English Transfer Fees Are Out of Proportion

As you'll probably be aware, Thierry Henry is leaving Arsenal for Barcelona for £16million.

You may also know that Tottenham have tied up a deal for Charlton striker Darren Bent, for, it is believed £16million.

Yup, Henry and Darren Bent are, apparently, worth the same amount of money. I don't know about you, but this seems more than a little strange to me.

OK, I'm aware that Henry is 29 and Bent is 23 or 24, but the simple fact is that Henry has scored 174 goals in 254 appearances for Arsenal, has won a World Cup with France, a European Championship, the Premiership, the FA, etc. etc.

Darren Bent (who I think is a good Premiership player, don't get me wrong) has scored 32 goals in 69 games for Charlton Athletic, has won nothing and played one UEFA Cup match 6 years ago.

In what parallel universe are these players worth the same amount of money? Surely Premiership football clubs can see that there is something wrong here? It must be obvious to all but, well, the agents, that transfer fees commanded by English players are out of proportion with their real value of that player.

Look at Watford's Ashley Young. Half a good season in the Premiership and suddenly he's worth £9million to Aston Villa. Then there's Nigel Reo-Coker, who West Ham have suddenly decided is worth £12million?

This is madness and clubs have to stop paying these inflated transfer fees. Only then will there be a real incentive for English Premiership football clubs to invest in homegrown talent.