A mad January saw a record amount of cash splashed during this recent transfer window with even Manchester City outspent in pursuit of success. Suhail Seedat tries to make sense of the crazy levels of money spent in the Premier League.
The sport regarded as the ‘worst governed in the country’ by the Sports minister Hugh Robertson, before the government opens the bonnet and starts its inquiry into the maniacal relationship between football and money, went into overdrive on deadline day as records were smashed with clubs desperately pursuing replacements to provide them with a freshness in the final stretch of the season.
The biggest news which overshadowed the others was Fernando Torres swapping the red of Liverpool, whom he seemed to share a common bond with, for the blue of Chelsea. The £50m pursuit by owner Roman Abramovich certainly sends reverberations across the continent as the move signals Chelsea are back and willing to flash the cash in their chase for honours.
The worry for some has been that Chelsea, following their worst form in fifteen years, could suddenly drop out of the Champions League spots, and with an ageing squad, it would be far more difficult to replace as the top young talent yearn to ply their talent on a Tuesday or Wednesday night rather than a Thursday.
No doubt Torres would not have been bought by Chelsea had he played in the Champions League this season and the price truly reflects so. Given too he is a striker, it comes to little surprise that Torres has gone to Chelsea for that amount as strikers, rather than midfielders and less so defenders, are seen as the saviours to a fledgling season and potentially the key to open many marketing avenues for clubs to pursue for seasons to come.
As the minutes went by, the deals become more expensive. Andy Carroll’s bizarre £35m move from Newcastle to Liverpool - by helicopter nonetheless - definitely reflects so. The ninth most expensive player in football history despite scoring thirty four goals in his entire career does smack of intense desperation. In Sid Lowe’s fantastic piece illustrating the buyout clause, it shows that the foreign alternative may be a bit more expensive than initially thought.
This put further pressure on Liverpool, who did entertain the thought of signing either Athletic Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente or Sevilla’s Alvaro Negredo, to bring in a player who not only can fill in the boots of the departing Torres but too knows the league and its strengths and fit in immediately, which neither Llorente or Negredo fulfil especially the league criteria. Indeed, knowing the league and being English has its worth in value, which Liverpool felt the brunt of.
It does substantiate that the January transfer window is a false economy. The clubs, however, seem to be happy to play the waiting game as long as they succeed in capturing the player they longed for.
With the leagues, across the country, so tight and teams clawing and scratching their way to safety, play off contention, automatic promotion, European football, Champions League football or even the Premier League, strikers as mentioned before, are seen as the shining light to achieve those targets. Where a team in the past may have lacked imagination, comes new hope for players and most importantly the supporters as it brings a different buzz to matchdays.
For instance, Spurs were willing to offer Athletic Bilbao, Sevilla, Athletico Madrid and Villarreal around £30m for Llorente, Negredo, Kun Aguero and Giuseppe Rossi as manager Harry Redknapp doesn’t regard Peter Crouch or Roman Pavlyuchenko as top class any more and following Robbie Keane’s move to West Ham, it also leaves Spurs a man light in the attacking areas.
Both Negredo and Rossi were in the summer quoted around the £15-20m mark yet their value has doubled - herd mentality may also help increase the value as the selling club look to auction players with sometimes even phantom bids to distort the market values.
The purchase of Darren Bent from Aston Villa for £24m does seem a reasonable piece of business for a natural goal-scorer and a player on the fringes on the England squad. In contrast to Carroll, Negredo, Rossi who have hardly featured for their national team and seen their values rocket; therein lies further substance that time is the essence in trying to lure players in the January transfer window.
Undeniably the influx of cash from Man City’s petrol dollars and Real Madrid’s bank loan over the past two seasons has seen the market become wildly inflated. The last six signings from Man City have a going rate between £24-27m, signifying how teams and agents are valuing their players once Man City come strolling into town.
Usually, the deals to bring in Emmanuel Adebayor for potentially £20m next summer and Eden Dzeko for £27m would be huge news but instead their potential market influence has instead seen clubs across Europe engulf their stories because of their negotiation tactics.
What deadline day did show was that it can provide a bag of nerves, especially if you are a supporter of the one so-called smaller sides within the division, as the bigger clubs prey on the best players and snap them up before their value increases during the summer.
The saddening indictment is that the transfer window shows the gulf in money between the elite and the middle, never mind the bottom of the footballing chain. With that comes widening of the gap for anyone wanting the break the cartel of winning any sort of achievement, the window makes it doubly difficult if the tops continue to build onto their richly assembled side.
For a sport which initially prided itself on being the best, it suddenly has become about which owner has the most.
Follow Suhail on Twitter @SuhailSeedat
Tags: Andy Carroll, Chelsea, Fernando Llorente, Fernando Torres, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur