Rob W 0 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Euro no match for the pound There can be only one conclusion after another summer of hectic transfer activity across Europe: The Premiership is the richest league in the world By Glenn Moore, Football Editor Published: 02 September 2005 From the high plains of Castille, across the Rhône valley to the far distant Ukraine, the most welcome sentence in European football this summer was: "An English club is interested." When the summer transfer window was forced shut on Wednesday night, with the likes of Liverpool and Everton still desperately trying to squeeze one last deal through it, Premiership clubs had spent a staggering £235m. So much for the belief that, post-Bosman, the transfer market would collapse. Around half of this expenditure has been on players from overseas, equivalent to the entire spending, internal and external, of La Liga or Serie A clubs and well in excess of that spent by Ligue 1 and Bundesliga teams. Of the 36 deals of £5m or more, 15 were made by English clubs, eight by Italian and Spanish, four by French and one German. While some coaches could only weep as their best players were lured to the promised land others overhauled their team with the proceeds. That was Gérard Houllier's response when the Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas dragged £26m out of Chelsea for the ludicrously overpriced Michael Essien, the summer's biggest single deal. The former Liverpool manager laid out £10.5m on the splendidly named Fred from Brazilian club Cruzeiro, and Tiago, the Norwegian striker John Carew and French midfielder Bruno Pedrettri. Lyon should be stronger, not weaker. The same tale is repeated across Europe. On Wednesday morning Newcastle completed the £17m purchase of Michael Owen; on Wednesday evening Real Madrid spent it on Seville defender Sergio Ramos. Indeed, La Liga seems to be underwritten by Premiership cash. "Italy and Spain have lost their spending power and England is now the market," says Colin Gordon, a player turned agent. "If a player needs to move his first thought will be England. Most of the buyers are here." Jon Smith, of First Artist, concurs. "The English league has been the engine room of Europe for three years," he says. "I don't see that changing unless the EU breaks up the next TV deal." Alan Switzer, from the Sports Business Group at Deloittes, has the hard facts. "The Premiership is biggest earner of revenue in Europe and the gap between them and the others is at record levels. [in 2003-04 Premiership clubs earned £66.3m each; next highest are Italian clubs with £43m.] That means they can pay big fees and wages. They pay the highest wages in Europe but at 61 per cent [2003-04] the ratio of wages to turnover is lower than in Spain, France and Italy." Why are English clubs so rich? "It is a combination of things," Switzer says. "TV, merchandising, sponsorship and gate money. The current broadcasting deal, though slightly lower, is still the best in Europe. The Premiership attracts more fans than anyone except the Bundesliga, but ticket prices are much higher so there is more cash per fan. They also do well commercially. There is no reason this cannot continue." As a consequence, medium-sized clubs are able to be big players in the market, outbidding foreign teams of greater renown. Deportivo La Coruña have been major players in the Champions' League in recent years, reaching the semi-finals in 2004. Yet they sold key players to Newcastle (Albert Luque, £9.5m ) and Birmingham (Walter Pandiani, £3m). PSV Eindhoven, last season's semi-finalists, may have expected to lose Park Ji-Sung to Manchester United but it must have been a blow to see Wilfred Bouma head for Aston Villa and Lee Young-Pyo join Tottenham. Some of the biggest names moved for free but Gordon would not advise clubs to agree too many such deals. "You don't get many bargains. You've still got to pay the wages and invariably if a player is free something has gone wrong. Either he's been cute and let his contract run out or the club doesn't want him." Patrick Kluivert, anyone? There is one caveat when it comes to acclaiming the Premiership's muscle. The stellar names, Zinedine Zidane, Robinho, et al, still seem to elude it. Ronaldinho yesterday demonstrated this when he signed an extension to his contract which ties him to Barcelona until 2010. His buy-out clause is £85.5m, small change for Abramovich. But after he was turned down by Andrei Shevchencko, David Trezeguet and Steven Gerrard this summer, it seems there are still some people whose heads are not even turned by the sentence, "Chelsea are interested". I do want to go to Chelsea: The summer's big moves across Europe TRANSFERS OVER £5m £26m M Essien Lyon-Chelsea £21m S Wright-Phillips Man City-Chelsea £18m A Gilardino Parma-Milan £18m S Ramos Seville-R Madrid £17m M Owen R Madrid-N'castle £16.5m Robinho Santos-R Madrid £14m J Baptista Seville-R Madrid £13.7m P Vieira Arsenal-Juventus £12m W Samuel R Madrid-Inter £10.5m Fred Cruzeiro-Lyon £10.2m