The Premiership Players Worth Their Weight In Goals

Which football players represent value for money and which cost £3m per goal?

Reading has been named the Premiership's most value for money club when it comes to scoring goals, and has been crowned as having the best-value striking partnership in top-flight football. According to the latest survey by Fool.co.uk, Reading's Kevin Doyle is the Premiership's best-value striker. Doyle has cost the club just £2,167 per goal since he joined in 2005. This compares extremely favourably to other top strikers in our table, whose goals cost their clubs more than £70,000 each, and puts Doyle firmly at the top of the Premiership's best-buy tables. Fool.co.uk's top five strikers Team Striker Value Goals Cost per goal Reading Kevin Doyle £78k 36 £2,167 Reading Dave Kitson £1.5million 55 £27,272 Arsenal Robin Van Persie £2.75million 44 £62,500 Tottenham Robbie Keane £7million 96 £72,916 Blackburn Benni McCarthy £2.5million 32 £78,125 In stark contrast to these brilliant bargain players, goals by Premiership superstars such as Andriy Schevchenko and Michael Owen have cost their clubs a mighty £1.7 and £1.6 million each. Fool.co.uk's bottom five Team Striker Value Goals Cost per goal Middlesbrough Ahmed Mido £6million 2 £3,000,000 Sunderland Michael Chopra £5million 2 £2,500,000 Aston Villa Ashley Young £9.65million 4 £2,412,500 Liverpool Fernando Torres £26.5million 11 £2,208,333 Fulham Diomansy Kamara £6million 3 £2,000,000 The statistics have also revealed that big names don't necessarily provide big value. In fact, only two of the Premiership's top-ten most valuable forwards play for the so called `Big Four' of Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Even then, the clubs pay players a high price for hitting the back of the net, with Arsenal's Robin Van Persie's 44 goals costing `just' £62,500 each and Cristiano Ronaldo's 63 goals averaging £190,476 each. In addition, household names such as Wayne Rooney and Didier Drogba don't necessarily provide as much value as you may think, coming 13th and 14th on the value list, with their goals each costing £303,030 and £333,333 respectively. At the bottom of the table, Middlesbrough's Ahmed Mido's two goals since joining the club has led to a shocking average cost per goal of £3,000,000. Commenting on these statistics, David Kuo, Head of Personal Finance at Fool.co.uk said: "This study teaches us broader lessons about our finances. The flashy, most expensive purchases aren't necessarily the best and you don't always have to throw vast sums of money at a problem to fix it. By fully weighing up your options, taking stock of your current situation, and making informed financial decisions, you'll be able to succeed financially without breaking the bank, just like Reading have done with Kevin Doyle."