The new normal in football finances looks as obscene as the old normal

YOU can explain the financial intricacies to your heart’s content.

You can tell everyone that footballers are merely the equivalent of film stars, that they pay billions in tax, that they lift the spirits of a nation.

You can talk about going rates, about TV deals.

And you would be absolutely right if you pointed out clubs and players seem to be held to far greater moral account than other big businesses and big earners.

But the bottom line is the financial figures – the wages and the transfer fees – jar. Badly.

One current Manchester United player feels compelled to raise money to feed poor children in these troubling times – a future Manchester United player is, more than likely, about to cost £100million and earn well over £200,000 a week.

His agent will rake in commission that could probably pay for a hospital wing.

Meanwhile, at good old Arsenal, 55 staff are being made redundant as the club pays a non-playing player £350,000 a week, prepares to offer a ridiculously lucrative deal to a soon-to-be 32-year-old and is no doubt willing to make its star striker the highest-paid employee in the history of the institution.

At Manchester’s other club, they celebrate being exonerated of financial irregularities by forking out over £40m for a footballer who has been part of one of the Premier League’s worst defences of recent seasons and over £20m on a 20-yearold rookie winger.

If those of you who use social media do not follow Kieran Maguire, then you should.

He has a forensic way of stripping bare the contrasting numbers. The university lecturer speculates Arsenal’s backroom sackings might save them an annual £2m.

Mesut Ozil, not his fault by the way, earns that in six weeks. For being on permanent holiday.

From the start of the Premier League in 1992 to now, the inflation of this country’s economy has been 113 per cent.

The inflation of Arsenal players’ wages has been 3,248 per cent, Maguire explains.

The average salary of a current Arsenal footballer is £107,000 a week.

And they are bombing out the rank-and-file grafters.

In one breath, news bulletins are broadcasting the redundancy of minimum-wage workers at a swathe of high-street companies and, in the next, are trumpeting nine-figure deals for half-decent footballers.

It is just not a good look.

Arsenal players took a pay cut during lockdown, yet still the club celebrated its FA Cup triumph, not by taking the trophy around the offices, but by handing out P45s. In May, Stan Kroenke’s wealth was estimated to have risen by upwards of £300m during the crisis. Considering a public backlash forced Liverpool and, eventually, Spurs to reverse decisions to furlough staff, it is hard to see how Arsenal cannot row back and shelve the redundancies.

But the broader issue is how clubs such as Arsenal are still prepared to pay gargantuan player wages and transfer fees.

Any sign of a new normal at the top end of football? A new climate of frugality to reflect the financial hardships about to grip the nation? Of course, not.

But, the defensive line goes, if owners are willing to pay the big bucks, who is it harming?

The money for a prospective Jadon Sancho transfer – and, again, the numbers are not the player’s fault – comes from TV and commercial deals, anyway.

No, it comes from you.

Liverpool, for example, makes a fortune from its kit deal.

Its kit providers get that fortune back from you.

That is why one particular replica jersey retails at just five pence less than ONE HUNDRED POUNDS. Who knew polyester was so precious?

And, after the payment holiday when there was no action, do not expect your TV sports subscriptions to do anything but go up soon.

All to pay for barely believable fees, wages and agents’ cream-offs.

Will the pandemic change the financial landscape of football?

Yes, Arsenal lay off the foot soldiers and only yesterday, Droylsden, a club with 128 years of history, had to resign from the Northern Premier League, potless. Meanwhile, Willian, who turns 32 on Sunday, will, more than likely, soon get a contract that will make him over £15m.

It was predictable, but, in these times especially, it is just not a good look.

It is an obscene look.

GARETH BALE is not in the Real Madrid squad that has travelled to face Manchester City tonight. He might be playing golf back in Spain, who knows? What we do know is that Bale is well within his rights to see out the remaining two years of a contract said to be worth anything from £350,000 to £600,000 a week. What we also know is that the world is gradually forgetting what a fantastic footballer he is. Or was. And that’s a shame. OBSCENE SPENDING Willian and Sancho will be raking it in while clubs lay off ordinary staff

VALTTERI BOTTAS keeps Lewis Hamilton honest, wins the odd race and is a thoroughly likeable sort. He deserves the Mercedes contract extension that keeps him with the team for the 2021 season. It also means, barring injury and assuming he stays with Mercedes, that not only is the 2020 championship in the bag for Hamilton, so is next year’s.