Manchester United lob millions of pounds at agents

There’s good news, if you have your claws into the financial machinations of British football. £200m has been spent on agent fees, with Liverpool leading the way on the spend. Manchester United aren’t doing too badly themselves, as the money leaves the game, almost certainly not coming back in any positive way. If you’ve ever read Barbarians At The Gate, which I can recommend, you will recognise how the M&A boom of a few decades ago was self-sustaining and reinforcing because the crumbs that fell from the table were so enormous themselves, and then the whole thing blew up for a while, before starting again. This is where we are with football now.

Sevilla lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League last night, meaning they are almost certainly out of the competition when the next leg comes around. What a shame we did not get the chance to watch Phil Jones and Chris Smalling coming up against Robert Lewandowksi. Still, at least we have all that to look forward to the next season when we crash out in the quarter finals.

The Independent have an account of Jesse Lingard’s rise to the United first team from his formative years in Warrington. Lingard has impressed after spending a couple of seasons looking like he was more suited to Newcastle United. He’s 25 and perhaps got more time than he really deserved, but it’s hard to deny that he has not eventually grasped his chance. Chances. Many chances.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brilliant goal for Real Madrid, something that United might have seen more of had the Glazer family not worked in tandem with Alex Ferguson to deliberately strip the club of its most valuable assets for their own financial ends. They made lots of money, but it doesn’t really seem worth it when you remember Michael Owen’s near-corpse staggering around Old Trafford.