Distorting the Market?

I'm not a Real Madrid supporter. I have no vested interest in rooting for them, nor do I in their rivals Barcelona for that matter, other than being the enemy of my enemy or some-such, but am I wrong if I don't really care that they buy all the great players in the world? Cristiano, Kaka, Benzema and a score of players either on their way, or fighting to sign on for, essentially 10 big money contract positions. Then you read the headlines: "Real Madrid are buying up all the great players. They are distorting the market. They are making it difficult for clubs like Arsenal, Everton, Aston Villa and even Liverpool to compete in the marketplace." Does anyone notice that the biggest complaints are coming from the English papers? Are pundits changing their tune already considering that mere months ago the English Premier League had become the pinnacle of World Football; the place where the best players and coaches were flocking to play?

How quickly things change. When Roman Abramovich was spending 200 million pounds early on, few were complaining as long as the money was circulating and the level of competition increased in England. Clubs like Southampton, Sunderland, West Ham, Aston Villa amongst many others benefited from the influx of foreign money. Glen Johnson, Steve Sidwell, Shawn Wright-Phillips, and many other home-grown players grew rich from the Russian's easy largesse. Were there complaints in England that these were sub-par talents, that Chelsea were spending far too much on English players that were lacking in skill, foot-balling intelligence and tactical awareness? As long as the ratings grew and the money flowed everything was fine. Then Setanta went belly-up and the Premiership pie shrunk a little. Cristiano left England for Spain. English clubs found it difficult to attract the best foreign players, snubbed for the lure of Spain. Where was Michel Platini now? Why wasn't he worried? UEFA were in cahoots, ready and willing to knock England back down a peg. He is worried and he has come down hard on Los Merengues stating that "they have ruined the market. Close to half of all clubs function at a loss and that cannot be." It's a popular opinion, but he's wrong.

The market isn't ruined just as it wasn't ruined after Zinedine Zidane was signed from Juventus. The market adjusted itself and prices came down again. Let's not delude ourselves. This is just part of the cyclical nature of the game. All Real Madrid is doing is what Chelsea were doing 6 years ago, what Real Madrid themselves were doing 8 years ago and what AC Milan were doing 20 years ago. Big clubs buy big players.  Florentino Perez, like Roman Abramovich before and Silvio Berlusconi before him, identified that his club was filled with an aging core of first-team players and saddled with over-priced squad players decided that he needed to help fund a revolution of sorts: three years of transfer business into one. Like Chelsea with Arsenal and Manchester United, Real Madrid knew that they didn't have the youth development system of their closest rivals FC Barcelona and it would take too long to rebuild one from scratch. The Galactico tag comes up again and rightly so, but this isn't the end of football as we know it.

For every high spending Chelsea in football there is a conservative spending Arsenal. For every Barcelona, building from the youth system, there is a free spending Valencia, failing in its mission. The game corrects itself. Real Betis spent unwisely and look where they are. Leeds United tried it and failed as well, but this is Real Madrid here, the richest club in the world. You can't compare them to the rabble. Manchester United spend liberally and people rarely question Sir Alex. He knows what he's doing, they can spend what they like, that's the richest club in the world, but they're wrong. Madrid are a special case. They're the richest club in the world. They have an equivalent reach, a better television contract, a better ownership structure, and a favoured status politically. That's not an overstatement, that's the reality of the situation, and only Barcelona in Spain have been able to compete consistently and right now the Catalans have set the bar higher than anyone imagined. Barca won the treble, humiliating the Merengues in the process. Their brand of football has branded the Spanish National Team as theirs. This Galactico 2.0 is as much an escalation of the grand conflict in Spain as a rebuilding of Real Madrid globally; an accelerated rebuild aimed to destabilise the opponent as much as heighten themselves. Players aren't leaving England for Spain, they're joining Real Madrid in their search for their 10th European Championship, and helping in their bid to one-up Barcelona for another treble.

Real Madrid aren't distorting the market, everyone's just caught in their wake again, the biggest ship in the sea finally left safe harbor after 5 years in dry-dock.