The Gold Rush in football – is 80m too much? 200m? When (and how) will this end?
Earlier this week, Planet Football opened its doors to the circus that is the transfer window.
From now until the end of August, the ring master, in the guise of Manchester City and Real Madrid, will be orchestrating the greatest show of them all.
There is no price is too dear for the big boys to pay anymore, while back in the real world, regular people face the threat of redundancy and trying to work out where the next pay cheque is coming from.
One man who doesn’t have that problem is Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o. He’s reported to have turned down £250,000 A WEEK to join City. Instead he’s holding out for a slice of the transfer fee that would see his megabucks deal to Eastlands go through.
The Cameroon international is demanding more than £10m extra to sign on for Mark Hughes’ boys.
This is where football loses its tag of ‘the beautiful game’ for me. There is nothing beautiful about players turning down contracts of that magnitude in the hope they can hold out for more money.
Knowing the likes of Eto’o won’t join City for £13m a year leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
What happened to the likes of Alan Shearer, Matt LeTissier and Tony Adams? These guys were probably on a good sum of money themselves, but wanted to play for their clubs. They had a love for a club and would do anything to win and anything to succeed.
Now, success is a mere afterthought as greed drives on our idols.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Madrid is not one of love. It is again a demonstration of the dark side of football.
Ronaldo branded himself a ‘slave’ last season because he couldn’t just break his contract. News flash Ronaldo, you don’t always get what you want.
However, in this case, he has, and it annoys me to the pit of my stomach that his petulant behaviour has brought around the world’s most stupid transfer fee.
More than £80m for a footballer. One man. £80m. It beggar’s belief that kind of cash is being banded around for one single footballer.
Madrid will probably make that money back after Ronaldo’s contract is through with the amount of revenue they will sell with his name on, but who’s to say he’ll stay on?
Real Madrid are now near the the £200m mark for summer spending with the arrival of Karim Benzema. The lad has unquestionable talent, and through watching the French leagues last season it is obvious that he will be a star.
However, £35m for a man, who has yet to prove himself in Europe, or in a top European league, no disrespect to France, is ridiculous.
Messrs Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter, who have both slammed English clubs in the past, seem to differ on Real’s spending spree.
Platini has stuck to his guns, calling Real’s transfer policy “excessive”, but Blatter has gone against the grain saying: “It means that our product is still a good product. If this is the game of the people, they need stars.”
He’s sure changed his tune.
Don’t get me wrong, the transfer window is an exciting time for all fans of the game. I’m sure on August 31 I’ll be glued to my TV screen like the rest of you waiting to see who’s signed for who on deadline day.
It is exciting because for the next two months we will see a lot of talent swap allegiances and a lot of cash change hands, but we cannot let football keep on going the way it is because very soon we will reach the breaking point. The spending sprees will soon stop as the cash dries up and football will regret the day it allowed one man to cost £80m.
Topics: English Premier League, Football Transfers, La Liga, Ligue 1, Manchester City, Real Madrid
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look guy, sure i agree 80mil is a bit excessive and ill even go as far as saying that because of it the market has been blown out of proportion with clubs having to pay a lil more 4 players than perhaps they should which cant be good 4 the game…but honestly do you think its gonna reach breaking point? i dnt imagine it will, coz after this totally outrageous and crazy transfer window closes everything will return to normal and how they were… coz besides Real Madrid and Manchester City the rest of the clubs still live in the real world and currently times are tough! besides a possible Ribery transfer sometime soon i dnt see the 50 million barrier being broken and time soon if ever again… … besides Real Madrid seem to be the only club that have broken even the 30 million barrier during this window so its no time 4 panic just yet! i think its just a one off…
July 2nd, 2009 @ 20:27this article reminds me of the time i got a job offer which offered better pay and benefits, but i turned it down because i was loyal to the corporation that “owned” me. oh wait, that didn’t happen because ONLY AND IDIOT WOULD DO THAT.
July 2nd, 2009 @ 20:28although wat i do think is a big problem as opposed to transfer fee’s is player wages! 250 000 a week! this is the kind of money that will create a football world where all players will be playing where every they get paid more rather than wat club they playing 4! that kinda thing could turn out to be a disaster! wats next? players like Kaka, Ronaldo and Ribery refusing to play 4 the countries because they dnt feel they get paid enough?
July 2nd, 2009 @ 20:34I can’t see Reading getting promotion via the play-offs, they seem- for want of a better expression- to have shot it. I know Doyle hasn’t been scoring freely of late but to leave him out in such a big game surprised me immensely, and with Noel Hunt missing, and Kitson in Stoke form rather than Reading form, I can’t see them outscoring Burnley, who are a fine side with some excellent players.
July 3rd, 2009 @ 05:50The fans are paying for their transfers and their wages.
Real madrid has the most fans and is the richest club, its really that simple..economics.
For Man City, its different, although you could treat their owner as a veryvery rich fan heh?
I find it ironic how there are those who are willing to pay so much to watch football live and yet complain about the sums of money being spent. They say how its immoral that so much money is being spent on transfers and not on charity..you seen these comments on goal.com all the time. Don’t they realize that they’re funding this madness themselves? If they truly cared about people in Africa, they should have spent the money they used on a football season ticket on charity, no?
July 3rd, 2009 @ 16:12goob you an idiot! obviously you wouldnt turn something down like that! but im sure your not earning 100 000 a week, which would be enough 4 me without me having any complaints about wanting more! the thing is, lets take eto’o s situation 4 example! his earning very well! enough to live more than comfortably! and still he has a chance to write his name into the history books! at man city thats not gonna happen 4 him! so my point is, his going 4 greed and not glory! because if he remained at barce earning his 110 000 a week, it would be enough to live well and write your name into the history books but if you go to man city, sure you get a bigger pay check that you dnt really need as you getting paid enough as it is but you’ll never be remembered! his just getting greedy! pple dnt remember greedy, they remember glory
July 3rd, 2009 @ 23:47