Striking the Difference

Last night our Seagulls flocked to Pride Park and came away with a 1-0 victory courtesy of a Craig Mackail-Smith belter from the edge of the area, ending the Scots 9-game goal drought. I was listening to Nigel Clough's post-match interview and both he and the interviewer came to the conclusion that it was the strikers that make all the difference in the Championship. There was one quote that particularly stuck out in my mind -

NC - "Yeah and once again that's the difference, they've got a striker, what, 2 million quid they paid for him"

This got me thinking, and forgive me if I'm reading this in the wrong context, but it made me wonder that does paying £2m+ for strikers such as Mackail-Smith mean you are destined for success from the off? Or does the heavy price-tag mean guaranteed goals? Or even if one team pays £2m+ for a striker yet another team pays nothing, is there a gulf in quality between the two?

My next stop was the Championship top scorers list, just to see the sort of price-tag's the top scorers in this league boast, and if as Clough says, their price-tag is the difference on the night.

Rickie Lambert - The Saints striker tops the list this season with 12 goals already to his name. Lambert has been a regular feature in the lower leagues of English football since the late 90's and it wasn't until his move to St. Mary's that he got his big break in the English 2nd tier.
Saints bought Lambert from Bristol Rovers at the beginning of the 2009-10 season for a deal worth in excess of £1m, and remember that at this point Saints were only a League One side, so this sort of price-tag at the 3rd tier was staggering. In this fist full season at Saints he went on to score 30 goals, which made him League One's top scorer, and with him currently leading the list, and Saints being top of the league thanks to all of his goals, this makes you think that the bigger the price-tag, the better the quality you are getting.

Ross McCormack - The 'bigger price, better quality' philosophy definitely doesn't apply to this case, Scotsman McCormack sits just one goal behind Lambert in the Championship's scoring list, and his transfer fee in August 2010 was slightly smaller than that of Lambert's.
Playing on either the wing or up-front, McCormack has never been shy in front of goal, always wanting the ball and wanting to shoot, and this is reflected by his scoring records thus far in the 2011-12 season. McCormack signed for Cardiff City in January 2008 for a small £120,000 compensation fee, and then when his move to Leeds came about, the fee was only £230,000 larger at £350,000. It's obvious that once McCormack is in his stride, he can be some goalscorer, and his relatively low transfer fee shows that you don't have to buy big to get the appropriate quality.

Kevin Phillips - A veteran at both Premier League and Football League level, Kevin Phillips has been one of the biggest characters in the English game since his big breakthrough at Sunderland in 1997. With this one you have to take his age into consideration, as at 38 years of age, not many clubs will be looking to pay a high price for you. Yet despite his free transfer from Birmingham City to Blackpool in the summer, Phillips has 7 goals to his name and was one of the most talked about players at the start of the season. Throughout his whole career, nearly £7m has been spent on Phillips, but when it matters most, the free transfer seems to have been just as effective for Blackpool.

I'm not too sure how to conclude this one, as we've seen with all the examples above, there are fair arguments for either side. Players such as Mackail-Smith and Lambert boast the high price tag, and have definitely brought the much needed quality to both their sides, however McCormack's and Phillips' lower fee provide similar service. Make your own mind up on this one, it's a footballing debate which will never have a clear answer.