Exclusive: Expert Reveals the REAL Reasons Behind Man City’s £150m Transfer Spree and Erling Haaland’s 9.5-Year Deal | OneFootball

Football Finance Expert on Erling Haaland’s 9.5-year Contract and £150m Spending Spree

Nowadays, it feels like we spend just as much time talking about transfers, finances and ownership than we do talking about the real game but that’s just the direction that the sport is going in.

Huge ownership changes at clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea have been major driving forces behind this and it’s still changing the landscape of English football every single day.

Photo: IMAGO

One of the main stories from this January window has been Erling Haaland signing a 9.5-year contract with Manchester City, despite their looming 115 charges from the Premier League for breaking financial rules. On top of this, City have also spent huge money in January on players like Omar Marmoush and Vitor Reis.

Football finance expert, Dr Dan Pumley, spoke exclusively to EPL Index and explained the real reasons behind Manchester City’s recent moves…

Haaland’s Contract

“There’s a major financial advantage for clubs through the way that the player contracts are recorded,” began Plumley, “The transfer fee is divided by the length of the contract and this re-negotiation makes the deal even cheaper year on year.”

“However, the Premier League will still demand Man City to report that number over five years, as that change was made after Chelsea’s trick over the past few years.”

Photo: IMAGO

This is referring to Chelsea’s loophole of handing players upwards of seven-year contracts, in order to spread the transfer fee across multiple years and avoid FFP breaches. However, last year the Premier League brought in new regulation that limits such technique to just five years.

“The benefit of the new contract is that it gives both parties security, where Haaland can stay at Man City on a huge wage for nine years if he wants to, whilst City have tied down an unbelievable goalscorer for the foreseeable.”

“There are also risks of long contracts, like player performances or big injuries, but there are still plenty of advantages from it.”

Man City’s January Spending

Many were surprised when Manchester City splashed a total of £125million on Omar Marmoush, Vitor Reis and Abdukhodir Khusanov in January. This is mainly down to the 115 charges currently hanging over the club following the recent court cases.

Photo: IMAGO

However, Plumley remains keen to state that such activity is not a reflection on the proceedings regarding this matter.

“I think you can spin what is happening in January two ways,” began Plumley, “One is that they are signing players because they know they could be facing a transfer ban in the future, but they could also be doing it because they don’t expect any punishments.”

“I certainly wouldn’t be speculating their motives in regards of their recent transfer activity as something to do with their ongoing court cases,” finished Plumley.