European giants showing no remorse as Benfica and Monaco are raided out

Sometimes I hate football. I never thought I’d say that, but sometimes it’s just so unfair. This anger comes directly after Manchester United winning the signature of Victor Lindelof for £31m. Admittedly the price tag annoyed me immensely, but the fact Benfica have lost another of their star players is slightly more irritating.

Lindelof will join Ederson Moraes in the Premier League, after both played vital roles in Benfica’s domestic league and cup double. It’s inevitable that the big European clubs will only recruit the best as they look to strengthen for another huge season ahead, but the fact that other clubs like Benfica and Monaco are being raided immediately after fantastic success is hugely disheartening. What’s worse is the fact that I genuinely haven’t met a Man United or City fan who actually knows who either player is…

Monaco’s playmaker Bernardo Silva was the first to leave the Ligue 1 title winning side after his big-money move to the blue half of Manchester, and has now been joined by Liga Nos winner Moraes in what is an unfortunate yet unavoidable aspect to modern day football. The rest of the Monaco victors will undoubtedly be next to go, with Kylian Mbappe and Thomas Lemar seemingly on the radar of every single top club in Europe, and will all but confirm the French club’s demise in future seasons. The teams do of course receive large sums of money as they unwillingly sell their stars, but finding the right replacements is certainly no easy task, and clubs like Monaco and Benfica, in my opinion, will not recruit properly enough to win back to back league titles.

To be fair to the Manchester clubs, it’s not just them at the centre of this robbery. Chelsea were guilty of such antics when they nabbed N’Golo Kante from Leicester, seemingly feeling no remorse for their league opponents as they stole their star midfielder along with their Premier League crown. I’m obviously chuffed for the players, with some of them achieving lifelong dreams and others playing the lead role in a sensational story, with Kante’s move to Chelsea a prime example of such success. It is however the teams I feel sorry for, with the Frenchman’s former club Leicester at the heart of my sympathy, going from league champions to a relegation fight the minute they lost their best player.

Even Ajax’s young guns are highly sought after following their amazing second place finish in Holland and as runners up in the Europa League, with manager Peter Bosz having already moved on to Borussia Dortmund.

And just to add insult to injury, these players are being signed for ridiculous amounts of money. £35m for Moraes. £35m…for a goalkeeper! The Brazilian has yet to make a competitive appearance for the national side and now costs more than Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neuer…no pressure then. Guardiola has embarrassed himself with his goalkeeping decisions so far, so this one cannot be a failure. And £31m for Lindelof, who countless Manchester United fans are Googling as we speak, is nothing short of outrageous.

A £100m transfer in football is imminent, be it Mbappe or any other rising star, but these unfortunate clubs often fail to recover after losing their stars to the European giants, who incidentally fail to allow these young players to develop properly.