Nothing could illustrate the depression in the M&A markets more than the news that Christiano Ronaldo's £80 million transfer to Real Madrid ranked as the seventh largest deal in the whole of Europe last week. The preening footie star's move from Manchester
United puts him in 31st position in the UK year-to-date M&A league tables compiled by Thomson Reuters.
The worldwide fall in asset values appears to have completely bypassed the European football meat market. Surely this is a new bubble just waiting to be popped.