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| | Saturday, 13 July, 2002, 09:13 GMT 10:13 UK Money game stops spinning  Zidane's �48m transfer may not be repeated
As the Premier League gears up for another campaign, it appears the bottom has fallen out of the transfer market.
Last year Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson blew over �50m to bring Ruud van Nistelrooy and Juan Sebastian Veron to Old Trafford. But so far the only thing the canny Scot has been backing this close season are the racehorses he owns. With the start of the season barely a month away, just Liverpool and Manchester City have been what you might call big-spenders this summer. Newly-promoted City are the only club to have spent more than �20m on players this summer as manager Kevin Keegan looks to avoid dropping back into the First Division. And of the sides finishing in the top six in the Premiership just Liverpool have spent more than �10m, though Lee Bowyer's impending arrival will boost manager Gerard Houllier's spending by another �9m.
The other Premiership club to show significant transfer market activity has been Bolton, as manager Sam Allardyce plots to stay in the top flight for a second successive season. It is not only England that has been feeling the financial pinch, but the whole of Europe. Over the past five seasons the world transfer record has been successively broken in deals involving Ronaldo, Denilson, Christian Vieri, Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane. Zidane joined Real Madrid from Juventus in a deal worth �48m to set a new transfer record. Yet this summer the biggest European transfer has been Nicholas Anelka's switch from Paris Saint Germain to City for �13m. If this figure is not beaten, it will be the lowest summer transfer record since Ronaldo's move to Barcelona in 1996.
The English Premier League has put a brave face on the listless transfer market, arguing that instead of facing financial meltdown England's top flight clubs are just behaving more judiciously. "The financial health of the Premier League has never looked better," said a Premier League spokesman. "In fact we were recently dubbed the 'financial champions of Europe' by football finance experts, Deloitte & Touche. "The report commended clubs for managing their finances with prudence, highlighting this as one of the main reasons why clubs would continue to prosper compared to the problems faced by European rivals." Brave words, but the Deloitte and Touche report only provides a glimpse into football's bottom line up to the end of the 2001 season. And independent football consultant Alex Fynn warns that Premier League clubs are unlikely to open the purse strings in the near future. "Wages over the last season - figures which have not been reported on yet by Deloitte - have made a heavier than anticipated inroad into the clubs' finances.
"A lot of clubs are having to manage the heaviest debt they have ever had to do. "In the past banks would have been prepared to extend loans to finance a club's ambitious transfer policy. "But they are not willing to do so in the current financial climate." Fynn also attributes the depressed market activity to the dearth of real stars unearthed by the World Cup. "The World Cup did not throw up any outstanding players, in the way that previous tournaments have," he said. "It was a competition where teamwork took centre stage at the expense of the individual. "For that reason clubs will look to pick up players from countries like Senegal and South Korea. "For those types of players managers are getting value for money. At the prices those players will be bought as they will be worth the gamble." | | Top Football stories now:  Links to more Football stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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