Signing targets update. Will we ever be able to afford a Premiership player again?

Ah the Premiership eh? The self-proclaimed best league in the world may provide entertainment and riches to its member clubs but what is its impact on British or indeed European Football as a whole?

Has this league established a monopoly on players due to its spending power and more importantly what does that say about Footballers motivations?

First of all the updates:-

Courtesy of Westbrom.com

Koumas bid accepted by Albion.

Albion have accepted an improved Wigan Athletic bid of £5.3M for Welsh Midfielder Jason Koumas. Blah Blah blah

This was the player whom Celtic were interested in signing right at the start of the transfer window, you may remember he was the player whom said he would only come up North if W.B.A failed to retain their Premeirship status, which they duly didn’t.

Now Celtic may or may not have continued their interest in the player, they may or may not have offered the services of Craig Beattie as part payment, but one has to ask what motivates a player to shun champions League football in favour of relegation play-offs?

It may be the glitz and the glamour of the "Best League in the World" (sic); he may even feel that remaining in the England’s top flight will put him in the shop window. The fact remains that no one can compete with the spending power and wage structure of the English game.

It would appear that the days of Scottish teams raiding the Premiership for top first team players is now gone. For example, could you imagine how much Chris Sutton would cost from Chelsea today? Even regardless of the failure of his time at Chelsea he would still carry an 8-figure price tag.

As with every cloud however there is a silver lining. The increased revenue available to the English clubs only augments the fees we can demand for our players who are heading South. The sale of an injury prone bench player for 1.25 million is testament to that!

It may be time for teams in provincial leagues to start rearing young talent to sell to our southern cousins in the cash rich league. Although I would never advocate Celtic selling their assets it may be a way for a certain plucky cash strapped team from Govan to secure an albeit uncertain future. How ironic if Rangers were to get themselves out of trouble selling players to a league that they began their gargantuan buying from. Poetic injustice anyone?

In other news, Celtic target Diomonsy Kamara has transferred to Fulham for the princely fee of 6M! Crazy money.

Yours in Celtic

Clydebuilt