S Frey Parma-Fiorentina £10m A Hleb Stuttgart-Arsenal £9.5m A Luque Deportivo-N'castle £8m D Villa R Zaragoza-Valencia £8m A del Horno Bilbao-Chelsea £7.5m M Petrov Wolfsburg-A Madrid £7.5m D Pizarro Udinese-Inter £7.5m A Yakubu P'mouth-Boro £7.2m L Toni Palermo-Fiorentina £7m P Crouch So'ton-Liverpool £7m J Jenas N'castle-Tottenham £6.5m M Baros Liverpool-A Villa £6.5m S Parker Chelsea-N'castle £6.25m M Jankulovski Udinese-Milan £6m J Kronkamp AZ Alk-Villarreal £6m J Reina Villarreal-Liverpool £5.8m B Kalou Auxerre-Paris SG £5.6m M Sissoko Valencia-Liverpool £5.5m S Makinwa Atalanta-Palermo £5.5m Tiago Chelsea-Lyon £5.5m Miquel Benfica-Valencia £5.4m V Ismael Bremen-B Munich £5.3m M Kezman Chelsea-A Madrid £5m C Bellamy Newcastle-Blackburn £5m J Carew Besiktas-Lyon £5m P Koldrup Udinese-Everton BIGGEST SPENDERS Top 10 clubs this summer 1 Chelsea £55m 2 Real Madrid £48.5m 3 Lyon £44m 4 Newcastle £33m 5 Milan £24.25m 6 Internazionale £19.5m 7 Liverpool £18.6m 8 Fiorentina £17.4m 9 Juventus £13.7m 10 Valencia £13.5m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Euro no match for the poundThere can be only one conclusion after another summer of hectic transfer activity across Europe: The Premiership is the richest league in the world By Glenn Moore, Football Editor Published: 02 September 2005 From the high plains of Castille, across the Rhône valley to the far distant Ukraine, the most welcome sentence in European football this summer was: "An English club is interested." When the summer transfer window was forced shut on Wednesday night, with the likes of Liverpool and Everton still desperately trying to squeeze one last deal through it, Premiership clubs had spent a staggering £235m. So much for the belief that, post-Bosman, the transfer market would collapse. Around half of this expenditure has been on players from overseas, equivalent to the entire spending, internal and external, of La Liga or Serie A clubs and well in excess of that spent by Ligue 1 and Bundesliga teams. Of the 36 deals of £5m or more, 15 were made by English clubs, eight by Italian and Spanish, four by French and one German. While some coaches could only weep as their best players were lured to the promised land others overhauled their team with the proceeds. That was Gérard Houllier's response when the Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas dragged £26m out of Chelsea for the ludicrously overpriced Michael Essien, the summer's biggest single deal. The former Liverpool manager laid out £10.5m on the splendidly named Fred from Brazilian club Cruzeiro, and Tiago, the Norwegian striker John Carew and French midfielder Bruno Pedrettri. Lyon should be stronger, not weaker. The same tale is repeated across Europe. On Wednesday morning Newcastle completed the £17m purchase of Michael Owen; on Wednesday evening Real Madrid spent it on Seville defender Sergio Ramos. Indeed, La Liga seems to be underwritten by Premiership cash. "Italy and Spain have lost their spending power and England is now the market," says Colin Gordon, a player turned agent. "If a player needs to move his first thought will be England. Most of the buyers are here." Jon Smith, of First Artist, concurs. "The English league has been the engine room of Europe for three years," he says. "I don't see that changing unless the EU breaks up the next TV deal." Alan Switzer, from the Sports Business Group at Deloittes, has the hard facts. "The Premiership is biggest earner of revenue in Europe and the gap between them and the others is at record levels. [in 2003-04 Premiership clubs earned £66.3m each; next highest are Italian clubs with £43m.] That means they can pay big fees and wages. They pay the highest wages in Europe but at 61 per cent [2003-04] the ratio of wages to turnover is lower than in Spain, France and Italy." Why are English clubs so rich? "It is a combination of things," Switzer says. "TV, merchandising, sponsorship and gate money. The current broadcasting deal, though slightly lower, is still the best in Europe. The Premiership attracts more fans than anyone except the Bundesliga, but ticket prices are much higher so there is more cash per fan. They also do well commercially. There is no reason this cannot continue." As a consequence, medium-sized clubs are able to be big players in the market, outbidding foreign teams of greater renown. Deportivo La Coruña have been major players in the Champions' League in recent years, reaching the semi-finals in 2004. Yet they sold key players to Newcastle (Albert Luque, £9.5m ) and Birmingham (Walter Pandiani, £3m). PSV Eindhoven, last season's semi-finalists, may have expected to lose Park Ji-Sung to Manchester United but it must have been a blow to see Wilfred Bouma head for Aston Villa and Lee Young-Pyo join Tottenham. Some of the biggest names moved for free but Gordon would not advise clubs to agree too many such deals. "You don't get many bargains. You've still got to pay the wages and invariably if a player is free something has gone wrong. Either he's been cute and