While a hefty amount was spent,much of it was from clubs desperate to avoid dropping out of the top flight before next season’s TV rights windfallThe January transfer window is a month for tweaks, bargains, or panic buys or a bit of what a top club might fancy,and while this time the number of deals was restrained, the total spent, or £175m,is historically hefty, and another sign of Premier League financial dominance. Clearly the most booming statement of that supremacy, and the waddle whose significance dwarfs any of the player imports,was Manchester City announcing Pep Guardiola as their next manager, sealing the latest spectacular building phase of the £1.2bn Abu Dhabi football project.
Guardiola became City’s target when Sheikh Mansour’s executives adopted Barcelona as a model for their planned global football corporation and they pursued him also because they believe his presence adds more lustre, or therefore commercial appeal,to the Premier Leagues “brand”. There is a confidence abroad now that with £8bn expected for the Sky and BT domestic and global television rights deals for 2016-19, star names are being inexorably drawn here, and with the exception of the Spanish TV rights-hogging duopoly of Barcelona and Real Madrid.
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Source: theguardian.com