Football Player Prices, Yossi Benayoun, Ashley Cole, James Milner
The world of football is a funny place, you don’t always get what you pay for. Value for money is a virtue in football that is virtually nonexistent these days.
Player transfers in recent history bear a glaring testament to that fact. Chelsea paid around 30 million pounds for a player that was considered a lethal goal scorer in Europe, at least his record said so. Schevchenko was one of the top strikers in world football when Chelsea bought him from AC Milan but he could not replicate his form in England and perhaps went down in the history of English football as one of the most expensive transfer mistakes by a manager.
In current times player prices are sky high, yet some clubs have the money (and not to mention the guts) to still pursue their desired targets.
The prime examples are Yossi Benayoun, James Milner, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole, none of whom are worth what their clubs are asking for them but it’s just a matter of personal opinion.
Take for instance the Cole and Yossi swap. Joe Cole plus 6 million pounds = Yossi Benayoun. Any sensible man in the world would fail to get his head around that.
A lot of fans in the world seemed to be irate at what they are seeing as a terrible deal but yet a manager of Ancelotti’s astute tactical shrewdness went ahead with that.
Cole is easily worth around 15 million pounds in the market, especially given today’s inflated market prices.
Cole came back from an injury to a new manager and for Ancelotti he was just another midfielder who would compete with Yuri Zhirkov for a place in the starting lineup. But didn’t fancy playing on the wings anymore and showed no flexibility in his wage demands. Carlo must have felt Cole was an ego in his dressing room that was not adding any value or worth to his team so he let the man go.
Whereas at Liverpool Cole is guaranteed first team football, a key role in the midfield and a manager and team mates who will look to build around him.
Yossi, on the other hand had shown flexibility with ‘pool by offering to play anywhere in the midfield (barring the CDM position of course), had lower wage demands and had the ability to listen better than Cole. Those virtues made him more attractable to Chelsea than he was to Liverpool.
So there you have two teams, one paying a lucrative contract and the other paying a handsome transfer fee. Both got the players they wanted and players who are worth a lot more to their new teams. All the parties are happy.
Now, turning to the deals that have not gone through as yet. Ashley Cole is constantly being linked to Real Madrid and why wouldn’t he be? Arguably the best left back in the world linked to a team that desperately needs a left back, but for 29 million pounds?
Madrid can offer the same 80 million pounds that they paid for Ronaldo a season ago and it still may not be enough for Chelsea. What he is worth as a player on the pitch can never be matched financially.
Madrid are also offering Benzema 10 million plus and the deal looks somewhat more attractive but in the presence of Drogba, Anelka, Kalou and Sturridge it would only give Chelsea an unnecessary yet quality striker. But Chelsea would be losing out on a world class defender with no possible replacement available in the market. Moreover, it would be a loss of a player from the homegrown quota and there isn’t anything to be gained there for Chelsea.
The case of James Milner is a little odd one though. Both the parties involved have very different ideas to what they are trying to get out of the deal.
Aston Villa may be losing their best player, a player who bosses their midfield, gives in untiring performances and would run his heart out on the pitch just because the manager had asked him to.
Milner has blossomed into a world class player at Villa and he works well in tandem with Young and Petrov. So will 30 million pounds be enough for Villa to lose their best player? No.
Manchester City on the other hand is in the same position as Chelsea was a few years ago. Money is not an issue, so financial worth simply goes out of the window. Paying 30 million for a player of Milner’s stature will surely be the better deal for City. They will be getting a homegrown player, who is flexible and willing to play anywhere in the midfield and also provide goal scoring impetus.
Its not a question of how much a player costs and how much he is worth or how good he is. It’s only a matter of how much he is worth to your team and how effective he is in the system that your team plays.
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