Why Norwich's finances gained the best cost per point in the Premier League

Norwich City manager Chris Houghton

Analysts at Football Observatory have determined the “cost per point” of top-flight teams last season and found out that Norwich had the best value in the Premier League.

The analysis had been made on the basis of the amount invested by each team to get the players. Norwich’s cost of assembling was £ 21.38 m. Reading’s had invested the least with £15.5 m.

By calculating, it was concluded that the Norwich City spent the least for each point (£ 490,000).

Norwich finished the season by securing 11th position, one place better than the previous season. While Chelsea at finished third place with nearly £5m per point, it seems excessive considering they completed the season with 75 points.

Manchester City and Liverpool were not far behind in the inefficiency stakes, with the former’s fees of £375.74m topping the table.

The same thing has not reflected in their points tally. Manchester United had £1.5 m per point advantage over their rivals with a lead of 11 points as the won the league.

West Brom, Swansea and West Ham kept the cost per point below £1 m.

Queen Park Rangers had a poor statistics with just 25 points in their kitty after investing £66.58 m. Their cost per point is £2.66 m without including wages.

Norwich’s financial prudence is not just an overnight wonder. The 2011-12 season saw Norwich emerge as the lowest wage payers at an average of £1.01m per year per player – working out at £19,434 per week.

Swansea were second £ 1.02m, while QPR were spending a weekly wage of £32,569.

Manchester United were the only team to touch the six-figure mark for a player’s weekly wage, with an annual average of £5.24m, which is equal to £100,765 per week.

Those numbers had increased a bit for each of the top- flight clubs and definitely will increase for the 2013-14 campaign largely due to the increase in the income from the new television deal, which will give the clubs an extra £2m.