Money Can Buy Happiness

Although some Real Madrid fans might disagree with my title, it seems that in modern day football money is the major factor contributing to a teams success and to a fan's happiness. In this summers transfer window, already the Premier League champions have spent over a whopping £50million. If this is the action that the defending champions must take to ensure a repeat of last seasons success then what must their challengers do? The answer is simple. Spend! Spend! And spend! Although no other premier league club have matched the amount spent by Manchester United, more transfers are imminent. United's "noisy nieghbours' Manchester City are hoping to confirm the arrival of Argentinian wonder kid Sergio Aguero by the end of the week, even if Carlos Tevez is forced to stay for one more season. Aguero was originally lined up as an ideal replacement for Tevez, but after the lack of interest from clubs for the teams controversial captain, City officials are growing inpatient and must progress with the Aguero deal, which is reported to be around £40million.

Elsewhere, Liverpool have also been splashing the cash on British talent, recruiting Jordan Henderson (£20m), Charlie Adam (£6m) and Stewart Downing (£20m) to announce that they are once again title contenders. However, the big wait now is to see if wealthy Chelsea owner Roman Abramovic will provide new manager, Andre Villas-Boas, with the funds needed to land Croatian and Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric. Harry Redknapps continuous fight to keep his starlet midfielder is becoming increasingly difficult after it appeared last week that Modric is prepared to force a move to Stamford Bridge and handed in an official transfer request. If Chelsea are unsuccessful with their plans to land Modric then their attention will again turn to the Brazilian sensation Neymar. Although he is still a teenager, Santos are demanding at least £40million for Neymar.

Whether these arrivals of foreign talent is benefiting the league or damaging England's home grown talent is up for debate, whereas one thing that is certain is that the amount being spent by clubs has become out of hand and could be put to better use within the game. But as for now no changes appear to be on the horizon and the bank accounts of money grabbing football agents will only get bigger. But if the smile on the fans faces gets bigger with them when their clubs new signing scores the winning goal in the cup final then who are they to complain?