As the days lengthened, as the talks spilled over and became negotiations, as figures that were once reported in pounds began to be converted to euros in order to make them look bigger, you might have noticed that we wrote no words on the subject. We’ve seen huge gray tufts of time seized at their tables, dragged out behind the saloon, and shot between the eyes far too often to want to be bandits ourselves. But now that Manchester City’s “audacious” £100-odd million attempt to buy Kaká from AC Milan and Jesus has come crashing down like the roof of the player’s favorite church, it’s worth five minutes to look at what all this means.
I don’t think it means very much, or I would have said something earlier. It seemed as though the English media were caught in covering this story between two mildly contradictory storylines, both of long service, and never quite knew how to proceed. The first storyline involved the economic power of the Premier League, which they generally cover with trills of excitement; the second involved the moral decline of football, which they generally assert with operatic despair. Heat those over the light boil that starts rumbling the water whenever a three-digit number appears to the left of the word “million” and you wind up with the queasy enthusiasm that pervaded the transfer reports.
On the one hand, the Premier League looked set to prise one of the best players in the world from Serie A for a record-smashing fee (yes!) On the other hand, the football star most likely to have been touched as a child by King Midas looked set to abandon his loving fans for a mercenary move to a second-tier club with no prospect of immediate success (no, but maybe we secretly like to complain about it!)
The trouble with both these storylines, and the reason the millions of words spilled in covering them this week seemed so overblown, is that they’ve lost their power to shock: they can no longer impress us with anything but scale. After the first death there is no other, and after the first time football loses its soul to a tycoon with a deep pockets there’s no other but a bigger number. Every time we’re told that the Premier League is THE BIGGEST THING ON EARTH or that football HAS TRADED ITS INNOCENCE FOR LUCRE the capitals get a little smaller and the dollar figures loom a little more to compensate. After Chelsea, Manchester City were just next summer’s sequel, and while the media seem to have an inexhaustible ability to find another finish line a little farther on, personally I’ve already seen a lightsaber. So the revolutionary-moment-in-world-football aspect of this didn’t really feel like much.
In my mind, the storyline that ought to emerge, now that Kaká has had his Evita moment and revealed his heart on a balcony, is the one about how having an oil fortune doesn’t mean you know anything about soccer. Manchester City are coming out of this looking like fools: fools for pursuing Kaká in the first place, when there was so little chance of getting him and so little evidence that he was even what they needed, fools for publicizing the pursuit, fools for failing at it. It doesn’t help that they already look like fools for having boasted about their unstoppable wealth to the point that every club they deal with can hold them hostage for an inflated transfer fee. Maybe the £14 million they’ve spent on Craig Bellamy (Craig Bellamy!) and the £11 million or whatever it was they’ve spent on Wayne Bridge (“a genuine England left-back”!) actually mean nothing to them, but at the very least it gives a leg up to their rivals, who have a chance to put that money to more efficient use.
What the whole thing really makes me think, not for the first time, is that Chelsea did an incredibly good job of playing the role of villainous title-buying parvenu. Say what you like about the concept, but at least they applied it effectively, putting people in place with some idea of how to grow a medium-sized football club into a powerhouse, hiring a brilliant coach, pursuing (with a few exceptions) the right players for their system and making sure they got them. Manchester City are admittedly starting from a worse position than Chelsea were in when Abramovich rose on the horizon, but they have more money, too, and they’re looking by comparison like the taller kid who still can’t play basketball.
In the end, this was all just transfer gossip, maybe based on more accurate information and arousing more intense emotions, but coming to exactly the same result. If we remember it at all in two years, it’ll be the way we remember the neighbors with the obnoxious Christmas lights, who also belonged to Jesus. I don’t mean to exempt Milan from this, either:
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, AC Milan’s owner, returned from Middle East peace talks in Egypt and met for 1 1/2 hours with team vice president Adriano Galliani, then made the announcement on Italian television.
Kaká is a wonderful player, and personally I’m glad he’s staying with the club that gives him the better chance to show it. I just hope the fog of thwarted meaning around this move blows away quickly, so we can get back to watching him play without all the pointless significance.
