Transfer madness
Deals this Summer worth £650 million have been completed before the final frenzy is even near. The associated player and agent wages will also reach record levels.
Yet should any of this surprise us? And should it be of any great financial worry to a league that has now spent a quarter of a century defying predictions of an imminent burst bubble? An examination of the evidence surely leaves only one answer: No. The spending is absolutely proportionate with what the clubs can now afford and, in the case of Kyle Walker moving to Manchester City, the consequence of what insiders call a ‘double premium’.
Kyle Walker cost Manchester City £53 million this Summer
Needy sellers
Not only does the Premier League now have the richest group of clubs but also the least needy sellers, who are themselves owned by largely successful and proud billionaires. Factor in the balance of risk, and internal fees that might seem artificial to the wider football world will become increasingly common for those few players who are proven at the very elite end of the Premier League, even if one important caveat should be made.
It is that this window may well also be the prelude to a levelling-off, with the record-breaking £5.14?billion domestic broadcast deal unlikely to rise at anything like the 72 per cent spike of the current three-season cycle.
The bottom line is that there are good and bad signings in every era.