Fantastic points made here.
On a side note pretty impressive that the fee as % of revenue is not as high as Rios or Verons. Mindblowing really.
Thanks. Yup - actually mind-blowing when you look at things this way. That said, Rio was a massive success. Was the bedrock on which Fergie built 2-3 teams of title-winners and people forget that for all of Ronaldo's (and Rooney's to be fair) exploits, it was the defence that won us the title several times. van der Saar was not a one-man shield of the type that de Gea has had to become. Veron, well, different story, but I can still see the logic for why we paid what we did.
The price for Pogba is totally insane in my view, but United will obviously recoup that fee back in no time anyway.
It's just a shame that by forking out £100M on someone worth somewhere in the region of 45M - 55M tops, it's just going to inflate the market to ridiculous levels.
Obviously these super high prices for players must reelect the lack of quality available.
He hardly ripped up trees in the Euros.
Where do I begin? Rooney was 18 and cost upwards of 30 Mn over a decade ago. Fellaini cost us 30 Mn. How you come out with a 45-55 for Pogba is mind-boggling. Zidane, as I pointed out, cost 57 Mn 15 years ago and had similar statistics (though he was more developed as a player). I just don't get how people start pinging these numbers around. Have you actually studied the business model of clubs? A club needs to look at how players (and the whole team and their performances) will translate into commercial contracts, merchandise sales (which get bigger sponsors) and visibility as well as following. Pogba - apart from dramatically improving our chances of winning titles - is immensely popular and assures greater viewership and interest. The world record fee, combined with United's marketing machine will ensure that this translates into bigger commercial deals as well. Can't see how Troy Deeney, Fellaini et al do on this.
As for your point on the Euros, I can only shake my head in wonder. Would you also say that Muller and Lewandowski are sh*te? Of course, Kane must be absolutely pants, not to mention losers like Dier and Dele Alli, right? Not worth 10 Mn for the lot of them, then. It beggars belief how people continue to trot out the same lame arguments time after time paying no heed to the actual numbers that make up football.
Here are just some numbers on Man United's revenues:
2000-01: 217.2 Mn Euros
2005-06: 242.6 Mn Euros (remember how pants we'd become and how we had no "galacticos"? Here's the outcome)
2010-11: 367 Mn Euros (Now we're talking. Win the CL, have Ronaldo explode. Build on Rooney's then-shining star...)
2014-15: 520 Mn Euros (Still riding the wave of popularity)
The numbers have exploded, but reality is we're slipping! In 2000-01, United were #1. We're now #3. We're also only about 50 Mn ahead of City. We need to continue pushing and you don't do that by talking about how "things was different in my day. You'd ne'er see these kids prancin' around in Ferraris at this age". We need to move with the times. Pogba (given it will happen) will be the absolutely right move at just the time we need it.
Cheers!
