The head coach of the Austrian national team and former mentor of Manchester United, Ralf Rangnick shared his thoughts on expensive transfers of experienced players.
“If I were the owner or sporting director, I would try to sign and invest only in young players because no matter how you look at it, it makes sense. Does it make sense to spend 30/40/50 million on a transfer of a 30/28-year-old player? Let’s calculate it this way. You sign a 30/28-year-old player, give him a five-year contract. You spend an average of 15 million a year on his salary, multiply by five, that’s 75 million. Total is about 110/120 million, and there are also agent fees. The entire deal costs about 150 million. And what do you get from that?
You will never get that money back. If you’re unlucky, in the last years of his contract, the player may not even play. The only thing you do, if you succeed, is invest in possibly greater success in the first few years. It’s like a gamble. I would never allow that, I wouldn’t let that happen,” - cites Rangnick the Spanish publication Sport.