Tony Pulis bizarrely claimed that his Middlesbrough side had a ‘£100m deficit’ to Nottingham Forest when comparing how much Boro have made through sales this season and how much Forest have spent on new acquisitions.
As per Nottinghamshire Live, he said: “We played Nottingham Forest the other week – we’d sold players for over £50m, Nottingham Forest had bought players in that squad that played us for over £56m.
“So there was a £100m deficit in what the two clubs had done this season. But nobody talks about that. That’s fact.” What Pulis is conveniently ignoring, however, is the fact that Forest haven’t spent half of what he’s claiming.
The Reds have also made a lot money through player sales in recent seasons, which has allowed their spend in 2018/19. Middlesbrough have made around £40m through player sales and spent half that money on new recruits.
Pulis 💬 We sold players for £50m+, #NFFC bought players for £56m – £100m deficit. Fact.#NFFC net spend
▪️2016/17: -£12.73m
▪️2017/18: -£9.4m
▪️2018/19: +£23.61
Total: +£1.48m net#Boro net spend
▪️2016/17: +£31.01m
▪️2017/18: +£1.67m
▪️2018/19: -£23.93m
Total: +£8.75m net🤔
— Crippy Cooke (@CrippyCooke) May 6, 2019
According to Transfermarkt, Forest have had a negative net spend in three of the last four seasons. Middlesbrough, however, have only had one in the same amount of time. That’s fact.
Pulis is trying to rewrite history by conjuring a narrative that his Middlesbrough side are hard done by while his Championship rivals have unlimited sums of cash to spend.
It simply isn’t true, and the reverse is actually proven when looking at the statistics. Middlesbrough have spent £20m or more in each of the last four seasons, while Forest have only surpassed that figure once in their entire history – in 2018/19.
Crippy Cooke’s previous article
‘So poor’, ‘Needs a wake-up call’ – some fans blast Nottingham Forest man despite 1-0 win
