Spending falls, but it is still hardly sensible!

For a very brief second I thought the Premier League expenditure was beginning to get back to some sort of sensible normality. I read a Deloitte report that said that the spending during the transfer window had fallen by some 10% on last year. That has to be good news I thought.

Record

However, when you look at the actual figures you see that Premier League clubs spent around £450 million this Summer as opposed to £500 million last year which remains a record.

You have to say that in the current economic climate, in fact in any economic climate, £450 million is hardly what you could call ‘sensible normality’.

Predicted

The level of purchases from other Premier League clubs remained the same but there was a 40% fall in transfers from overseas clubs. A previous Deloitte report had predicted this pointing to the weakness of the English pound and the new 50% tax rate for high earners as reasons for the fall.

The biggest spenders, unsurprisingly, were Manchester City who spent a remarkable £120 million. That accounted for 27% of the total spending. Aston Villa, Liverpool, Sunderland and Tottenham are also believed to have spent more that £25m each.

Insignificance

It all pales into insignificance when compared to the spending of Real Madrid, but it still seems pretty silly to me.

The report went on to say that the sale of the next round of international media rights is likely to generate more income for the Premier League clubs, but that transfer spending is unlikely to reach the levels of 2008 for some time in the future unless there is a significant injection of money from owners.

Guaranteed

I think that injection of money at Manchester City is pretty much guaranteed.

I just can’t quite get my head around the fact that football clubs are still spending this sort of amount of money whilst the world goes through an economic crisis. Of course, it is also true that many Premier League clubs are holding debts far in excess of what they feasibly should be. It surely has to all come tumbling down at some point.

Jealousy

There is, I have to admit, a certain amount of jealousy involved here. If some multi-billionnaire Arab oil sheik decided he wanted to invest in my beloved Watford or my own team, Wilton Town, would I say, “Sorry, I don’t think that would be for the good of the game and therefore I decline your kind offer.”

No, of course I wouldn’t. I would absolutely grab his hand off and then dream of future glories. I don’t expect fans of the clubs who have spent a lot of money to feel anything other than excitement. Good luck to them. I just hope that it happens to me or my clubs before the game implodes in a ridiculous amount of debt.