Post by Macmoish on Jul 7, 2011 6:36:18 GMT
But not QPR, it would seem.... 
Guardian/Jamie Jackson
Premier League big guns splash the cash to defy the age of austerity
Stockpiling of talent in the face of new rules and a limited supply has led to an overheating transfer market
In an age of austerity that football has forgotten, Stewart Downing is worth £19m, the 21-year-old Jordan Henderson costs Liverpool £16m, and Manchester City hang a £50m price tag on Carlos Tevez.
While the government forces through painful cuts the game's financial incontinence continues. Despite a fall from the previous year, the collective debt of Premier League clubs in the 2009-10 season stood at £2.6bn, with the decrease due only to debt-to-equity conversions at Chelsea and City, and property sales at Arsenal, according to Deloitte.
Clubs just cannot stop spending. With 56 days to go until the summer transfer window closes £118.6m has already been splashed, with last year's corresponding outlay of £345m a certainty for obliteration. Charlie Adam, Gervinho and Stefan Savic were all on the move on Wednesday to Liverpool, Arsenal and City respectively, but there are several big-ticket moves still in the offing for Tevez, Luka Modric, Cesc Fábregas, Samir Nasri and Scott Parker.
With all the penny pinching elsewhere why is football doing this? Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said: "Clubs are looking to the future – particularly the big ones playing in Europe, bearing in mind the Uefa criteria of having eight homegrown players in the squad of 25. They are also thinking about Uefa financial fair play [so are buying players now]. Henderson, Phil Jones – Ashley Young is another youngster."
Jones is 19 and has started only 31 Premier League games yet Blackburn Rovers could demand £16.5m from Manchester United. Young is an established operator but at 25 has sell-on value, with United prepared to pay £17m for a player who had only a year remaining on his Aston Villa contract.
The major clubs are stockpiling talent ahead of new financial regulations from Uefa. They will be implemented from 2012 and demand that clubs break even on transfers or face expulsion from competitions but Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports business strategy and marketing at Coventry University, outlines other factors contributing to ballooning fees.
"There's a limited talent pool and an increasing demand for it. That demand is from the Premier League but also Europe-wide, [and] globally too. We're starting to see spending on players in Russia and China, bringing [more] inflationary pressure. This week the Fluminense midfielder, Darío Leonardo Conca, went to Guangzhou Evergrande for $10m [£6.2m], then Demy de Zeeuw has gone from Ajax to Spartak Moscow for €6m [£5.3m]. Also the Brazilians – their clubs, backed by big corporations, are in a better financial position to hold on to domestic talent. It's hard to prise away the likes of Neymar, whereas 10 years ago it would have been relatively easy: now you're talking about £40m-plus to get this guy.
"It's a rapidly overheating market place. The transfer fees and wages will [continue to] increase dramatically – what we see with the likes of Jordan Henderson is that for younger players, and also players not particularly skilful, they will begin to attract fees and salaries that five years ago they weren't able to."
Deloitte's annual report states: "For a successive year the Premier League clubs' total wages increase has outstripped revenue growth, rising by £64m (5%) to over £1.4bn in 2009/10. As a result, the league's wages/revenue ratio reached an all-time high of 68%."
How are clubs affording this? "At the top end clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal are pursuing revenue generating activities, to try to off-set their increased costs," Chadwick said. "A lot of people criticise United for the bond issue of a year and a half ago [which raised £500m]. But that was evidence of the club trying to manage their debt.
"But as you start coming down the league structure, where the revenue generating opportunities are not there, the alternative is that you cut your costs."
Or not. For the 72 Football League clubs there is no sight yet of balanced books. Deloitte states that a record loss in the Championship alone of £133m outstripped the Premier League's operating profits of £83m. With a 6% decrease in Football League attendances in 2010-11, a bleak picture is offered: "Match-day and commercial revenues have already begun to fall back and, from 2012-13, the value of the new domestic broadcast deal will be 25% down on the current one."
The squeeze is affecting players' livelihoods. "In the Football League the average is a 12‑month contract, [and there are even] one-month rollover contracts," Taylor said. "The big problem is keeping heads above water in League One and Two. Because of the greater solidarity payments from the Premier League to the Championship, and the biggest share of the TV money – an approximate ratio of 80% compared to 12% for League One and 8% for League Two – it is becoming more and more a Premier League Two."
While City can afford to price out any buyers with their valuation of Tevez, Chadwick warns that every other club at every other level must begin taking their affairs seriously. "We're going to see much better financial management of clubs. It has to happen: the current position is untenable."
