An Abu Dhabi and Russian Billionaire are both in a swanky store named Harrods sipping champagne and looking to purchase the new Aguero and Hazard range respectively.
A Scottish man is searching frantically through the bargain basket of his local Primark establishment looking for value, he ends up purchasing a Kleberson suite complete with a Djemba-Djemba shirt and Bebe shoes.
It’s a sign of how the financial power has changed in the top league of English football, the Scottish man once shopped at Harrods himself indulging in such well known labels as Rio, Veron and van Nistelrooy. Following a stop to the Scottish mans spending by his American owners he is now left to shop for a bargain, or something he sees potential in.
Don’t get me wrong, the Scottish mans Cantona silk suite, Schmeichel shirt and Solskjear shoes, still look very impressive to this day, I doubt that they will ever go out of fashion.
Wealthy people prefer to spend their money on things that make them happy, if that means spending money on expensive high street designer labels like Silva, Mata or the latest pair of Yaya Toure shoes, then what’s wrong with that? If you have got the money to buy top quality clobber you would buy it wouldn’t you?
Why spend time shopping for bargains if you have the cash sat about to purchase the finished article? Manchester United as things stand will never be able to shop in Harrods along side Chelsea and Manchester City, they are at the stage where they are trying to out do their Manchester and London rivals by taking a chance on buying cheaper clothes and hoping they look better on the catwalk.
Money makes a huge difference in football as Blackburn, Chelsea and Manchester City have proved. They have all been crowned king of the catwalk in the Premier League era helped hugely by financial power, but in previous years Manchester United were too.
Recently Eden Hazard chose to join Chelsea for £34million after Manchester United showed an interest in him,
Sir Alex Ferguson commented on the transfer by saying:
“There is a borderline in terms of what you would think is a good signing for United.”
That borderline unfortunately for United supporters is a family named the Glazers, who purchased the historic Manchester club with money they did not have.
Sir Alex followed up by saying:
“It’s all about what you think is value for a player. I am not envious of those deals at all. We placed a value on Hazard which was well below what they were talking about.”
Which again can be interpreted into saying: “If I had the financial backing from my American bosses I would have been able to compete with Chelsea for the transfer of Eden Hazard.”
Manchester United’s biggest summer capture has been Shinji Kagawa, what fee did they pay for his services?
Its hard to confirm the exact fee as most websites say it was an “undisclosed fee”, its a running trend with a lot of players United have signed, which basically means they have purchased the player but his previous club will be rewarded if the Japanese lad is successful at United, by that I mean trophies. This means United are not taking a big risk on signing the player as they only have to pay instalments if the Reds are successful.
ThIs is something that is happening a lot at Old Trafford now with new players arriving, they sign for an “undisclosed fee”, but their previous club will be rewarded if the player is part of a successful team, or it could be on a personal level, based on appearances or goals.
This sadly, is the pond that Manchester United are now swimming in, there are other fish in the water with them who are powerful, but it remains unclear if they can continue to overlook investing in established talent rather than shopping for value and a bargain.
By Kevin Ashford @KevinAshford7
oh come on
if u have nothing to write, just shut up!
Sounds like the first person to comment does not like to read the truth
I mean when have bargain players ever achieved anything? Cantona, Schmeichel, Irwin, Solskjaer, Hernandez, Ronaldo … all rubbish. And why ever did we buy that crap pair Vidic and Evra for a bargain price round about the time that Chelsea were buying the world beater Jose Bosingwa for more than both of them combined. Stupid United eh!
In reality, it's sad to realise that I'll never get the two minutes of my life back that I wasted reading that.
so the FFP rules dont mean anything now,do they.of course they do and all shoppers will have to go to primark
Seriously, you must think you have written a master piece with your comparisons. 2 of the Greatest number 7s were bought at bargain fees..Cantona and Ronaldo. I doubt you even know who Cantona is…To accumulate all the Titles won, Utd never came close to the amounts spent by City and Chelsea in their quest for glory…And still they are a decade away from matching Utds exploits at a global level. The most significant aspect of this argument is nva touched down upon..I.e if Utd do start to throw crazy money around, I doubt any player would choose any other team than Man Utd…Then wat will happen??? Pissed ur pants already…just go to your little corner and start praying the Glazers and Fergi do not choose to throw Money on anybody and everybody…
I can't believe the editor of a dedicated UTD website would write such drivel about a team he supposedly loves. You my friend probably only started supporting UTD in the noughties. If this is your way of supporting the Reds I suggest you close up and start supporting Chelsea or Shitty who by the way spend more money than UTD (so what). Seriously disappointed in this website.
Get lost….u and your rubbish……GGMU
Some interesting comments made !!!!
Kevin as a fan of the club is entitled to his view about the transfer-dealings of the club as any fan would be. You may not agree with his opinion but he's not the only fan to share that view. We as fans have every right to share a view about a club and it's only fair that the site has 'alternative' opinions about the club. There's a thing called freedom of speech. Critics have a right to their opinion and so do writers.
I must say I am a bit surprised at the reaction to this write up. I think I speak for the majority of United supporters when I say we are crying out for a marquee signing, preferably in the middle of the park. The last high profile player we signed was Dimitar Berbatov and that was nearly five years ago. Since then we have missed out on Karim Benzema, Alexis Sanchez, Samir Nasri, Wesley Sneijder and most recently Eden Hazard, financially we are unable to compete for the top talent. This write up was not intended to sound like I was saying lets do what City and Chelsea do, I just think that this summer the Glazers could make a real statement of intent if they bring in a top player or two.
Regarding the comment about me starting to support United in the 90s, that is true, but it is not my fault I was born in 1982 is it? I have never taken United for granted when it comes to winning trophies but i would agree that I have been spoilt. If you read my previous write ups you will see that I do not ware red tinted specs.
Like Adam said, football is all about opinions and I am entitled to mine.
When I started watching United we were owned by Edwards the butcher. That's not a reference to some mafia family but a family who owned shops that sold meat, they used to be on every high street before Asda and Tesco ruined the family owned specialist shops. Life has changed.
In 1963 when I first started attending OT the players, Best, Law, Charlton etc came from great scouting programs. Unless you had talented scouts that knew what others didn't then you couldn't get these players. United had the best scouting set up.
Now my 18 year old son can name the top 15 year old players in Brazil, the web shows him video, stats, and more data than anyone could want. The only differentiator now is money.
Man Utd are in debt, it's a huge debt that is drowning he owners, who are raising capital for their own personal gain via the stock market. Selling pieces of Man Utd.
Meanwhile the interest is paid to service he debt thru money we want spent on talent.
Kevin is right, you who think the era of Cantona can return are deluded. The rise of free data, TV money and mega rich owners mean that United, Liverpool and the likes of Villa need cash to compete. Without it we are in decline.
Don't live in the past, look at the balance sheet and get real. CIty are a massive Club now, yeah really, and we need to deal with it not dream of our yesterday's.
Well, I stumbled in this post from elsewhere today. I think the “author” did a bit of humble pie eating before SAF bought RVP… 😀