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IT’S confirmed — money has finally driven English football mad.
The incontrovertible proof came with the news Birmingham’s Olivier Kapo had rewarded his bootboy for 12 months’ elbow grease with the keys to his £30,000 Mercedes.
When the 17-year-old lad in question said he couldn’t even afford the insurance, Kapo paid it himself.
For his part in Birmingham’s relegation, midfielder Kapo has been earning £1.5million a year — or the weekly equivalent of one Merc.
Not as good as Gaizka Mendieta up at Middlesbrough, though. The former Spain international, sitting out the last two years of his contract in the Boro reserves, has been “earning” £60,000 a week.
He last played for the first team on Boxing Day 2006.
Undeterred, Boro boss Gareth Southgate wants to replace him with Newcastle’s Alan Smith.
The same Smith who has distinguished himself by failing to score for Newcastle all season. Some return from a £62,000-a-week “striker” who cost the Toon £6m last year.
Then there is Smith’s team-mate Mark Viduka, who struggles by on £80,000 a week.
He stirred himself just enough to score seven times this season though it was hardly against blue-chip opposition — Boro, West Ham (2), Derby (2), Fulham and Reading.
No wonder Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has had enough.
Tough-guy Ashley, a man who earned his dosh through hard graft and a keen business brain, wants to save £2m a year by cutting Michael Owen’s £120,000-a-week wages to a paltry £80,000.
Owen, it is claimed, will move rather than suffer this indignity.
Full marks to Ashley, who wants to concentrate on producing stars of the future rather than pouring his hard-earned into the bottomless pit that is Newcastle’s mediocrity.
It’s high time someone tried to restore some financial sanity to the game rather than bowing to the insatiable greed of players and their agents.
In Newcastle’s case, a voracity that sees £70m of a £90m turnover going in wages to players — two of whom almost came to blows last weekend over who earned what.
Ashley has been astonished by the so-called business plan at a club which, in the past, has frittered away a fortune on players like Elena Marcelino, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Albert Luque (bought for £9.5m, sold for £2m).
This sort of madness left Newcastle with a £100m debt despite huge home attendances and a torrent of TV money.
Annual broadcasting revenue has increased from £464m to £758m. Biggest earners were champions Manchester United with £50m. Even relegated Derby and Brum received £29m.
And what will happen to this money? It will be spewed out in a remorseless, reckless — and, no doubt, record — transfer splurge with most clubs putting themselves even deeper into hock just to stand still.
Premier League officials bang on about how their “product” is the best in the world.
But at what cost? The book-keeping of their clubs is so poor there is hardly one not carrying an enormous debt.
Look at the Big Four. Between them, United (£764m), Chelsea (£600m), Arsenal (£350m) and Liverpool (£350m) owe an incredible £2billion.
Arsenal’s debt, at least, went towards building the Emirates, which generates revenue of £3m a game, while Chelsea have Roman Abramovich.
Though what should happen if the Russian’s waning interest in his club becomes terminal no one at Stamford Bridge will want to contemplate — though we will all chip in a few bob to see the expression on Peter Kenyon’s face.
And then there’s United who, despite a record income of £210m and operating profits of £75m for the year ending June 2007, still produced an overall loss of £58m. I’m no financial genius but you do wonder where it’s all heading.
United have kept a close rein on Chelsea and prevented it being a simple case of the club with the biggest financial clout winning everything.
But how long before even they admit they cannot keep pace with the totally false economies practised by Chelsea and imposed — to near breaking point — on their rivals?
Each day, they raise the bar. After spending £24m on Nicolas Anelka and Branislav Ivanovic in January, they have started the summer merry-go-round by outbidding United for Porto’s £16.5m Jose Bosingwa.
Crucially, Chelsea were willing to raise his weekly wage from £17,000 to £80,000 while United could “only” come up with £48,000.
This is where we came in. Money-induced mania leading in only one direction. Unless men like Ashley can make the others see some sort of sense.
As Paul Getty once observed: “A billion dollars ain’t what it used to be.”
