3. Forget coaches: It’s all about players’ salaries
Premier League and Championship Teams 1998-2007
4
Manchester United
3 A rsenal
R2 = 0.8872 Chelsea
Liverpool
2
Aston Villa
Newcastle
1 Charlton
Leeds
W igan
Manch ester City
0
Derby
Preston North End
Millwall
-1 Plymouth Nottingham Forest
G illin gham
Hud dersfield
Crewe Alexandra
-2
Average league position (-log(p/(45-p)) Swindon QP R
Rotherham
Port Vale
-3 Brighton
-4
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
Wage expenditure relative to the average (log)
Players’ salaries explain league position: the
more you pay, the higher you finish
Analysis of English Premier League and Championship teams
from 1998 to 2007: their spending on players’ salaries explained
89 per cent of the variation in their average league position over
the period.
Analysis of Italy’s Serie A from 1987 to 2001: the correlation
between each club’s players’ salaries and league position was 93
per cent.
By Stefan Szymanski, economics professor, Cass Business
School in London
Footballers’ Quotes: The Wisdom of David Beckham:
4. “My parents have always been there for me, ever since I
was about seven.”
“Alex Ferguson is the best manager I’ve ever had at this
level. Well, he’s the only manager I’ve actually had at
this level.”
“That was in the past – we’re in the future now.”
"I remember so clearly us going into hospital so Victoria
could have Brooklyn. I was eating a Lion bar at the time"
“We’re definitely going to get Brooklyn christened, but
we don’t know into which religion!”
“Tom Cruise, he's a lot more famous than me.”
“I have just started realising it now-it changes the world,
having children.”
EPL's Portsmouth could go bust
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | 3:32 PM
5. The Associated Press
Portsmouth is in danger of going out of business. (Glyn
Kirk/AFP/Getty Images)
The Portsmouth soccer club appears to be heading for a
winding up order in the High Court on Wednesday,
struggling to reach a deal with the government's customs
authority over overdue tax payments.
The winding up order goes to court in London and, if
granted, Portsmouth could become the first Premier
League team to go out of business.