The total spend for the summer period was up 33% on the same period 2010, so it would be spurious to make claims about Premier League clubs tightening belts. And, to be sure, the league has seen some stellar names move during the summer with Aguero and Mata coming in, Nasri moving north and Fabregas moving home. But the usual frenetic deals that come with 31 August just didn't materialise. Maybe we were spoilt with January's transfer deadline day when the world seemed to go mad and Chelsea dropped £50million on Torres with Liverpool taking £15million out of the brown paper bag before passing on the remainder to Newcastle for Andy Carroll. So why was yesterday such a let down?
The two most noticeable spenders outside of Manchester City have been Manchester United and Liverpool, two clubs who have never shied away from big numbers on big names. Summer 2006 saw Liverpool lay out £25million for Fernando Torres. 31 August 2008 brought us the £30.5million Berbatov deal. January 2011 brought us the Carroll and Suarez double header. This summer though marked them out as the two clubs most willing to spend big money on youth. And while Jordan Henderson may have commanded a £20million price tag he won't command £100,000 a week wages. Phil Jones might be the next John Terry but he won't be earning even half of £170,000 a week wages of the England captain. Luis Suarez has scored 6 times as many goals as Fernando Torres since their respective moves in January 2011. Yet Torres earns almost 3 times the £70,000 a week wages that Suarez commands at Liverpool. And this is where the crux of the issue lay. The aggressive 'get my man at any cost' transfer policy employed first at Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and then more recently Man City has led to a level of super contracts for above average players that a lot of teams would have to smash their salary caps to match. So who's going to sign these players once considered worth all the riches they were lavished with and now not even considered worth a squad number?
The effects of these contracts were evident in the deals that did happen yesterday as much as they were in those that didn't. It is a twisted state of affairs when England midfielder Scott Parker had to agree to a £10,000 a week wage drop to move UP a division, due to his £70,000 a week contract at West Ham. Similarly Mikel Arteta had to drop from his £80,000 a week salary at Everton, a team who are having to sell players in order to fund loans, to £70,000 a week at Arsenal. Wage drops were a strong theme yesterday with moves often pushed through on the strength of players agreeing to pay cuts. For most players at most teams the amount needed to wipe off a salary to push through a move is relatively small in the grand scheme of things. Man CIty, though, are a special club these days. And their transfer policy has brought it's own special problems.
Over recent years City have handed out £90,000+ a week multi-year contracts to Jolean Lescott, James Milner, Emmanual Adebayor, Craig Bellamy, Wayne Bridge, Gareth Barry and Roque Santa Cruz, not to mention the monsterous contract handed to Carlos Tevez in 2009. All of these players, if they haven't moved on already, are either surplus to requirements (Bridge) are on the verge of being so with the wealth of new players at Eastlands. These are all top flight players with years of premier league experience between them. Certainly there wouldn't be a lack of clubs willing to take them. Tottenham were succesful in taking Adebayor on loan. Real Betis have made the most of the situation and taken Roque Santa Cruz on loan, a player who would have been considered out of their league in recent years. Bellamy went to Liverpool for a free, but only after City cancelled his contract and paid him off. There is no doubt in my mind that Carlos Tevez would be looking for a new house in Madrid, Barcelona or Milan today if it wasn't for the huge £250,000 a week contract he signed two years ago. No team is going to match that on top of a £50million transfer fee. As such he is currently the worlds highest paid bench warmer. It's widely understood when you sign for City that compensation for being so well paid compared to other clubs is that you could quickly go from belle of the ball to someone's understudy. Just ask James Milner, the £26million summer signing last year. This leaves City and their players in an interesting predicament. Stay, be happy with your role and become a very rich bit part, or accept you have to earn 50% less at a Villa, Tottenham or Everton and be a key player.
With UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules quickly riding over the horizon clubs we may see a game of brinksmanship between the Man City players and owners. City will have to cut potentially hundreds of thousands a week of their wage bill. If the fringe players won't take a paycut voluntarily then we may see a lot of free transfers for players who have been paid off by a club that spent over £150million on them during the last three years. Their loss will undoubtedly be the rest of the Premier League's gain.
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