Manchester United legend Gordon Hill has blasted the level of spending over the summer, describing it as unsustainable and criticising the amount of money spent on ‘average’ players.
This summer saw Premier League clubs spend a record amount, as Manchester City raised many eyebrows with their £50m signing of Kyle Walker.
“We’ve seen the transfer market escalate out of all proportion,” Hill told host Dave Murphy on a special United In Focus show. “I’ve said it many times, agents are milking the system, some of them don’t even know what the game of football is all about, but as soon as they get a phone call from their player saying they’re unhappy, they’re on the phone looking for a move.”
Hill was keen to point out that he wasn’t criticising players earnings, but he did not hold back when it came to the role of agents, and didn’t hold back when referencing one of the highest profile transfer non-events of the summer. “I’m not pulling the players apart for earning what they do, fair play to them, but when players are under contract and they start saying they want to go away and they want a certain status, it’s frustrating,” he said. “Coutinho wants to go to Barcelona and tells Liverpool he has a bad back and can’t play (and then plays for Brazil)!”
The record spending comes on the back of investment from non-football entities in the case of Paris and Manchester City, but Hill says“There’s no-one to blame, it’s just the evolution of the game, and it’s no longer the game of the everyday person.”
Watch the show here :