Premier League clubs stamp their authority as player power takes a backseat

Understanding the insanity of the just concluded transfer market is not everyone's cup of tea. Barney Ronay of the Guardian, however, managed it brilliantly. He said: "Football, from its birth as a Victorian leisure product, has always been, at the bottom, a business. But this is something else. When the variables of league positions and on-field glory are increasingly narrow, when signings are cheered like goals by the digital diaspora, when having a “good window” is a season’s goal, commerce really is beginning to intrude inside the chalk markings."

Business. Record deals. Negotiations. These are the words that have become synonymous with a football fan this past summer instead of their team, its tactics, and its results. £1.43 BILLION. This is not a figure concerning a huge takeover by a business conglomerate. This is the overall spending by the Premier League clubs in the summer of 2017, more than double of any rival league in the world.

The super-rich Manchester clubs accounted for £360 million of that figure whereas reigning champions, Chelsea, spent a further £180 million. The past two months saw extravagant figures for not-so-talented players, social media meltdowns and some hideous signing announcements.

But amidst all the hullabaloo of the transfer market, sanity prevailed in at least one major aspect of the game. It was as if Nostradamus, the great prophecy-teller, had predicted this to happen in the summer of 2017. Premier League clubs stood up and took a stance against player power - one of the rising concerns of modern times. The English clubs not only took a strong stance, they undermined the authority of it and emerged victorious at the end (on September 1).

Two decades ago, the Bosman ruling shifted the power to some extent into the hands of the players. But slowly, it started to become troublesome and in the last decade or so, power in the hands of super rich footballers made clubs and managers a second class authority.

In the last decade or so, players have gone on strike, held the club at ransom for better wages and most shockingly, gotten together to oust a manager who challenged their power (cue Claudio Ranieri at Leicester and Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid in recent years).

Neymar became the world's first €200 million player

This window gave us our first €222 million footballer. This window also saw the same club signing a teenager on loan with a purchase-clause of €180 million - an astonishing amount for someone who has played only 7 months of competitive first-team football.

This window also witnessed a Premier League winning striker going on exile to force a move to a club which was under a FIFA ban. A Chilean doing everything in his might to join a rival, a Brazilian feigning "back injuries" and a Dutchman submitting a transfer request and posting cryptic messages on social media.

But amidst all that, the clubs took a stand and stood by it despite receiving huge offers for their talismanic assets. The multi-billion TV rights deal signed last year might have played a huge role in clubs not running for more cash, but the intention and the desire to keep hold of their best players have to be lauded.

Arsenal had a disastrous summer but their resolve to not let Alexis Sanchez leave for Manchester City is commendable. The Chilean will probably leave on a free transfer next summer and the club may have to incur a loss of at least £50 million but the board are ready to suffer a financial loss to give their manager every possible chance to complete his two-year contract.

Despite Chelsea boss, Antonio Conte, wanting to offload Diego Costa, the board was against it and decided to keep the player on their books, at least until the next summer. Costa went on a self-imposed exile in Brazil, did an interview with Daily Mail back home and tried every trick in the book to force a move.

Result? A huge chance for the Blues to file a legal complaint against the striker. The implications of this go well beyond the legalities. Costa is bereft of match fitness for the last three months, will probably not come back to England and will definitely lose out on a place in next year's World Cup squad.

VVD tried every trick in the book to force a move

The prolonged transfer saga of Southampton's Virgil van Dijk had every element present in a drama movie. Liverpool tapped up the player in June, Southampton threatened to complain, the Reds apologized, the player handed in a transfer request and even trained alone.

But the imposing centre half still could not see himself in a Liverpool shirt this summer. Southampton were adamant in their decision of not doing any business for the Dutchman and stood by it despite receiving a world record bid for a defender.

What Southampton did to Liverpool, Liverpool did to FC Barcelona! Just on a bigger scale. Rejecting triple figure bids from one of the biggest clubs in the world needs conviction and the Liverpool boardroom had that in abundance.

Coutinho meanwhile became a changed man. He withdrew himself from the club's crucial Champions League qualifier against Hoffenheim, handed in a transfer request (after signing a five-year deal earlier in December), reportedly cried during his stay with the Brazil side and what not. But, the owners were strong in their stance and frustrated FC Barcelona to great lengths.

Meanwhile, the less said about Barcelona's antics the better.

Some might say that keeping unhappy players in the squad is never a fine trick and at such high prices, it would have been better for the clubs to just offload the rotten eggs from the basket. Yes, that might be true and will definitely make sense in a majority of the situations. But those situations will no longer be decided by the players.

It will be on the terms of the owners and the management only after thinking about the well-being of the football team as a whole. This summer will teach players to think twice before going on strike. Taking a stance against player power was the need of the hour and the Premier League hotshots did it in the maddest, craziest and most unbelievable of all transfer windows.