A transfer window most weird

By the time English football emerges disorientated from the frenzy of the transfer window on Wednesday, it is expected that more than £1 billion (S$1.78 billion) will have been lavished on fees for footballers of talents good, fair and indifferent, by a Premier League that knows no other way.

For all that money spent acquiring the awesome power of Paul Pogba, the pace of Sadio Mane, the scheming of Ilkay Gundogan or just the great unpredictability of Papy Djilobodji, there is one proposed deal that never got close to being part of the £1 billion summer. What a curiosity that £12 million offer from Tottenham Hotspur for Wilfried Zaha was, replete with a generous £2 million in add-ons.

Within hours the Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish was politely pointing out that it was on the low side, given that Mauricio Pochettino considers Zaha to have the potential of a Cristiano Ronaldo.

It should be said that his Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, wants to pay a Ronaldo-sized fee — although the fee in question is not the record-breaking £80 million Real Madrid paid in 2009. Rather it was the £12.25 million Manchester United paid Sporting Lisbon for the 18-year-old Ronaldo in 2003.

Was it just Levy doing what Levy does so well? That being, antagonising the competition with derisory bids for their best players while simultaneously demanding top dollar for Spurs’ own collection of waifs and strays? The early signs would suggest so.

Spurs value Nabil Bentaleb at around £17 million, which Schalke will be expected to pay if he has a good season on loan. As well as that, Levy wants around £14 million from Hull or Sunderland for the services of Ryan Mason. If Zaha feels undervalued at Palace then he might want to examine in more detail how little Spurs seem to value him — but perhaps there was another game afoot.

Certainly Zaha, on around £40,000-a-week already, will get a new contract out of this wrangle, despite having four years left on his existing deal, which he signed last year when his move back from Manchester United was made permanent. Palace are one of many clubs who are now paying new signings such as Andros Townsend the kind of wages that they have never paid before, and if one talented, erratic winger can earn big money, then it is only a matter of time before the other talented, erratic winger wants the same.

This summer transfer window has sealed the Premier League’s financial supremacy in Europe this season, on the back of the £8.3 billion television deal. A Premier League club has broken the world transfer record. Arsene Wenger committed more on transfers over the weekend, on Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez, than any previous single day in 20 years at Arsenal. The league as a whole is on course to break £1 billion. Real Madrid and Barcelona — for many years the traditional raiders — have been quiet.

But the notion of a bargain for a Premier League club no longer exists. Perhaps that was why Levy was keen to low-ball Palace for Zaha, because he knew that if he was even remotely serious about buying the player then the conversation would probably have to start at around £30 million. Premier League fees and the wages have expanded in line with the vastness of the television deal that has been signed — and so publicly celebrated as a symbol of the league’s popularity.

In Germany they call it “stupid English money”. In the Premier League they regard it as the premium. Chelsea are understood to have offered around £35 million for AC Milan defender Alessio Romagnoli, and been rejected. They have also been told that £40 million is not enough to sign Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli. These are the kind of offers that used to get business done, but no longer.

Fees are rising, wages are rising, and what was regarded as a good contract 12 months ago suddenly is no longer enough. Players have not suddenly got better, they have just got more expensive for clubs trying to buy and retain them.

Perhaps that is why Levy was so half-hearted in his bid for Zaha, and has been relatively low-key in his dealings this summer: Because he knows that this is a £1 billion market in which there is plenty of money but precious few bargains to be had. The DAILY TELEGRAPH

About the author:

Sam Wallace is The Daily Telegraph’s chief football writer