What comes first?

Just a few days ago, Oscar completed his move from Chelsea FC to Shanghai SIPG and a we were left asking the same question again- “What comes first? Passion and Sport or Money and wages?” If we take a look at the evolution of transfer market, the record transfer fees each year have moved in only one direction; UP! But the rate with which transfer fees have increased per year these days is unthinkable. Let’s have a look at the record transfer fees in/ from Britain with years (full list is here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progression_of_British_football_transfer_fee_record#Record_progression )

Willie Groves- £100- 1893
David Jack- £10,000- 1928
Len Shackleton- £20,500- 1948
Kevin Keegan- £500,000- 1977
Alan Shearer- £15,000,000- 1996
Juan Sebastián Verón- £28,100,000- 2001
Andriy Shevchenko- £30,800,000- 2006
Cristiano Ronaldo- £80,000,000- 2009
Gareth Bale- £85,300,000- 2013
Paul Pogba- £89,700,000- 2016
From 15 million in 1997 to almost 90 million in just 2016! Mesut Özil once said, “No player in worth more than 50 million”. Very true. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in reality. Transfer market is not about who is more skilled, but who is more “marketable” these days. Chinese league has now started paying obscene salaries to players from European leagues. But will this really help them develop football in their country? No. At the end of the day your position won’t depend on how many great players from Europe are playing in your league. As long as you don’t have a solid plan for developing your players, these staggering fees are immaterial.

Premier League is the league which started making these big-money signings frequently. But have they really gained anything from that apart from TRP and popularity? You all know the answer. Just have a look at England team’s performances in International competitions. At this point of time, no premier league club has a proper philosophy. They are not creating a team. They are trying to assemble it. Real Madrid is another example. They bought Kaká as a record transfer, benched him. Bought James , benched him. It is something I call a model of “buying” success.

So, the next question is why are clubs so much after selling their academy players and buying others instead? Because this increases a club’s net worth. Academy player is not something you have bought. He doesn’t have a transfer fee. That’s the reason clubs go for buying players. Sadly even clubs like Barcelona; renowned for their academy La Masia have to adapt to this spending culture to survive in this game of net worth. Hence signings like Arda and selling players like Halilovic’.

Unfortunately, this results in decreasing the price of money instead of increasing the worth of players. After the signing of Pogba Paul Scholes said, “For 89 million fee you want someone like Messi or Ronaldo who scores 50 goals a season.”  Clear enough right? In 1997, 15 million pounds got you Alan Shearer, one of the PL high scorers. Now a days it gets you peanuts.

To be a great club you don’t need staggering transfer fees or lucrative deals or obscene wages for every marketable player out there. You need to work on player development. A right blend of “home-grown” talent and some key signings depending upon your need and not budget is the key to success. Johan Cruyff’s dream team is a perfect example of this. Academy-grown talent like Guardiola and signings like Ronald Koeman!

Quoting Johan Cruyff- “In my opinion money is very important in football but it should always come second to the game. If money comes first, you’re doing it the wrong way round. Where that is concerned I cite the great teams from history: Ajax, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern, Milan and Manchester United. All their teams had a solid core that derived from their own youth teams, and players who have the club DNA inside them always bring something extra to the club. That’s why I don’t understand Premier League does so little about player development. Is the level of play really improved that much by spending all those billions? Not at all!”

In the end, “Why couldn’t you beat a richer club? I have never seen a bag of money scoring a goal!”

Sport is incomplete without passion. Will this money game and transfer saga ever end? Will passion take the first priority again? I don’t know. But Passion and Sport can never be a commodity and I hope it remains that way.