Is Alex Ferguson About to Get Left Behind?

By: Daryl | July 14th, 2009

Not so long ago I suggested that everyone just relax and stop worrying about the hyper-inflation of transfer fees. They’re only numbers I said, nothing to worry about. Well, Alex Ferguson disagrees. He’s looked at the spending of Real Madrid and Man City (who’ve just signed Carlos Tevez and are now strongly linked with Emmanuel Adebayor) and decided he wants off the transfer train.

“I said a year ago, when they [the Abu Dhabi United Group] took over at City, that this was possible,” Ferguson said. “Some of the values across the world now are amazing; the numbers that get tossed about. The values of players have shot sky high. I don’t think any of the [big] transfers this summer are realistic but for some reason it has caught fire this summer. It’s an unusual summer and it’s very difficult to get value because of that…

“…I can only placate the fans in one way and that’s by not being stupid. We have that wonderful sum of money from Real Madrid but there’s no way we are going to throw it away by putting an extra zero on the end of transfer fees when I didn’t think it was value.”

Fergie’s got a point. It’s one thing for Ronaldo and Kaka to change clubs for silly money. But seems that everyone else has decided to adjust their prices accordingly. All of a sudden Bayern put a £69m pricetag on Franck Ribery last week, and Gremio apparently want &pound:21m for Douglas Costa. Who doesn’t even make their first team.

I love that the Man Utd boss has taken a look at what’s happening, decided it makes no sense, and refused to get involved. But.. does this mark the point at which the football world changes and Fergie finally gets left behind?

SAF has been around a long time and clearly know’s what’s what when it comes to running a football club. But if the future of top flight football is mega-money marquee signings financed by banks and sheiks, and Alex Ferguson is still stuck in the era of building squads with young talent like Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan and last chance saloon players like Michael Owen, then there’s a chance that the likes of Man City and Real Madrid could leave him eating their dust.

Or could it be that he’s actually a step ahead? The only sane man in a world of crazy?

While other clubs are stocking up on overfed superstars, Ferguson has been signing players who’ll be happy to be part of the squad at Man Utd and more than capable of doing a job. More importantly… every time he talks about not spending silly money, the price of Douglas Costa and any other target he has comes down by a few pounds.

Man City and Real Madrid will spend more money this summer, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Ferguson emerges as the winner next year.

Some Related Stories:

Category: World Football

« Daily Dose: July 13th, 2009 | Home | Transfer Talk: How Dare You, Mr. Vieira! »

The Offside RSS Feeds

weedonald

Arsene Wenger and Arsenal have followed the frugal and youth opriented practice like ManU for as long as SAF has. As a result they have a club that is basically an under 25 squad with the following characteristics;

1) Low wage structure compared to most of the top 6 EPL: clubs,
2) Haven't won any silverware or titles in 4 years,
3) Lack the depth and experience to win the tight games but do have the skill and drive to get to the last 4 every year, whether in the EPL or the Champions League,
4) Are the best European farm team for big money clubs, that ever existed. They supplied AC Milan with their best midfielder from 2007 and their best goalscorer and other midfielder went to Barcelona the same year.
5)They refuse to indebt themselves for transfer fees on highly over-valued, average players who will likely not perform any better in their new club.
6) rely on their youth and a careful development program to prepare them for EPL first team football, which doesn't always work but is the cheapest route to potential success and to high transfer fees.
7) Bring in relative unknowns who can blossom under the skillful management of SAF or Wenger than grow egos the size of the Queen Mary and transfer out for enormously inflated fees to the clubs who are Geese who lay the Golden eggs eternally.

What is the right combination of intelligent transfer strategies and home grown talent? SAF had it and maybe will keep it alive but in today's ridiculously hyperinflated transfer market and the imminent demise of the financial structures of many clubs relying on private ,rich, boy-toy loving Arabs and Russians, it seems a frugal approach like Wenger's and others, is the way to go.
Applesauce

troy,

Why do you assume Tevez is lower on the depth chart than Santa Cruz or hell, even Adebayor? That's a bet I'd take, because Tevez will start. Owen will not.
KG

Bebatoss, Ferdinand in 2002, Nani-Anderson were certainly not big money signings; also that manure are in close to billion dollar debt have nothing to do with their spending.