The incontrovertible proof came with the news Birmingham’s Olivier Kapo had rewarded his bootboy for 12 months’ elbow grease with the keys to his £30,000 Mercedes.
When the 17-year-old lad in question said he couldn’t even afford the insurance, Kapo paid it himself.
For his part in Birmingham’s relegation, midfielder Kapo has been earning £1.5million a year — or the weekly equivalent of one Merc.
Not as good as Gaizka Mendieta up at Middlesbrough, though. The former Spain international, sitting out the last two years of his contract in the Boro reserves, has been “earning” £60,000 a week.
He last played for the first team on Boxing Day 2006.
Undeterred, Boro boss Gareth Southgate wants to replace him with Newcastle’s Alan Smith.
The same Smith who has distinguished himself by failing to score for Newcastle all season. Some return from a £62,000-a-week “striker” who cost the Toon £6m last year.
Then there is Smith’s team-mate Mark Viduka, who struggles by on £80,000 a week.
He stirred himself just enough to score seven times this season though it was hardly against blue-chip opposition — Boro, West Ham (2), Derby (2), Fulham and Reading.
No wonder Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has had enough.
Tough-guy Ashley, a man who earned his dosh through hard graft and a keen business brain, wants to save £2m a year by cutting Michael Owen’s £120,000-a-week wages to a paltry £80,000.
Owen, it is claimed, will move rather than suffer this indignity.
Full marks to Ashley, who wants to concentrate on producing stars of the future rather than pouring his hard-earned into the bottomless pit that is Newcastle’s mediocrity.
It’s high time someone tried to restore some financial sanity to the game rather than bowing to the insatiable greed of players and their agents.
In Newcastle’s case, a voracity that sees £70m of a £90m turnover going in wages to players — two of whom almost came to blows last weekend over who earned what.
Ashley has been astonished by the so-called business plan at a club which, in the past, has frittered away a fortune on players like Elena Marcelino, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Albert Luque (bought for £9.5m, sold for £2m).
This sort of madness left Newcastle with a £100m debt despite huge home attendances and a torrent of TV money.
Annual broadcasting revenue has increased from £464m to £758m. Biggest earners were champions Manchester United with £50m. Even relegated Derby and Brum received £29m.
And what will happen to this money? It will be spewed out in a remorseless, reckless — and, no doubt, record — transfer splurge with most clubs putting themselves even deeper into hock just to stand still.
Premier League officials bang on about how their “product” is the best in the world.
But at what cost? The book-keeping of their clubs is so poor there is hardly one not carrying an enormous debt.
Look at the Big Four. Between them, United (£764m), Chelsea (£600m), Arsenal (£350m) and Liverpool (£350m) owe an incredible £2billion.
Arsenal’s debt, at least, went towards building the Emirates, which generates revenue of £3m a game, while Chelsea have Roman Abramovich.
Though what should happen if the Russian’s waning interest in his club becomes terminal no one at Stamford Bridge will want to contemplate — though we will all chip in a few bob to see the expression on Peter Kenyon’s face.
And then there’s United who, despite a record income of £210m and operating profits of £75m for the year ending June 2007, still produced an overall loss of £58m. I’m no financial genius but you do wonder where it’s all heading.
United have kept a close rein on Chelsea and prevented it being a simple case of the club with the biggest financial clout winning everything.
But how long before even they admit they cannot keep pace with the totally false economies practised by Chelsea and imposed — to near breaking point — on their rivals?
Each day, they raise the bar. After spending £24m on Nicolas Anelka and Branislav Ivanovic in January, they have started the summer merry-go-round by outbidding United for Porto’s £16.5m Jose Bosingwa.
Crucially, Chelsea were willing to raise his weekly wage from £17,000 to £80,000 while United could “only” come up with £48,000.
This is where we came in. Money-induced mania leading in only one direction. Unless men like Ashley can make the others see some sort of sense.
As Paul Getty once observed: “A billion dollars ain’t what it used to be.”