Premier League clubs may be earning record sums but faced with rising debts and wages are largely avoiding buying star players before the new season gets underway, with Manchester City the main exception.
Top transfer targets come with high wage demands, said Wyn Grant, an expert in football business at Warwick University, central England.
In the current economic climate and when you re a club with debt it s not advisable to have large amounts of your outgoings to go on these wages, he told AFP.
For a second year running City easily stand top of the table in terms of pre-season spending on players and are on course to have splashed out more than 100 million pounds (120 million euros, 159 million dollars) by the time the new campaign starts on Saturday.
English Premier League giants Arsenal have announced record pre-tax profits of 56 million pounds (65.6 million euros) for the year ending May 31, 2010; up more than 10 million on the previous year.
The north London club also said that they have paid off all the debt on their Highbury Square development.
The group has made good progress in the last year and I am excited by the opportunities we have in front of us, said Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis.
The results also showed Arsenal s group turnover increased to 379.9 million pounds, from 313.3 million in 2009, boosted by the income generated from property sales.
The debt related to the Highbury Square development, which once totalled 130 million pounds, has now been repaid in full with Arsenal now …
Remi Garde has a tough start in charge at Aston Villa
The Remi Garde era begins at Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon and the Frenchman could not ask for a tougher task as his new side take on top-of-the table Manchester City.
Defeat to the league leaders could see them end the weekend as many as seven points from safety with less than a third of the season played, though with another twenty-six games after this one, Garde will be confident that he will be able to get the Midlands outfit out of trouble.
The Villains have taken just one point since their opening day win against newly promoted Bournemouth, who themselves are one of the sides the Claret and Blue army will be competing against in their very own ‘mini-league’.
Beating your contemporaries
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Ghana continue their preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup on Wednesday with an away friendly against Montenegro.
In December s draw for the global showpiece, Ghana – quarter-finalists in 2010 were put into a particularly tough group alongside Germany, Portugal and the United States.
While Ghana are sure to have the World Cup in their minds, Montenegro will use this week s fixture as a chance to make progress ahead of the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers, which start in September.
Montenegro have been drawn in Group G alongside Russia, Sweden, Austria, Liechtenstein and Moldova, with their qualification campaign beginning against the latter.
Coach Branko Brnovic has labelled Ghana as Africa s leading team and feels Wednesday s match will be of great benefit to his …
Tired of your mates recycling the same old football trivia questions from years gone by?
Bring them bang up-to-date and get them guessing with our Opta-powered Premier League quiz.
All the answers are at the bottom of the page, so you can claim the high ground when it comes to statistical knowledge!
1. Manchester City will look to bounce back from their first defeat of the season when they take on Everton on Saturday. Pep Guardiola’s side have not lost two consecutive Premier League games since December 2016 – against which two sides did those defeats come?
Bounce back quick.
— Phil Foden (@PhilFoden)
2. Eden Hazard has provided an assist in each of his previous three Premier League appearances. Chelsea face Bright…
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Chelsea boss Graham Potter has rubbished reports that Denis Zakaria s loan spell could be cut short in January.
Zakaria was signed by previous head coach Thomas Tuchel from Juventus on a season-long loan deal just before the transfer window closed at the start of September.
The midfielder is yet to make his debut for the London club and has only been a substitute on one occasion in the Premier League.
It has been reported that the Switzerland international could be on his way back to Juve when the next transfer window opens, but that is news to Potter.
He said: There s no decision been made at all on that. Denis has been in the group, he s been training well.
He s ready to help the team, obviously there s competition for places in that area, but …
The anonymity of the internet seems to make some people believe that they can get away with almost anything online. But Nintendo may have just given future Switch pirates some reasons to reconsider their actions after tracking down a man by playing detective online. Come from Sports betting site VPbet
Earlier this year, Nintendo sued James Williams, a moderator for a Switch pirates page on Reddit who posted under the name Archbox. At the time, it wasn’t clear how Nintendo had determined that Williams was the man behind Archbox, but Game File’s new report details some of Williams’ alleged missteps along the way.
Williams’ first apparent mistake was that he posted some genuinely personal intel on Reddit that indicat…
Swansea City manager Garry Monk revealed the club will enter talks over a permanent move for on-loan Middlesbrough attacker Marvin Emnes.
The Dutchman has made nine appearances since arriving at the Liberty Stadium for a second temporary spell in January, and scored as the men from south Wales closed their season with a 3-1 Premier League win at Sunderland on Sunday.
Emnes has regularly been linked with a transfer to Swansea since his first stint at the club in 2010, but Monk appointed as former boss Michael Laudrup s long-term successor on Wednesday hinted a permanent deal could now be on the horizon.
I ve had a chat with Marvin and obviously we ll discuss it with him, he said. Marvin knows how I feel about him and what I feel for the future, and we ll have to let the…
Michael Essien remains grounded over what Ghana can achieve at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
The Milan midfielder will be among the more experienced members of James Kwesi Appiah s party as Ghana look for a showing as impressive as 2010.
Ghana made the quarter-finals in South Africa before losing to Uruguay on penalties, and Essien has not ruled out a similar venture into the latter stages of the competition this time around.
However, even with the likes of Asamoah Gyan, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Kwadwo Asamoah in the squad, the former Chelsea man feels they must be realistic when talking of progression from a group that features Germany, Portugal and the United States.
Our initial aim will be to get out of the group into the second round, and then take it from…