Premier League’s warped economics make €74m fee for Semenyo a snip

Price tag for winger’s move to Manchester City would make headlines in any other country but not in England.

MARKET FORCES: Bournemouth's Antoine Semenyo holds off Arsenal's Piero Hincapie at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday. The defeat to the Gunners could well be the Ghana forward's final game with the Cherries. Pic: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire

Antoine Semenyo, it seems likely, will soon join Manchester City from Bournemouth for a fee of £65m (€74m). Given how well Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden have played from the right this season, it is not immediately obvious why City need him, but the modern game is the modern game, the rammed calendar makes large and flexible squads essential and Pep Guardiola may have some esoteric plan for the Ghanaian anyway. But perhaps what is most striking about the deal is the fee – or, more precisely, how little attention it has drawn.

English football has become inured to big transfers. The fee feels about right. Semenyo is 25. He has four and a half years left on his contract. He is quick, skilful, intelligent and works hard. He is disciplined, but has the capacity to do the unexpected. Of course a player of his ability costs that much. Yet £65m (€74m) would make him the third-most expensive player in Bundesliga history. He would be the seventh-most expensive in Serie A history, the 14th-most expensive in La Liga history. Only nine non-English clubs have paid a fee higher than that. Even in Premier League terms, Semenyo sneaks into the top 25.