Yet, last January, the same amount of money wouldn’t have been able to buy you 5-goal Fernando and would’ve only allowed you to sign Jean Makoun with the change from Andy Carroll. From the Invincibles, the transfers out of Kolo Toure, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, returned £52.85m: £11.7m more than it cost to assemble the XI in the first place.
Undoubtedly, the image, the experience and the maturity that the team of Invincibles accumulated when they were at Arsenal, was reflected in the price that they then left them for. However, with this example, probably unique in its characteristics, it is hard to justify why managers would ever spend so much on instant success, when it only takes a few years of patience and some astute signings to build something beautiful.
But football is becoming a game void of patience, void of its virtues and void of its morals. The Beautiful Game, set up to give, “Success to football, irrespective of class or creed” reeks of a game that is more suited to the ethos, “Success to football, regardless of expense and means.” Moments like Thierry Henry’s goal and subsequent celebration, on his homecoming against Leeds, summed up what is The Beautiful Game. What isn’t as beautiful is the urgency that some fans display for success and the money made out of it.
Supposedly, Chelsea are pursuing 25-year-old hit man Hulk, as are PSG and Russian cash-splashers Anzhi Makhachkala. However, an £83.5m buy-out clause is likely to stall any negotiations. To me, that fee is truly outrageous, wholly unnecessary and frankly disgusting. Yet, the Brazilian’s agent insists that, “Hulk is not motivated by money, but by sporting ambition, love and affection.” I’m sure Hulk’s agent is equally motivated by Shetland Ponies, fields of Daisies and world peace.
Nevertheless, the £80m transfer of Ronaldo to Real Madrid, currently the World transfer record, proves that fees like these certainly aren’t beyond the realms of possibility and are almost certain to feature in newspaper headlines across the world in the future.
However, who will be the first £100m transfer? Would you pay that amount for Hulk? And, do any players in the world command such a fee?
Leave your views in the comments section below.
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/
For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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only Messi or Ronaldo could command 100m, or at least thats what it would take for their current employers to sell if at all.
I think you’l find that David Plaet is an ignorant commentator who chooses not to pay foreign players the simple respect of learning how to pronounce their names. favid Platt is the coach at Man City.
David Pleat maybe!!!
Thanks Mike! Sorry for that mistake 🙂
It is patently an abusrd amount for a reasonably good player like Hulk. However, it is not a valuation at all, it is a number which serves as insurance. It says IF a team offers this much then you can choose to leave our club and we won’t stp you. The whole idea of having it there is so that everyone knows that you value the player highly (and if you are stupid enough to pay £83.5 million we’d laugh all the way to the bank). It is not a valuation. If it is then we sold Fabregas for £300 million less than he was worth although having looked at Andy Carrol at £35m perhaps Hulk is worth that amount lol