Don't mock City spending
Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 7:12 amInteresting article from Martin Samuel. Highlights some of the flaws in Platini's plans to control spending. Not sure about his view on Yaya, though.
Don't mock Manchester City, they may not be as silly as you think...
Kamikaze spending, Sir Alex Ferguson called it, in one of those soundbites destined to pass into history judging by how widely it has been quoted this week. Yet what else are Manchester City to do? It is not their fault that a club with ambition has to approach the transfer market on the divine wind.
A ticking clock counts down the minutes to the end of this transfer window on the sports news channel, but there is a Doomsday scenario extending beyond that.
The next window, in January, is the last that will not feel the impact of the financial regulations imposed by Michel Platini, the UEFA president. By the time of the following financial year, April 2011 to April 2012, clubs must start to reduce losses and while there are four more seasons before the regulations properly take hold, the rules are complex and incorporate retrospective calculation.
In simple terms, after this year, all transfers will contribute in some way to UEFA's reckoning. City may not be getting the greatest value for money right now, but if there is an element of Supermarket Sweep about their behaviour, that is because Platini's legislation makes it now or never for big spenders.
The elite clubs, like Ferguson's Manchester United, can sit pretty knowing that once the controls are in place they will always have the largest budgets. It is the likes of City, desperately scrambling to get through the door before it shuts, who have been condemned to spend, spend, spend.
So, of course, the policy appears irrational. City have paid as much for James Milner, who had an erratic World Cup, as Real Madrid did combined for Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira of Germany, two of the revelations of the tournament.
David Silva, who could not make the Spanish team, has come in at a price not far behind David Villa, arguably the most talented striker in the world. Yaya Toure cost £24million, at a time when Inter Milan have balked at paying a similar price for a better holding midfield player - the captain of Argentina, Javier Mascherano of Liverpool.
Manchester City's total transfer bill since Sheik Mansour's arrival is over £350m, but why the surprise? The moment Platini made his flawed theories a reality, there was always going to be a reckless, lastminute scramble. By spending now, City no doubt hope to buck the system, assembling a powerful squad and achieving success before it becomes almost impossible for the little guy to get ahead.
Depending on how City manage the accounts, there could be an even greater advantage. Transfer expenditure is listed in one of two ways: as an outgoing lump sum, or with the fee spread over the years of the contract. So payment for Milner could be shown as £24m now or, for instance, £4.8m over five years, a process known as amortisation.
If City choose this option, some of Milner's transfer money will eventually be part of UEFA's calculation of City's budget; but put wholly into this year's accounts will fall outside UEFA's remit. Then, if Milner is later sold, the fee received counts as money coming into the club and helps increase the size of the budget. City's owners, unlike most rivals, actually have the capital to do this. They may not be as silly as they look.
It is easy to mock City's pretensions and excesses, but harsh to hold them solely responsible. Yes, even without Platini's new rules they would have spent big in the hope of entering the Champions League next season; but the utter abandon of their activity this summer is another gift to football from UEFA.
Platini has been let off the hook repeatedly in interviews when asked how he is going to maintain competition and mobility while limiting the investment potential of ambitious smaller clubs. He has been allowed to blather that it is something UEFA will look at.
In doing so, he is carving out football's equivalent of the policy in Iraq: a hugely significant decision with no thought given to its consequences. Indeed, by forcing a club such as City into ever greater short-term spirals of recklessness and financial aggression, Platini hasn't even considered the potential for damage in the prelude, let alone the aftermath.
Don't mock Manchester City, they may not be as silly as you think...
Kamikaze spending, Sir Alex Ferguson called it, in one of those soundbites destined to pass into history judging by how widely it has been quoted this week. Yet what else are Manchester City to do? It is not their fault that a club with ambition has to approach the transfer market on the divine wind.
A ticking clock counts down the minutes to the end of this transfer window on the sports news channel, but there is a Doomsday scenario extending beyond that.
The next window, in January, is the last that will not feel the impact of the financial regulations imposed by Michel Platini, the UEFA president. By the time of the following financial year, April 2011 to April 2012, clubs must start to reduce losses and while there are four more seasons before the regulations properly take hold, the rules are complex and incorporate retrospective calculation.
In simple terms, after this year, all transfers will contribute in some way to UEFA's reckoning. City may not be getting the greatest value for money right now, but if there is an element of Supermarket Sweep about their behaviour, that is because Platini's legislation makes it now or never for big spenders.
The elite clubs, like Ferguson's Manchester United, can sit pretty knowing that once the controls are in place they will always have the largest budgets. It is the likes of City, desperately scrambling to get through the door before it shuts, who have been condemned to spend, spend, spend.
So, of course, the policy appears irrational. City have paid as much for James Milner, who had an erratic World Cup, as Real Madrid did combined for Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira of Germany, two of the revelations of the tournament.
David Silva, who could not make the Spanish team, has come in at a price not far behind David Villa, arguably the most talented striker in the world. Yaya Toure cost £24million, at a time when Inter Milan have balked at paying a similar price for a better holding midfield player - the captain of Argentina, Javier Mascherano of Liverpool.
Manchester City's total transfer bill since Sheik Mansour's arrival is over £350m, but why the surprise? The moment Platini made his flawed theories a reality, there was always going to be a reckless, lastminute scramble. By spending now, City no doubt hope to buck the system, assembling a powerful squad and achieving success before it becomes almost impossible for the little guy to get ahead.
Depending on how City manage the accounts, there could be an even greater advantage. Transfer expenditure is listed in one of two ways: as an outgoing lump sum, or with the fee spread over the years of the contract. So payment for Milner could be shown as £24m now or, for instance, £4.8m over five years, a process known as amortisation.
If City choose this option, some of Milner's transfer money will eventually be part of UEFA's calculation of City's budget; but put wholly into this year's accounts will fall outside UEFA's remit. Then, if Milner is later sold, the fee received counts as money coming into the club and helps increase the size of the budget. City's owners, unlike most rivals, actually have the capital to do this. They may not be as silly as they look.
It is easy to mock City's pretensions and excesses, but harsh to hold them solely responsible. Yes, even without Platini's new rules they would have spent big in the hope of entering the Champions League next season; but the utter abandon of their activity this summer is another gift to football from UEFA.
Platini has been let off the hook repeatedly in interviews when asked how he is going to maintain competition and mobility while limiting the investment potential of ambitious smaller clubs. He has been allowed to blather that it is something UEFA will look at.
In doing so, he is carving out football's equivalent of the policy in Iraq: a hugely significant decision with no thought given to its consequences. Indeed, by forcing a club such as City into ever greater short-term spirals of recklessness and financial aggression, Platini hasn't even considered the potential for damage in the prelude, let alone the aftermath.