Tag Archives: Premier League

How much is a Premier League medal worth?

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£25 million.

That is how much Alexis Sanchez is willing to “sacrifice” by joining Manchester City in January rather than the summer, according to reports this morning.

Were Sanchez to move on a free transfer at the end of the season, as history dictates, he and his agent will demand a huge chunk of his transfer value.

Arsenal created the situation of players getting “paid” the transfer fee when Sol Campbell joined from Spurs in 2001.

Instead of paying a huge transfer fee, Arsenal put together a four year package worth £20 million – including signing on fee, bonuses and salary – which back then made one of the highest paid players in world football.

It was reported at the time that his “basic” wage was £60,000, and that Arsenal would pay an additional £30,000 a week over the 4 year period as a signing on fee. This was big money 17 years ago.

This kind of set a precedent in players leaving on a Bosman. They would be paid more due to a lack of transfer fee, with that extra money coming in signing on fees to avoid breaking squad wage structures.

Fast forward to Demba Ba. He left Newcastle for Chelsea when the London side activated his £7 million release clause. His agents estimated that his true value was closer to £20 million.

With Chelsea then getting him “on the cheap” the agents demanded an increased signing on fee from Chelsea.

Ba pocketed £3 million, his agents £2.5 million.

Just last week, we saw Ross Barkley move to Everton for a cut price £15 million. Today it was announced that his agents were paid £7 million for the transfer.

So there is massive precedent of players on a free transfer, or going for a lot less than their “value” pocketed a big chunk of cash as a signing on fee.

Reports are that Alexis Sanchez (or his people) was demanding £25 million to complete a free transfer in the summer. And that he is willing to “sacrifice” that £25 million to join city in January.

Now the story could be written that Sanchez is so desperate to get out of Arsenal that he is willing to sacrifice a big pay day in the summer. Whilst this does have some legs, we are talking about 5 months time. The reality is that it is unlikely that he will want to lose out on £25 million just because he is a bit unhappy.

The truth is that he wants to win a Premier League medal. And that by joining Manchester City in January, he is guaranteed winning one. So he is willing to sacrifice £25 million to win that medal.

A Premier League medal for Alexis Sanchez will be a hollow success.

Manchester City have the league already won. They are 15 points ahead of Manchester United in 2nd place after 22 games. They need just another 11 wins to secure the title. And that is if Manchester United win every game. City probably only actually need to win another 8 games to secure the title.

Sanchez joining now is a player coming late to the race. The hard work has been done. At the end of the season, even if he scores 10 goals and contributes to a couple of wins, City would have won the league regardless of his signing.

He might end up with a medal, but it will be a meaningless one.

Interestingly, in Sanchez’s 10 year career in Europe, he only has one league title to show for it. It probably shows why desperate he is to win medals, however hollow they are.

So Sanchez is desperate for a Premier League medal, despite it being hollow. And he is willing to sacrifice £25 million for what would be a hollow victory.

£25 million to win a Premier League medal.

As a final thought, if Sanchez does join Manchester City this week, he will still get a huge signing on fee. So he is not really sacrificing anything.

Keenos

Fake awards and calendar records

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What is it about all these fake records the media are inventing? It is getting ludicrous.

A few years back we had the “Most points in the calendar year” awarded to Arsenal by those in the media. The majority of us scoffed at this. You do not win trophies for the most points in the calendar year, but the most points over the season.

Then a year ago, you had an award given to Spurs for “most points over the last two seasons”. They finished 2nd and 3rd without a trophy, but they got the most points over 2 seasons. Well done.

Just at the end of last year, Harry Kane broke the “most Premier League goals in a calendar year” record.

Firstly, it highlights how much these records are made up by the media by the fact that it was a Sky-era only record. Secondly, Alan Shearer held the previous record, of which he was unaware of until 20 years after he “broke” the record.

And now Kevin De Bruyne is a record breaker.

Kevin De Bruyne sets assist record.

Was the headline. I wondered what record he had broken. It being January and all, it can not be a calendar year record.

“Kevin De Bruyne became the first player to register 10 assists in Europe’s top five leagues”. That was the record. The first player to register 10 assists in Europe’s top five leagues.

Not the first person ever, not the first person in history, just the first person this season. What a record to hold! What a load of Buzzcocks.

I fully understand why all these records are being created by the media.

In an era of 24 hour news, revenues driven by advertising rather than buyers, media outlets need the clicks, the listeners, the watchers.

This leads to the dumbing down of the media. A picture of Kim Kardashian with her arse hanging out will get more hits than an investigative article into the corruption of unions in the UK. This clickbait thirst has led to the rise of fake news.

Football fans have dealt with fake news for decades.

For years, transfer speculation has been a key income stream for the media. Write an article on XXX joining XXX and the hits will go through the roof. Especially if the club you are trying to link the player with is Arsenal or Manchester United. Fake news gets the hits. The more hits, the more revenue.

And this leads back to fake records and awards.

Young journalists trying to break through in the industry are not KPI’d on the quality of their articles but their quantity. I know someone who works in the field and they have to write 3 news articles a day.

Eventually they get to the point where they are literally making stuff up just to fulfil the 3 articles a day. They create these records to give themselves something to write about.

Then these articles are picked up by other junior journalists who basically rip off the original article to complete their daily quota.

Suddenly every media outlet has picked up on the fake record, and is reporting on it. Then it hits social media (although chances are the originator stole it off someone else) and the record becomes a “thing”.

I watch cricket and they come up with records as tedious as Highest 6th wicket, 2nd innings partnership for England at Melbourne. The difference is cricket is a game for statistic geeks.

The final nail in the coffin for this blog was the award the Daily Mirror gave to Spurs:

Keenos

Crystal Palace Win, Jack Wilshere Contract & Henry v Sanchez

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Crystal Palace Win

Good win. Played well. Can’t tell you much about the second half as I was drinking on the concourse.

Jack Wilshere

Great performance by Jack Wilshere. His talent has never been in question, just his fitness.

The club have taken it slowly with him this season, and have been criticised for doing so, but the fact he is now fully fit and starting for Arsenal shows they got it right.

Hopefully his career has rejuvenated and we secure his new contract.

Thierry Henry

So Thierry Henry on Sky picked up on the fact that two separate groups of players celebrated one of Alexis Sanchez’s goal.

Henry said: “You’re not here for Alexis Sanchez, you’re here for Arsenal. Arsenal scored. Go and celebrate. Whoever does it, we don’t care about that, go and celebrate with your team-mate.”

For a start, it is a complete non-story. It was a great assist that lead to the goal. The players near Jack Wilshere celebrated with him. The players near Alexis Sanchez celebrated with the Chilean.

It is not unusual for some players to celebrate with the assist maker and others the goal scorer.

Secondly, I have to laugh about Henry commenting about players wanting to leave and and the dressing room being split. His behaviour in 2006 when he wanted to be at Barcelona was equally poor.

I remember plenty of times in that year Henry demanding players celebrate with him. He thinks that he is King of the Hill but his behaviour was a disgrace.

Keenos