Evening folks, and a very quick and to the point blog today… Our new writer, and twice commentator of the month, when we used to run the award back in the day, Kieran Delaney is joining the team at WOA and will be posting his first piece tomorrow… I’m very much looking forward to his post, an excellent writer and normally very thought provoking…

I thought I’d bring something to you today, something that I’ve been thinking about recently, but thought wise to write about… and that’s the price of a first XI. I’m going to quickly look at the top teams in the league and look at their first XI’s, along with the price that each player has cost (as far as my memory goes rather that factually researched)… not to make a point, I’m not lambasting any team for their spending or lack of it, it’s just an interesting exercise to do and to try and figure out the cost of a first XI. I’ll lay out the teams in what I consider to be their first XI’s…

Arsenal (£57.75m)

The following team selection is a mix of the most used team from last year and also what would be considered the first team this season (so far). I would obviously like to see Nasri in the centre, rather than on the wings, but last season, that is where he played. And Denilson too, seemed to play more in the middle than anyone else… (Diaby, Ramsey, etc)…

Almunia
£500k

Sagna – Djourou – Vermaelen – Clichy
£7.5m – £500k – £10m – £750k

Denilson – Song
£3.5m – £3.5m

Nasri – Cesc – Arshavin
£10m – £3m – £15m

Van Persie
£3.5m

There are a lot of other players who would be on the bench too, but that is not required for this exercise! One thing that strikes me as pretty damn good, is the deals for Denilson, Song, Djourou, Clichy, Cesc and Van Persie – amazing prices for such talented footballers…

Manchester United (£112m)

I’m not quite sure who is the first XI for United is, especially with the older lot nearing the end of their tether, but I’ll have a go at it…

Van Der Sar
£5m

Neville – Vidic – Ferdinand – Evra
Free – £7m – £31m – £6m

Fletcher – Carrick
Free- £16m

Nani – Scholes- Valencia
£17m – Free – £16m

Rooney
£32m

Now that in roughly double what our first XI cost…!

Chelsea (£169.2m)

Now you know that his is going to be a big one…

Cech
£7.5m

Ivanoic – Alex – Terry – Cole
£9m – £15.7m – Free – £25m

Essien – Mikel
£24m – £24m

Anelka – Lampard – Malouda
£15m – £11m – £13.5m

Drogba
£24.5m

One thing to note (and quite dodgy) is the transfer of Alex was £10m but the fee that PSV paid to Santos of £5.7m was paid by Chelsea; in addition, the transfer of Mikel was £16m plus £8m given to Man United.

I’ll leave it at that right now, as it takes ages to work out the fees of everyone… I’ll try and update this article later this week… I’ll look at Sp*rs, Man City and Liverpool next…