I wouldn't buy either but if I was forced into getting one or the other I'd go with the Welshmen, not because I prefer him but because I dislike him less
As crazy as the Bale fee is, I'd say Carroll. We were pushed into a corner and paid a very silly amount of money that no one including Liverpool and Newcastle fans thought was appropriate, and all after half a decent season in the Premier League. Bale has had two very good seasons in the top flight, Real have had to fight for two or three months to get their man and he clearly has the ability to become a very good player, not a world record transfer fee good player but still, a very good player for a number of years all the same.
Bale is a footballer that can win games. Carroll is a footballer that can win headers. I know which one I'd prefer.
The question posed was "which is more ridiculous" - so it has to be Bale purely because of the size of the sum involved. No player is or ever has been worth that amount of money. I don't care how many shirts he may sell it's just a staggeringly puke making amount of money.
Carroll "is or ever has been worth that amount of money" either Least with Bale it is possibly to see the quality player within. Carroll was never going to become a top class player, he's far too one dimensional.
Carroll's fee was obscene. As Bale's is far higher that makes it even more obscene. Therefore ridiculous - neither is the best player on the planet!!!
Couldn't agree more and I don't think either has the potential (at the point of signing) to do so either. I do however, believe Bale could become a top player and he will be able to influence games, even in a mighty Real Madrid team.
Can't be bothered to do the maths, but you'd have to sell one hell of a lot of shirts to recoup that amount.
Won't be that much. They can easily sell a million shirts in Asia, India, Brazil, etc. Some knockoffs but the demand for official goods is staggering. Not to mention the sponsorship, advertising, commercials, and the Real press officers being very good at selling goods, and the task is less heavy. Ronaldo paid off his fee in one year if I recall. Now Bale isn't Ronaldo but with the right PR spin can recoup that money.
Also its important to remember Florentino Perez has always valued the "image" and reputation of the club. To him, keeping up appearances is important. Since he is a huge multi millionaire billionaire mogul, he can afford to spend obscene amounts every now and then. It is his philanthropy or hobby. He competes with Berlusconi and Barcelona in his social circles and that has driven a lot of the past 20 years of Reals history. It almost isn't even about Bale at this point. If Barca got Neymar, he gets a newer more expensive toy.
I thought the fee for Ronaldo was ridiculous, but he was an undisputed world class talent and did immediately improve RM and help them succeed and ultimately very marketable. Bale, however, isn't even close in ability nor marketability and will he improve RM to the extent that Ronaldo did? I think not. I fear one big injury to Bale will destroy his career, ala Owen/Torres, because once he has lost a yard of pace, his cutting edge is lost too.
The whole shirt sales argument is largely bollocks imo. There's no evidence of a sustained rise in shirt sales as a result of buying these players - Real saw higher shirt sales whilst Beckham was there, but a sharp drop off after he left as more fans had bought shirts whilst Beckham was there, and so avoided buying them in the years after he left. All they did was move revenue forwards, rather than actually generate it outright. I don't think the average fan is stupid enough, or rich enough, to buy a new shirt for every big player that is signed - they buy shirts at a relatively regular interval based on the fan, and the signing of a new player only influences the timing to a small extent. For every Bale shirt they sell, that will be a Ronaldo or Casillas or Alonso or whoever shirt that they don't sell, either now or in the future. Real's shirt sales have averaged around 1.4 million a year for a decade or so now, despite Kaka, Ronaldo etc etc, and I doubt Bale will push them up more in the long term. As for which fee is more ridiculous, that will depend on how the players perform. I remember KPR confidently predicting Carroll would be a much less ridiculous signing than Berbatov, before Berb scored four times as many goals and helped us win two league titles. As of the day they signed, I think Carroll was the more ridiculous given the context. This was Liverpool, with their weakest squad for decades, splashing all their spare cash on arguably a completely unproven player who they were relying on to replace one of the best strikers they've ever had. If Carroll flopped, Liverpool essentially doomed themselves to another couple of seasons without CL football. Compare that to Real, with a squad that is arguably only behind Barca and Bayern, willing to gamble on a player in the knowledge that even if he flops they will still be strong enough to stay in the top two in La Liga and compete in the CL. That's not even considering how much more money Real make when compared to Liverpool - Real spending £85 million takes about the same out of their annual revenue as Liverpool spending £35 million. It's the equivalent of asking what is more reckless - the relatively well off professional with a mortgage and family to support betting £100,000 on a horse, or the multi millionaire with three mansions and a yacht betting £1,000,000 on a better horse.
Ive never got the shirt sales thing. surely there is a certain amount of people who will buy a shirt, regardless of who they have signed. Maybe its a kids thing to have the name of a player on the back, i don't know many adults who have names on the back of the shirt. I agree with Swarbs surely if they sell a thousand bale shirts that just a thousand less ronaldo shirts
