Its interesting really - Beckham got bought from Man Utd for £25m (even if you allow for the Fergie nuisance/media factor to be thrown in - as this was causing a lot of grief at the time - tops would be £30m) and its been stated by Real's management team that they sold enough shirts to cover majority of that fee - without on field team performance coming into it (which temporarily must have made RM a good few million more over the period he was there)... and going from memory Im not sure if there was anyone else around to the same extent who could generate this level of funds for any club, so he must have been worth it without question (is that £40m in todays money?)
Ronaldo was sold for £80m - and I wouldnt bet against most of that fee being regained in other ways by the team apart from onfield performance (a bit harder to judge as Kaka is also there who would be a huge draw to fans also). Real Madrid seem to be genius at doing this even when their onfield exploits arent doing so well
Even harder to judge is how much Eto'o was worth (wasnt he in the last year of his contract at Barca?) but if thats the case it must be at least £10-15m - which makes Ibra worth over £50m easy (ok Hleb was also incl as a loan deal but given the costs involved surely this was minimal) and however much you love the club and love the player I cant see him getting the same "adoration" value from the public /media
As a "pure" football transfer - I would suggest your comment is undoubtedly right, but with the media (and fans going so crazy in Spain over a few players) part coming into play - Im not so sure
