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Luvaduck, as Jasper Carrot might say.Look further north, to Middlesbrough, and you found George Boateng as the summer’s joint 12th most valuable player on the planet following his £5m move from Aston Villa. Of the 11 players more expensively traded globally before 10 August, two others (Massimo Maccarone and Juninho) will be team-mates of Boateng’s at the Riverside. Three more will be playing against them in the Premiership, as Nicolas Anelka lines up for Manchester City, El Hadji Diouf turns out at Anfield and Hugo Viana begins his English career at Newcastle. Grim up north? The concourses are paved with gold, pet.Not quite. There are three reasons for this startling state of affairs, where the European map has been turned on its head to make England the dominant player and biggest buyer in the market while Italy and Spain play catch-up. Primarily, the parlous state of football finances in Italy, whose clubs have driven the bulk of the ?te market in previous years They cannot afford to this summer.

In short, the market has deflated to make England so dominant. Like Denmark in the World Cup.The market is also realising that Fifa’s new transfer system, which gives players greater powers and will become more relevant with every new contract signed under its jurisdiction, makes signing stars for huge fees riskier. None has unilaterally broken a contract over conditions yet but it will happen one day. And witness Barcelona effectively giving Rivaldo away this summer when his contract was not up. That was a case of personal differences and outsize wages becoming too much. Even the biggest clubs are getting wary.England is also dominating because the Premiership, for the first time this season, will operate under the transfer window system. No moves will be allowed between the end of August and the end of the calendar year.

Continental sides are used to this, have traditionally had bigger squads and have always made their big moves in the summer. The English are new to this idea.The upshot? Rio Ferdinand’s move from Leeds to Manchester United, for around £30m, is the most expensive in the world this summer. Last year’s biggest move saw Zinedine Zidane move to Real Madrid from Juventus for £45.8m; Luis Figo moved to Real from Barcelona the summer before for £37.2m. Anelka, Fabio Cannavaro, Diouf and Viana are the other top-five summer moves, three of them to English clubs.

And Manchester United and City, Liverpool, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Everton, Arsenal and even Birmingham are suddenly the clubs spending (relatively) big money.Italy is in the doldrums, with Cannavaro’s £11.4m move from Parma to Inter just ahead of Maccarone’s to Boro as the biggest transfer involving any Italian side. This from a nation that has seen a dozen or more of £10m-plus in each of the past two years. The biggest moves to Spain has been those of Jorge Andrade to Deportivo from Porto, for £7.7m, and Juan Riquelme from Boca Juniors to Barcelona, for £7m. French clubs are selling not buying the star turns of the World Cup, and mostly to England. Germany and Portugal have never consistently been involved in big-money moves and are not starting now Which leaves the likes of Birmingham in the box seat.