Real Madrid, Manchester City and 5 Ways to Avoid Wasting Transfer Funds

According to George Bernard Shaw, "If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience."

After observing almost a month of summer transfer market proceedings, I could not possibly agree more: The top clubs in Europe continuously waste absurd amounts of money in the transfer market.

Despite spending over £500 million the past years, Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini insists that his club requires further investment to finally overcome rival Manchester United.

Real Madrid acquired Kaka in 2009 to torture opposing defenses only to replace him in 2010 with World Cup star Mesut Ozil.  A year later, it looks like neither will have a spot in the starting 11 as manager Jose Mourinho chases Brazilian wonder-kid Neymar.

After winning another La Liga title and the 2011 Champions League final, Barcelona is apparently prepared to pay top dollar to acquire players who probably won't even crack the starting 11.

To this point, such powerful clubs have been allowed to indulge in their wasteful habits. With significantly larger coffers than the opposition, they could afford a few mistakes.

However, once the new UEFA financial fair play rules take full effect several years from now, UEFA will reserve the ability to suspend teams from European competition if they fail to earn as much as they spend.

Under such restrictive regulations, even the wealthiest clubs will no longer have the financial muscle to simply replace unsuccessful players with premium talent, so clubs executives will need be much more diligent with their purchases.

Here are five recommendations that will both help top clubs comply with UEFA regulations and ultimately succeed at both the domestic and European levels.

Don't Sell Top Players

Though this principle seems obvious, Real Madrid executives often appear ignorant of this truth.

Following a disappointing 2009 season where Los Merengues suffered a 6-2 home defeat to arch rival Barcelona and a 4-0 Champions League defeat to Liverpool, newly appointed manager Manuel Pellegrini decided to sell Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder for well under half of the £80 million he spent to acquire Cristiano Ronaldo.

With Ronaldo leading a new cast of Galacticos also featuring new arrivals Kaká and Xabi Alonso, Real was expected to dethrone Barca as both La Liga and Champions League champions.  Instead, Los Blancos suffered two league defeats to Barcelona, finished second in La Liga and crashed out of the Champions League in the round of 16 following two unimpressive showings against French side Olympique Lyonnais.

Meanwhile, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder led their respective club sides to the 2009 Champions League final where Sneijder's Internazionale ultimately defeated Robben's Bayern Munich 2-0.  Following successful club campaigns, the two Dutchmen joined forces leading Holland past Kaká's Brazil to the 2010 World Cup final where they ultimately lost to an immortal Spanish side.

While some fans might argue that Robben and Sneijder did not show nearly as well for Madrid as they would for their future clubs, this simply does not appear to be the case.

In fact, Robben, by all accounts, played exceptionally well during Real’s 2007-2008 La Liga winning campaign.  While Sneijder did not assume a similarly prominent role, he still featured regularly during the 2007-2008 season, and club executives apparently thought highly enough of his performances to reward him with the No. 10 jersey for the 2008-2009 season.

Bottom Line: Don't write off top players after a few poor showings or even a poor season.  Real executives could have drastically improved the 2009 Real Madrid by swooping for a higher profile coach a year earlier...

Don’t Acquire Unnecessary Players

Another obvious assertion that executives from many of the top clubs choose to ignore…

For instance, Real Madrid Manager Jose Mourinho just recently acquired Turkish teammates Nuri Şahin and Hamit Altintop.  While both are excellent central midfield players, they join a midfield which already features Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, Lassana Diarra and, occasionally, Pepe. 

With Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira excelling as deep-lying playmakers and Lass and Pepe fulfilling the holding role formerly filled by Claude Makelele, Şahin and Altintop would seem to be surplus to requirements at the Bernabeu.

So why spend at least €15 million to add players who don’t even represent an improvement to the current roster?

While Madrid may be wasteful, their executives are not nearly as incompetent as Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini, who signed Wolfsburg forward Edin Džeko for €32 million in the January transfer window.

While Džeko was undeniably the best forward in the Bundesliga for the past two seasons, City had already organized a very expensive front line featuring Carlos Tévez, David Silva and Mario Balotelli. 

With all three of the aforementioned players expected to regularly make the starting 11, what did Mancini plan to do with his most recent high-profile signing?

Bottom Line: Under the new UEFA financial fair play rules, such misguided spending will ultimately prevent clubs from acquiring top talent at needed positions.

Don’t Sign High-Profile Strikers

Here is a short list of some of the most expensive transfers over the past three seasons:

Edin Dzeko: £27 million (VfL Wolfsburg to Manchester City)

Robinho: £32.5million (Real Madrid to Manchester City)

Andy Carroll: £35 million (Newcastle to Liverpool)

Zlatan Ibrahimović: (roughly) £40 million plus Samuel Eto’o (Inter Milan to Barcelona)

Fernando Torres: £50 million (Liverpool to Chelsea)

While all of these players are quite good, they are (or were) simply overvalued. 