Read More: Billionaire Owners, Kaká, Manchester City, Milan
by Brian Phillips · January 20, 2009
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Very well said, as usual.
Man City do seem to be perpetuating their on-field tradition of underachievement in their new role as bright shiny parvenu, and if they had regained a bit of credibility after the initial breathless “bids” for C.Ronaldo, Berbatov, Buffon, etc., they’ve now managed to be made to look very silly on both planes on which they are attempting to play.
On the “gee, we better not get relegated” level, the fees they have paid for the likes of Bridge, Bellamy and De Jong would have so insulted the professional pride of a Blue Mosque rug merchant that he would have felt impelled to give Garry Cook a discount (or at least several additional glasses of sweet tea).
While on the Plane of Massiveness, they have been completely schooled by Berlusconi’s Milan, with Cook left blubbering about “secret agreements not being respected” and shocked at “political interference” arising in a deal where his counterparty happens to be Prime Minister of the country.
I’m not sure which set of failures will be more embarassing in the long run, but Sheikh Mansour has to be thinking that it was all just a bit easier when he was dealing in horses.
Even if they had signed Kaka, they would have still finished mid-table. (At best.)
but, but, even by Berlusconi’s own addmission (unless he’s lying about this too) City were offering Kaka a double of his salary, and Milan were considering it.
In light of this, the Kaka/Milan refusal is very significant. True City are not in the same position, in footballing terms, as Chelsea were when Ambramovic took over, but this is still big.
Well, sure, it says really good things about Kaká and possibly Milan (depending on which version of the cancellation narrative you listen to). But not “and football was changed forever”-type things. It makes this a better story, but since there’s no way of knowing how the next player Man City offer an inflated fee for will react, I don’t really see many broader implications.
I am really happy you didn’t spend a lot of time on this whole Kaka saga, but decided to sum it up after the dust settled.
Thats part of why I love reading your stuff, its a good break from all the BS headlines you get from most major football sources.
There’s no doubt that City have very little idea of how to build a successful team, about that and your assessment of how this whole saga will and has affected their image, I agree wholeheartedly with you.
I’m just not sure that we can say categorically that Kaka was so out of reach. Nor am I certain in what light this whole thing shows the Milan management. If they don’t need the money, why drag this out and have fathers jetsetting around the place. Just for the coup de grace of presidential speeches? And if they do have the money, then why are they playing with two centre backs that have a combined age of around 80 years.
Well, what a difference a few months makes. Kaká has followed a different money trail (although admittedly – even as a City fan myself – to a more glamorous and attractive destination). Now it’s Real who are “ruining football” after buying up the Brazilian and, today, Ronaldo for £80M. I’m sure Michel Platini is preparing his speech right now, and calling for limits on transfer spending for fear of “those nasty Spanish clubs” buying up all the talent from those poor innocent Italians.
All the bigwigs at City were guilty of was being TOO ambitious. Like the kitten jumping off the window sill and missing the couch, they were niaive and over confident. However, it did them good, and made them realise that A) Not all players chase the dollar, and B) That setting your sights high can sometimes come back and bite you on the arse!
To their credit, they immediately dispensed of the services of the cocky “Front Man” (Al Fahim?) who declared “we’ll buy Messi, Ronaldo and Torres”, and have not rolled out any brash statements of that nature since. They’ve also stuck with Mark Hughes and have supported him throughout – another tick in the “stability brings success” book.
Just my opinions I thought worthy of sharing, but before you go on the attack – a few things:
1) I’m a blue, from Manchester.
2) My Dad, Brother & Sister are too.
3) I’m a Season ticket holder and member for over 20yrs
4) I’ve seen us play Wycombe, Stockport and Gillingham – and get beat – in league games.
5) I’ve seen us get beat in the first round of the Leyland Daf (or whatever it was called) Trophy on the same night Utd played Milan in a Champions League game.
6) I love my club, and think it’s great that the Arabs picked us to be their “plaything” and a) I’ll enjoy it – while it lasts, and b) I’ll still be there when they’ve gone.
7) I look forward to watching City play Stockport in the Championship in 2015-16 season. Knowing City, this will be the year after being relegated as Champions League winners.