It would appear that we have reached a stage in modern football where you have to spend in excess of £20 million in order to have sealed ‘a big name.’ It has been said that Shinji Kagawa is a purchase of austerity for Manchester United and that he is a cheap option. This is utter nonsense.
Firstly, anyone who has seen Kagawa play and looked at his record would see that he is a top talent who is a good age and brings exactly what United are looking for to their midfield. Just because they have sealed a deal for an initial £12 million does not mean that this is a cheap option. Why should teams be sneered at for getting a bargain?
Lets take the example of Newcastle. Was anybody saying that Demba Ba was not a good signing because he was free? No they weren’t. To suggest that football fans only want to see massive transfer fees being shelled out is way wide of the mark. Surely what all football fans are looking for is somebody who can perform well and benefit the team overall regardless of the transfer fee.
In many cases a hefty transfer fee works against a club. Fernando Torres will always be compared to his £50 million price tag and it places an enormous amount of pressure onto the player. It was one of the great hindrances at Liverpool last season. Dalglish paid over the odds for the likes of Carroll, Downing and Henderson and so those players have to live up to the prices that were paid. In reality, Liverpools best signings last season were Jose Enrique and Craig Bellamy, the latter being free and the former costing only around £6 million.
The suggestion that £12 million is demonstrating austerity is one that is hard to reason with as well. For the majority of Premier League clubs that is an enormous sum of money. Perhaps when Kagawa’s fee is compared to the transfer of Eden Hazard to Chelsea it does indeed look like a cheaper option. Who is to say that £32 million on Hazard isn’t a total waste though? It has been shown time and time again that a huge transfer sum does not guarantee success and so to suggest that Manchester United fans or any fans for that matter are disappointed when their side does not buy a player for over £30 million is ludicrous. All football fans want is value for money.
The Kagawa transfer is just one example of the press reacting by feeling that he is a cheap option, but this is happening more and more often. If any of the top sides spend less than £20 million on a player they are accused of tightening the purse strings. That is an unhealthy position to be in. We all love a bargain and the pressure to spend massive sums is getting way out of control. There is every chance that Kagawa will prove to be so much more valuable than Eden Hazard when the football kicks off. So often it is the cheaper purchases that prove to have the greater effect. Perhaps more people should remember that.
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