The Ridiculous Soccer Transfer Market

Real Madrid is causing a huge problem for other clubs around the world: they are inflating the transfer market. As a Manchester United supporter, I can say that we have made our big summer purchases in the past as well, but it is nothing like the spending that is going on this summer. Let’s have a look at who Real Madrid bought so far this summer.

Raul Albiol from Valencia to Madrid for 15 million Euros

Kaka from AC Milan to Madrid for 68 million Euros

Karim Benzema from Lyon to Madrid for 41 million Euros

Cristiano Ronaldo from Man Utd to Madrid for 80 million Euros

This is crazy money they are spending, and they are not done!! Reports show that they are interested in Italian playmaker Gaetano D’Agostino and holding midfielder Xabi Alonso. Rumors are that Real Madrid could spend upwards of 25 million and 35 million Euros on these two players, respectively. This is just insane. If these deals go through, they will have spent 264.5 million Euros (or 368.6 million dollars!!!) in two months.

How in the world will they ever go about recovering this money? Granted if it was one big name player, the unveiling and jersey sales would eventually cover that. But these are six big names that are possibly going to be teammates next year. Unless they win every competition they are in for the next 3 years, I seriously doubt that they will come close to recovering this huge amount of money they are spending.

What about the other players, you ask? Why can’t they sell them? Because other teams now know that Real Madrid are banking on everyone else to buy from them. Who goes? Van Nistelrooy, Higuain, Sneijder, and van der Vaart? Perhaps. What if Alonso shows up? What happens to Fernando Gago? Madrid is shooting itself in the foot because other clubs know that Real need to get rid of players. So they will wait until the last week of August and then tell Real what they will pay for a certain player and Madrid will have no choice but to accept it. These other clubs are going to get world class talent at a discount. I would call the last week of August “Discount Week at the Bernabeu!!!”

Let’s now get to the issue of how the actual team will work. Their three attacking players, Benzema, Kaka, and C. Ronaldo, are also their most expensive. Some would say build the team around Kaka, others around C. Ronaldo, then there is the small French contingent that say build it around Benzema. What Madrid will do is try to build the team around all three, which is impossible. These three players are coming from teams that are built around them, especially C. Ronaldo and Man Utd. All three were penalty takers at their clubs, as well as free kick takers (but Kaka, not so much. He shared with Pirlo). Real legend Raul is the current Madrid penalty taker. All three players are also used to always getting touches in the attack. But with this star-studded team, sometimes C. Ronaldo or Benzema could go 15-20 minutes without even a single touch! These players are not used to being out of plays for long, but might have to get used to it. Just ask Thierry Henry. At Arsenal, he was always involved. When he went to Barcelona, he might get a touch or two every now and again. While Henry had 25 goals last season, I’m sure he doesn’t like being stuck as a left midfielder while Samuel Eto’o is a central forward and scored 9 more goals than him.

But Real Madrid is not the only team responsible for this. Manchester City has a rich owner with all the money in the world. Only thing is, they aren’t as world class as Madrid. They paid 42.5 million Euros for Robinho last season and offered AC Milan 72 million in January for Kaka! This summer sees them going after Eto’o. They offered Barcelona 30 million Euros and claimed Eto’o will be the highest paid player in the world. If that isn’t enough, there are rumors of a half a million pounds per goal scored. HALF A MILLION!!! In dollars that is roughly 800,000 per goal. He scored 34 goals for Barcelona last season. If he repeats those numbers, that means he will get 17 million pounds or 27.5 million dollars. Wow. Just wow.

But money can’t bring everything. While Eto’o is being tempted with the huge amount of money thrown at him, Manchester City aren’t in the Champions League. They aren’t even in Europa League (formerly UEFA Cup). They finished 10th last season. What I believe is that Eto’o is waiting for a world class defender to be bought and then he will really consider this offer. The fact that Man City have recently gone after John Terry is no coincidence. Man City wants Eto’o.
While Real Madrid will have a tough time recovering the money they are spending, Man City has NO chance to recover this money. They are not in any European competition and have never finished higher than 8th this decade.

This is having a trickledown effect on many other clubs. Liverpool recently paid 17 million pounds for Glen Johnson. That’s a huge amount for an outside fullback. He’s good, not great, but good. As far as other outside backs go, let’s look at the best in the world. Gianluca Zambrotta was bought by Barcelona for 14 million Euros. Dani Alves was bought from Sevilla for 25 million. Maicon’s deal was undisclosed when he went to Inter, but it was believed to be in the neighborhood of 20 million. Patrice Evra was bought by Man Utd for 5.5 million. For 17 million, Liverpool should have bid for Maicon, the best right back in the world right now. Better yet, they should have taken a time machine back to 2001 and purchased Cafu for 17 million! 17 million is an unnecessary amount for an outside defender who is not considered world class. Liverpool also missed out on 18 month target Gareth Barry, being outbid by Man City. But with the ways of the inflated transfer market, a player worth 5 million Euros will be sold for probably nothing less than 20. It’s turning into being just another part of the game, which is sad.