Transfer market in football: England versus the rest – sport

Sometimes news from the remotest provinces is enough to plunge a continent into unrest. News like this: “Norwich City are upgrading for the Premier League and signing Pierre Lees-Melou, 28, from OGC Nice. The French midfielder will get a contract with the Canaries until 2024 and is expected to cost six million euros.”

A report like this usually affects only four, at most five parties: the releasing club, the receiving club, the player, the player’s agent – and the press representatives at the respective locations, who then write gripping reports and excellent headlines with the word “Canaries.” “can produce. But otherwise, outside of Norwich, Nice and the player bubble?

In the Bundesliga, this message would usually hardly make it onto the desks of the sports director, and if it did, the reaction would probably be this: Six million plus three years salary for a 28-year-old who has not played a single international match? Well, the crazy English people, it doesn’t have much to do with us.

The latter, however, could be deceiving this time.

The French league is this time the preferred hunting ground

The message from Norwich comes from a glass ball with which one can look into the future, even if it concerns a rather small section of the future. The news suggests those internal club debates that could break out in late August, just before the summer transfer period ends. And it names the perpetrators and victims fairly precisely, even if the OGC Nice can defend itself quite well thanks to the support provided by a prominent chemical company. But that the English league will be even more clearly the winner than usual in this transfer summer, that is what stock market experts and club managers predict in seldom unanimity. And that, by the way, the French, minus their few generously sponsored clubs, will lose in total: there is also agreement on this. After the withdrawal of the original TV rights holder, the French league has to accept threatening losses in addition to the fundamentally threatening corona losses. The French league, say the players’ brokers, will be the preferred hunting ground this summer.

As far as we know, there is also a pandemic in Norwich, but that in no way prevented the newcomer from spending a further eleven million on the Bremen Milot Rashica in addition to the six million for Lee’s Melou. Also: nine million for a center-back named Gibson, 7.5 million for a left-back named Giannoulis and 5.8 million for a goalkeeper with the excellent name Angus Gunn.

It is said that there is currently no money in the market because of Corona. No money in the market apparently means that Aston Villa, conversely, is acquiring a right-winger named Buendia from Norwich for an incredible 38 million. You have to put it this way: there is no money in the market, except in the English Premier League with its spectacular television contract (almost five billion pounds for the period 2022-2025). And, of course, wherever billionaires and state or hedge funds can afford to suppress their own pandemic. Paris Saint-Germain brought in Achraf Hakimi, Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Georginio Wijnaldum this summer alone. The last three players mentioned came free of charge, but salaries and bonuses do not appear in any statistics.

Donyell painting for Jadon Sancho? The Bundesliga only experiences a hint of dominoes

The English would “play their own game this summer more than ever,” says Michael Reschke, who looks at the game from all directions. He was a club official in Leverkusen, Munich, Stuttgart and Schalke, and recently he has been “Head of Europe” at ICM Stellar, one of the largest European player agencies that has the mandate for Premier League stars such as Mason Mount and Jack Grealish. From his club days he knows the habits of the English, he knows that they traditionally get up late on the transfer market, especially after tournament summers like now. Most of the time the English wake up in their gilded beds in mid-August, yawn and stretch, and then they see what goes on. Which players and clubs they can turn their heads this time with their viciously high salary and compensation offers.

Open detailed view

The German Bundesliga clubs know this sleep-wake rhythm, but nobody knows what it means in times of epidemic. There are no empirical values. The Bundesliga managers have got used to the fact that on August 26th or 28th they suddenly received 25 or 35 million for one of their players from West Ham or Newcastle United, they know that they must then have a successor ready in their minds. whose change has to go through the stage until the transfer deadline on August 31st.

That’s what happened so far. But now, with Corona?

A large transfer domino is expected in Europe every summer; If a large stone falls somewhere, it pulls many smaller ones with it. The Bundesliga is currently experiencing a hint of dominoes: Of the 85 million that Dortmund have received from Manchester United for winger Jadon Sancho, they want to pass on a good third to Eindhoven in order to acquire winger Donyell Malen, 22, from there. It is questionable whether there will be a big domino this summer of plagues. At the moment, a few top strikers such as Erling Haaland (to Chelsea?), Romelu Lukaku (to Chelsea?) And Harry Kane (to Manchester City?) Are traded at the highest transfer level – but even if Lukaku or Kane should change hands in the end , experts expect a curious new version of this domino game.

Maybe one or two huge blocks will plop down. But do they even carry something with them?

For all clubs that cannot tap into an English television contract, a billionaire or a state or hedge fund, completely new questions will arise this summer. Such: Is it possible to reinvest the transfer millions from England at all, or do you need them to plug up the holes that the coronaviruses have eaten in the budget? Should you even agree to such a transfer because you get worse when you let the best go and can’t get anyone for it? Or do you let the best go and trust the supplementary players in the squad, with the option to go shopping again during the winter break if necessary? And how do you resolve the conflict of conscience when this time the English knock on the knock even later than usual and on August 30th they want a player well below market value? Can you afford to remain proud and stubborn, or do you prefer to take that little bit of money as corona aid before the player leaves for a free transfer next year? The Bundesliga clubs can get ready for high-speed brain teasers. At the end of August you may only have a day or two to answer these questions in a specific case.

However, the transfer market always manages to surprise you. At the time of going to press, Norwich City had not signed another player.