Dzeko only scored twice in 15 appearances for Manchester City.

While Robinho scored 14 goals in the 2008-2009 season with City, he fell out of favor with new boss Roberto Mancini and only scored one goal during the 2009-2010 campaign.

Carroll impressed for Newcastle in his side’s 2010-2011 return to the EPL, but has rarely remained healthy enough to crack Kenny Dalglish’s starting 11.

Ibrahimović bagged 21 goals in his only season at the Nou Camp but was still deemed too slow and too deliberate to adjust to Barcelona’s possession-heavy style.

Torres scored fewer goals this season than significantly lower-profile players Kevin Nolan, Charlie Adam and Clint Dempsey.

Bottom Line: While I am not qualified to explain why most top strikers are unable to fulfill expectations following high-profile transfers, it appears that top clubs would experience greater return from their investments by spending more heavily on auxiliary offensive players to support more economical strikers (i.e. Chicharito, Diego Milito, Samuel Eto'o, Bojan, etc.).

Don’t Rely Solely on the Transfer Market to Acquire Top Talent

As reflected by Barcelona’s recent dominance over the football universe, the most direct and sustainable way to attain European glory is through establishing a successful youth system.

With the majority of the starting 11 including Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Pedro Rodriguez, and Victor Valdez beginning in the youth ranks and gradually transitioning into the senior side, Barcelona executives avoided ever having to pay hefty transfer sums for these top players.

Furthermore, the youth managers were able to train these players from a very young age to play Barcelona’s signature brand of Total Football, so when the youngsters finally broke into the first team, they did struggle adjusting to the style of play.

Nevertheless, even the mighty Catalans have fallen into the trap of their lesser rivals by attempting to replace promising youth with successful veterans.

With recent moves for Zlatan Ibrahimović and David Villa failing to catapult Barca into the realm of invincibility, manager Pep Guardiola is apparently attempting to secure the services of Villareal striker Guiseppe Rossi and Udinese winger Alexis Sánchez.

While such moves would undoubtedly strengthen Barca’s irresistible roster, they are simply not necessary.

With proven youngster Bojan Krkric and star Spain U-21 winger Thiago Alcântara already on the books, Guardiola has absolutely no reason to acquire Rossi or Sánchez (let alone spend £60 million to acquire both).

Bottom Line: Identifying, signing and training talented youngsters before they attract the attention of other major clubs is essential to building an immensely successful club.  Under the more restrictive UEFA financial fair play rules, developing youth talent will ultimately preserve precious transfer funds.

Buy Players from Less Attractive Nationalities

According to Soccernomics authors Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, footballers from countries with rich football traditions are more highly valued than footballers from countries with more humble football origins.

For instance, let us consider the careers of three exceptionally talented youngsters: Swiss and FC Basel winger Xherdan Shaqiri, Icelandic and Hoffenheim attacking midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson, and United States and Borussia Mönchengladbach central midfielder Michael Bradley.

Despite turning in world-class performances for both club and country, none of these exceptionally gifted players have generated any legitimate transfer interest from any of the top clubs throughout Europe.

Shaqiri has most recently proved his quality in the U-21 European Championship where he ran opposing defenders silly with mazy runs reminiscent of Lionel Messi himself.  Before linking up with the U-21 side, Shaqiri impressed at the senior level in two European Championship qualifiers against England. 

Despite the Swiss losing the first match 3-1, Shaqiri provided a moment of brilliance with a 25-yard left-footed blast which left England keeper Joe Hart quaking in his boots.

A goal-scoring specialist, Sigurdsson has proven his ability to consistently score with either foot from well outside of the box.  While his Iceland squad struggled in the first two matches of the U-21 European Championship, he came to life in a rubber match against Denmark and nearly propelled his side improbably into the elimination stages.

At only 23 years old, Bradley has marshaled the United States midfield for the past two seasons where he has proven himself equally skilled at defending as contributing to the attack.  Nevertheless, despite featuring prominently against a number of top sides, he only managed two appearances during a midseason loan at Aston Villa.

Would any of these players be so lowly rated if they were Brazilian? Spanish? Dutch?

Do their exceptional performances not warrant at least a trial at a top club?

In my evaluation, each one of them has accomplished far more for their respective countries than £45 million-rated Neymar has for Brazil...

Bottom Line: As a result of their relatively low profiles, these players represent tremendous bargains.  Kudos to the wise managers who see past their humble football heritages and acquire their undeniable talents.