Aguero

[JohnDoe]

So it is agreed then. We are signing Aguero.

[Neil Young]

Only if some loser tweets Henry with red g's cast iron financial plan.

[Lee]

Only if some loser tweets Henry with red g's cast iron financial plan.

IRWT is on the case right now.

[Tee]

Arn it's a great dream to have getting in Aguero but I think you're in -

[Neil Young]

IRWT is on the case right now.

Are you calling IRWT a loser?

Because I was.

[Exiled_red]

So it is agreed then. We are signing Aguero.

[Arn]

Spending £50 million on a great striker with bad hamstrings sounds ridiculous and horrifying and worthy of your rants about the awfulness of modern football. But is it really that crazy if simply slapping his surname on your club's shirts is almost guaranteed to at least make all of that money back? Forget trophies and scoring titles, it's all about the merchandising.

The last two seasons, Torres has led the Premier League in shirt sales -- even beating out Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008/09, while scoring fewer goals and winning nothing. And judging by the fact that sales of his Chelsea shirts are up 40 percent compared to his first season with Liverpool (he sold the third most shirts that season), it sounds like they're already well on their way to bringing buckets and buckets of Torres money.

Speaking of Ronaldo, Torres' comparable popularity is another sign of his Zuckerberg-like money-making potential. As of April 2010, the player that cost Real Madrid £80 million had already generated an income of about £100 million in part by selling 1.2 million "Ronaldo 9" shirts in Madrid alone (repeat: only in Madrid, not counting the ones sold everywhere else in the world).

Of course, Chelsea will have to share these profits with Torres himself and they still have to pay his wages, but it's safe to say that that £50 million spent on Torres will be a much smaller figure come this time next year. So the next time you get yourself worked up over a mind-boggling transfer fee, just stop and think about the merchandising potential. Then stick your head in the nearest toilet and flush it until the next match begins.

Clicky

[Arn]

I'm not saying that Aguero will ever be as big as Ronaldo but if he moves to a big club that can build his value up off the pitch then at least 30% of that would be very realistic. 30% of £100m in just a couple of years.

Suarez can be that player for us but so could Aguero. It is all about building up a players value and to have the tools to do it and we are getting better and better on the marketing front.

We probably missed out on £25m+ a year when Gerrard was at the top of his game because we didn't had the tools in place to maximize his value. We would have earned even more money on Torres if we would have been better using him off the pitch and to maximize his value.

[red g]

Spending £50 million on a great striker with bad hamstrings sounds ridiculous and horrifying and worthy of your rants about the awfulness of modern football. But is it really that crazy if simply slapping his surname on your club's shirts is almost guaranteed to at least make all of that money back? Forget trophies and scoring titles, it's all about the merchandising.

The last two seasons, Torres has led the Premier League in shirt sales -- even beating out Cristiano Ronaldo in 2008/09, while scoring fewer goals and winning nothing. And judging by the fact that sales of his Chelsea shirts are up 40 percent compared to his first season with Liverpool (he sold the third most shirts that season), it sounds like they're already well on their way to bringing buckets and buckets of Torres money.

Speaking of Ronaldo, Torres' comparable popularity is another sign of his Zuckerberg-like money-making potential. As of April 2010, the player that cost Real Madrid £80 million had already generated an income of about £100 million in part by selling 1.2 million "Ronaldo 9" shirts in Madrid alone (repeat: only in Madrid, not counting the ones sold everywhere else in the world).

Of course, Chelsea will have to share these profits with Torres himself and they still have to pay his wages, but it's safe to say that that £50 million spent on Torres will be a much smaller figure come this time next year. So the next time you get yourself worked up over a mind-boggling transfer fee, just stop and think about the merchandising potential. Then stick your head in the nearest toilet and flush it until the next match begins.

Clicky

Chelsea have only averaged 700-900,00 sales of kit every year from 2005-2009 given that united and real madrid biggest selling in world averaged 1.2 to 1.5 million

I have no Idea the profit made o the kits but lets say its £20 they would have to sell twice as many shirts as they do all season with Torres name on to recoup the 15million difference in transfer profits.

I think the people who write these sorts of adverts are more interested in hyperbole than looking at realities.

[dww]

Chelsea have only averaged 700-900,00 sales of kit every year from 2005-2009 given that united and real madrid biggest selling in world averaged 1.2 to 1.5 million

I have no Idea the profit made o the kits but lets say its £20 they would have to sell twice as many shirts as they do all season with Torres name on to recoup the 15million difference in transfer profits.

I think the people who write these sorts of adverts are more interested in hyperbole than looking at realities.

These claims always remind me of when it was claimed that Inamoto would make Arsenal £30m a season. The hype is ludicrous.

[dom9]

To continue the tangent, do clubs really get commission on shirt sales? Would it really be as high as £20 per shirt?

When a new shirt deal is announced, the fee is usually a set figure per annum isn't it. If you buy shirts directly from the club, then they would certainly make a margin on each individual item sold, but the ones sold in JJB, or Sports Direct? I doubt it.

[Neil Young]

I once heard the retail mark-up is at least 100% on the wholesale price. I have no idea how accurate that is but, if true, it's a good reason for companies like Nike and Adidas to integrate vertically by getting into retail distribution. I can't think why they haven't thought of it.

Oh, wait, they have.

I suppose it's possible the club makes £20 on each shirt sold through the shop but when it's sold through other outlets then there is absolutely no way it makes much more than b*gger all for the licence.

[dom9]

Yup, and the proportion of shirts sold via the club shop as opposed to the rest of the world will be small. A decent-ish chunk of money, but not massive.

[MrMichael]

The other thing to consider of course is that the only relevant figure for the clubs profits are total sales.

Say we sell 1m shirts. It makes no difference to us if one player's name is on the back of 900k of those, or there's 5 players each with 200k.

Now I have massive doubts that the signing of any one player would sell all that many extra shirts. Its not like hundreds of thousands of people would wake up the day after we hypothetically signed Aguero and decide to buy a new lfc shirt rather than the ManU one they bought last year. Real may have sold 1.2m Ronaldo shirts in Madrid, but how many more did they sell than a few years before with Raul on the back?

[IN_RAFA_WE_TRUST]

Are you calling IRWT a loser?

Because I was.

Well at least i'm not a pagal kuttah.