It's a funny ol' game...

Manchester United have just paid a record (in the UK) transfer fee of £59 million for Angel Di Maria, from Real Madrid. Beating the £50 million Liverpool paid to get Torres from Chelsea. Previously Arsenal bought Ozil for £42 million from Real, and Man U paid £37 million for Juan Mata from Chelsea. Torres is the only real striker and goal scorer out of these midfield players and wingers. Real Madrid and Chelsea do well out of these deals. Mind you, Real Madrid did pay a world-record transfer fee of £85 million (100 million euros) for Gareth Bale for Spurs, and at least he scores goals!

So the transfer fee ceiling has been raised. But by how much? Well according to wiki the first £100 fee was in 1893 (ah remember those days). It broke £10K in 1928, and £25 million in 1980’s. In 2009 Real Madrid (is there a pattern here?). bought Ronaldo for £80 million from Man United. Paying big to acquire players has worked for Manchester City. Will it work for United? Well they just lost their first game after buying Di Maria at MK Dons 4-0. Football is a funny old game!