Being a top flight football manager isn’t easy.
You’ve got to manage the big egos, keep the fans happy and balance the need to win points while playing exciting stuff.
But if you’ve been watching Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United of late, you’ve probably thought to yourself (or out loud on Twitter) ‘I could do a better job’.
We imagine that very thought is what led to the inception of the immortal Football Manager game which has now seen its 2017 incarnation unleashed upon the world.
It gives all us armchair fans the opportunity to walk a mile in the shoes of actual managers like Mourinho, Guardiola and Wenger, while in the comfort of our own homes, sat on the sofa scratching our arses.
Despite United splashing record-breaking money to land the so-far mediocre Paul Pogba, as well as further £30m on the now-injured Eric Bailly from Villarreal, don’t expect the same luxury on the game.
This year’s list of Premier League club transfer budgets on the game has surfaced and the Old Trafford outfit are way down the financial pecking order, according to the Mirror.
The Red Devils don’t even cut the top 5 biggest budgets in the latest edition – coming seventh with a measly £41m to splash.
Still, it’s a step up from their local rivals city who only have the eighth highest bankroll with £36.6m.
You might want to sit down for this, but it’s actually Arsenal who have the biggest bucks to spend on the game with a total of £67.1m at their disposal (whether they’ll spend it is another matter).
Second are Spurs by a whisker with £67m and Liverpool in third £62.4m.
If you’re a little bit puzzled, the team at Sport Interactive, which make the super-realistic game, explained the reasoning behind these final budget figures.
“We take into account the amount of money a club has spent in the most recent transfer window, which is why a team like United doesn’t quite have the same spending power that they showed this summer.
“We also take a club’s financial information and history into account. So, for example, a team like Arsenal has a large financial reserve to draw from, but the club only spends a fraction of that every year. That is why, despite having the largest budget at the start of the game, it’s not ludicrously high.”
The full list for the Premier League clubs is as follows…
20. Middlesbrough = £4.1 million
19. Bournemouth = £6.4 million
18. West Ham = £7.4 million
17. Hull City = £8.5 million
16. Stoke City = £9.5 million
15. Watford = £11.2 million
14. Burnley = £12 million
13. Sunderland = £12 million
12. Crystal Palace = £15.5 million
11. West Brom = £17.8 million
10. Leicester City = £18 million
9. Swansea City = £29.5 million
8. Manchester City = £36.6 million
7. Manchester United = £41 million
6. Southampton = £42.4 million
5. Everton = £50.2 million
4. Chelsea = £51 million
3. Liverpool = £62.4 million
2. Spurs = £67 million
1. Arsenal = £67.1 million
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