If Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was worried about the Premier League’s spending power last summer, wait to he see what they do next year.
Thanks to the global appeal of the Premier League, and the negotiating skills of Richard Scudamore, Premier League clubs are set to see the money they receive from their UK television deal triple next August to over £5billion. Worldwide the income from television is expected to be around £15billion (remember that is just from TV).
Because the TV revenue is equally distributed amongst the 20 clubs, as opposed to say Spain where Real Madrid and Barcelona take the lions share, it is not only the top teams that will be able to attract top players, but even midtable or bottom half of the league teams.
We saw an exanple of that last summer when Newcastle United, not known for their spending power under Mike Ashley, sign PSV midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum and Anderlecht striker Aleksandar Mitrovic despite both clubs being involved in the Champions League this season. Or Stoke City signing Swiss starlet Xherdan Shaqiri from Italian giants Inter Milan. And those transactions took place with a third of the TV cash that teams will have going forward. Things are about to get taken up another notch.
The TV deals open up the market for the richest Premier League teams to spend whatever they want to get a player. A €200m release clause is suddenly within reach, and within financial fair play rules. And the first £500,000-a-week player is on the horizon. Will it be Neymar, Bale or Ronaldo? The top teams will be able to afford higher wages even than the Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.
So what does all this mean for the next couple of transfer windows? I think we see Premier League teams go over the £1Billion mark in transfers and the £100m price tag for a player will be smashed.
Does this mean that all the top stars in the world will move to the Premier League? No. Some players like a Messi or Neymar might prefer the more tactical Spanish style of football or the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. But the league that should be worried is the Bundesliga. Their style of player is the closest to that of the Premier League and we saw last summer that Wolfsburg, who are owned by Volkswagon, could not come close to the wages that Manchester City were offering for Kevin De Bruyne.
Bayern Munich have said that none of their young German stars are for sale, but could they really turn down £100m for Thomas Müller, especially if United would be willing to triple his wages?
What stars do you think we will see come to the Premier League the next one-to-three years? Who do you want to see?
