Premier League success has strong correlation to one's transfer spending

In the Premier League, clubs operate on very different budgets. And the more time that passes, the more predictable the league becomes. Although this season is providing unusually unpredictable, richer teams continue to gravitate to the top, and poorer ones sink to the bottom.

Until now, as noted in Simon Kuper's Soccernomics, there was believed to be no evidence of a relationship between transfer spending and success; wage bills were seen to be the only key factor. Pay As You Play -- the book I cowrote with Graeme Riley and Gary Fulcher -- suggests otherwise.