As expected Kyle Walker is off to Manchester City. The fee agreed has been announced as £50 million. That's fifty million pounds. Fifty-seven million Euro. For Kyle Walker.
Now, we know you're sick of hearing that the world has gone mad with regards to transfer fees, and it's not exactly a bad signing for City. Fees are inflated across the league, and we have to get over that. Walker is 27, and arguably the best right back in the Premier League.
That said, there's a context here that makes this fee quite incredible. Walker will become the 15th most expensive player in the history of the game, the most expensive English player of all time, and the joint most expensive defender ever bought. He shares that honour with David Luiz, who also cost £50 million when he moved to Paris St. Germain in 2014.
The really interesting stat is in who comes after them on the list... Three more English players.
Football 365's Daniel Storey really summed up the madness on Twitter, shortly after the fee was announced.
Most expensive defence of all time:
RB - Kyle Walker (England)
LB - Luke Shaw (England)
CB - John Stones (England)
CB - David Luiz (Brazil)— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) July 13, 2017
Yes, the English league has the most money, and yes, local players are always going to be overvalued to a certain extent, but there is something seriously wrong with that list.
Rio Ferdinand probably justified his £30m price tag for Manchester United, which he shares with Luke Shaw, even if it was a lot more money to spend back in 2002. One wonders if United would have spent the same of a player like Fabio Cannavaro at that time, or was Ferdinand's Englishness worth that extra 10 million?
On current form, would any of the three current players make a Premier League XI? Certainly not Stones or Shaw. Perhaps Walker might claim that honour, but it's debatable. For a country who's international team is a quarter final team at best, they are punching well above their weight in transfer fees.
