The suggestion this morning, is that last night’s Champions League win for Los Blancos triggered add-on payments to Spurs worth in the region of £20m; as per the sale agreements for Modders (£5m) and the boy Bale (£15m).
Don’t get me wrong, that’s a very nice windfall, but it’s pretty cold comfort when you weigh it up against the damage that was done by selling those players.
I’m not talking about the questionable strategy of buying in 7 new players in one season, that’s a whole other long winded discussion.
It’s more the case that we sit here, in complete disarray, watching two of our best players blossom elsewhere. And it was all for the want of paying them what they were worth.
The argument of you can’t make a player stay falls to the ground when you look at the very recent examples of Luis Suarez and Wayne Rooney. Sure, you can say “oh they were just bluffing”, but who’s laughing now?
Rooney may play for a club undergoing a time of turbulence, but after the pilot, he was the first seat booked on the England plane to Brazil. Our closest candidate for for an England shirt this summer was approximately one million miles away from getting one.
Keeping Rooney kept United looking credible when it came to replacing Moyes.
Liverpool were also held to ransom and Liverpool also paid up.
As a direct consequence, the Scousers secured Champions League football and came within 2 points of winning the Premier League title.
Some people will be raising a glass to Levy & Co. today for the £20m kickback. They are almost certainly the same people who permanently warn anyone who’ll listen of “doing a Leeds.”
Some people want their heads examined.
