And to think we all thought the domination of The Premier League was in the hands of Chelsea and their billions.
How wrong we were.
With todays quite amazing news that West Ham United have managed to sign Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano you have to wonder what the hell just happened here, and what does it mean for English football.
With huge clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Roma all linked to the Argentinean Duo you have to ask yourself how did they sign for West Ham?
How can they even afford these players – remembering that Tevez had a buy-out clause in his contract worth £68 million that needed to be paid off in order for him to even leave Corinthians.
So you can bet that this ‘undisclosed fee’ West Ham got these players for was nothing, especially since MSI were preparing a takeover bid of WHU last year.
But of course, the President of London-based MSI (Media Sports Investments) Kia Joorabchian who own Corinthians have signed a crop of Brazilian and South American talent in their time with their new found wealth, including players such as Maxi Lopez, Lucho Gonzalez, Carlos Alberto, Wagner Love & Sebastian Dominguez.
Haven’t heard of them? You will do.
Great news for West Ham fans who can expect massive transfer coups over the next few seasons as they look to attack Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool at the top of The Premiership.
Bad news for the rest of the league.
And another worrying aspect is that although Kia Joorabchian denies any involvement with Roman Abramovich in regards to MSI they do have business links through another Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky so aren’t exactly strangers to each other.
Of course Abramovich also denies any financial interest in CSKA Moscow, even though a company that he is a shareholder of Sibneft are the shirt sponsors of CSKA in a £30 million, 3 year deal.
Or maybe West Ham won’t be bought out by MSI and won’t become a major force in the game over the next few years. Maybe West Ham are just a feeder club to Chelsea, who will monitor the players progress over the season and then decide if they are good enough to play for them in The Premiership.
Either way, neither scenario is exactly great for Arsenal!
