I really hope it works out for Bale, but I just fear the weight of expectation will be too much. He is an exciting, talented player, but he is no Lionel Messi.
They are making footballers more and more valuable because of their fearlessness to their spending. There will be players better than Bale, there already are, and that means they will cost £100+ million. This is why I think they are slightly foolish. I don't believe these figures are sustainable. Suarez could have cost Arsenal £50-60 million, and he would have made them a completely different team. That would have been a 'smart' transfer. Even at such a price.
Edit: Sorry. For. The. Ugly Sentence. Structure.
I understand what you are saying apart from the bit I've highlighted. Who knows what will come along in the future but I can't think of players better than Bale at the moment. Bale scored so many goals last season that were just down to him, no real support from team mates in the way Messi does sitting in the middle of that Barcelona team.
I don't think this transfer fee is really a sign of anything in the greater football world. Real Madrid have always paid record fees and they will continue to do so, meanwhile other teams are still able to buy good players for a fraction of that cost. Real are paying to enhance their brand as much as their team, and Bale is the most exciting player in the world right now. Like with Beckham, and Ronaldo, people will buy shirts with Bale on the back who are not necessarily Real Madrid fans, and they will watch their games just to see him play, and that kind of exposure is priceless.
They will also of course have budgeted carefully for this kind of spending, although it seems like a crazy sum, it's really nothing they can't afford. They've already recouped £50m just from Napoli in this transfer window after all!
I doubt that very much. According to The Guardian (on 3rd august) Real are 590 mill Euros in debt.
Aren't Man utd 400-500m in debt? It's a serviceable debt for the very top clubs.
Yes they are, due to the leveraged buyout by the Glazers. But no need to worry, the international financiers and bankers who back these sort of deals clearly know what they are doing. Don't they?
I still think Harry was right trying to ship him off to Forest. That utter blunder gets conveniently forgotten the whole time, it's nice to bring it up now and again.
I doubt that very much. According to The Guardian (on 3rd august) Real are 590 mill Euros in debt.
Utterly irrelevant. They are easily able to service that debt.
If you have a mortgage you're in considerable debt too, doesn't mean you're broke, or that you haven't budgeted.
Utterly irrelevant. They are easily able to service that debt.
If you have a mortgage you're in considerable debt too, doesn't mean you're broke, or that you haven't budgeted.
Property bubbles never burst, do they? The Spanish economy is on it's arse because people believed that.
It isn't utterly irrelevant...
You're taking what I've said to absurd conclusions.
Just because property bubbles sometimes burst, it doesn't mean everyone with a mortgage is in trouble.
Yes it is. I only said that Real had budgeted for this spending. Anything else is you filling in the gaps.
The Ronaldo deal to Real was paid off in two or three weeks. How? Shirt sales.
Exactly the same will happen with Bale.
It's a good job I get paid well for working with them because they are an utter ****ing nightmare and a total basket case. Worst run company I have ever come across by a huge, huge margin.
You'd expect a massive improvement on a squad for 40-50 million. There aren't getting that for 93 million, in my opinion. I don't think he'll change the amount of trophies they win this season.