The insanity and inconsistency of the transfer market

The transfer window closed last week for the bigger leagues and it was another example of the insanity that it has become. It began with the big headline of Oscar packing his bags for China for a fee of around £50-55 million. A player who had fallen down the Chelsea pecking order going for a higher transfer fee than Zinedine Zidane in 2001. Such was the spending by China during the month, the premier league made a profit in the window, for the first time since it's inception. The Oscar money helped as did the very generous fee Watford got for Odion Ighalo.

What almost topped that for madness was when Chelsea were apparently prepared to use some £30 million of the Oscar money on Celtic's Moussa Dembélé. Thankfully the window shut before it has a chance to happen but expect this summer to be as ridiculous. It was the sort of potential transfer that is now typical of the market. £30 million for a player playing in the Scottish Premiership and not even the top scorer, give me a break. We are though talking about a club that seemingly takes pride in wasting or overpaying money with the likes of Shevchenko, Bathshuayi and the thirty odd players out on loan everywhere. Celtic would be mad not to sell for £30 million. Personally I think £10 million would be generous considering the standard he plays at weekly. More money than sense comes to mind.

Most of the ludicrous transfers are done by English clubs with the backing of the TV money. Last summer was probably the height of it all. I have mentioned Michy Bathshuayi at Chelsea, he was £33 million, decent player at Marseille but that price tag was impossible to turn down. Paul Pogba the €105 million player. In my opinion not even worth a third of that outlay. For that money you could've got yourself a Pavel Nedved and Rui Costa with about €20 million change. Ah but he has flashy boots and hairstyles plus sells shirts. Thought football was winning on the pitch?.
John Stones for £47.5 (€55.6) million from Everton to Manchester City. I'm sure the people at Everton who sanctioned the transfer are giving themselves a mighty pat on the back. A bit of perspective on this one really is needed. For that fee you could've got Diego Godín (€8 million), Sergio Ramos (€27 million) and Leonardo Bonucci (€15.5 million) with a little bit of change for good measure left.

I recently blogged about the distain in premier league circles towards China inflating transfer fees but the truth of the matter is English sides inflated the market to the stage it is at currently. Nobody bar the select few rich in Europe are able to match the fees in England. Juventus were only able to splash an eye-watering amount on Higuaín after Pogba was sold, Paris Saint-Germain are backed by a Qatari family while Real Madrid and Barcelona for years were scandalously taking half the leagues tv revenue to fund their transfer dealings. Bayern Munich for years have taken the approach of disarming domestic competition. Generally in Europe clubs sell to buy, some make a fortune like Sevilla, Benfica and Porto. Rarely you will see a club outside the few rich make ridiculous big money transfers but when you do it usually doesn't go well, such as the trouble at Valencia.

However at the top level the fees can be ridiculous as I've mentioned but for me the real sign that the market has lost all sense is when players playing in unfashionable leagues go for head scratching amounts. The championship in England has seen some unreal deals. Ross McCormack has transferred between championship clubs twice for fees north of £10 million. That makes him more expensive than when Carlos Bacca signed for Sevilla from Club Brugge.

Sotiriou like Dembélé has made an impact in Europe

Back to Celtic and Moussa Dembélé's price tag. I've mentioned a £10 million fee would be generous all things considered. For a player not even the top scorer in his league it would be great business if he was sold remotely close to the figure Chelsea reportedly offered. However a comparison of the inconsistency in the market takes us to Cyprus. APOEL Nicosia have this season unearthed a gem in striker Pieros Sotiriou. Sotiriou like Dembélé has fired his club into group stage European competition. Sotiriou however is playing in a slightly higher quality domestic league and his goals saw APOEL through to the last thirty-two of the Europa league. Yet there is a major inconsistency. While Dembélé has been talked about in the £30 million range, Sotiriou has only now attracted interest with figures of between £2-3 million being floated about. Why the major gap in figures between the two? It just highlights the inconsistency in the market that players playing in similar leagues can have such a wide gap in transfer fees.