AUCTION 2020

Auction 26 will be remembered not just because it took place during a global pandemic where none of us dared shake hands, but because it was wet. Very wet. Even wetter if you were part of the 3 man peloton who rode the 12.1 mile from the city.

After lots of should we, could we and can we, Pritchard Senior did us proud in offering up his meadow as the venue. A marquee kept the rain at bay for the 12 managers under it, plus the fabulous last minute guest auctioneer Adam(?). The champ, now in Edinburgh, and South Korea's newest resident were beamed in live from their respective homes.

After the usual post season debrief for the one that came before, the relevant awards were dished out before we got down to the business of the day.

Keepers Alisson and Ederson started things off at £8.5m each, both down a few hundred thousand each from last year and both going to the same manager as last year. After this only a handful of keepers broke the £3m mark as the average paid out for a man between the sticks was down from last years £4.3 to £3.7m. The top three spenders were:

8.5 – Alisson, Q
8.5 – Ederson, Nick
4.9 – Schmeichel and Patricio, Martin and Eli

Defenders were up next, and with Alexander-Arnold first on the list the SFP record for an auctioned defender was smashed for a second season in a row. And, as last year it was Jermy Snr. who was prepared to splash £12.9m on the Liverpool defender. Overall, spending on defenders was also down on the previous year, with the average spend on defence down almost £2m per manager, falling to £12m from £13.8m the previous year. Top three defenders were exactly the same as last year, and again to the same managers:

12.9 - Alexander-Arnold, Matt
9.5 – Robertson, Nick
9.4 – Van Dijk

A quick break after defenders allowed the host to fire up a BBQ and deliver some top quality local nosh to his guests. Then it was time for the midfielders. With so many forwards now being classed as midfielders it's not so surprising to find we again had an uplift on the previous season for this position. Managers spent an extra 500k each on their midfield as the average for that portion of the squad went up to £19.3m (40%) of managers budgets. The big 3 signings were:

16.0 – Salah, Pete
15.5 – Fernandes, Scott
15.3 - Rashford, Walters

Finally, with the Spartak Chief feeling the effects of being 8 hours ahead, it was time for the showpiece forwards finale. Although there were fewer of them than ever before, several managers had held back for the strikers. The average total spent on forwards was up £1.5m per manager on last year, with Butt Kickers going back to their roots with a whopping £30m spent on Kane, Aguero and Jesus. Top buys were:

15.2 – Aubameyang, Ed
13.5 – Werner, Rob
13.2 – Kane, Lawrence

Another superb auction weekend, delivered by an excellent guest auctioneer - definitely something to consider next time. Thanks again to our host for all that he did to make it happen. Good luck everyone, I sense it won't be a straightforward campaign, but let's hope for a tight championship race.