Early Doors - Your morning briefing blog

Benz merks United

Thu Jul 02 08:45AM

For today's Early Doors, see yesterday's Early Doors.

Manchester United have failed to sign another transfer target, with Karim Benzema about to sign for Real Madrid.

Whether United matched Real's £30 million bid is frankly academic because, as Lyon's club statement last night pointed out: "Madrid was always his preference after Lyon."

And this morning, Franck Ribery has said that if he leaves Bayern Munich, it is: "Real Madrid or nothing."

Why is it that one self-styled Biggest Club in the World consistently proves so much more attractive than another self-styled Biggest Club in the World?

Let's start with financial considerations. Is it the 50 per cent tax rate for high earners in Britain?

Andrei Arshavin prompted this discussion when he demanded changes to his £80,000-a-week contract based on "unpleasant surprises" in his deal with Arsenal - namely that HM Revenue and Customs was siphoning off half his earnings.

He said: "I have a problem with my contract. Certain nuances emerged linked to taxation and some other things. As a result, I'm getting less money than I expected."

Arsene Wenger said he thought it could cause problems for English clubs trying to attract foreigners, but ED thinks that if Arshavin - who does not appear in any way stupid - is prepared to put pen to paper before discussing net earnings, then taxation is probably not high on the list of footballers' specialist subjects.

And as long as most agents get their 10 per cent paid into some shady account in the Cayman Islands, there seems very little incentive for them to take night courses in accountancy.

In any case, exchange rate fluctuations have given English clubs a much larger headache.

If an English club had wanted to pay a foreign player the equivalent of €100,000-a-week in 2007, they would have had to shell out £66,000. Now that figure is £86,000.

But as long as there are clubs seemingly willing to pay Samuel Eto'o a quarter of a million quid a week, ED is not going to take too seriously any claims that English clubs cannot compete in the wage market.

It has also been suggested that life in Spain is a little cushier for the discerning player. Referees afford forwards more protection, while training sessions are less rigorous.

It is true that in the later 'Galactico' years, managerial discipline at Real became so non-existent that training consisted of little more than a 20-minute jog followed by a few beers round Ronaldo's house.

Steve McManaman's book provides some particularly amusing insight into the lack of effort put in by some of the biggest stars on the planet.

But even the most bone-idle player would, when pushed, admit that winning things is better than lazing about eating tapas all day.

And if that means you have to spend as many as three hours a day at training? Well, you've still got all afternoon on the golf course.

If footballers were only interested in money and exerting themselves to the minimum possible extent, they would all be playing in the Middle-East.

And if weather, girls and other environmental factors were as important as all that, the UEFA Cup would probably not just have been won by a team from a dingy mining city in Eastern Ukraine.

Early Doors thinks that footballers are children at heart (in fact some are just children), and all they want to do is play for the team everybody has heard of.

The biggest, the most famous, the most glamorous. The best.

During Benzema's formative years, who were Europe's most successful team? Real Madrid, of course. When Real won their three most recent Champions Leagues, he was 10, 12 and 14.

Who wouldn't want to join the team that was winning it all during those years?

ED might be showing its age here, but it has gone through life assuming that the sky is up, the ground is down, and Liverpool win everything.

It has taken 15 years and 11 Premier League titles for Manchester United to shake that assumption that Liverpool are English football's naturally dominant team.

And still ED expects the 'natural order' to be restored soon. As do most Liverpool fans, which is precisely what makes them so annoying.

It is exactly the same delusion that means every young player wants to sign for Real Madrid, whether he is going to get a game there or not.

- - -

Early in the Bosman years, there was a time when the free transfer market provided some genuine excitement. Players whose contracts had run down were available for nothing, presenting the tantalising prospect of a high-profile bargain.

Bosman fever reached its peak in 2001, the summer of Sol Campbell's sensational move from Tottenham to Arsenal.

Since then, clubs have got too savvy. They ensure that players' contracts are not allowed to get into their last 12 months, and if there is any danger of losing a player on a Bosman he is simply sold the previous summer, Gareth Barry style.

So, eight years after Campbell's big move, he is once again among the best players available on a Bosman - only now he is nearly 35 and clearly past his best.

The ragtag mob of freebies is headlined, of course, by Michael Owen, who could be waiting a while if he expects anyone better than Hull or Stoke to express an interest.

Also on the market are Lucas Neill, who wants £90,000-a-week, his fellow Aussie Mark Viduka, problem driver Jermaine Pennant and Ross Turnbull.

- - -

QUOTE OF THE DAY: A Sports Illustrated expose on David Beckham's refusal to buy his LA Galaxy team-mates dinner: "When it came to paying, Beckham didn't pick up the bill. He put in enough to cover his share and passed it along. Nobody would have believed it, he thought. Beckham is a cheapskate." Did he also steal toothpicks from the table?

FOREIGN VIEW: In Colombia, Atletico Junior coach Julio Comesana has received a five-game ban for using abusive language against a referee, who has also been suspended.

The Uruguayan was sent off during the first leg of Colombia's Apertura championship final last week. Comesana went onto the pitch during the 2-1 defeat at Once Caldas and berated the referee for allowing a goal he thought was offside.

The referee, Imer Machado, was banned from officiating for five matches for his mistakes in the match, which included allowing a goal scored from an offside position, the league's disciplinary commission said in a statement.

"The commission learned from the referee's report that Julio Comesana was sent off for using gross and insulting language against the referee and after his dismissal he entered the field of play and abused him with vulgar words and offensive terms about his person," it said.

COMING UP: Let's just pretend that it's not going to be an all-Williams cakewalk in the Wimbledon women's semi-finals. Oh, what's the point? They'll both be over within the hour.

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