10 Incredible Premier League "What Ifs"
5. Transfer Fees Were Capped After Rio Ferdinand Joins Man Utd
When adjusted for inflation, Andriy Shevchenko's move to Chelsea in 2006 is the most expensive Premier League transfer of all time - the deal would be worth £144.4 million in today's money and what a waste of time it turned out to be.
But this would never have come to pass if FIFA had stepped in when Rio Ferdinand crossed the great divide from Leeds United to Manchester United in 2002. The record breaking deal is actually worth roughly £121 million in modern money and things started to escalate massively after this deal went through.
Transfer fees in excess of £20/30 million became common and less than ten years after Rio joined United, Fernando Torres left Liverpool for Chelsea in the first Premier League £50 million deal. Fast forward to present day and £100 million is starting to look like chump change.
Had a transfer cap been installed in 2002, mega deals would still go ahead but wages would become the real currency in the transfer market. So instead of lavishing multiple millions on fees, the players would have the power demand whatever they wanted if clubs wanted to secure their services.
Inevitably, we would have seen a player earning £1 million a week way back in the early noughties and you can all but guarantee it would have been Goldenballs himself: David Beckham.