Chase for value marks an end to era of big spending in BPL
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Harry Redknapp has been unsually quiet during the current transfer window. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
The view from the transfer window is drab. With the exception of Manchester City, clubs must largely settle for what they already have. People who once prided themselves on reshaping a line-up through dramatic and costly moves are frustrated. This has, specifically, been a peculiar time for Harry Redknapp, a manager whose squads have rarely suffered from staleness.
His sole notable close-season signing for Tottenham Hotspur was Sandro, a Brazilian holding midfielder who is now about to arrive in London having won the Copa Libertadores with Internacional on Wednesday. The £6m acquisition is of a speculative nature since he is only 21. There has been a tightening of possibilities everywhere, but circumstances at White Hart Lane just happen to give particular emphasis to the situation.
At the beginning of this year, Robbie Keane left Tottenham for a loan spell at Celtic. The forward played well, added some lustre to the Scottish club and enjoyed a more fervent appreciation from the home crowd than he would have experienced at White Hart Lane. While another deal of that sort is still conceivable, it would be tougher to pull off nowadays.
Keane, 30, is slightly older, but the larger shift has taken place in the thinking of clubs. Their aim is often to shop in underdeveloped markets where they suppose bargains are to be had. Celtic have lately signed the Honduras left-back Emilio Izaguirre and the Mexico midfielder Efraín Juárez. Both featured at the World Cup finals, yet the total cost of the transfers is under £3m. Since the pair are quite young, the club will envisage a profit when they are sold in the future.
The trouble is that nearly everyone is trying to adopt this business model and it can lead to sluggishness, if not paralysis, in the marketplace. With all parties attempting to pull off a smart deal, agreement is elusive if a player is on high wages and has reached the stage where his worth is faltering. Keane is reported to receive a prohibitive £65,000 a week.
Despite his spectacular and seemingly important goal in the Champions League qualifier against Young Boys on Tuesday, offers would most likely be entertained for Roman Pavlyuchenko also. Bids of all sorts, however, are now made with reluctance. Proprietors of clubs cannot be indulgent when the economy at large is sluggish. Sprees used to be justified on the notion that some rosy future was certain for anyone who had grabbed a stake in the world's most bullish league.
The implicit assumption that the value of a Premier League club must constantly increase is, however, under scrutiny. An owner cannot assume that he will be able to pass on his troubles to the next buyer at a pleasing profit, even if Blackburn Rovers do appear to be attracting the remarkable interest of Ahsan Ali Syed.
Some takeovers that have gone through are being followed by bouts of reflection, if not regret. When Martin O'Neill resigned as Aston Villa manager, General Charles C Krulak, a non-executive director at the club at the club, went online to deplore the fact that wages had reached 85% of turnover under the Irishman. The complaint has a preposterous aspect since O'Neill could not have spent any money without the approval of his employers, but there were failed attempts this summer to offload fringe players such as Luke Young, who could not agree personal terms with Liverpool.
The period of self-analysis that is being conducted in the Premier League does not leave all that much time for shopping trips. When money goes missing, we are left with barter. The art of the deal in the times to come is liable to include many more player swaps, with modest sums paid as part of any adjustment. A born trader such as Redknapp will come to terms with that soon enough.
Of course, the sport's economy is not quite stagnant outside Eastlands. Someone such as Roman Abramovich still has the means and quite likely the desire to take the occasional costly step at Stamford Bridge. Manchester United, too, have pulled off a purchase or two this summer despite the weight of debt the club bears.
Even so, the assumptions of the past decade or so are no longer to be trusted. The position of Arsène Wenger, for instance, looks transformed. Over the years, his passion for developing players chimed with a temperamental distaste for the crassness of the transfer market. Now, he can operate within affordable limits and still exercise muscle absent at clubs who are short of cash because of former profligacy.
Without being reckless, Wenger can spend almost £10m on the centre-half Laurent Koscielny and also be linked credibly with defenders at a much higher price. The former parsimony at Arsenal while the focus was on funding a new, cash-generating stadium may be enjoying some reward. Even without Wenger's example, chairmen everywhere, weary of wasting their wealth, would have been appreciating the charms of prudence.
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wages are really eating into the profits of clubs.
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gone are the days when second tier club can borrow money from banks to buy players in order to stay in premier league.
leeds, portsmouth.
heavily in debt are man utd, liverpool, everton.