Mate just look at some of the dross moving around the league for decent fees and you'd get close to 25-30m for them in total.
Spot on,for these are the sums just above average players are being bought for these days.
All sums for players are relative in today's market, and comparing prices of players of yesteryear is unrealistic. But let's give it a try.
A player within the last twenty years, say, buying back Big Dunc from the Skunks, cost approx £4.3 mill. Whilst that is still a huge amount of money for anybody who plays a team sport, in today's market he would attract probably fifteen times that amount. That is unrealistic, and only time will tell if it is sustainable.
I ask, in that period, have the average persons wages risen by that much?
Has anything risen that much ( banker's bonuses aside)?
Has the game itself improved by that much. That is rhetorical.
It's not the fault of the players, it is the fault of heavily sponsored clubs almost falling over themselves to offer such fees.
I ask once again, is it sustainable. The short answer for the short term is, yes. But I doubt Scudamore is doing much more than basking in the reflective glory of over-seeing the most financially flourishing period in the history of the game. If, and i only mean 'if', things do go pear shaped, he will be gone and can blame anything on his successor. Time will tell.
Back to topic. How much should the Cleverlys of this world be valued at?
For me, Messi and Ronaldo are probably the best players over a reasonable period of time. I would reckon they should be marketed at approx £30/£35 mill, and should command a wage of no more than £30K per week.
We have all got too used to these Monopoly money figures.