The ones that got away: Cavani, Benzema, Neymar and Bale are not coming to a Premier League club near you Photo: GETTY IMAGES
You can't always get what you want
Currently the 20 Premier League clubs share television payments of £1.3bn a year, but that will rise to at least £2.5bn for the three seasons from 2016-17. Simply but earthily put, every club now has 'eff off' money - the ability to resist offers for players they do not want to sell unless the offers are inordinate. Everton told Chelsea to do one over John Stones as did West Bromwich Albion to Tottenham over Saido Berahino and Southampton to Tottenham over Victor Wanyama. Even formal transfer requests making a comeback years after player candour seemed to be facing extinction could not force clubs to part with assets they would rather keep.
Tottenham have had a third bid rejected for Saido Berahino
It's a seller's market
Something that Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, seemed only to appreciate when making Manchester United sweat over Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov or ensuring that Real Madrid paid top whack for Luka Modric and Gareth Bale. But trying to drive a hard bargain by stalling for time when purchasing a player from a well-run Premier League rival just doesn't work any more. Yes, you can nail a virtually potless Leeds United to the floor for Paul Robinson and Aaron Lennon more than a decade ago, but you are simply deluding yourself if you believe the same hard-nosed, wheeler-dealer, 'play it my way or I'll walk away' approach is practical. Had they met the asking price for a player they wanted, Tottenham would have got their man. By trying to play the old game of one-upmanship and Call My Bluff, Spurs are left with a gaping hole in their squad.
Real Madrid cannot stage manage everything
The contrasting non est mea culpa statements released by Real Madrid and Manchester United on Tuesday to try to control the narrative over the failure of David de Gea's transfer raised more questions than they answered though Real's was much the most self-serving. Whether or not they jibbed on the deal at the last moment because their concerns over paying a fee for a player who could join them for free in 10 months or whether they were spooked by their fans' support for Keylor Navas and ambivalence towards the former Atletico goalkeeper or even if there was an administrative cock-up, it again emphasises why leaving things so late is fraught with danger. But Real under Florentino Perez are addicted to their self-mythologising as the ultimate transfer market masters and their desire to present themselves as 'winning' the deal by cavilling over the price and delaying to give themselves a dramatic late, late signing to present ultimately cost them dear.
The Premier League is full of Herberts
Well, we knew that already but specifically the clubs, thanks to the TV deal and the phenomenal global marketing success, are now Europe's Stan and Pam Herbert, the Black Country characters played by Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke, who are "considerably richer than you". Only a handful of elite Champions League clubs - Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain - have greater spending power than a club making its Premier League debut. European Cup winners with rich histories and stellar pedigrees - Ajax, Hamburg, Benfica - cannot compete with the English nouveau riche. Whether this is good for European football is by-the-by; it cannot be good for the long-term health of English football if a club can raid Europe for its middle-ranking talent rather than developing its own. With yet more money due in 2016-17, this short-termism will be impossible to shift.
Quality deficit
Even after Chelsea's signing of Pedro, a World Cup winner, the ranks of the Premier League's stock of 'Galacticos' or their less-hyped predecessor category 'world-class players' has barely been swelled by the £864,000,000 jamboree. Raheem Sterling may well become a world-class player if, by that, we mean someone who would get into a 23-man squad to play Mars and so might Anthony Martial, Memphis Depay and possibly Kevin de Bruyne of this summer's movers. But they're not there yet which leaves us with Bastian Schweinsteiger, fitness permitting, to sit alongside Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Eden Hazard, David Silva, Alexis Sanchez and De Gea with hopes that Philippe Coutinho, Ross Barkley and Stones can join them. Still, never mind the quality, feel the width.
Who you going to call? Jorge Mendes
On summer transfer deadline day last year Manchester United, in need of a striker, turned to a Jorge Mendes client at Monaco, Radamel Falcao.This year with an even more pressing need for a forward they again turned to a Mendes client at Monaco and paid an eye-watering £36 million for a teenager who has played 52 professional matches. That means Mendes has provided Manchester United with their last two No 9s. If it is true that Tottenham balked at a 20m Euro asking price earlier in the summer and Manchester United have succeeded with a bid of two and half times that size, it does make one wonder how much their procrastination over the summer is costing them. And we should remind them that for every spectacular profit they have made on a Mendes client - Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps still on De Gea - significant losses have been incurred on Anderson, Bebe, Nani and Angel Di Maria.