let his contract run out or the club doesn't want him." Patrick Kluivert, anyone? There is one caveat when it comes to acclaiming the Premiership's muscle. The stellar names, Zinedine Zidane, Robinho, et al, still seem to elude it. Ronaldinho yesterday demonstrated this when he signed an extension to his contract which ties him to Barcelona until 2010. His buy-out clause is £85.5m, small change for Abramovich. But after he was turned down by Andrei Shevchencko, David Trezeguet and Steven Gerrard this summer, it seems there are still some people whose heads are not even turned by the sentence, "Chelsea are interested". I do want to go to Chelsea: The summer's big moves across Europe TRANSFERS OVER £5m £26m M Essien Lyon-Chelsea £21m S Wright-Phillips Man City-Chelsea £18m A Gilardino Parma-Milan £18m S Ramos Seville-R Madrid £17m M Owen R Madrid-N'castle £16.5m Robinho Santos-R Madrid £14m J Baptista Seville-R Madrid £13.7m P Vieira Arsenal-Juventus £12m W Samuel R Madrid-Inter £10.5m Fred Cruzeiro-Lyon £10.2m S Frey Parma-Fiorentina £10m A Hleb Stuttgart-Arsenal £9.5m A Luque Deportivo-N'castle £8m D Villa R Zaragoza-Valencia £8m A del Horno Bilbao-Chelsea £7.5m M Petrov Wolfsburg-A Madrid £7.5m D Pizarro Udinese-Inter £7.5m A Yakubu P'mouth-Boro £7.2m L Toni Palermo-Fiorentina £7m P Crouch So'ton-Liverpool £7m J Jenas N'castle-Tottenham £6.5m M Baros Liverpool-A Villa £6.5m S Parker Chelsea-N'castle £6.25m M Jankulovski Udinese-Milan £6m J Kronkamp AZ Alk-Villarreal £6m J Reina Villarreal-Liverpool £5.8m B Kalou Auxerre-Paris SG £5.6m M Sissoko Valencia-Liverpool £5.5m S Makinwa Atalanta-Palermo £5.5m Tiago Chelsea-Lyon £5.5m Miquel Benfica-Valencia £5.4m V Ismael Bremen-B Munich £5.3m M Kezman Chelsea-A Madrid £5m C Bellamy Newcastle-Blackburn £5m J Carew Besiktas-Lyon £5m P Koldrup Udinese-Everton BIGGEST SPENDERS Top 10 clubs this summer 1 Chelsea £55m 2 Real Madrid £48.5m 3 Lyon £44m 4 Newcastle £33m 5 Milan £24.25m 6 Internazionale £19.5m 7 Liverpool £18.6m 8 Fiorentina £17.4m 9 Juventus £13.7m 10 Valencia £13.5m 27043[/snapback] Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob W 0 Posted September 2, 2005 Author Share Posted September 2, 2005 no need to quote ffs................. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 no need to quote ffs................. 27047[/snapback] Just what I was thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zico martin 89 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman? 27045[/snapback] are you real? ahem essien ahem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob W 0 Posted September 2, 2005 Author Share Posted September 2, 2005 "Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman?" yes - Roman Abramovitch's £ 26 million............................. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daishi 0 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 "Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman?" yes - Roman Abramovitch's £ 26 million............................. 27053[/snapback] Yeah, getting £26m for Essien will have helped. saying that though, I wish we'd paid £10m for a bloke called Fred. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zico martin 89 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 "Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman?" yes - Roman Abramovitch's £ 26 million............................. 27053[/snapback] Yeah, getting £26m for Essien will have helped. saying that though, I wish we'd paid £10m for a bloke called Fred. 27070[/snapback] I agree! can you imagine how many shirts we could have sold with fred's name on the back? quality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob W 0 Posted September 2, 2005 Author Share Posted September 2, 2005 We already pay a guy called fred several million a year............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman? 27045[/snapback] are you real? ahem essien ahem 27050[/snapback] You can understand him missing the Essien move though, it's not like it was a high profile transfer or anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman? 27045[/snapback] are you real? ahem essien ahem 27050[/snapback] You can understand him missing the Essien move though, it's not like it was a high profile transfer or anything. 27086[/snapback] And the other £18m? BTW, You're ace! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 no need to quote ffs................. 27047[/snapback] Just what I was thinking. 27049[/snapback] Just what you did. Oh, so did I. BTW, nice unprovoked attack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 come on alex....I can see you're thinking up something! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 THE SUSPENSE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 DO IT MAN!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 no need to quote ffs................. 27047[/snapback] Just what I was thinking. 27049[/snapback] Just what you did. Oh, so did I. BTW, nice unprovoked attack. 