..on the close of the transfer window, something seems very, very wrong.

Why were only English clubs going utterly, utterly bananas?

If we have a look at the major signings in the other leagues, it really makes shocking reading.

In Spain, probably the biggest transfer was Rafael Van Der Vaart from Hamburg to Real. He cost just over 12 million pounds. Equate that to the English market: James Milner went to Villa from Newcastle for the same amount. Apart from van der Vaart, Spain's biggest signing was probably managing to keep David Villa there - he signed a new contract with Valencia despite attention from Chelsea and Man City.

Germany's biggest action was mostly in Wolfsburg, recently bloated by large investment. They picked up the Italian duo of Christian Zaccardo and Andrea Barzagli for undisclosed fees, but also invested heavily in youth from lower leagues. Tim Borowski's move from Bremen to Bayern was a free transfer, as was Lehmann's to Stuttgart, while Bremen picked up Claudio Pizarro on a year-long loan.

French teams never usually create transfer shockwaves, and this summer was no different. Still, some interesting transfers took place: Hatem Ben Arfa from Lyon to Marseille (9.5m, much cheaper than the world-beater James Milner), Monaco picked up Freddy Adu on loan, and Nantes look to have done an astute piece of business with the signing of Ivan Klasnic from Bremen.

Italian clubs, as usual, dealed heavily amongst themselves. Fiorentina could have acquired James Milner for 12 million pounds, but instead they went for Alberto Gilardino for the same amount. Time will tell if they made the right call. Granted, Inter threw some cash around, for Quaresma (25m) and Muntari (12m) but their behaviour was the exception to the rule on the peninsula this summer.

Let's have a look at English teams' spending:
Robinho Man City-Real Madrid 32.5
Berbatov Man Utd-Spurs 30.7
Keane Liverpool-Spurs 20.3
Jo Man City-CSKA Moscow 18
Bosingwa Chelsea-Porto 16.2
Modric Spurs-Dinamo Zagreb 15.8
Fellaini Everton-Standard Liège 15
Bentley Spurs-Blackburn 15
Pavlyuchenko Spurs-Spartak Moscow 14
Milner Villa-Newcastle 12

So why is it? Why do English teams have so much more money than their European counterparts? Only recently have English teams come to dominate European football - for years they languished behind the likes of Bayern, Milan, Real and Barcelona. The Champions League provides huge rewards, but it's not as if Spurs or Everton have seen any of it.

And what is it about English clubs that attracts foreign investment? What do they have that other European sides don't? Is is simply a willingness to sell their souls for a quick buck? I know for sure that I would HATE for my beloved Sampdoria to be bought out - there is so much more to my love for them than desire to see them succeed.

And, most importantly, is the romanticiasm gone out of English football? Kaiserslautern won the German league the year after promotion in 1998. Chievo lead Serie A for six weeks in their first year there in 2002, eventually qualifiying for the UEFA Cup. Can English football over the last ten years offer anything like this?

Yikes, this post has gone on for much longer than intended. Still, would very much like to hear what you fellow footy fans think.