No more quality despite record spending
With the news that this summer's spending spree by English clubs has smashed the previous record by some distance, eurosport.yahoo.com points out where the money has gone.
Whilst over £500 million was spent during the last transfer window - an increase of £200m on last year's figures - the record £30m paid by Chelsea for Andriy Shevchenko a year ago remains unrivalled.
Indeed, only Liverpool's signing of Fernando Torres got close to that figure and at £20m the Spaniard was by far the most expensive player brought to these shores over the summer.
So if big money is not being spent on big name players, how can such a monstrous amount of cash have changed hands since the end of last season?
The answer is two-fold. First, the game has seen an overall increase in the number of transactions made, as player loyalty dwindles and their desire to cash in while they can becomes all consuming.
Secondly, with top players costing no more than this time last year, most of the money spent this summer seems to have gone on average players who are increasingly being sold for grossly inflated prices.
There are a number of main culprits for this worrying trend, most, if not all, coming from the top flight.
Fulham, and their manager Lawrie Sanchez, are to be found at the top of the list after a £23.5m shopping spree that failed to bring a single big name to Craven Cottage.
Many Fulham fans have raised eyebrows at the £6m spent on Diomansy Kamara, a striker who has yet to prove himself in the top flight, and the combined £8m paid for Championship players Chris Baird, David Healy and Lee Cook.
But the Cottagers are not the only ones raising the stakes; Sunderland paid £6m and £5.5m for another pair of Championship-standard strikers, Kenwyne Jones and Michael Chopra.
And the £5m Black Cats boss Roy Keane spent on Kieran Richardson must have had Manchester United laughing all the way to the bank, while Greg Halford's displays so far this season have done nothing to suggest he is worth the £3.5m the Wearsiders paid for him.
Portsmouth, under the guidance of Harry Redknapp, are usually very astute in the transfer market, but £6m for former Preston ace David Nugent? Even Redknapp began to doubt the wisdom of that particular purchase as the transfer window shut last week.
It seems even average players can go for silly money these days - just look at Alan Smith, Mido and Kieron Dyer, all of whom changed clubs for the princely sum of £6m this summer. Correct us if we are wrong, but did those players not spend the majority of last season sitting on the sidelines? What have they done of late to justify such hefty price tags?
Tottenham also seem to have lost their sense of the value of money, paying £10m for Gareth Bale, £8m for Younes Kaboul and £5.4m for Kevin-Prince Boateng. At least they have brought in young players who could become stars of the future, although judging on Spurs' performance so far this season, they will be waiting a long time to see the fruits of Martin Jol's spending.
And as usual, Manchester United have splashed the cash like it is going out of fashion. Only time will tell if the likes of Nani and Anderson are able to justify the reported £35m spent on them by the Premier League champions.
Where will it all stop? They say all good things must come to an end, and so surely it will be with English football. The bubble which currently envelopes the beautiful game will soon burst and only then will a sense of the real value of money be regained.
In the meantime, expect yet even more silly money to be spent on ever more average players.
eurosport