It's a funny old game of two halves at the end of the day Bill.

The transfer window. Home of insanity since...well, since I don't know when. 2009 will be hailed, however, as the years "things escalated" as the man said. I remember the good old days of the 1990's when Andy/Andrew Cole moving to Manchester United for £7 million was considered extravagance beyond measure. Now we have the boy Ronaldo and the other boy Kaka moving for a combined fee of about £150 million which is a substantial amount of funds by anyone's estimation. To say I could purchase a small country for that amount of money is of course a truism but the fact is I could purchase a fairly large country for that amount these days. Any number of African banana republics are crying out for a dictatorial leader to rule over them with an iron fist of tyranny. With £150 million I could be that man. Just give me that chance.

Of course, I would get no return on my investment save perhaps for a bullet square in the head about 12 days into my reign of terror. Florentine Perez, on the other hand, believes he can make a profit from these extravagant purchases through lucrative tours and merchandising. Perez benefits from having a well established brand under his command; arguably the most popular brand in football. Add to this the global superstars who ply their trade for Real Madrid and you have an extremely potent force in terms of global merchandising. For the romantics amongst us (and I'd include myself in that category) this era of merchandising is something of a blight but the business side of football is now crucial for any club wishing for success at the very highest level.

The other great club football brands, such as Liverpool and in particular Manchester United, make no attempts to disguise how crucial their business empire is to their continued success. Tours of East Asia, where Premier League football is hugely popular, make millions of pounds out of enthusiastic fans who will pay anything to see their superstars up close and personal. Eyeing that, the Premier League have made proposals to stage games abroad each season; proposals that have been met with disgust by fans of the league. However, it is the natural progression for the league; Premier League football is now global. Fans in Ireland in particular cannot be so hypocritical as to deny fans further afield pleasures which are relatively easily available to us considering that, for a lot of us, our connection to the English club we support was created largely through the marketing of the clubs and corporations in question.

Unfortunately, as the bigger clubs gain both clout and cash by selling out to the businessmen, smaller clubs and lower league football begins to suffer. We need look no farther than our own country to see the effect the Sky Super Wednesday phenomenon has on local football where interest and attendances have dwindled hugely since the advent of Sky's strangehold on EPL coverage. But I digress...

The question is whether these purchases by Real Madrid are extremely insane or extremely pragmatic. The recent past gives some credence to the latter. Real Madrid did it with Zidane. They did it with Beckham. And both times they made huge money on their investements, with the Zidane Galactico era bringing great success to the club and Beckham bringing in huge money in terms of shirt sales and merchandising. The ante has been upped as regards the amount of investement but it is possible that huge expenditure will be at least recouped in time. Add to this the fact the Madrid have hugely increased their chances of having a successful campaign both home and abroad next year and you begin to wonder is Perez more level headed than we think.

Hard to say though. Maybe Perez and his board are business geniuses. Or maybe Dunphy was right and they've been on acid this whole time. Fear and Loathing in the Bernabeu...now that could make some serious cash.