Backheel Breakfast: The Premier League is making lots of money

Premier League clubs have spent freely on wages and transfer fees for quite some time, usually running losses year-to-year. There have been occasional clubs who were horribly mismanaged, like Portsmouth or Leeds, but most have done just fine despite spending gobs of money.

For the first time in 15 years, Premier League clubs are showing a collective profit, which seems kind of insane. But everyone’s been playing the long game for a while, and it’s worked out very well. By ‘overspending’ for top players, the Premier League became the best league in the world, attracting the world’s biggest TV deals and increasing the value of their clubs significantly.

This is another reminder that the sport has not gone crazy, transfer fees are not ruining it, and everyone is going to be just fine.

Jonas Gutierrez says he will never forgive Newcastle for their lack of support during his cancer treatment. (Telegraph)

Thomas Vermaelen is actually training with the Barcelona first team. (AS)

Borussia Mönchengladbach have signed Lars Stindl to replace the outgoing Christoph Kramer. (Bundesliga)

Theo Walcott has been forced to deny rumors of a bust-up with Arsene Wenger. (Guardian)

Michael Yokhin on Raffael, who embarrassed Manuel Neuer over the weekend. (ESPN FC)

Mathew Burt on the Football League Championship title race. (Just Football)

Paul Wilson on Greg Dyke’s homegrown English player crusade. (Guardian)

The section in which nothing should be taken seriously.

Kyrgiakos Papadopoulos could ditch the Bundesliga for Liverpool. (Metro)

AC Milan have reportedly met with Ciro Immobile’s agent. (Football Italia)

Gareth Bale is not expected to leave Real Madrid this summer. (Daily Mail)

The USMNT fell apart late in a loss to Denmark. (SB Nation)

Australia put on a good showing in a draw with Germany. (SB Nation)

France vs. Brazil (4 p.m.) - What are you going to do instead? Work? Go to class? Psh.