The ability to negotiate and negotiate well is a skill that only very few have. The value of this ability becomes clear, when we compare the price Manchester United paid for Paul Pogba and what Real Madrid paid for Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Isco and Casemiro combined.
Real Madrid are the UEFA Super Cup champions after beating Manchester United in Tuesday's final in Skopje. The Spanish side ran out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Isco and Casemiro.
However, there is much more for Real president Florentino Perez to be happy about, especially if he looks at the two teams' recent records in the transfer market.
There is one particular stat that will leave Ed Woodward wondering what on earth he has been doing in recent years.
Jose Mourinho's side spent €105m on Paul Pogba last summer, making him the world's most expensive football ever at that point in time. Despite this fee, the Frenchman has proved incapable of having the same impact as any of Isco, Modric, Kroos or Casemiro, let alone all of them.
The four mainstays of Zinedine Zidane's Champions League, La Liga and UEFA Super Cup holders cost the club just €104.5m. Or in other words, half a million less than United paid for a single player in Pogba.
The quartet would certainly fetch the Bernabeu-based side some considerable fees if they chose to sell any of them this summer too, undoubtely bringing in more than Pogba would.