Chopper_Read the transfer market in england was mad anyway, but this pre-season it's gone beyond daft. The Saudi league money has added to the madness. It's now pushing down from the PL into the championship, and it'll end up destroying L1 and below, and is hastening the move to some sort of american style model.
90% of teams have no way of competing in the transfer market. It's literally pick a number time when it comes to a player's value.
To contextualise things; Southampton grossly overpaid for Lavia, a player that had only played one professional game of football v. Wycombe in the league cup for £10.5m, he's then had a mixed season in the PL playing 34 times in all comps, he's showed promise. He's now been sold to Chelsea for £53m. A five fold increase in value in 12 months. He's not 20 until January, and he's a work in progress. The kind of player that a PL team would've paid £5m for 2 to 2 1/2 years ago, and gradually introduced to 1st team football.
They've now gone and set the transfer fee bench mark for a Lavia type player a couple of years on his developmental curve, with the £110m they've now paid for Caicedo, who's a couple of years older, with a couple of season's worth more experience. A decent player, not currently a world beater, but has the ability I reckon to play at the top, top level. Who they were forced to pay that much for because they'd set the bench mark last season with the £110m that they paid for 21 yr old Fernandez from Benfica. A player who Benfica had bought the previous season for about £7m from River Plate.