Everton, Arsenal and Chelsea named as the “most stable” teams in the Premier League

Everton, Arsenal and Chelsea have been named as the most stable clubs in the Premier League in a new study from the CIES Football Observatory.

 

The study, which looks at how player turnover affects a club’s performance, found that a more settled or “stable” squad would be more likely to achieve success.

 

On average, players stay at Goodison Park for 3.67 years – longer than any other Premier League club.

 

Close behind are Arsenal whose players stay for an average of 3.44 years. Chelsea, Manchester United, Stoke, Manchester City and Liverpool are all named in the top 50 most stable clubs in Europe with an average squad member sticking around for over three years.

 

The Football Observatory, a Swiss research group that provides original analysis to professional clubs, found that more stability gives clubs a competitive advantage: “On a sporting level [better medium and long-term results] or an economic one [a greater capacity to launch careers of club-trained players and generating revenues through their transfer]”, the report states.

 

David Moyes, who managed England’s “most-stable” club Everton for 11 years, is clearly a good match with stability. The Scot’s current club – Real Sociedad – are identified as the most stable club in Europe by the Football Observatory. On average players stay at Sociedad for 5.26 years.

 

The most “unstable” clubs are to be found in eastern and southern Europe, where 48.5 per cent and 45.5 per cent of players joined their current club during 2014. In contrast, 35.9 per cent of players at western European clubs joined during the same period.

 

The Football Observatory says no correlation could be found to demonstrate that high turnover of players was most commonly used as part of a strategy to increase player revenues. Instead, the report states that “transfer operations tend to benefit intermediaries that are at the heart of transactions, as well as the club managers and coaches with whom they collaborate.”

 

Israel’s Hapoel Petah Tikva FC is the most “unstable” club in Europe and players stay for an average of just 1.1 years.