Why it's not just 'dodgy foreigners' to blame for Premier League clubs almost going bust

By Guillem Balague

Published 05:00 19/02/10

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English clubs don't have a monopoly on living way beyond their means - Valencia, Xerez, Zaragoza and Mallorca are all on the verge of bankruptcy in the Spanish first division - but the Premier League is close to living up to its reputation for going one step further than everyone else.

It is the most watched competition in the world and, as the Premier League frequently reminds us, the most exciting. So why does it feel it has to pay above market rates to convince players to be a part of it?

Every Spanish player that has joined an English club in the last five years has had his wages doubled and often trebled. In the last transfer window - with the country gripped by recession - four La Liga players (Aduriz, Fernando Llorente, Nunes and Marco Ruben) received life-changing offers from England.

The chaotic schedule of that window , agents demands and a reluctance to sell in January - saw those transfers collapse, but for a while, the players thought they had won the lottery.

The popular view in Britain is to portray foreign owners who have no ties with the local communities as the arch villains responsible for plunging some of the country's  most cherished footballing institutions into a financial crisis from which they may never recover.

Yet the reality is that there are plenty of clubs run by home-grown 'talents' who have got themselves into debt without needing any help from overseas. And where foreigners have got their hands on British clubs, it is because the circumstances enabling them to do so - stock market flotation - were created by traditional, local, owners looking to cash in.

Nationality is irrelevant when it comes to incompetence, and the mystery is why the wealthy are queuing up to run a business that usually makes them poorer - and then go on to do it badly.

There is a collective responsibility for this sorry state. The combination of inflated salaries, disproportionate commissions and astronomical transfer fees has created a heady cocktail that all of us - fans and media - have been happy to indulge in. And now the party is over and the headache kicks in, we're looking around for someone to blame.

We've all been guilty of measuring success by the last result and quick to forget that whatever the competition, there's usually only one winner. Patience and pragmatism have disappeared, replaced by an insatiable desire for big money transfers and the next immediate 'fix.'

Show me the money is the line everyone remembers from the movie about sports agent Jerry McGuire, but another line from the film "you had me at hello" best sums up football.

Too many have been willing to ignore all manner of misdemeanours the moment some stranger says 'Hi, I'm taking your club to the top'. W

hen their bank accounts turn out to be as empty as their promises, do those who celebrated their arrival without wondering where they came from deserve any sympathy?

When did the promise of being richer than your rivals become more appealing than simply beating them?

Brits abroad complain about the ' manana manana ' approach to life, but I wonder what the fans of Portsmouth would give right now for the guarantee of a couple more tomorrows?

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