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BRIDGE OVER T(ROUBLE)D WATER
Nick Illingsworth has written an excellent article asking if and when Saints should cash in on local lad Wayne Bridge. The article first appeared on Ugly Inside for which Nick regularly writes. We reproduce it here slightly edited.
Man in the middle
13 July 2003
The first thoughts of most Saints fans were that Wayne Bridge should not be sold at any price, but in today's transfer market every man has his price and if Chelsea are stupid enough to pay £10 million plus, then perhaps Saints should take advantage.
The last thing football in England needed was Roman Abramovich arriving and throwing silly money at players. Football has been brought to its knees financially at virtually every club over the past few years as inflated transfer fees and wages have crippled clubs.
The collapse of the ITV deal for the Nationwide League fired the first warning shots and as clubs started to realise that disaster was inevitable if we continued along this path, transfer fees and wages started to drop and it looked like sense was at last returning to British football.
Then along came Abramovich. Chelsea themselves were the biggest culprit of mismanagement financially, indeed they were only days from receivership alledgedly when the Russian roubles rescued them.
This allowed Ken Bates to claim his position in Chelsea's history as the saviour of the club. A week later and his standing may have been a lot different.
So Abramovich is here and throwing money around. Bids like the Bridge effort are merely intended to unsettle the player and allow his agent to get to work on him.
Ironically Bridge's agent brokered the deal for Glen Johnson to arrive at Stamford Bridge from West Ham, so is probably on first name terms with Abramovich's interpreter by now.
Bridge's agent Jonathan Barrett managed to get the Hammers £6 million pounds for an 18-year old with 14 Premiership games to his name so he surely can't believe that a player with about as many England caps to his name and 5-6 seasons' experience in the top flight is worth a million pounds less.
But it is Barrett's job to earn Wayne Bridge money, but more importantly it's his job to earn money for Jonathan Barrett, so you have to question where his loyalties will lie, and which course he will direct Bridge.
It's probably not too hard to guess?
Does he let Bridge stay at Saints or does he broker a move and get a nice fat cut of the fees and wages at least twice as much as Bridge will earn at St Mary's?
From Saints' point of view they will realise that at some stage of his career Bridge will move on and it's about making sure that when he does the time and the price are right for us.
They will not want to get in a position similar to when Sol Campbell left Spurs for nothing, or even the recent transfer of Harry Kewell where Leeds received far far less than they would have got doing the deal a year ago.
Modern football management is not just about on the pitch, it's about assembling a squad and that means sometimes having to sell players as well as buy.
This can best be attested to only two years ago when Dean Richards was sold. Many questioned Saints' lack of ambition then, but the truth is the cash strengthened us considerably and in hindsight you have to say that it was excellent business for Saints.
So perhaps if Chelsea's bid is upped to the £10 million mark then that is the time to cash in on him.
From the player's point of view financially it would be a good move but career wise I'm not so sure. Chelsea are going to go through great upheaval over the coming season. Perhaps Bridge would be better to stay at St Mary's and build on his reputation. With another good season behind him and the experience of Europe he may be able to pick from the best instead of just a club with silly money to throw at him.
With Chelsea sure to be overloaded with players he may go into the squad rotation abyss which will not help his England chances.
It's not the end of the world if Wayne Bridge moves on if the money is right and well spent. Saints have prospered before from big-money transfers out and will do again.
Bridge leaving would not spell lack of ambition from Saints, merely financial and footballing sense.
In an ideal world every football club would keep their best players but even the likes of Man Utd sometimes have to sell players they would rather keep to ensure that the squad stays fresh.
I hope Wayne Bridge stays another season. I truly believe it would be best for him footballing wise, but he has an agent who wants to make money and that may be the deciding factor.
Nick Illingsworth
Ugly Inside
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