Money Money Money. Silly season begins.

It goes without saying World Cup year would see astronomical transfer fees exchange hands and players crop up from all over the globe to(encouraged by their agents) cash in on a few good performances.

This year’s rumour mill has been in full flow for a good few months now, and some silly clubs have already fallen into the trap of believing a players hype before any real substance materialises.

The clever, real, clubs jumped in early and took proven quality pre-tournament. David Villa finally got his move to one of Europe's elite clubs for a fee which, given the way he's rescued Spain time and again on route to the semi-final, looks like a snip.

Their Spanish counterparts, Real Madrid, took a typically different approach to the transfer market, waiting till a few games into the tournament to agree a fee for Argentina’s Angel Di Maria. The winger managed to start a number of games for Argentina during their traditional ‘flatter to deceive’ World Cup campaign, but in reality, twenty million pounds looks a lot of money.

Speaking of a lot of money, as you would expect, Man City represented the extreme other end of the spectrum and have been the first to dive right in and offer stupid money to players who have proven absolutely nothing.

They actually started the summer very sensibly. German defender Jerome Boateng has been as efficient as you would like from a full back and looked a much more thoughtful purchase than some of their previous purchases. It didn’t last long though.

While David Silva assisted Valencia to their best of the rest 3rd place finish in Spain last year, his one undistinguished performance against Switzerland in Spain’s opening game defeat has earned him a seat on the bench for the rest of the tournament. It remains to be seen whether the City’s biggest fee of the summer was money well spent, with Silva still needing to adapt to combative English midfields.

A word of note to any City fans expecting miracles. I’m sure Real Madrid, who have watched Silva week in week out for the last three seasons, would have had more than a fleeting interest and signed him instead of the even more unproven Di Maria to run their midfield next season.

And another thing

City raised more questions with another of their summer captures. Don't get me wrong, Yaya Toure is a better player than Nigel De Jong and Gareth Barry, but is he really worth the reported £220,000 a week they've given him to anchor their midfield?

Is £220,000 a week really a justifiable amount of money to pay someone who spent most of last season injured, and plays primarily as a destroyer in midfielder? I’m sure Lee Cattermole would have come for a snip of the price. If they had to offer someone of Toure’s stature in the game that much to come to Eastlands it doesn’t say a lot for their aspirations to sign players from the many echelon above Toure’s level.

All of this brings me on to the main point. What is the football industry coming to when Yaya Toure would rather go to play for City in the UEFA Cup, than sign for a massive club like say Arsenal or Manchester United who desperately need a player in his position, purely because of the wages on offer. When did footballers become so greedy, that they’d leave Barcelona for a club in a completely different football stratosphere for financial reasons?

Toure, rightly or wrongly, already has more money than 95% of the planet will ever have. But why is money that important to someone already set for life aged 27, that they would sacrifice a career at perhaps the greatest football institution in the world on the basis that an Arab Billionaire wanted to double his already astronomical salary.

I can’t wait until he announces in true Robbie Keane style, that he has supported City since he was a boy.

Money shouldn’t matter at this point in his career, playing for FC Barcelona or Manchester City is a no contest.

Which brings me to Joe Cole. The man who ‘wanted to be appreciated by Chelsea’, which in lamens terms means he wanted his last big pay day, needs to take a look in the mirror. Why churn out such rubbish when negotiating a move. If it’s really about money, take a leaf out of American sports stars and admit as much. Any working person can appreciate that given the opportunity to earn more money elsewhere, they probably would.

How refreshing would it be though, if Cole really did want to be appreciated as he says, he went and signed for his boyhood club West Ham on a £5,000 a week salary, reversed their demising fortunes and went down in east end folklore. That would be earn him true appreciation from the fans at Upton Park.

Something tells me his desire to be ‘appreciated’ means something completely different than the traditional sense of appreciation.