COLUMNIST JOHN HOLMES
The enduring appeal of silly money
Comments (4) : A quick summary of the Richardson's career amounts to a good season with a relegated team led to a smattering of England apperances in which he looked ok but no more. Followed this up with an increasingly ineffectual season as a United squad player matched by increasingly ineffectual and sparse appearances for England. Personally I'd be happy for us to sign him, I think his drop in effectiveness is mostly down to a lack of football but it remains galling to have to pay such ridiculous fees for unremarkable players.
I wrote an article at the start of the summer arguing we shouldn't enter the new economy of silly money and only pay reasonable prices but it's becoming an increasingly untenable position. Nobody knows if Moyes has signings up his sleeve, how much he really wanted Nugent and Koumas and whether in fact he will get Richardson. What is certain however, is that he is refusing to be held to ransom and prefers instead to keep shopping around for a good buy. Kevin Sparke argued a game of brinkmanship was taking place where we, the buyer, will get our good price if we resist blinking first. I'm starting to lose faith in this though. The limited activity in the transfer market and the big-spending of the active clubs seems not to be abating and I'm increasingly coming to the belief that prices are not going to fall, that we have truly entered a new phase in English football where the market has reasserted itself at a genuine, not artificially inflated, high.
I do not doubt that Moyes will get good performances out of the squad he has and I do not believe we are as short of numbers as some portray us, but however you look at it we have clear deficiencies in defensive cover and midfield creativity and pace. I don't predict apocalyptic European performances if we fail to purchase anyone else of note but I do feel we're fast approaching the point when something has to give. Either Moyes (and others like him such as Coppell, O'Neil and Hughes) or the sellers must face up to a reality over the true value of players. My own faith is waning that we will be able to stand apart and not buy into this money train. Perhaps the time has come for Moyes to accept things have changed, bite the bullet and decide on the men he truly wants and go for them at the best price he can get. The shopping list was evidently long at the start of the summer with many options to choose from, but surely at some point those options will run out and we will be left to face the consequences.
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An average premiership player costs 4-6M and that’s that, add £2M more for a striker and push it up to £8-10 for a half decent player. A proven player who scores goals and it’s £15M plus.
The other side of the coin of course is that the income to clubs has increased as well with new TV deals, merchandising opportunities, international markets, etc.
These are facts that every club has to except. We need to get over ourselves thinking that £4M is a fair price it’s not, it’s below market rate. In the current market Nugent IS completely worth £6M and I think we’ve made a huge mistake by not snapping him up, he’s a talented player, a proven goalscorer and he’d run himself into the ground for the Blues.
Baines is worth £5-6M too - proven himself in his position in the premiership.
Smith is clearly worth at least £6M (his price checked by injury, temperament issues) and whilst
Koumas and Richardson are less clear cut, they should both be c.£4M players.
Spurs (who are our closest rivals in terms of teams able to crack the big 4) are clearly showing the way - backing up success in the league with class signings and proper cash. We need to do the same if we’re going to have any chance of competing with them, nevermind staying ahead of Newcastle, Villa, Bolton and co.
you have to look at the market from a sellers point of view, for example god forbid if we had to sell timmy or arteta we would be holding out for the 8-10 mil bracket easily for proven prem players, and if the red shite can throw 11 mil at an u21 dutche babbel then arteta must be nearer the 13 million mark, you cant tell me moyse would let any of these two go for " sensible money " It is frustrating that a big club like EFC can no longer compete in the transfer market but it seems to be a reality.
fingers crossed bill and moysey can prove me wrong
The second point was that I’m also not convinced that our current inactivity is down to an inability to cope. I feel that if Moyes had really wanted Nugent we would have stumped up the cash. Obviously I’m not saying the same would be true of Torres or Bent but I feel that at the moment our inactivity on players who seemed destined for us is more to do with Moyes refusal to be taken for a ride than a sheer lack of funds.
I’m not giving up hope just yet on us being able to pay a sensible price for our man. But I do agree the days of £3m for a solid Premiership player are probably coming to an end
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1 Posted 13/07/2007 at 09:43:24
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The whole notion of "our valuation of the player did not meet the seller’s" just doesn’t wash any more; this was always quite a contentious attitude to have (since when has a buying club’s valuation of a player EVER matched the selling club’s valuation??) and as we’ve seen so far in this window, so many mid table clubs have more money almost than they know what to do with (West Ham/Portsmouth being cases in point) and seem willing and able to outbid us on pretty much everyone. When a newly promoted club starts outbidding us for players’ services we know things have changed significantly in the market.
Personally I think the Nugent episode was a crying shame. It was so saddening to see a player desperately wanting to come to our club, rebutting Sunderland, and avoiding making a decision over Portsmouth for as long as he possibly could, only to discover we refused to budge from our frankly unrealistic valuation in the current climate. Sure, he’s never kicked a ball in the premiership, and sure, the Koumas situation was almost identical, but if someone of Richardson’s level is sold for 5.5 million the both Nugent and Koumas would appear to have been bought for a song.
Its nice to have principals and to refuse to get pillaged on prices but if we want to have a good run on all fronts we’re going to have to cough up for a two or three more quality players or pay the price.