It's a seller's market
Something that Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman, seemed only to appreciate when making Manchester United sweat over Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov or ensuring that Real Madrid paid top whack for Luka Modric and Gareth Bale. But trying to drive a hard bargain by stalling for time when purchasing a player from a well-run Premier League rival just doesn't work any more. Yes, you can nail a virtually potless Leeds United to the floor for Paul Robinson and Aaron Lennon more than a decade ago, but you are simply deluding yourself if you believe the same hard-nosed, wheeler-dealer, 'play it my way or I'll walk away' approach is practical. Had they met the asking price for a player they wanted, Tottenham would have got their man. By trying to play the old game of one-upmanship and Call My Bluff, Spurs are left with a gaping hole in their squad.
Real Madrid cannot stage manage everything
The contrasting non est mea culpa statements released by Real Madrid and Manchester United on Tuesday to try to control the narrative over the failure of David de Gea's transfer raised more questions than they answered though Real's was much the most self-serving. Whether or not they jibbed on the deal at the last moment because their concerns over paying a fee for a player who could join them for free in 10 months or whether they were spooked by their fans' support for Keylor Navas and ambivalence towards the former Atletico goalkeeper or even if there was an administrative cock-up, it again emphasises why leaving things so late is fraught with danger. But Real under Florentino Perez are addicted to their self-mythologising as the ultimate transfer market masters and their desire to present themselves as 'winning' the deal by cavilling over the price and delaying to give themselves a dramatic late, late signing to present ultimately cost them dear.
The Premier League is full of Herberts
Well, we knew that already but specifically the clubs, thanks to the TV deal and the phenomenal global marketing success, are now Europe's Stan and Pam Herbert, the Black Country characters played by Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke, who are "considerably richer than you". Only a handful of elite Champions League clubs - Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain - have greater spending power than a club making its Premier League debut. European Cup winners with rich histories and stellar pedigrees - Ajax, Hamburg, Benfica - cannot compete with the English nouveau riche. Whether this is good for European football is by-the-by; it cannot be good for the long-term health of English football if a club can raid Europe for its middle-ranking talent rather than developing its own. With yet more money due in 2016-17, this short-termism will be impossible to shift.
Quality deficit
Even after Chelsea's signing of Pedro, a World Cup winner, the ranks of the Premier League's stock of 'Galacticos' or their less-hyped predecessor category 'world-class players' has barely been swelled by the £864,000,000 jamboree. Raheem Sterling may well become a world-class player if, by that, we mean someone who would get into a 23-man squad to play Mars and so might Anthony Martial, Memphis Depay and possibly Kevin de Bruyne of this summer's movers. But they're not there yet which leaves us with Bastian Schweinsteiger, fitness permitting, to sit alongside Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Eden Hazard, David Silva, Alexis Sanchez and De Gea with hopes that Philippe Coutinho, Ross Barkley and Stones can join them. Still, never mind the quality, feel the width.
Who you going to call? Jorge Mendes
On summer transfer deadline day last year Manchester United, in need of a striker, turned to a Jorge Mendes client at Monaco, Radamel Falcao.This year with an even more pressing need for a forward they again turned to a Mendes client at Monaco and paid an eye-watering £36 million for a teenager who has played 52 professional matches. That means Mendes has provided Manchester United with their last two No 9s. If it is true that Tottenham balked at a 20m Euro asking price earlier in the summer and Manchester United have succeeded with a bid of two and half times that size, it does make one wonder how much their procrastination over the summer is costing them. And we should remind them that for every spectacular profit they have made on a Mendes client - Cristiano Ronaldo, perhaps still on De Gea - significant losses have been incurred on Anderson, Bebe, Nani and Angel Di Maria.
Super-agent Jorge Mendes (left) held the key to Chelsea's Radamel Falcao deal
The Telegraph
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