From Jim Johnson :
Hi Myles,
A few thoughts on the transfer market.
Players coming to the end of contracts signed before the recent big Sky deal have lost their bargaining power because the market beneath them is so artificially inflated.
In no sense of the real world is Kyle Walker worth what Pep paid for him, in the same way that Mbappe is never worth the money that is being quoted.
This leaves Arsenal setting the future precedent for world class talent entering the final year of their contract.
Keep Alexis and let him go for free for the cost of replacing him is not worth the risk on future investment of a player who might not be as good. It will almost certainly mean that the big transfer fees will end up only between a few key players at the biggest world football brands.
Liverpool have reportedly slapped a huge £140m price tag on Coutinho to ward off Barcelona as it’s not in their interests to sell their best player with the Champs League upcoming.
Ultimately what this will probably mean is higher prices and more dodgy backhanders taking place with academy talent and first year promising pros.
As we have seen with the Arsenal deadwood, £9m is your best take-it-or-leave-it offer for the Perez’s and the Gibbs of this world.
I also predict clubs investing far more heavily in grassroots and youth talent and supplementing their squads with these types of players whilst looking to flesh out their squads with more Bosmans.
We will also see fewer long contracts, as is already the case in the lower leagues where promising talent will only sign on for a year at most in the hope of picking up a few extra quid a week by going up a tier.
Either way, I do think this is the beginning of the end of the transfer market as we know it.
Myles says:
I can’t see into future but reckon the biggest clubs will always make their own rules.
July and August are transfer speculation months.
That means more than 8 weeks of tedium for me.
Some transfers are sagas that look as if they’ll never end. So boring!
I like real games where something is at stake. Points, league places, getting through to the next round of a competition, that kinda stuff.
Agree on Kyle Walker but he’s a determined northern boy who may surprise us.
With the Mbappe saga, to this old rocker it’s becoming a bit like 5 record companies competing for a new rock group in the Seventies. There was a huge element of fear and loathing among executives.
Back then, signing a hot young group might cost a company £150,000.
But not signing them could cost you £25m in album sales.
In the meantime, August starts tomorrow and some big players will move before the 31st.
The Arsenal players will find it very weird playing UEFA League games on Thursday nights.
A first Premier League game on a Friday night will not help them either.
Arsenal v Leicester will be interesting.
My advice would be : Don’t lose to Leicester! You lost nine league games last season. That’s why you finished fifth.
(Spurs only lost six games.)