Premier League Lists - Value For Money Players

I’ve always been a big fan of lists and well remember whiling away the hours reading books such as “The Ultimate Book of Lists”, which has the following synopsis: “If you’ve ever wanted or needed to know the length of every major river, the name of every Pope, the full satanic hierarchy, all the animal collective nouns, the world’s currently active volcanoes, the names of all the muscles in the human body, every major British football team and a hundred and one other things, then this is indeed the book for you.”

Is it just me or does anyone else find these types of book strangely compelling?

So whilst You The Manager and the Premier League play second fiddle to Euro 2008 quailfying I propose a whole week of lists on the YTM blog!

I’ll kick things off with the top 10 value for money players by position (season to date) and I’m sure my colleagues will follow up with some equally intriguing and useful “series of names, words, or other items written, printed, or imagined one after the other”.

Goalkeepers:

1) Rob Green - West Ham United - £3.5m - 33 pts - 9.4 ppm
2) Scott Carson - Aston Villa - £3M - 28 pts - 9.3 ppm
3) Jose Reina - Liverpool - £5.5m - 47 pts - 8.5 ppm
4) Edwin Van der Sar - Manchester United - £5m - 42 pts - 8.4 ppm
5) David James - Portsmouth - £4.5m - 36 pts - 8.0 ppm
6) Petr Cech - Chelsea - £6m - 44 pts - 7.3 ppm
7) Brad Friedel - Blackburn Rovers - £4m - 25 pts - 6.3 ppm
8=) Tim Howard - Everton - £4.5m - 18 pts - 4.0 ppm
8=) Joe Hart - Manchester City - £3m - 12 pts - 4.0 ppm
10) Jussi Jaaskelainen - Bolton Wanderers - £4m - 15 pts - 3.8 ppm

Defenders:

1. George McCartney - West Ham United - £2m - 35 pts - 17.5 ppm
2. Martin Laursen - Aston Villa - £3.5m - 50 pts - 14.3 ppm
3. Hermann Hreidarsson - Portsmouth - £4m - 42 pts - 10.5 ppm
4. Zat Knight* - Fulham - £3m - 31 pts - 10.3 ppm
5. Glen Johnson* - Chelsea - £3.5m - 36 pts - 10.3 ppm
6. Vedran Corluka - Manchester City - £4m - 34 pts - 8.5 ppm
7=. Javier Garrido - Manchester City - £4m - 31 pts - 7.8 ppm
7=. Nicky Shorey - Reading - £4m - 31 pts - 7.8 ppm
9. Rio Ferdinand - Manchester United - £7m - 53 pts - 7.6 ppm
10. Joleon Lescott - Everton - £5.5m - 41 pts - 7.5 ppm

Midfielders:

1. Michael Johnson - Manchester City - £2m - 42 pts - 21.0 ppm
2. Clint Dempsey - Fulham - £2.5m - 50 pts - 20.0 ppm
3. Olivier Kapo - Birmingham City - £3m - 56 pts - 18.7 ppm
4. Matt Oakley - Derby County - £2m - 37 pts - 18.5 ppm
5. Lee Bowyer - West Ham United - £2.5m - 45 pts - 18.0 ppm
6. Elano - Manchester City - £4m - 66 pts - 16.5 ppm
7. Antoine Sibierski - Wigan Athletic - £3m - 41 pts - 13.7 ppm
8. Stephen Ireland - Manchester City - £2.5m - 34 pts - 13.6 ppm
9. Simon Davies - Fulham - £3.5m - 47 pts - 13.4 ppm
10. Ross Wallace - Sunderland - £3m - 39 pts - 13.0 ppm

Strikers:

1. Kenwyne Jones - Sunderland - £2.5m - 35 pts - 14.0 ppm
2. Benjani Mwaruwari - Portsmouth - £4m - 54 pts - 13.5 ppm
3. Michael Chopra - Sunderland - £2.5m - 29 pts - 11.6 ppm
4. Roque Santa Cruz - Blackburn Rovers - £4m - 46 pts - 11.5 ppm
5. Cameron Jerome - Birmingham City - £3m - 34 pts - 11.3 ppm
6. Dave Kitson - Reading - £3.5m - 35 pts - 10.0 ppm
7. John Utaka - Portsmouth - £4.5m - 44 pts - 9.8 ppm
8. Mikael Forssell - Birmingham City - £2.5m - 24 pts - 9.6 ppm
9. David Healy - Fulham - £3.5m - 33 pts - 9.4 ppm
10. Marcus Bent - Wigan Athletic - £3m - 27 pts - 9.0 ppm

ppm = Points per million.
* = No longer at that team.

Note to self: The top five vfm players are all midfielders. Only two defenders and one striker make it in to the top 10.

So there are bargains galore if you are looking to release funds to bring in the likes of Lampard or Ronaldo (can anyone do without these two?).  Carson, McCartney (check injury status), Kapo and Jones certainly have plenty of appeal.

I’m looking forward to the next installment of YTM lists already!

Cheers,
Tom

Tags (click to view more!): Euro 2008, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Edwin Van der Sar, Manchester United, Chelsea, Everton, Manchester City, Rio Ferdinand, Elano, David Healy