Crazy transfer fees - the madness looks set to get worse...

Manchester United's summer spending tally has reached over £100m with the addition of just two players. Transfer fees are spiralling out of control with the likes Daniel Levy, Spurs CEO, saying it is unsustainable. Alan Sugar, the former Spurs owner famously compared the Premier League tv deal to 'the prune juice effect: it goes in one end and comes out the other'. Looking back through this blog's archives I wrote an article predicting the £100m transfer, that was in 2008 prior to Financial Fair Play being introduced. Things have moved on a pace since then with rumours suggesting Monaco's Mbappe is set to join Real Madrid for an astounding £160m. One of the sad ironies is that fans from the games' traditional working class background have been priced out of going to Old Trafford on a regular basis to watch United. Ticket prices are too high and yet the game is awash with money following the new tv deal for which the top four Premier Lieague clubs wil receive between £150m-£160m a season, with the rest receiving around £95m. One can't help but feel that the people charged with running our leading clubs and footballs' governing bodies are once again letting its greatest asset down because without the fans' there will be no game and eventually the money will dry up. That is another prediction to look back on in the event of football failing to change.