Transfer market not so crazy

When Paris Saint-Germain paid 222 million euros to lure Neymar away from Barcelona, it shook the footballing world and gave voice to many -- be they former footballers, pundits or even club officials -- who admonished the 'crazy market' with renewed vigour.

But is it really a 'crazier' market now than what it was a decade ago or even before then? Are the clubs spending to that extent that they could possibly be considered bankrupt? Has the revenue-spending ratio widened substantially when compared to the past?

A carefully constructed study will provide us with an interesting insight.

Real Madrid spent 54 per cent of their 138.8 million euros of revenue -- which has now increased to 620 million euros -- when they lured Zinedine Zidane to the Bernabeu in 2001. Neymar, on the other hand, cost PSG about 35 per cent of their revenue.

Paul Pogba cost (105 million euros) Manchester United the same percentage of their revenue as they had dished out in 2004-05 to sign Wayne Rooney (35 million euros), and less than what they paid for Rio Ferdinand in 2002. Barcelona paid a significantly higher percentage in 2009 when they signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan for 75 million euros than they did this time around for Demebele (105 million euros).

True, the transfer fees has seen a meteoric rise but after taking into account the overall picture of the transfer market and its many influences, it can be best described as a steady rise over the past 50 years and more.

The Premier League has signed their latest TV rights deal for 5.59 billion euros, 71 per cent higher than what they negotiated in 2012. Spain's La Liga has a three-year-deal worth 2.65 billion, the lion's share of which will go to Real Madrid and Barcelona. Most of Europe's Leagues have deals approaching a billion, at least.

It is not just TV rights pumping money into football clubs; sponsorship deals have also seen clubs easily pocket north of 100 million euros a year. There are kit sponsors which make and brand each team's jersey, car sponsors which provide each player with a car, some clubs sell the naming rights to their stadiums at high fees while Manchester United even have sponsorship deals with a ramen noodles company and a tractor manufacturer.

There was a boom when foreign owners started buying clubs and pumping money into them, the best-known such instance being Roman Abrahamovich buying Chelsea in 2003.

Looking at the top 10 transfer fees in the world at the moment, eight of them were negotiated since 2010. The world record prior to Neymar's was the 94 million euros paid by Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo -- a figure that far surpassed the previous record of 75 million euros paid by the same club for Zidane in 2001.

But despite Neymar's fee being almost three times as high as the fee paid for Zidane, the Frenchman still remains the most expensive outlay when compared to the club's revenue -- something people fail to take into account when they speak about the increasing transfer fees. Interestingly, looking at it from that perspective, only two of the top 10 transfers have occurred since 2010.