COLUMNIST JOHN HOLMES

The enduring appeal of silly money

If today's papers are to be believed Sunderland are willing to fork out £5m+ for the latest 'soon to be signed' Kieran Richardson. Yet again, as with Nugent, Koumas, Bent and seemingly every other British based player this summer, the quoted price has far surpassed any sensible valuation of the player.

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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