Photo by apasciuto

The arms race that is the summer transfer window is usually around 40% hype and rumors, 40% actual transfers and 20% really weird transfers that make everyone question how things happen. So while people being interested in Luka Modric makes sense, the bidding and offers being thrown around makes you sort of question everybody’s real motivations.

Modric, a very talented midfielder who assisted in Tottenham making the Champions League this season, is either on the market or not on the market depending on who you like to read. Manchester City wants a midfielder and they’re supposedly going after him. Manchester United wants to replace Paul Scholes with Modric. Chelsea supposedly offered £22 million for Modric (which was supposedly being turned down) and Tottenham allegedly doesn’t want to give him up, while other stories are saying “Of course they say that — until someone offers up £35 millon.”

Modric could be the lynchpin that Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea so desperately need. It’s obvious that United is severely lacking a creative midfielder. Chelsea needs someone who can provide Fernando Torres the service he needs. And Manchester City, with their vast amounts of money, need to stop Manchester United and Chelsea from purchasing a player who would dent their title hopes. Whoever ends up with Luka Modric could win the Premier League title race next season.

It’s all well and good that teams want someone talented and that Spurs don’t want to sell him but at what point does each side start looking foolish? Tottenham’s argument is that they feel that keeping Modric is what keeps them in the race for trophies, but if teams are going to start overspending with bids wouldn’t it be prudent to fleece someone else and use the money to buy a few players? On the other side, Modric is a good player, but is he worth spending £35 million?

It would seem that psychology, both positive and negative is what’s going to make this move happen or not. Tottenham could possibly feel that by keeping him it’s both a move of team solidarity, but more so a move to not get pushed around by the rest of the “top 6”. It’s a weird, non-tangible respect that the club possibly seeks to hang on to; no one would treat you like a top tier team if you develop players that you’ll give up for the right price. The Chelsea/City/United delegation seems to sign guys now in some sort of one-upmanship move, like big conglomerate companies undercutting each other. Everyone in this begins to not give the other side what they want, and it spirals to such a point where it’s insane that someone is offering Modric that much money and that Tottenham is not taking it.

It’s weird, but it’s what makes the Premier League the most interesting league in the world.