Transfer Fees Out of Control

As if we didn't know before, but yesterdays window proved it that transfer fees are now way out of control.

Liverpool paid £35 million for a player in Oxlade-Chamberlin who is OK, but not great and has less than 12 months left on his contract - crazy, just plain crazy. Only a year or 2 ago a player with only 12 months left on his contract had his value halved, now it barely makes a dent.

Drinkwater to Chelsea for £35m, another OK player who's had one great season and one OK season and has looked awful at international level, way over valued.

I know Newcastle didn't sell him in the end but they were touting Gayle for £20m, twice what they paid for him a year ago, despite announcing to the world they didn't think he was good enough for the Premiership.... Crazy!!

 

Though I'm inclined to agree, relative to clubs' revenues, transfer fees are staying largely proportional, so from that perspective, it's not a shock - being such a competitive business, there'll always be those willing to spend the money, so if there's more of it about due to TV deals, it'll simply drive the prices of players up.

This sort of thing has been an issue for decades though - back when Johnny Haynes became the first footballer to be paid £100 a week, people thought it was abhorrent for a footballer to be paid that, when Trevor Francis became the first £1m transfer (or £999,999 according to Clough), there was the same, when Shearer moved to Newcastle for £15m...

Eventually the bubble could well burst - there's only so much the game can expand internationally, and in trying to outdo one another, you may well see a handful of clubs get to positions where they're forced to sell their players 'on the cheap' (!) and potentially fall through the divisions.

My fear is more for the common fan - ticket prices again have been a talking point, particularly in recent years, but the clubs will simply see it as 'supply and demand', so if Terry Rich-Bollocks is willing to pay £100 a ticket to see his club play, but old fan John on his pension can't afford it, you'll simply see the crowd at matches become the 'prawn sandwich brigade'.

 

I don't understand why clubs pay millions for players that they immediately send out on loan or put in their piggy bank of rarely used talent. It also gets my goat when they immediately start moaning about their new manager's style of play not suiting their way, and then want to move somewhere else. The Costa's of this world are indicative of the greedy self centred aresholes they really are and of course don't ask the players that took the Chinese money and ran if they love their new, somewhat toxic, location. I reckon the transfer windows need to go and players would only be able to work out a new contract when the one they were so willing to sign in the first place is 6 months from expiry and while you're at it ditch the agents. Was it Neymar's dad who stood to make 40+ million from his son's move away from Barcelona?

 

it is all or mostly tax orientated .. you've bought an asset = deductible, you send him out for a fee = income, is then due for tax payment on that income in about 2 years, but you spend out most of it, so tax liability is low ...... by the time I get rid of one of my vehicles the tax allowed will be more than what the vehicle cost! ......... almost...........

 

It is relative to income. The rights are the most costly in sport. The next rights deal will be higher as other competitors are entering the market. Transfers fees will continued to rise.

 

I call it shady accounting and sooner or later some clubs will feel the mighty backhand of the governing bodies, unless they have an extremely shady accountant based overseas.