Manchester City’s annual spend on defence is £200m… Bosnia’s is £180m
Karren Brady says players are football's only real 'commodity' so the 'madness' of huge transfer fees can partly be justified
WELCOME to the ever-crazier world of the football transfer window.
As a business model, this pursuit of a bag of wind owes more to the gold rush than good housekeeping.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy calls the spending “unsustainable”. He would, wouldn’t he? But there is evidence on his side.
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There is a joke going round about the annual spending on defence being £180million in Bosnia, £135m in the Congo and a whopping £200m at Manchester City.
Buying players for sums that all but scorch the eyeballs of people who struggle to raise the money for a family season ticket seems madness.
It is defendable, though, when you realise that football does not make or manufacture anything other than players.
In business terms they are our only commodity (ugly word) and as much money as clubs can muster should be used on owning the best.
This process can be distorted. In order to satisfy the demands of Pep the Insatiable, his Royal Highness Sheikh Mansour has syphoned oil from beneath the Emirates desert and added the receipts to the gushing TV millions to land signatures that may — or may not — fit the City manager’s exacting requirements.
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It is quite a risk and one shared, with minor variations, by several clubs with championship dreams (it takes only a capital C to turn those dreams into nightmares).
The Sheikh saw what made Chelsea tick — the money fountains of Roman — and with no more than a nudge of his accountant’s elbow, pointed his geyser at City.
At our own levels, the rest of us have had to follow. You might point to Spurs and say they haven’t but one could argue they don’t need to given they were the Premier League’s most watchable team last season with a stable of good players as it is.
But their supporters are itching for at least one major signing to satisfy a near-heroin style craving.
At West Ham, all the pressure is on joint-chairman David Sullivan to be the magician who pulls miraculous players out of his hat.
David has taken on the responsibilities, not to mention the burdens, of capturing summer signings who can contribute to a drive into the high-table.
To my mind this is the most difficult job at the club and the one with the least amount of thanks!
He spends his days scouring the market, dozens of hours on videos and with agents, discussions with manager Slaven Bilic and bargaining with buyers and sellers; then to negotiate with more agents, agree on the ultimate fee, fix wages, while trying to balance the books.
And to do this against constant noise from fans, the press, and hucksters and con men making unbelievable claims on players.
We have signed Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic, all proven Premier League talents.
The days are long gone when Arsene Wenger was alone in sifting through France, spending a few bob on their top stars because there is no longer such thing as a hidden talent — we are all scouting the same places.
What most of us lack is ownership of an oil well!
But no despair. Look at what Leicester achieved 15 months ago, it showed anything is possible and we can all dream, can’t we?
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