The news that spending was down 70% in this transfer window will have come as a surprise to no-one who follows these things.
According to accountants Delloite spending in January 2012 was estimated to be around £60m amongst the Premier League clubs, which of course is considerably less than the money spent on taking Torres to Chelsea and Carroll to Liverpool last year.
In the last couple of days there has been much discussion as to why, with Delliote’s own Director of Sports Business, Alan Switzer, blaming the onset of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations for the dramatic decrease.
"The 2011-12 season does now count towards the Uefa rules and that will be part of the consideration which clubs will be giving to any transfer,” he was quoted as saying on the BBC website.
Those financial fair play laws state that any club that loses more than €45m (around about £37m) in the two seasons between 2011-13 could be barred from European Competitions such as the Champions League and it does appear that this has played a part, with Arsene Wenger saying: “It looks like economically the whole of Europe is becoming a bit more cautious."
But if that is – no doubt – a part of the story then perhaps it is not as big a part as is being claimed.
Whether it is Real Madrid selling their training ground to the Spanish government, or Manchester City having their ground sponsored for astronomical sums, the big clubs can find a way round around these losses, and I am yet to be convinced that UEFA, for all its good intentions is going to kick a really big club out its competitions. Can you imagine Sky, for example, being happy if there was no Barca, Real or Man City in the Champions League? So in actuality surely UEFA are just talking a good game?
So perhaps it is not just a new-found desire of the massive European behemoth’s to get their financial house in order, and the lack of transfers is for more altogether pragmatic reasons.
Namely, is there any value in making transfers at this time of the season?
If you take a look at the big four transfers last time – those aforementioned two that saw Torres leave Anfield and Carroll and Suarez replace him – and the one that saw David Luiz bring his rather eccentric brand of defending to West London, with the notable exception of the controversial Uruguayan has any of these men delivered the goods?
Surely by their very nature transfers at this time of year mostly fall into the “take a punt” bracket. Teams that are struggling at the bottom of the league needing to strengthen their squads – such as QPR, who you have to say probably did the best out of all the teams, but the teams challenging for honours (and therefore the same teams that the fair play law is going to affect) largely feel its best to stay out of it. Unless, like Chelsea, you can get someone who’s contract is running out at a knockdown price before the inevitable scrum in the summer – but interestingly Gary Cahill is yet to start a game in the league for Chelsea, so maybe it was more with 2012-13 in mind anyway?
Getting someone at a knockdown price in 2012 is a lot different to spending £50m on a player that hasn’t performed yet since his transfer in 2011, and there can be no doubt that buying players in the summer, with all the opportunities that gives for pre-season training, team integration and so on, must be infinitely more preferable to managers than an unseemly squabble in January.
And viewed in that light, perhaps this £60m spend is much less about financial fair play than good, old fashioned, football sense?
According to accountants Delloite spending in January 2012 was estimated to be around £60m amongst the Premier League clubs, which of course is considerably less than the money spent on taking Torres to Chelsea and Carroll to Liverpool last year.
In the last couple of days there has been much discussion as to why, with Delliote’s own Director of Sports Business, Alan Switzer, blaming the onset of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations for the dramatic decrease.
"The 2011-12 season does now count towards the Uefa rules and that will be part of the consideration which clubs will be giving to any transfer,” he was quoted as saying on the BBC website.
Those financial fair play laws state that any club that loses more than €45m (around about £37m) in the two seasons between 2011-13 could be barred from European Competitions such as the Champions League and it does appear that this has played a part, with Arsene Wenger saying: “It looks like economically the whole of Europe is becoming a bit more cautious."
But if that is – no doubt – a part of the story then perhaps it is not as big a part as is being claimed.
Whether it is Real Madrid selling their training ground to the Spanish government, or Manchester City having their ground sponsored for astronomical sums, the big clubs can find a way round around these losses, and I am yet to be convinced that UEFA, for all its good intentions is going to kick a really big club out its competitions. Can you imagine Sky, for example, being happy if there was no Barca, Real or Man City in the Champions League? So in actuality surely UEFA are just talking a good game?
So perhaps it is not just a new-found desire of the massive European behemoth’s to get their financial house in order, and the lack of transfers is for more altogether pragmatic reasons.
Namely, is there any value in making transfers at this time of the season?
If you take a look at the big four transfers last time – those aforementioned two that saw Torres leave Anfield and Carroll and Suarez replace him – and the one that saw David Luiz bring his rather eccentric brand of defending to West London, with the notable exception of the controversial Uruguayan has any of these men delivered the goods?
Surely by their very nature transfers at this time of year mostly fall into the “take a punt” bracket. Teams that are struggling at the bottom of the league needing to strengthen their squads – such as QPR, who you have to say probably did the best out of all the teams, but the teams challenging for honours (and therefore the same teams that the fair play law is going to affect) largely feel its best to stay out of it. Unless, like Chelsea, you can get someone who’s contract is running out at a knockdown price before the inevitable scrum in the summer – but interestingly Gary Cahill is yet to start a game in the league for Chelsea, so maybe it was more with 2012-13 in mind anyway?
Getting someone at a knockdown price in 2012 is a lot different to spending £50m on a player that hasn’t performed yet since his transfer in 2011, and there can be no doubt that buying players in the summer, with all the opportunities that gives for pre-season training, team integration and so on, must be infinitely more preferable to managers than an unseemly squabble in January.
And viewed in that light, perhaps this £60m spend is much less about financial fair play than good, old fashioned, football sense?
No comments:
Post a Comment