admin Erik Ten Hag is bullish on closing the gap to Manchester City but the transfer market shows how much ground they have to cover
There have been recent complaints at Old Trafford about the ‘United tax’, something in which the selling clubs decided to impose an even higher tax in view of the deep pockets of the buying clubs.
The transfer market is a strange one given how subjective player evaluations are, given the varying supply and demand landscape. Chelsea were under pressure to sell, United could have cut their price tag for Mason Mount, to name two recent examples, but Ajax had already sold the player last year and are now looking to replace him. With limited time on the market to sign the one remaining player, Anthony was able to get more. .
Despite the special pressures surrounding trading, a framework exists for clubs to buy and sell. Any player can only be worth what a buyer is willing to pay, and over time, these decisions will determine whether prices rise or fall in the market.
Manchester City routinely overpaid for players in the early years after their takeover in an effort to fast-track their way to the top of English and European football. However, for all the Robinhos and the Jos they also had major success by putting together financial packages that may have seemed pricey but turned out to be incredible value: Yaya Toure (£24m), David Silva (£24m), and Sergio Aguero (£38m) were the first and among the most high-profile of these deals that gave remarkable bang for City buck.
This has been honed and amplified in the Txiki Begiristain era under Pep Guardiola, starting with the very first signing of Ilkay Gundogan for £20m. Kevin De Bruyne (£54m), Bernardo Silva (£43m), Ederson (£34.9m), John Stones (£47.5m) and Kyle Walker (£50m) were among the stars bought between 2015 and 2017 for fees that no English clubs were interested in matching but have become bargains.
The Walker transfer particularly baffled pundits and annoyed United executives, who felt it inflated the market for everybody else. City had seen this to some degree and had even more hopes as Monaco felt Benjamin Mendy was the better player and probably City’s worst signing of the last decade.
Buying a walker for £50m will only swell the market if there are enough people overpaying for an inferior player and there have been countless things in recent years – Fred, Alexis for example Sanchez, think Harry Maguire – think the Blues have turned around Don’t sell if you think the valuation is too high. United have signed all three of these players, none of them cheap, and despite all the frustration about Walker’s transfer, it was Old who chose Aaron in their search for the best 804 right-back of 2019. It was just the Trafford bosses and decided on Wang. – Visakha was worth £50 million. It’s not hard to imagine which Manchester club would have rated full-backs higher.
After outbid the odds early on, City have now placed themselves in a position where they can hit the market aggressively knowing they can ignore overpriced offers due to the quality of their products. their squad size and his current manager. On top of that, the success of their academy players on both the bench – where they have won the Under-18s and Under-21s in the last three years – and on loan has seen local talent theirs becomes more valuable; James Trafford to Burnley for £19m and Shea Charles to Southampton for £15m are the latest examples of a new city market tax reminiscent of the fees clubs once levied on followers Sir Alex Ferguson.
City have a reputation for refusing to overpay and producing valuable players that support their transfer fees ahead of them in the market, and that’s why they’re able to hit sales. Impressive item. Despite all of Erik Ten Hag’s words about Man City catching up, in the market, United are seen as too willing to overpay and tough sellers – good luck trying to secure, for example £50m for Maguire.
Changing those perceptions only came after years of good business, something City did and United did not.Until this changes, the Blues will benefit from the tax and the Reds will be fined.