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/jul/06/premier-league-big-guns-austerity
Guardian/Jamie Jackson
Premier League big guns splash the cash to defy the age of austerity
Stockpiling of talent in the face of new rules and a limited supply has led to an overheating transfer market
In an age of austerity that football has forgotten, Stewart Downing is worth £19m, the 21-year-old Jordan Henderson costs Liverpool £16m, and Manchester City hang a £50m price tag on Carlos Tevez.
While the government forces through painful cuts the game's financial incontinence continues. Despite a fall from the previous year, the collective debt of Premier League clubs in the 2009-10 season stood at £2.6bn, with the decrease due only to debt-to-equity conversions at Chelsea and City, and property sales at Arsenal, according to Deloitte.
Clubs just cannot stop spending. With 56 days to go until the summer transfer window closes £118.6m has already been splashed, with last year's corresponding outlay of £345m a certainty for obliteration. Charlie Adam, Gervinho and Stefan Savic were all on the move on Wednesday to Liverpool, Arsenal and City respectively, but there are several big-ticket moves still in the offing for Tevez, Luka Modric, Cesc Fábregas, Samir Nasri and Scott Parker.
With all the penny pinching elsewhere why is football doing this? Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said: "Clubs are looking to the future – particularly the big ones playing in Europe, bearing in mind the Uefa criteria of having eight homegrown players in the squad of 25. They are also thinking about Uefa financial fair play [so are buying players now]. Henderson, Phil Jones – Ashley Young is another youngster."
Jones is 19 and has started only 31 Premier League games yet Blackburn Rovers could demand £16.5m from Manchester United. Young is an established operator but at 25 has sell-on value, with United prepared to pay £17m for a player who had only a year remaining on his Aston Villa contract.
The major clubs are stockpiling talent ahead of new financial regulations from Uefa. They will be implemented from 2012 and demand that clubs break even on transfers or face expulsion from competitions but Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports business strategy and marketing at Coventry University, outlines other factors contributing to ballooning fees.
"There's a limited talent pool and an increasing demand for it. That demand is from the Premier League but also Europe-wide, [and] globally too. We're starting to see spending on players in Russia and China, bringing [more] inflationary pressure. This week the Fluminense midfielder, Darío Leonardo Conca, went to Guangzhou Evergrande for $10m [£6.2m], then Demy de Zeeuw has gone from Ajax to Spartak Moscow for €6m [£5.3m]. Also the Brazilians – their clubs, backed by big corporations, are in a better financial position to hold on to domestic talent. It's hard to prise away the likes of Neymar, whereas 10 years ago it would have been relatively easy: now you're talking about £40m-plus to get this guy.
"It's a rapidly overheating market place. The transfer fees and wages will [continue to] increase dramatically – what we see with the likes of Jordan Henderson is that for younger players, and also players not particularly skilful, they will begin to attract fees and salaries that five years ago they weren't able to."
Deloitte's annual report states: "For a successive year the Premier League clubs' total wages increase has outstripped revenue growth, rising by £64m (5%) to over £1.4bn in 2009/10. As a result, the league's wages/revenue ratio reached an all-time high of 68%."
How are clubs affording this? "At the top end clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal are pursuing revenue generating activities, to try to off-set their increased costs," Chadwick said. "A lot of people criticise United for the bond issue of a year and a half ago [which raised £500m]. But that was evidence of the club trying to manage their debt.
"But as you start coming down the league structure, where the revenue generating opportunities are not there, the alternative is that you cut your costs."
Or not. For the 72 Football League clubs there is no sight yet of balanced books. Deloitte states that a record loss in the Championship alone of £133m outstripped the Premier League's operating profits of £83m. With a 6% decrease in Football League attendances in 2010-11, a bleak picture is offered: "Match-day and commercial revenues have already begun to fall back and, from 2012-13, the value of the new domestic broadcast deal will be 25% down on the current one."
The squeeze is affecting players' livelihoods. "In the Football League the average is a 12‑month contract, [and there are even] one-month rollover contracts," Taylor said. "The big problem is keeping heads above water in League One and Two. Because of the greater solidarity payments from the Premier League to the Championship, and the biggest share of the TV money – an approximate ratio of 80% compared to 12% for League One and 8% for League Two – it is becoming more and more a Premier League Two."
While City can afford to price out any buyers with their valuation of Tevez, Chadwick warns that every other club at every other level must begin taking their affairs seriously. "We're going to see much better financial management of clubs. It has to happen: the current position is untenable."
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/jul/06/premier-league-big-guns-austerity
