By: Zoran Avramović
Two pieces of information have been received on the island these days with equal indifference: Alexander Isak, until recently Newcastle’s striker, has moved to Liverpool for 125 million pounds; In West Yorkshire today, variable cloudy weather with rain is expected. High transfers, which long ago broke through the “hundred” sound barrier, have become a natural occurrence in England. For fans, they ignite great hopes for the arrival of better times.
The prevailing narrative has become that almost all national championships in Europe are in fact developmental “divisions” of the Premier League. Not modest at all, but the English are not pretending. That’s who they are. For what they have made in football and out of football for a century and a half, they deserve to have their cap or hat tipped!
In its first season (1992/93) the Premier League had 13 foreigners, among whom the strongest names for most were Eric Cantona (France) and Peter Schmeichel (Denmark). In a timespan slightly longer than 30 years, this competition, without fearing the loss of English identity, has become the united nations of football. In the current season, Premier League clubs started with 431 foreigners.
For a long time, South America was a schematized fact in the concept of originality, talent, and football quality, so accordingly, Premier League clubs strove, sparing no money, to bring in those who carried onto the British Isles the footballing breath of the streets of Rio, Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Montevideo, or Santiago, as symbols of good and pearly football played there.
This year’s transfer window confirmed a trend that until recently was unthinkable. When we look at the list of the 50 biggest transfers made this summer in the English Premier League, we see that one decades-long golden mine is no longer the exclusive priority. The sites have expanded. The aforementioned Alexander Isak comes from the Swedish school, born in Solna, raised in AIK, while, for example, Benjamin Šeško, who came from RB Leipzig to Muncaster United for 76.5 million, is a Slovenian pupil from classrooms in Trbovlje and Krško. The giants use peripheral vision with a shift of focus toward new territories and new names without which such a serious entertainment industry as football simply cannot exist.
For clubs whose budgets are not filled with money from petro-monarchies, investment or other funds, what remains is hard work on sculpting the football profiles of talented boys and girls. It must not be forgotten, nor lost from sight amidst the mountains of transfer money, that the club is the guiding star through the labyrinth that must be passed to reach the biggest stage.
And something else very important should also find its place in the planner. Scouting! Research has shown that there is a noticeably smaller number of youngsters interested in sports activities. The base has shrunk. A new “hybrid” has not yet been discovered so that each generation from the youth academy would yield the desired fruits. That is why it is necessary to open all four eyes and look into neighboring yards, or constantly keep the laptop on and keep an eye on the world. Football is a global game. And a global chance!
Money is the focal point on which this production of entertainment content is based—one in which, unlike other similar activities, there is much more passion—and everything rests on money. It is a matter of motive, of pressure from the local community, and the weight of tradition: what is desired. Turn the money around, win titles, enter continental competitions, stay or survive?
