Duncan Ferguson has had a symphony written about his career by a Finnish composer. Osmo Tapio Raihala’s Barlinnie Nine (Barlinnie being the Glasgow jail where Ferguson went for head-butting Raith Rovers’ Jock McStay in 1994) is a melancholy, 13-minute piece described by its creator as a hymn to underachievement. “I got the idea for it when he was facing jail and he had just become something of a cult figure for Everton,” Raihala said. “It takes into account the contradictions in him: he has an aggressive side but there is a lyrical undertone to him, as the fact he keeps pigeons shows.”
It used to be Ferguson’s transfer fees and wages that were on the orchestral scale. If ever a footballer demonstrated the almost mindless inflation in the market, it is he. Since leaving Dundee United in 1993, Ferguson has scored just 70 league goals in 12 seasons for his various clubs, yet moved for fees totalling £18.75m — and banked a similar sum himself in signing-on bonuses and wages. Yet the striker, now 33, has just accepted a big cut in salary, a meagre one-year deal and a pay-as-you play contract to stay at Everton. Has football found its marbles again? Welcome to the summer of sense.
Right across the Premiership there are deals being done that, after years of increases, at last reflect common sense. Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has told would-be buyers they will have to find £12m if they want Andy Johnson but this is a lone piece of madness. When Mikael Forssell moved to Birmingham for £3m on Friday the figure seemed about right, yet it was only two years ago that Manchester United paid a similar amount for David Bellion (nine goals in four seasons in England) from Sunderland.
Rather than depressing the market, the new mood of reason is allowing deals to be done that would previously would have foundered on unrealistic notions from the buying club, selling club or player. The result is that the coming months are expected to be the busiest period of activity since transfer windows were introduced. “I think the summer will be very busy,” said Jon Smith, chief executive of First Artist, one of the three biggest football agencies in the world. “Clubs are more sensible now and are ready to trade, and a lot of players signed on big contracts during the boom three or four years ago are finally off the wage bills, so there’s a lot more room to manoeuvre.
“Arsenal want to strengthen the goalkeeping and striking departments. Tottenham will get in a couple of players and move others on. Aston Villa will have to improve their squad, Birmingham will buy two or three players, Newcastle are looking to bring in four and release four, Sunderland want to bring in eight, Charlton will buy a couple, Middlesbrough will tickle their squad with two or three acquisitions, Liverpool will be busy and Everton have to spend to capitalise on being in the Champions League. They’ll add three or four new faces. That’s around 30 deals right there, and that’s just off the top of my head.”
Smith’s company, together with Stellar, Formation, SEM and SFX, comprise the “Big Five” British agencies. As a group they handle 80% of transfers in and out of Premiership clubs. In recent years there has been rationalisation in the representation business and this, too, is helping oil the market’s wheels. “There’s still a raft of nutty agents out there who think they can make big and quick killings but most of us, now, are professionals. People in our business have accepted the new reality,” Smith said. “It’s not in our interests to ask for fees and wages that will cripple clubs. There are still some damn good deals out there to be done without killing the golden goose.”
The annual review of football by accountants Deloitte, published last week, showed a majority of Premiership clubs have been cutting costs and pointed to an industry in perhaps healthier shape at the top level than 12 months ago.
“After the ITV Digital debacle a few years ago there was a realignment of soccer where most banks took fright and wouldn’t lend to clubs any more,” Smith said. “Until that point, chairmen had always been able to borrow money against future television deals. Now people have realised TV can’t bankroll fantasy football, only reality. The new thinking has been in place for 24 months or so and most clubs have got themselves back in line and back in a position to do deals.”
A sign of the general health is that when bargains become available, so many clubs are able to compete. Scott Parker’s availability at a starting price of £5m attracted Everton, Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle, who are poised to secure the player after upping their bid to £6.5m and agreeing to match Parker’s current wages at Chelsea of £55,000 per week. Peter Crouch, who Southampton will let go for £7m, has prompted another clutch of inquiries, with Liverpool leading the way.
The European champions and Newcastle are among a group of clubs who can do bigger deals than the rest, along with Manchester United, who are set this week to sign the Korean, Ji-Sung Park, and Arsenal, who are nursing an interest in the £10m-rated Belarus right-winger, Alexander Hleb. But with United, because of Malcolm Glazer’s debts, reportedly barred from spending more than £10m net on transfers before January 1, 2006, and Arsenal prudent because of their new stadium, even the big boys are dealing on a scale with which other clubs can relate.
That is, except Chelsea. If the rest of the Premiership are flying in either club or economy class, the champions are in first-class all by themselves. The deals they have been linked with start at £10m (for Kakha Kaladze) and extend to £60m (for Adriano). The Deloitte survey produced some extraordinary data to show the gap between Chelsea and the rest.
Their wage bill in 2003-04 was £38m higher than that of Manchester United, £45m more than Arsenal, £49m more than Liverpool, £70m more than Newcastle and between three and 19 times the rest of the clubs now in the Premiership. And that was before Jose Mourinho arrived and the acquisitions of Didier Drogba, Mateja Kezman, Petr Cech, Arjen Robben, Paolo Ferreira, Jiri Jarosik and Ricardo Carvalho.
The divide within the Premiership is nothing compared with that between the top division and the rest of English football, however. The Championship celebrated a new television deal last week, but as PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor points out, “one Premier League club would be expected to make £25m per year from TV. That is the total TV income of all the other 72 clubs. Under the new deal (which starts in 2006) the figure will still be just £36m”.
Taylor faces a busy summer too. His organisation is still compiling its register of footballers who are out of contract or available for transfer. The PFA’s interim list comprises 430 players and the total is expected to touch 500. Out of work are more than 50 full or under-21 internationals, four ex-Manchester United players and two members of Greece’s Euro 2004-winning squad, as well as famous PFA members such as Steve McManaman, Keith Gillespie and Craig Short. But most job-seekers come from the lower divisions and the PFA is pouring more and more money into providing educational courses and professional advice to help players find jobs outside the game.
“Everyone still wants to be a footballer,” said Taylor, “but on average it’s an eight-year career, you lose 60 players every year through injury and every summer about a fifth of the workforce is out of work.”
