David Shonfield
“I GIVE it three or four years. Either things change or we kill Spanish football,” said Villarreal boss Fernando Roig last week. He was talking about the imbalance in the transfer market and the ever-growing power of La Liga’s Big Two. With the closure of the transfer window you can see what he means, and not just in Spain.
Spending in the top five leagues this summer has topped €1.7b, according to German transfer specialists Transfermarkt, with England, Italy and Spain leading the way and Germany falling behind France.
Right across Europe the rich and powerful have strengthened their position and the gap between the wealthy few and the rest seems to have grown still wider.
Clubs such as Rayo Vallecano and Zaragoza in Spain or Siena and Bologna in Italy are struggling to make ends meet while their competitors can cherry-pick the best in Europe. None more so than Barcelona, who spent two months pursuing Alexis Sanchez before paying Udinese €26m and then secured Cesc Fabregas for €29m to put themselves even further out in front. Even Real Madrid are struggling to keep up, despite spending exactly the same sum on their four new signings, including 18-year-old French defender Raphael Varane from Lens.
Nonetheless there have been some surprising developments over the summer. The “new money” clubs – Malaga, Paris St Germain, Roma – have flexed their muscles and away from the limelight there have been signings that could spring a few surprises in the coming season.
Malaga have spent €58 million on new players, notably Spanish winger Santi Cazorla from Villarreal and Lyon midfielder Jeremy Toulalan. Spanish U20 striker Isco, bought from Valencia, also looks like a clever signing. Malaga still don’t look equipped to mount a real challenge but they could definitely cause some upsets.
PSG created a sensation with their €43m purchase of Javier Pastore from Palermo, setting a new French transfer record, and their raid on Serie A also includes Jeremy Menez from Roma, Mohammed Sissoko from Juventus and Palermo keeper Salvatore Sirigu.
Italy’s new big spenders Roma spread the cash around a bit more and now have a completely different look about them, from keeper Maarten Stekelenburg, signed from Ajax, through to Bojan and Pablo Osvaldo in attack.
Roma have also signed two youngsters in midfield – Miralem Pjanic from Lyon and one of the season’s potential sensations, Erik Lamela for 15m from River Plate.
If new manager Luis Enrique can get all his new players to gell – 10 have come in – they will be a real threat at the top of Serie A, just as PSG should be in France although a lot depends on how Pastore performs.
Juventus too have spent heavily on a new attack. Matri, Quagliarella, Pepe and Vucinic have all come from other Italian clubs but the tricky question is how two new boys will shape up – Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal signed from Bayer Leverkusen and another Bundesliga recruit, Dutch winger Eljero Elia, from Hamburg.
In Germany the one big change over the summer was as expected Manuel Neuer’s move from Schalke to Bayern for €22m. It’s not a record – they set that with Mario Gomez two years ago – but it gives Germany’s serial champions the security at the back which they lost when Oliver Kahn retired. The transfer gamble is perhaps Christian Träsch (pronounced Tresh) by Wolfsburg for for an undisclosed fee rumoured to be around 9m. That’s substantial by Bundesliga standards, and new Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath has a reputation to live down.
Names to watch out for in Portugal should include two new Porto defenders, Alex Sandro and Danilo, who will join in the club in January. Both are just 20, both are Brazilians who like to attack, and both have cost the club a packet — €23m between then. But with Porto’s record for unearthing talent that could look like a bargain price by the time next summer’s transfer window opens. Sandro already has had a €50m release clause inserted in his contract by those canny Porto money men.
Follow David on Twitter: @davidshonfield
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/Rt7R8eC_uNc/post.aspx
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