EPL Cash and Carry

Football really is a funny old game, I would have promptly told you to take a long walk off a short peer if at the beginning of last season you told me that both Manchester clubs would have new managers, that two of the hottest properties in world football (Cavani and Falcao) would make the move to France and that Gareth Bale would be the subject of a world record transfer fee. I guess in football anything can happen and if this pre-season has taught us anything it’s to expect the unexpected.

But one question that recent events have brought to the forefront is whether the Premier League is still the force in world football that it once was?

With 7 Champions League finalists out of the last 9 finals England has always been a destination for some of the most critically acclaimed and competitive football on offer, but with top players like Ronaldo, Fabregas and now potentially Bale all leaving the EPL for Spain and major targets for the top four such as lewandowski, Cavani and Falcao all opting for moves elsewhere it does pose the question why?

Last season’s EPL was arguably the most cut and dry it had been for years, Manchester Utd had the title tied up early and all three teams had been doomed to relegation to the championship before the final day, a date the Sky Sports hype machine normally goes into overdrive for left many feeling heavily underwhelmed. Both City and Chelsea booted out of the champions league at the group stages and United humbled by Madrid in the knockout stages, perhaps English footballs boom period was over, its dominance reduced by the re-emergence of Germany and the supremacy of Ronaldo and Messi in Spain.

Of course both Spain and Germany have storied histories and traditions of dominating European football to rival our own with each nations clubs wining 13 and 7 CL titles respectively, so it’s not inconceivable to think that a young lad born in Wales that grew up playing for Southampton would be unaware of the draw the top clubs in Europe have. Madrid has that swagger about it that would be difficult for any young footballer not to be attracted to; in the past with Zidane, Beckham and Figo strutting their flair both on and off the pitch, to the current crop of galactico’s where Ronaldo rules the merchandising and marketing sector of modern day football. But how much of a factor does tradition and history play in the minds of today’s footballers when they are considering their future and which club it lies with? Well the cynic in all of us I’m sure says very little, its todays agent agenda driven culture that football has descended into where cash is king. I can’t imagine that a highly rated and extremely talented international footballer like Hulk dreamt as a young boy of playing in Russia, likewise Samuel Eto’o both of whom incidentally had been courted by English clubs.

But let’s be honest we’re not immune from this, Chelsea and Manchester City have been lining agents pockets and paying exaggerated over inflated transfer fees for years now but it still poses that questions, if the likes of our foreign bank rolled clubs cant attract the cream of Europe’s crop then why can France?

If Gareth Bale moves to Real Madrid there won’t be many logical football fans out there that will say he didn’t deserve it but the fee is incredible a now quoted 90 million plus a potential Madrid player or two is almost unthinkable when you consider that Charlton FC is up for sale for 40 million pounds.

Surely football can’t continue like this, its unsustainable and will ultimately lead to the bankruptcy of certain clubs, please see Portsmouth and Hearts for lesser examples of what happens when a rich person uses a football club as a play thing and gets bored or overspends.

In summary footballers of today in general are looking for that pay day, that big signing on fee and 10% for the agent, champions league football and playing for a club they have dreamed of since they were a boy which are both lines that get spouted far too often are overused, mainly fabricated myths. The tradition of Monaco as a club is not what drew Falcao from Spain it was the millions and millions pounds they were prepared to shove in his hand, they have little history of winning things and aren’t in this year’s CL.

Unfortunately Gareth Bale will leave Tottenham but will he really get what he’s looking for in Madrid that say Manchester couldn’t offer him?

I think people are over exaggerating the "fall" of the Premier League, while over the last few years English clubs haven't been as successful in Europe as they had been the few years before that it usually goes in cycles. Spain and Germany have periods where they've not had as much success in Europe, Italy used to dominate European football but have fallen by the wayside but as we have seen they rise again.

I don't think that England has lost its temptation, while Real Madrid and Barcelona have pulling power better than any other clubs in the world, that's pretty much it for Spain, England has 4 or 5 clubs who can attract the world's best players, Germany only really have Munich and at a push Dortmund who can attract players.

We've seen quite a lot of the top talent from Spain move to England in recent years, while Ronaldo, Fabregas and Alonso went in one direction, we've seen Silva, Mata, Yaya Toure, Negredo, Navas, Soldado and Aguero all move from Spanish clubs to English clubs. I'd argue that all of the top 5 in England have more pulling power than any of the Spanish clubs outside of the top 2, or any of the German clubs outside of the top 2, or any Italian sides.

I think it'd be interesting to see whether genuine, serious offers were put on the table from a Manchester United, Chelsea or Manchester City for players like Falcao or Cavani whether they'd choose the money of France for the level of club in England. While we've seen these players "choose" to move to France, as far as we're aware the offers from France were the only actual offers put on the table for them.

The same goes for Gareth Bale, I think it's certainly probable if Manchester United and Real Madrid both had an offer accepted that Bale would choose United, it's only that Madrid are the only club who are actually planning to bid for Bale.

With regards to top targets staying in the mainland I will tell you what I tell my friends every four years. It is a World Cup year. Top players and other good players don't want to come to England and try and adapt to our change of pace. It's no big deal or show of decline for the league. It's just vain players being, well, vain.

Just look World Cup year transfer windows:

Summer 2005 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_football_transfers_summer_2005

Summer 2009 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_football_transfers_summer_2009

Very good point that, whilst top players who compete with other top players may want to stay in the country they are either most likely to be watched by their international boss or know they have succeeded in. Thus, why move here? Soldado actually has nothing to lose as he isnt rated by Del Bosque anyway.

To be fair, he was their main forward at the Confederations Cup so I suppose he is risking losing out his place for the World Cup. You'd expect at least one of Llorente, Negredo, Soldado, Villa or Torres to not be picked so it's a big risk for all of them who have moved clubs, including the first three who have moved countries.