What Wins: Spending or Scouting?

Sorry I haven't written anything in so long, I was on holiday. Anyway, today the title is quite understandable, it's the question: What wins, Spending or Scouting? What I mean is, what's better and brings a team success: Spending Money or Scouting Young Players.  First, my Analysis is below and under the Analysis is the answer, as always.




Spending and scouting are both good ways to better your team, but which way is the best way?
First we have to know what the difference is between scouting and spending.                          
                                                                                                                           Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)  
Here are a couple of examples:


             PLAYER       AGE WHEN HE CAME      TRANSFER      
                                                                                         FEE

Scouting: Messi              13 years old                                000.000
                Fabregas         16 years old                                000.000


Spending: Yaya Toure    27 years old                       est. 27 Million
                 Torres             26 years old                             50 Million


                                                                                    
                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                              
Now I will get to the statistics.  Finding a way to show the statistics was hard, but I found a way.  I will first show you the progress of the teams who use the spending variety, and then the progress of the teams that use the scouting variety.

                                                                                                                              Manchester City








We will start with spending. The 3 teams I will be using for my example will be Manchester City, Real Madrid and Chelsea.

TEAM                                TRANSFER MONEY                             PROGRESS
                                               SPENT IN 2009/10                    


Manchester City                  est. 200 Million                          2008/09:10th    Current Position: 3rd
Real Madrid                        est. 250 Million                          2008/09: 2nd    Current Position: 2nd
Chelsea                               est. 120 Million                          2008/09: 3rd     Current Position: 4th



 The three teams this time will be Arsenal, Barcelona and Bayern München.

TEAM                              TRANSFER MONEY                              
                                             SPENT IN 2009/10

Arsenal                                  est. 40 Million                          2008/09: 4th    Current Position:  2nd
Barcelona                              est. 108 Million                         2008/09: 1st    Current Position:  1st
Bayern München                  est.  61 Million                          2008/09:  2nd  Current Position:  4th




Answer: I have to say it was a really tough decision, but I got to the Answer: Scouting is better. If you look at all the money the Spending Teams in my example table above spent, and divide it by how many positions they went up in the league table, you get 95 Million per position. Also, all the scouting teams (except Bayern München who sank two positions) moved higher then the Spending teams. You would think they would be equally good, but the reason the Scouters are better is because money is a team-spirit ruiner. Money simply ruins the teams spirit. Look at Chelsea's Torres; he hasn't scored since he left Liverpool. I know he hasn't been there for a long time, but you'll see. Or how about Benzema, he was a complete FLOP!!! Manchester City isn't first for the same reason - you would think a team that spends so much money would have no problem coming in first, but that can't work because the players hardly know each other!!!



Hope you enjoyed my analysis on which I think is better: Scouting or Spending!
Oh yeah, remember that guy Luc Castaignos I mentioned in one of my posts, he's been bought by Inter!
Leave any suggestion for what I could write about next below!


Thank you football fans.

Your Yor



Luc Castaignos (Transfers from Feyenoord to Inter Milan at the end of the season)