Manchester United, Inter Milan and Barcelona all scooped their domestic league titles last weekend. To achieve the feat the three clubs spent in the region of €200m between them on new players in 2008-2009. Little wonder then that they emerged victorious. But, in fact, the vast majority of that money was wasted on poor and ineffective signings. That they still emerged victorious after such large financial blunders tells of the pre-eminent clubs’ dominance.
Barcelona get more than their fair share of plaudits, but amid all the talk of their home-grown talents – Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi (sort of) – they were second only to Manchester City in terms of money spent last year.
The Catalans spent a whopping €89.1m on the likes of Daniel Aalves, Aliaksandr Hleb, Martin Caceres, Gerard Pique and Seydou Keita, and although Aalves, Pique and to some extent Keita have contributed to their success, the €32m that went on Hleb and Cecares brought almost no return.
Barca’s opponents in the Champions League final, Manchester United, didn’t exactly keep the purse-strings tight either. Despite dominating in 2007-08, they briefly broke the British transfer to sign Dimitar Berbatov for €34m, and then paid somewhere in the region of €22m for Serbian youngsters Zoran Tosic and Adem Ljajic in January.
The two Serbs have yet to play for United’s first team and Berbatov’s impact has been negligible. Had they not made any signings since last season it is doubtful whether their campaign would have been any less successful. The fact that the additions were only minor tweaks to what was already the strongest squad in Europe signals the financial and footballing might of Alex Ferguson’s side.
Jose Mourinho bore witness to that strength first hand as his Inter side were comprehensively defeated by United in the second round of the Champions League. In spite of this, Inter still went on to win Serie A at a canter - their fourth consecutive domestic crown.
Mourinho’s brief is to bring Champions League success to the black and blue half of Milan, and to achieve this he was given a substantial transfer kitty last summer. In total the Special One spent in excess of €40m on Brazilian full-back Mancini, Portsmouth’s Sulley Muntari and Portuguese winger Ricardo Quaresma - a huge amount of money in Serie A.
Muntari has settled well since his move but both Mancini and Quaresma have found it more difficult. Although Mancini has begun to find his feet following his move from Roma, the €18.6m spent on Quaresma has been an unmitigated disaster with the Portuguese winger moving to Chelsea on-loan after only four months.
The fact that the biggest clubs can afford to make such big mistakes and not pay the price highlights their dominance both on the pitch and in the bank. Recession or not, the elite clubs remain rich whilst a record number of smaller teams across Europe are fighting for financial survival.
Champions League qualification provides a huge annual reimbursement, allowing top clubs to waste huge sums on speculative purchases. The significance of such misspent investment having almost no bearing on domestic success should not be underestimated. If the top teams can afford to waste millions on speculative purchases with no repercussions, what chance do the chasing pack have?