Transfer rumours excite any die-hard Football fan whether they be true or not. We all yearn for that fix to get us through the day. It's all a money-making scheme in the football world from an insider looking in; all the fans seem to see is money exchange hands. Day-to-day we can't evaluate the changes in a player's performance; for the paying fans in the stands every week, we deserve results. But it has come to the attention of many footie fanatics that money doesn't often buy the best, and value for money has been lost in translation.
Merely commodities
The most expensive player in the world is Paul Pogba, bought for £89 million, after his move from Juventus last summer. Last time I checked, football players are human beings and although they are special in their footballing ability, buying and selling humans is illegal. But why is this different? Perhaps like everything in our globalised community, football players, as well as all sportsmen and women, are merely commodities. They lose their identity and are labelled by position in the workforce and a number to speed up the recognition process.
It's more about the fact that players want to earn more than the football clubs wanted to flood the market and liquidise the opposition; as seen with the rise of Chinese clubs poaching players nearing the end of their careers such as Alexandre Pato, Hulk and Ramires.
The fantasy of Rooney-like contracts of £300,000 per week is often too tempting for players wanting to prolong their careers on the pitch. China, of course, is a rising superpower nation with the fastest growing economy in the last decade; so it is easy to see where billionaires have fruited from their rich capital pools.
Change in value
This doesn't answer our question though, for that, we have to look more extensively at the change in value for money versus the results of the respective players. If we take Gareth Bale, who was signed by Real Madrid for £85.3 million from North London club, Tottenham Hotspur in 2013 and analyse his performance before and after his transfer to Los Blancos in Spain, we might just find something.
The season prior to his signing, he scored 21 times in the Premier League and assisted on 4 occasions; impressive statistics for the born winger. In fewer appearances during his first La Liga season, he scored 15 times with 12 assists, proving he was worth buying. But was he worth double his £42.5 million market value? That's for you to decide.
Looking at Jamie Vardy and the whole Leicester City squad of the 2015/16 Premier League season, the whole team worth pennies compared to the giants such as Manchester City and Chelsea, yet stunned the world to a surprise EPL title. Of course, their market values rose significantly after that season with many clubs showing an interest. They liked what they saw over the course of the season, but it was all based on one season.
Money became the focus rather than the true ability of the squad.
The world has changed
Our parents always told us we couldn't buy those penny sweets because it would break the bank and that the family couldn't afford the small luxuries. Now football players are sold for millions bi-annually, the world has certainly changed. This money is found in the reserves of multinational corporations and hedge funds which control the natural flow of the global system. An endless supply passes before our eyes every day, so maybe it is wrong to stigmatise football for this change in our society. The whole world is suffering from higher costs of living and budget cuts, football is just somewhere people can see the value for money hypothesis slowly fading away.
