Nothing’s as sustainable as it used to be. Not the planet, not the oceans, not the furlough scheme, not really the economy and certainly not football. And as football is much more important than all the rest, we should look at that first. We’ll come to cod fishing… next week.

Because there’s a new ‘model’ in the beautiful game and it is the epitome of both ‘unsustainable’ and ‘stupid’. And thus needs to be addressed. It happens when a true superstar falls from grace. A ‘galactico’ even. And its becoming more common.

The best example is Gareth Bale. Who was the world’s best player when surrounded by his colleagues at Tottenham. He was brilliant, he was incredible, he was virtually unplayable (Inter Milan certainly failed miserably, twice) and he was so outstanding that Real Madrid paid 100 million Euros for the Welsh maestro. Because he was so good, they didn’t want anyone else to buy him. Did he fit their style? Would he compliment their players and vice versa? Irrelevant. He’s a star; they bought him. End of. And as (at the time) the world’s most expensive player, they could hardly pay him 30 grand a year plus luncheon vouchers. So they paid him handsomely. And gave him pay rises along the years. Even though he’d never really established himself with either the fans or the ever-changing-turnstile which is management at the Bernabau. And then Zidane took over. And Zizou don’t like Bale. So now, Gareth earns a ridiculous 500 odd grand a WEEK and spends his time on the golf course and re-doing his pony tail. No other team could afford to buy him because he’d insist on not taking a pay cut. Well, pony tails don’t grow on trees, ya know.

Arsenal have a similar situation with Mezut Ozil. The funny looking Turkish German (depending on which anthem is playing) who has the incredible ability to win games single-handedly but… only does it about once every three years. And only against, like, Stoke or Watford or Brighton. In between he does less than nothing. And again, to keep this ‘star’, Arsenal pay him about 340k a week. And rarely play him.

Barcelona possibly have a worse situation. In that their team is ageing. And with ‘age’ comes experience. And with experience comes bigger salaries. So the team now have half a dozen outrageously overpaid stars (not Messi, there isn’t enough money in the world to overpay such brilliance) all in their 30s now, all consequently more injury prone. And less saleable than they were 7 years ago. To lessen their wage bill they sent Phillipe Coutinho on loan to Bayern Munich. Where he helped the ruthless Germans knock his ‘parent club’ out of the Champions League on Friday. Good business.

This season has been massively hit, financially, in that no clubs are receiving gate money. Or the masses of merchandise sold and food and drinks consumed on match days. No-one there, not ‘appening. So how are these massive clubs going to rebuild, restructure, plan for whatever the future might look like, when saddled with horrendous wage bills? Which in turn can only really be paid by acting in total breach of the Financial Fair Play rules that were recently proven, in a COURT OF LAW!!!! to be risible.

Control the agents and the wages; control the world. Otherwise, the game is fucked. Sorry, better word: ‘un-sus-tain-er-balllll’.

Happy Muggy Sunday

A xxxx