For sale: large north east club with loyal army of fans, Cost: equivalent one Portuguese brat

I know it's been covered but I'd thought I'd add my two cents

80 fecking Million!!!

That's obscene, Madrid break the transfer record twice in a week...and in a recession

Personally I view this as a brilliant bit of business from Fergie - he's got the best out of the boy and he's got way over the odds for him (is Ronaldo 70% better than Kaka?), and he loses a pain in the arse to boot - this continues a long line of big sales that have been lucrative - Beckham, Nistelrooy etc

My concern is two-fold - how will this affect Madrid? Is this level of spending tenable? I appreciate they're financially strong after they got a massive pay-out from the city under Perez but this must put them back into debt, and I doubt this will stop at a mere 136 million, even for one of the world's biggest clubs these are unprecedented new levels of spending and we don't know how it will affect such a club long-term, although I'm sure they'd get bailed out anyway

Secondly how will this impact on the wider footballing world? Will we see the giants race ahead in spending levels? - If that happens I can envisage somebody collapsing, especially considering the debts of Liverpool/United, maybe Man City will play along and 15 clubs will get left even further behind and football will become even more ridiculous

I know we say it all the time, but now clubs really are starting to feel the pressure and these new records may push them to the wall

But hey, maybe we'll see every premier league club become the plaything of an actually wealthy Arab oil tycoon

As for United - they'll live, as long as they keep Rooney they won't need a new superstar, but next season should be closer