Transfer free-for-all signal worrying times
Whether it’s it’s Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid saga, Frank Lampard’s proposed move to Inter Milan or Emmanuel Adebayor’s exit from Arsenal there seems to be a worrying trend dominating the European transfer market at the moment.
For some reason we now have a no holds barred situation where clubs are advertising their intended target through the media and keeping the pressure on until that player is so unsettled he simply has to leave.
Staggered
Right now, it’s a free-for-all and the worrying aspect is that this pursuit is for players who are not available.
In Ronaldo’s case, Real Madrid have gone way too far. It’s got to the point now where Bernt Schuster comes out in the press and describes how Ronaldo, a Manchester United player, would fit in his team! That is bad practise at its very worse and I’m staggered that Uefa have let Real get away with these tactics.
As for Lampard, he’s served his time at Chelsea and clearly fancies a change of scene. I can understand that. The chance to link up with Jose Mourinho again at Inter is obviously tempting him, but the fact that Lampard himself, or his agent up to this point, have kept notably quiet, is only adding fuel to the fire.
For me, the one club taking the right stance on this is Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger has a wage structure in place and refuses to break that for any player, whereas the mindset of Chelsea is to stretch any limit to fend off rival clubs. The one player so far to cross Wenger on the wage issue, Mathieu Flamini, has moved on, and it looks like Hleb and maybe Adebayor could follow suit.
Brutality
What it demonstrates is that Wenger is prepared to put his reputation on the line and roll the dice again. We’ve seen it with Overmars, Vieira and Henry in the past and his record is second to none. Who would bet against him doing the same again?
Thankfully, domestic transfers haven’t quite had to same brutality about them and Peter Crouch’s move from Liverpool to Portsmouth looks like one to suit all.
Crouch has done a great job at Anfield but knows where he stands in the pecking order and will certainly benefit from regular football.