
While on paper Mata is United’s most expensive transfer with United reportedly paying around £37million for the Spaniard at the weekend, things look remarkably different when the price of inflation is factored into the price.
This is according Paul Tomkins, a former journalist and author, and the accountant and statistician Graeme Riley.
The pair have teamed up to write the book, ‘Pay As You Play: The True Price of Success in the Premier League Era’ which examines the true price that billionaire ‘super-benefactors’ have had to pay to compete in the premiership.
In the book, the pair explain the Transfer Price Index (TPI), which converts football prices to ‘modern money’ with its own inflation index. They also take wages into account when assessing the fee.
Here are the top five, based on the TPI model.
5) Dwight Yorke – Original fee (before inflation) £12,600,000 / Today’s fee (Estimated) £44,552
Manchester United paid a hefty sum to secure Dwight Yorke’s services from Aston Villa in 1998.
Yorke entered a team that was seeing the famous class of ’92 flourish, driven by the midfield general Roy Keane.
Yorke would form what remains one of the deadliest partnerships in Manchester United history, with Andy Cole.
Cole and Yorke’s near telepathic like partnership tore teams apart through the ’99 season, helping them along the way to the historic treble.
4) Michael Carrick – Original fee (before inflation) £18,000,000 / Today’s fee (Estimated) £46,374,874
A few eyebrows were raised when Sir Alex Ferguson splashed out nearly £20milllion for the Tottenham midfielder, with critics of the deal questioning Carrick’s ability to play at the highest level.
The doubters were soon silenced, as Carrick consistently displayed a wide range of passing that the United midfield were sorely missing at the time.
Carrick was also instrumental in the 7-1 thrashing of Roma in the Champions League, scoring two goals in United’s highest-scoring European match ever.
3) Juan Sebastián Veron – Original fee (before inflation) £28,000,000 / Today’s fee (Estimated) £53,102,072
Veron was the most expensive English transfer when he moved from Lazio in 2001 and the Argentine’s pedigree was never really called into question, so the huge transfer fee seemed justified at the time.
As clear as his talent was, things never really clicked for Veron, particularly in the Premier League.
Veron was ahead of his time in some respects, as he did not like to stick in one position, preferring to roam the field as he saw fit, much to the dismay of Ferguson.
However where he really excelled was in Europe, producing some magnificent performances that showed just why the long-standing United boss paid so much for him.
2) Rio Ferdinand – Original fee (before inflation) £30,000,000 / Today’s fee (Estimated) £69, 876,494
When Manchester United broke their transfer record on a defender in 2002, paying Leeds United the hefty sum of £30million the reaction was one of astonishment.
Lots of football figures felt Sir Alex had well overpaid for the English defender, but in hindsight this was one of the shrewdest bits of business of the manager’s extraordinarily successful tenure.
While Ferdinand has been hampered by injuries in recent years, United more than got their money’s worth.
Ferdinand always had an enormous amount of raw talent, but under United’s coaching he became one of – if not the best – central defenders in the world.
His partnership with Nemanja Vidic became the bed-rock for a team that would go on win the Champions League in 2008 against close rivals Chelsea while Ferdinand also made a habit of scoring against Liverpool, something which always helps make you a fan favourite.
1) Wayne Rooney – Original fee (before inflation) £27,000,000 / Today’s fee (Estimated) £70,963, 635
It might not come as a huge surprise, but United’s £27million fee for Wayne Rooney plus the huge wages he’s earned in his ten years at the club make him United’s most expensive transfer to date.
Unlike Carrick, few eyebrows were raised when United paid such a hefty sum for the 18-year-old given how much media attention Rooney had received after his impressive performances for Everton and England.
Some media outlets even referred to him as the ‘White Pele’, a tad much in hindsight, but there were no questions as to whether Rooney had what it took to play and excel in a United side.
Rooney took little time to show what he was capable of, scoring a hat-trick against Fenerbahce in his United and Champions League debut.
Recent years haven’t been quite so fruitful for the forward, but while there is an argument as to whether Rooney has really justified the astronomical wages he’s earned at United, his goal-scoring record speaks for itself.
To date Rooney has scored 208 times and is well on course to surpass Sir Bobby Charlton’s all time goal-scoring record of 249.
Rooney is currently in talks with United who want to secure his services on a long-term deal.
If the figures are as high as are being reported, Rooney’s true transfer value will rise far above the £70million it has cost United to date.
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