Record signing

[William Henry Foulkes]

you cant profit from insurance... so even if we did get anything back from it, you would only be as well off as you were prior to the loss.

You need a more imaginative accountant

 

[AlienBlade]

You need a more imaginative accountant

are you saying you would defraud the insurance company..... have you considered a job in parlilment....

 

[mattbianco1]

Remember Jonathan Woodgate for Real Madrid?

They signed him injured. He didn't play until late September then on his debut - scored an own goal and was sent off!

 

[Hodgyman]

The two (then) record breaking signings that left me underwhelmed by not living up to their fees were Chris Guthrie, our first six figure purchase and non-footballer Vinnie Jones who was just a bully boy.

 

[Balham]

Remember Jonathan Woodgate for Real Madrid?

They signed him injured. He didn't play until late September then on his debut - scored an own goal and was sent off!

There's a great quote from Woodgate on that:

Fuck me. Fuck. Ing. Hell. My God. Where do I start? I'm still in shock. An own goal and sent off. What a debut. What a debut!
After the own goal and the yellow I was thinking: 'Jesus Christ, don't get sent off'.

And then I got sent off.

From The Sids 2006 [http://www.theguardian.com/football/2006/may/25/europeanfootball.sport]

 

[Aston max]

I might be wrong although your logic is like saying "we can't have paid £650,000 on Vinnie Jones when Deano only cost £35,000".

Yes but at least with vinnie how many Hollywood superstars have played for us

 

[Sheff de party]

Don't clubs insure against this sort of risk?

Did we make money off Ebbrell?

It was his decision to retire. We didn't get an insurance payout. I don't know much about it, but insurance generally covers injuries that immediately end a career, not long term ones you try (and fail) to recover from.

 

[DI36O]

Off the top of my head, Beattie tops the list at £4m with Evans tied with Claude "Bombscare" Davis in second at £2.5m. Honorable mentions to Billy Sharp and Darius Henderson (both £2m); Ade Akinbiyi (£1.8m); Luton Shelton (£1.7m) and Geoff Horsfield (£1.1m) - all relatively big money forwards for us and all relatively (or absolutely) shit.

Record fee received is Kyle Naughton (£5m), followed by Phil Jagielka (£4m); Beattie (£3.5m) and Claude Davis, Matthew Lowton, Lee Morris & Kyle Walker (all £3m).

Random fact: we generally lose a lot of money on our big money signings - on that list, only Davis was sold on for a profit - and we also are far better at developing academy players than signing younger players from other teams. I can only Marcus Bent, Oliver Tébily and Nick Blackman as players we've made over £1m profit from.

EDIT: Hutchison was signed in 95/96 for £1.2m and sold the following season for £1m

Full list of seven figure buys (15 players) from a not necessarily reliable source
James Beattie £4,000,000
Ched Evans £3,000,000
Claude Davis £2,500,000
Rob Hulse £2,200,000
John Brayford £2,000,000
Darius Henderson £2,000,000
Billy Sharp £2,000,000
Luton Shelton £1,850,000
Matt Kilgallon £1,750,000
Ade Akinbiyi £1,750,000
Brian Deane £1,500,000
Geoff Horsfield £1,200,000
Don Hutchison £1,200,000
Gary Naysmith £1,000,000
John Ebbrell £1,000,000

And sold (25 players):
Kyle Naughton £5,000,000
Phil Jagielka £4,000,000
James Beattie £3,500,000
Matthew Lowton £3,000,000
Kyle Walker £3,000,000
Claude Davis £3,000,000
Lee Morris £3,000,000
Brian Deane £2,900,000
Harry Maguire £2,500,000
Marcus Bent £2,100,000
Michael Tonge £2,000,000
Rob Hulse £1,750,000
Olivier Tebily £1,250,000
David Holdsworth £1,250,000
Nick Blackman £1,200,000
Nathan Blake £1,200,000
Billy Sharp £1,100,000
Andy Gray £1,100,000
Graham Stuart £1,100,000
Jordan Slew £1,000,000
Luton Shelton £1,000,000
Curtis Woodhouse £1,000,000
George Donis £1,000,000
Brian Deane £1,000,000
Don Hutchison £1,000,000