You see, Aston Villa signed Darren Bent earlier this afternoon after 36 hours of negotiating. Bearing in mind Sunderland signed him for £10m, that's a great bit of business. But is there too much money in football?
Look at some of the other deals that have taken place or been rumoured today. We've had the £3m deal taking Steven Pienaar from Everton to Tottenham, so that Everton didn't lose the player for free in the summer. Ryan Babel is on his way from Liverpool to Hoffenheim for a reported £7m, which will help fund a deal for Stewart Downing to move from Villa to Liverpool for around the same as they paid initially - £12m.
That's on top of the deals we've already seen this January. Jean II Makoun has moved from Lyon to Villa for around £6m, and Edin Dzeko has moved from Wolfsburg to Man City for a staggering £27m, plus add-ons. So far, up to this point, £63,325,000 has been spent by Premier League clubs alone. And we're only halfway through this window.
But what about those bad investments? Clubs try to cover them up by bringing in better players, but the fans know that it was a lot of money wasted. This window alone, we've seen David Bentley, who only two years ago was the story of a £15m transfer deal taking him to Spurs from Blackburn, join Birmingham on loan in the hope of reviving his career. Wayne Bridge joined Man City two years ago for a rumoured £10m, but has gone on loan to West Ham because the constant investment in the team has left him without even a squad place. Another City reject, Roque Santa Cruz, who joined for £18m only 18 months ago from Blackburn, has rejoined his former club after a torrid time at Eastlands.
And there's still plenty more to come too. We've already seen Birmingham pull out of a £6m deal to take Robbie Keane from Spurs, and there's growing speculation that Liverpool, Spurs or Man United are readying a £20m bid for Ajax's Luis Suarez. Bolton may eventually bid for City's Shaun Wright-Phillips, and despite the constant denials from Harry Redknapp, rumours of Spurs bidding upwards of £15m for Newcastle's Andy Carroll are still spinning around in the big wide world.
We have seen this season that money and investment can take you places. Man City are currently sat 2nd in the Premier League, and Chelsea won the championship in 2005, 2006 and 2010. But this investment is nearly half a billion pounds. Surely football is not a business where that is feasible?
It is no wonder Manchester United are in £1.2b worth of debt, and in danger of not existing come 2017. The Glazers have come in, given the club a lot of debt, put their own business careers at risk, but kept investing in the club. Silly money is leaving the club, but not coming back in. UEFA have taken steps to ensure that any club who spends more than their turnover is banned from European competition. This is vital for the future of football as we know it.
Yes, we all want to see the best players in the world in the Premier League, and in particular, wearing our club's colours. But do we want to see them here, knowing that the extra £10 a ticket is to fill the hole that that player left in the club's loans and their overdraft?
Money usually leads to success in business terminology. And the constant investment in our country's teams has led to us becoming world-beaters in terms of club competition. But the money involved in some of these deals, and the implications it could have on the clubs is just pure stupidity.
All links and lovely pictures taken very kindly from the BBC Sport and Sky Sports sites.
Taken from General Musings of an Idiot: http://gmoai.posterous.com
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