When Voyeur says the same thing, Arsenal are a selling club and he won't "splash the cash".
Jeremy Brahm

The only way to get around the transfer prices is to develop your own talent, because it will cost you less and if you get offers to sell the player at a high value in a transfer. Look at Real Madrid, they are not developing talent anymore, kids are going elsewhere to be developed and so Real Madrid has no choice but to go elsewhere and overpay for talented players. The 2nd Galacticos era will fail like the one prior because of the pressure on these players to succeed. Real must have raised their ticket prices to keep up their spending?
Abby

Ferguson is probably right, but his whining comes off as well, whining. He's the one who's spent obscene amounts for players that didn't deserve it in the past, and who's built his squad on big-money transfers. Anyone remember Anderson and Nani? How about the cost of Rio Ferdinand back in 2002? (And need I remind you all how much he spent on Valencia? Not exactly pennies for an unearthed gem.) Now someone else does it and he has something to say. Boo hoo. I'm playing a very small violin for you, SAF. You brought it on yourself.
troy

anyone want to take me up on a bet that owen will score more than tevez this season? what with tevez as the fourth striking option behind robinho, santa cruz and (possibly) adebayor and all...

tevez is going to be so happy playing in all those "big matches"
John

Ahem, the Voyeur would like a word with you. He's been doing it for a long while now...
Tyson

The reality of the situation is different right now in terms of the economy in the UK and countries like Spain.

The pound has gotten pretty weak compared to the Euro so its very hard to match the wages of a pro player in GBP without overpaying them significantly compared to the much stronger Euro.

I'm not sure how many players realise that, probably not many as I haven't heard any player talk about the fluctuations in the currency but their managers and the managers of football clubs will know this.

Right now simply put due to the economic situation the European teams can use the strenght of the Euro to pay much bigger wages and transfer fees without breaking the bank.

In reality Ronaldos transfer in GBP was an enormous amount of money but in Euro's it was effectively a lot less.

Everything can be tracked back to the economy and the economic situation in the United Kingdom is that the British banks are going through rigorous re-organisation.

Britain, America and the likes of Germany are all restructuring with Chinese loan money while countries like Spain and Italy have nobody to bail them out.

The end result is in about 2 decades the economies like Britain will end up a lot better after this rough expensive patch while countries like Spain will be under such economic stress and be facing problems that could pretty much lead to what happened to the Soviet Union.

Right now any English entity and that includes football clubs musn't spend too much money. In the longer term of a decade or so these countries will be in significantly better economic situations and over the next decades will go on to become the big purchasers.

This short term fluctuation is causing a lot of rifts but the long term gains are all going to be felt in other countries and Spain won't be one of them.

In 2 decades I doubt there will be a world class player playing in the whole of La Liga. That country is nearly dead.
Applesauce

I've said since the beginning that I think Real's money spending is going to blow up in their investor's face and possibly cause a little bit of havoc on Spain's economy. You can't throw around no interest loans and expect everything to be fine. Especially when 17.4% of the population are jobless and are not offered the same deal.

An avid hater of Man U, I respect SAF's decision. He's not contributing to the overinflating of values for potential transfers. The players are paid what the market will bear. The return on these players is not worth these prices, and as soon as everyone figures that out, the prices will drop.
mike

TBH i think Michael Owen's going to score like 20 goals this season. Long Live SAF!
Paul (No1Fan)

I think Fergie is right to speak out. Let the uber rich clubs spend like there's no tomorrow and see where it gets them Of course they are going to have some success, but it's shrewd deals like Michael Owen's that will be the talking point if Utd succeed in winning trophies in the new season
Ranjeet

Not only Ferguson. Many clubs arent spending a lot of cash. Nobody can compete with the money City can offer. I support Milan,and everytime a deal gets scrapped due to disagreement over the valuation of the player. I think it will balance out over the next few years