27106[/snapback] I just thought it was a bit unneccessary to re-quote the whole original post, as did Rob evidently. You're a bit touchy today aren't you? Can we expect another 'Goodbye Cruel World' type thread or are they reserved for your alter-ego? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 43842 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Is AF Toontastic's first bona fide diva? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Is AF Toontastic's first bona fide diva? 27116[/snapback] No, Ketsbaia's Mobile got there before him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 no need to quote ffs................. 27047[/snapback] Just what I was thinking. 27049[/snapback] Just what you did. Oh, so did I. BTW, nice unprovoked attack. 27106[/snapback] I just thought it was a bit unneccessary to re-quote the whole original post, as did Rob evidently. You're a bit touchy today aren't you? Can we expect another 'Goodbye Cruel World' type thread or are they reserved for your alter-ego? 27115[/snapback] I'm in a super mood today actually! I have tickets for the cricket at the Oval on Thursday, the sun is shining, and Michael Owen is a Newcastle player! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman? 27045[/snapback] are you real? ahem essien ahem 27050[/snapback] You can understand him missing the Essien move though, it's not like it was a high profile transfer or anything. 27086[/snapback] And the other £18m? BTW, You're ace! 27100[/snapback] UEFA run a tournament called the Champions League, you may have heard of it. Lyon have done quite well in it in recent years and apparently it generates a bit of cash. How's that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman? 27045[/snapback] are you real? ahem essien ahem 27050[/snapback] You can understand him missing the Essien move though, it's not like it was a high profile transfer or anything. 27086[/snapback] And the other £18m? BTW, You're ace! 27100[/snapback] UEFA run a tournament called the Champions League, you may have heard of it. Lyon have done quite well in it in recent years and apparently it generates a bit of cash. How's that? 27123[/snapback] But they have a very big debt from the 80's as a result of stadium overspend. They were also the target of a rather large UEFA inquiry after some less than transparent transfer dealings in the mid 90's. I had heard that the Essien money would only just keep them out of serious shit, hence my question! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman? 27045[/snapback] are you real? ahem essien ahem 27050[/snapback] You can understand him missing the Essien move though, it's not like it was a high profile transfer or anything. 27086[/snapback] And the other £18m? BTW, You're ace! 27100[/snapback] UEFA run a tournament called the Champions League, you may have heard of it. Lyon have done quite well in it in recent years and apparently it generates a bit of cash. How's that? 27123[/snapback] But they have a very big debt from the 80's as a result of stadium overspend. They were also the target of a rather large UEFA inquiry after some less than transparent transfer dealings in the mid 90's. I had heard that the Essien money would only just keep them out of serious shit, hence my question! 27128[/snapback] If you'd said that originally, I might have believed it wasn't the result of a quick bit of research on t'internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Where do Lyon get their money? Do they have a rich chairman? 27045[/snapback] are you real? ahem essien ahem 27050[/snapback] You can understand him missing the Essien move though, it's not like it was a high profile transfer or anything. 27086[/snapback] And the other £18m? BTW, You're ace! 27100[/snapback] UEFA run a tournament called the Champions League, you may have heard of it. Lyon have done quite well in it in recent years and apparently it generates a bit of cash. How's that? 27123[/snapback] But they have a very big debt from the 80's as a result of stadium overspend. They were also the target of a rather large UEFA inquiry after some less than transparent transfer dealings in the mid 90's. I had heard that the Essien money would only just keep them out of serious shit, hence my question! 27128[/snapback] If you'd said that originally, I might have believed it wasn't the result of a quick bit of research on t'internet. 27136[/snapback] HAHAHA. I made it up. Hoo hoo hoo hee hee!! HA HA HA!. Sorry dude, I never thought you'd fall for it!!!! Why can't we just be friends!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Jesus wept Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asprilla 96 Posted September 2, 2005 Share Posted September 2, 2005 Jesus wept 27189[/snapback] Aww! If I was more evil, I'd milk it. FFS, though you've given me a hard time for not much more than sticking up for Souness and Shepherd and having a small flounce. You can either accept that I'm part of the forum, or look like a sourpuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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