Sporting thought of the day
Sir Alex Ferguson is right to make a stand against the astronomical price-tags that clubs have placed on their players this summer.
Some may say that the Manchester United boss is hypocritical (and I admit that he's hardly blameless - see Juan Sebastian Veron) having bagged £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo, but there's no doubt that the Portuguese wing wizard was a special player who would have only ever been sold for a record-breaking sum.
It's the average players that are suddenly valued at an out-of-this-world fee that are the big problem in the game.
Fergie, and other Premier League managers, shouldn't be held to ransom and the sooner this over-inflation stops the better. Otherwise the sport of football will become damaged beyond repair.
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Andy Walker - Sunday Mercury sports writer
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Mat Kendrick - Sunday Mercury sports writer
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The Premier League only has itself to blame. What we need is one of the big clubs to fold and then they will realise what they have done.
When Jack Walker started splashing the cash at Blackburn - all the other clubs hiked their prices up.
When Roman Abramovich started splashing the cash - all the West Hams and Fulhams of this world hiked the prices up.
And now City's rich Arab owners are here and guess what? Yep, they have to pay over the odds for everyone.
Alex Ferguson is the biggest culprit though and it goes back to the 90s. And, as you say, if he accepts £80 million for Ronaldo then he has to accept that people are going to over charge for their players too...
So you're blaming the late Jack Walker for inflation in football?
No. The reality is transfer fees were rising before Jack took over Blackburn.
But his was the first example that came to my mind of how clubs with rich sugar daddies were held to ransom for good players. It's easy with hindsight to say he was cheap, but the £3.3 million fee for Alan Shearer in 1992 was huge at the time. As was the £5 million for Chris Sutton a couple of years later.
The problem was Kenny Dalglish was determined to have these players so Sir Jack signed the cheques.
Throw in the money that Sky pumped into the Premier League and suddenly clubs had the funds to pay ridiculous fees and wages and selling clubs and players' agents held out for as much as they could.
I don't blame them for doing that. That's life. But it's no use moaning about it now it's got way out of hand.
I certainly believe that Sky's cash injection was a major contribution to the current state of football, both good and bad.