Which are wrecking our game and creating pyramid paupers FOOTBALL’S TRAGIC MONEY TREE STAN COLLYMORE
CAN’T HAVE KANE £1m week wages are on the way
themselves around the world to potential backers who can afford to pay today’s player prices — which means you’re getting characters like Jorge Mendes, Dr Xia and all the overseas owners coming in.
As Mourinho said, what is happening is dragging up the prices of ‘average’ and, dare I say it, ‘poor’ players in the Premier League, and further down the pyramid.
Where it ends I don’t know, but in the next two decades, mark my words, we will see the world’s first billion-pound player.
I was the British record transfer 22 years ago at £8.5m. Now the record’s £89m.
It’s gone up tenfold in two decades. If we stick to that rate of inflation we’re not going to be too far off a billion by 2037.
The clubs who are playing in the Champions League and can make huge sums with pre- and post-season tours will probably be able to cope. Well done them.
But what about the rest of the clubs? They’re just not going to be able to compete. I already get a lot of people contacting me saying they find this moneygo-round very difficult to stomach.
Supporters are now so detached from Championship players costing £15m, and earning £80,000 a week, that it’s turning them away from the game.
Crazy
I know of loads of people opting to free-stream football illegally, rather than pay TV subscriptions.
It’s not just about money saved. It’s a badge of honour. A two-fingered salute to the crazy sums players, managers and clubs are earning.
It has to change. The fact that even Mourinho and Guardiola — two of the biggest shakers of the money tree — admit it, just goes to show it must happen soon. IT was clever from Chelsea boss Antonio Conte when he saidsa Tottenham striker Harry Kane (left) was his favouritefa striker – straight from Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola’sG book of recruitment tactics. That pair will give someone they’d like to sign a nod that says, “I’ll have you down the line”. But £ £100millionConte C was wrong because, when C£if Neymarhe said Kaneis worth was £220m worth a and Kylian Mbappeai £160m, the England man i is worth well north of that estimate. STEVE BRUCE says he cannot rule out seeing a £1million-aweek footballer. Aston Villa’s boss said the explosion in wages thanks to the new TV deal is showing no signs of slowing down. Estimates suggest that there is a 20 per cent increase in the salaries being demanded by players this summer from 12 months ago. Clubs such as Manchester United were paying Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney more than £300,000 a week last season. And, with transfer fees rocketing skywards, the payments look set to continue. Bruce said: “It’s mindblowing. We’ve all said, ‘It’s got to stop’,p but it just isn’t. I don’t see it slo slowing down in the foreseea foreseeable future, either. “But t there is a danger. If we are not c careful, we are just getting to the stage where all we are ta talking about is money. “I thin think the average man-onthe-stree the-street – and that’s who the game be belongs to – is getting fed- fed-up up of reading about it all. “When we talk as managers, all we are discussing is how much mo money is being spent and how diffi difficult it is with players. “But I have noticed that the cash bein being demanded is on the increase increase. Fifteen years ago, we were lau laughing when the prospec prospect of players being paid £100,0 £100,000-a-week was being talked about. “B “But when you look at Ame America and the sportsmen over there and the size of the contracts there, then w with television and the fr franchise system - that’s th the way it is going here w with the global pull of th the Premier League. “So, £1m-a-week? You have to s say that it wouldn’t be a major su surprise if someone was to earn th that amount of cash.”