Money Madness
The football world is going crazy with China throwing money at footballers to go over there and help build the game. They are clearly making a concerted effort to become a major player in the worlds favourite sport, I say sport, football became a business many, many years ago.
China see football as a way of breaking down barriers, of brushing their human rights record under the table and building both political and business links with Europe and European countries. A Chinese consortium have just taken over AC Milan, a state-backed Chinese consortium want to take over Liverpool.
Watford have rejected a £33.35-million (€40m - AUS$59.47m - US$44.39m) bid from Shanghai SIPG for 27-year-old Nigerian journeyman striker Odion Ighalo, while Chelsea are paying a similar figure for 22-year-old Michy Batshuayi. Juventus and Tottenham, the only two other clubs in for him that he would realistically have joined only value him at a more realistic £25-million (€30m - AUS$44.61m - US$33.29m).
Former Liverpool and England centre-back Phil Thompson says his old club have vastly overpaid for Sadio Mane from Southampton. Manchester United consistently, in the last few years, have vastly overpaid for players, Luke Shaw was only worth half his fee, as was Marouane Fellaini. Despite a lavish spend they still finished below us proving it is not what you spend it is how you spend that matters.
More and more players it seems are demanding guarantees of first-team football. Batshuayi didn't want to sit on a bench and rotate with Harry Kane in the end so has quickly joined a club where he can be expectd to play ofr a title, get Champions League football and earn a high wage.
If a Premier League side comes in for a player his price immediately takes a hike, which makes selling a player in the market very restrictive, European clubs are not going to overpay for a player from the Premier League but they will happily have a Premier League club overpay to buy from them. That means a player can then only be sold to another Premier League club or you may end up taking a hit on his value. Thus the players clubs look to buy are not top drawer players, they are over hyped mediocrity.
The way around it is to buy young and develop which means convincing players they will develop with you and get first team football. However the accumulation of pints to stay in the riches of the Premier League will always come first and that means not taking risks blooding youngsters for many. Look at Alex Pritchard at WBA, he hardly got a kick.
Mauricio Pochettino has shown he can develop young players, not just play them, but develop them, which should be the basic requirement of any manager before you look at his team building skills. it seems too many now are managers and not coaches. That is fine if you get the coaches in under you who do the improving for you, but alas as we have seen time and time again, that doesn't happen.
Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham nave something to offer and that reputation will hopefully grow ahain with another successful season.
China see football as a way of breaking down barriers, of brushing their human rights record under the table and building both political and business links with Europe and European countries. A Chinese consortium have just taken over AC Milan, a state-backed Chinese consortium want to take over Liverpool.
Watford have rejected a £33.35-million (€40m - AUS$59.47m - US$44.39m) bid from Shanghai SIPG for 27-year-old Nigerian journeyman striker Odion Ighalo, while Chelsea are paying a similar figure for 22-year-old Michy Batshuayi. Juventus and Tottenham, the only two other clubs in for him that he would realistically have joined only value him at a more realistic £25-million (€30m - AUS$44.61m - US$33.29m).
Former Liverpool and England centre-back Phil Thompson says his old club have vastly overpaid for Sadio Mane from Southampton. Manchester United consistently, in the last few years, have vastly overpaid for players, Luke Shaw was only worth half his fee, as was Marouane Fellaini. Despite a lavish spend they still finished below us proving it is not what you spend it is how you spend that matters.
More and more players it seems are demanding guarantees of first-team football. Batshuayi didn't want to sit on a bench and rotate with Harry Kane in the end so has quickly joined a club where he can be expectd to play ofr a title, get Champions League football and earn a high wage.
If a Premier League side comes in for a player his price immediately takes a hike, which makes selling a player in the market very restrictive, European clubs are not going to overpay for a player from the Premier League but they will happily have a Premier League club overpay to buy from them. That means a player can then only be sold to another Premier League club or you may end up taking a hit on his value. Thus the players clubs look to buy are not top drawer players, they are over hyped mediocrity.
The way around it is to buy young and develop which means convincing players they will develop with you and get first team football. However the accumulation of pints to stay in the riches of the Premier League will always come first and that means not taking risks blooding youngsters for many. Look at Alex Pritchard at WBA, he hardly got a kick.
Mauricio Pochettino has shown he can develop young players, not just play them, but develop them, which should be the basic requirement of any manager before you look at his team building skills. it seems too many now are managers and not coaches. That is fine if you get the coaches in under you who do the improving for you, but alas as we have seen time and time again, that doesn't happen.
Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham nave something to offer and that reputation will hopefully grow ahain with another successful season.
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