Sensible La Liga beats Premier League madness

Thank the footballing gods! The transfer window is finally closed and we can get on with the actual matches.

The rest of the world has looked on in bemusement as over four billion euros changed hands in the Premier League. Here in Spain, the spending has been a far more conservative 800 million euros.

You could say stupid money was being splashed about by English clubs, as their Spanish equivalents conducted more sensible business.

Bear in mind that Barcelona spent just 10 million euros on Gabriel Jesus. Real Madrid found an exciting young forward in Carlos Espí for just 25 million euros at Levante and Atlético did a deal to sign Canada’s World Cup star Jonathan David on loan with a 25 million euros option to buy.

Over in England, the likes of Sávio were moving for astronomical sums. The Brazilian - who did no better than okay at Girona and started just seven Premier League games for Manchester City last season - was resold for nearly triple his initial 30 millioneuro price tag.

My own club Hull City spent like a drunken lottery winner having a night on the tiles after their promotion to the top league - over 100 million euros was gambled on players with the premise of avoiding relegation.

One example is Nobel Mendy; Rayo Vallecano exercised the option to buy him for three million euros from Real Betis and then sold him to the Yorkshire club for a reported 25 million euros.

Compare that to Malaga who stuck with the players who won promotion with a sprinkling of experienced recruits for a combined 300.000 euros.

Spain wasn’t without transfer headlines. Julián Álvarez dominated most sports sections when he let it slip that he would quite like to play for Barcelona.

His club Atlético pointed to the buyout clause and the Argentinian’s dream didn’t come true. Unlike his fellow countryman, Enzo Fernández who moved from Chelsea to Manchester City for 130 million euros.

There was only one transfer that I’d regard as over-inflated in Spain. Yan Diomandé moving from RB Leipzig to Real Madrid for 125 million euros means he’s the fourth most-expensive player ever in La Liga. Let’s hope that he proves to be a better buy than João Félix at Atlético or Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembélé at Barcelona. The top three all failed to recognise their potential in La Liga.

Transfers of 100 million pounds-plus are becoming more common in England; Spain has learnt from the deals done in that region for Neymar, Eden Hazard and Antoine Griezmann.

Dizzy fans of English clubs try to reason that it isn’t their money, it’s that of the owners, so why should they care? They forget that they constantly and correctly complain about ticket prices, the cost of shirts and the beautiful game moving away from the fans. Those owners are billionaires who haven’t bought the club because of a life-long love of the team; it is all about making even more money. Take examples like above: buy Savio for 30 million euros and sell him for 85 million euros; even Enzo Fernández was sold for a profit.

It may mean that Spain misses out on the manufactured excitement of “Transfer Deadline Day”, but does prosper from having more world-class players than any other league in the world.