Have looked and analysed the purchases contained in that list since 2001.
Total players on list = 163
Of which transferred from youth team (36)
Of which Loans (11)
Of which kids not put into first team squad (28)
Therefore first team squad players purchased since 2001 = 88
Purchased in August (or Sept 1) 28 (32%)
Purchased in January 22 (25%)
Purchased any other month 38 (43%)
It all depends on how you look at January acquisitions, quite a few of them could be argued were because of failure to purchase in the prior transfer window and therefore late summer signings (e.g. the January after Berbatov left without replacement and we had to bring Defoe and Keane in) whereas some will be more for squad rotation.
If you want to ignore that argument, and therefore ignore January as a whole 43% of our summer signings are done in August, and 57% in the other 10 months of the year (but in the main July).
Have looked at 3 other clubs during same timescale (Liverpool, Everton and Aston Villa), and whilst it is true to say that we don't leave all our business late which was initial intention of the thread, in comparison to these teams, we bought a greater % in August than any of them.
Total players on list = 163
Of which transferred from youth team (36)
Of which Loans (11)
Of which kids not put into first team squad (28)
Therefore first team squad players purchased since 2001 = 88
Purchased in August (or Sept 1) 28 (32%)
Purchased in January 22 (25%)
Purchased any other month 38 (43%)
It all depends on how you look at January acquisitions, quite a few of them could be argued were because of failure to purchase in the prior transfer window and therefore late summer signings (e.g. the January after Berbatov left without replacement and we had to bring Defoe and Keane in) whereas some will be more for squad rotation.
If you want to ignore that argument, and therefore ignore January as a whole 43% of our summer signings are done in August, and 57% in the other 10 months of the year (but in the main July).
Have looked at 3 other clubs during same timescale (Liverpool, Everton and Aston Villa), and whilst it is true to say that we don't leave all our business late which was initial intention of the thread, in comparison to these teams, we bought a greater % in August than any of them.
