The transfer market was settling down before Roman came and started throwing his money around. Now clubs are holding out for more in the hope that Chelsea will become interested. This also affects the clubs that you buy players from, because they are then forced to pay over the odds for players they want. It is one big vicious circle involving Roman's money slowly filtering between other clubs.
That's only true of a handful of players, and once Chelsea doesn't come in, the market goes back to normal. Again, look at the Deco purchase. He was sold cheaply, despite being from Mourinho's old club. We didn't want him - the price dropped sharply. THAT IS NOT TRUE. If Chelsea are not involved in the negotiations, the price does not go up. You can keep saying it all you want, but that doesn't make it true. That doesn't even make sense. Take an econ class, then get back to me. In the case of non-fungible goods, one market actor's overpaying will not lead to a rise in prices. If a person shows up at a Southeby auction, and buys three paintings for inflated prices, that does not affect the other items on which he did not bid. Unless you're arguing that Chelsea bids on all players. Which would be impossible.
I can see where Chelsea is building for the future with buys such as Johnson, Cole, Bridge...But at the same time, if somebody like Johnson or Huth never sees the field, will his future be at Stamford Bridge? Roman has bought the the whole gammit, and can't fit them all in, and that is bad for the game.
Let's use our clubs as an example. There's not a lot of money being thrown around the transfer market, so clubs are reasonably happy to get a fair amount. If Livi wanted to buy "player A", we would make a fair bid and the transfer would be completed. However, if Chelsea had just signed "player B" from Livi, then other clubs would know that Livi have a bit of money to spend. They would therefore hold out for more money as a direct result. Thus, Livi would be forced to pay more just because of Chelsea. It does make sense, just think about it and read my response above. There is a vicious circle involving Roman's money because whoever has it is forced to pay more for a player as a direct result.
I suppose it's more to do with tradition. Per head, we have so many more football supporters than a country like America. East Fife are from a town from Methil, with a population of 8,000 people. We do draw support from surrounding small towns but almost every club in Scotland is easily accesible from Fife, including Rangers and Celtic. I don't find the idea of supporting a big team as attractive as supporting a small team. I suppose small teams have to rely on people like me who are not atrracted, like a fly to shite, to success. Of course, idiots go away and support big teams but I find that quite shallow. Of course, I would look to improve the first team in the short term but I would find it quite crass to go and throw money at players who were so far above the standard of the league. As someone has said, small teams don't become big teams. You can make an underacheiving small team, an over-performing small team and aim for whatever success is relative for your club. There's no way you can call Chelsea a small club, not a huge club but they are on a different level to East Fife completely, so the rules are different. I know, that's what I'm saying. Even I would leave East Fife if I was being offered a fortune elsewhere. But if I was playing for East Fife and there's a good team spirit, a well run club with a good atmosphere, who you beleive are going places, I'd hope that most players show a certain amount of loyalty, which a lot of players do, to their credit.
OK, you're talking about Chelsea, I'm talking about East Fife. The situations are so different, it's unreal. Chelsea are a big team, they are just terrible under-acheivers. Abramovich is doing his best to bring quick success and seems to be looking to the future, well done to him, I can't see what I'd do differently. If I were a billionaire, this is what I'd do. - Develop the ground. I'd look to build a small compact 6,000 seater which also contained terracing. -Build a training facilities, indoor and outdoor. These would be used by the team and available to the public. -Put money into youth development. This would involve a full time youth development and coaching team, provided with decent facilities. - Try not to run the club as a dictatorship, I would award a place on the board to a memeber of the Supporters Trust and Supporters Club. -I would promote East Fife as a community club. Probably provide free entry to all home games for a season. Get schools involved and run free buses from all surrounding towns and areas to the stadium on match days. - Obviously provide the manager with money to improve the first team. Firstly, this would involve making all current players full time. The manager would receive a budget (not an astronimical one). I'd hope to attract the best players from our current league and the one above and would not throw around silly money to get anybody. If you read my post, I'm not asking for players to turn down much better wages elsewhere. I was using that as an argument for a wage cap. Not all players are loyal although sopme are to an extent.