Manchester United and Liverpool have been forced by new regulatory developments at Fifa and Uefa to inflate their bids for Phil Jones and Jordan Henderson respectively. Less than a decade ago the £20m and £16m that it has required to take Henderson, 20, to Anfield and Jones, 19, to Old Trafford would have broken the British transfer record. Today that combined £36m buys you a single England cap.

Clearly, in England, young English talent comes at a premium. There is a simple explanation for this: Fifa is working on introducing a system whereby nine players on every 18-man squad sheet must be homegrown.

Buried amid the eulogies for their president, Sepp Blatter, national associations at Fifa's congress this month voted in favour of new youth development measures. Fifa's player‑status committee, headed by the former Football Association chairman, Geoff Thompson, is holding discussions with national associations, the European Clubs Association and Fifpro as it works up the new rules. Domestic leagues have not yet been invited to have their say. Thompson told the congress: "We must use the qualities associated with the 6+5 concept [a proposal under which clubs would have been compelled to field at least six homegrown players] in trying to manage a workable solution."

The 6+5 idea died a death amid opposition from clubs and, more importantly, from the European Union, which outlawed regulation according to players' nationality. The compromise agreement football struck with the EU was for eight players from every 25-man squad to have been developed within the fielding club's national association.

Until now, Fifa youth-development regulation has not impacted on team selection. But if talks on the new regulations develop as Fifa hopes, then it will. New legislation is expected to be only about a year away. No wonder Henderson and Jones have cost so much.

Young's big day out

Ashley Young could be the next young Englishman to move to Old Trafford for a big fee (although at least the 25-year-old has 15 caps) and he seems very keen indeed. So keen in fact that Digger hears he has cancelled his wedding, which was scheduled for today. It was only going to be held a few miles up the road from Manchester United's Carrington training centre at Hale (perhaps Stevenage-born Young thought he would already be a United player by now) but it looks like something - a medical, perhaps? - has got in the way. Digger called Young's agent, Eric Walters, in an effort to confirm this tidbit yesterday but he was not playing ball. "I'm giving you no comment at all," said Walters. So no word on whether Young will be compensating guests who took a day off work for the event with complimentary tickets at Old Trafford next season.

This time next year …



Millwall might have been the next billionaire-owned football club, but the trail has run cold. Lakshmi Mittal's son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, quit the board of Queens Park Rangers last month ostensibly in protest at the rise in ticket prices (of up to 73% a match). But he may have had another motive: a bid for another club. Bhatia is understood to be the money behind the Renewal company which is trying to introduce a masterplan for "London's Sporting Village" around the Den. But the masterstroke would have been to buy Millwall and despite a lot of preliminary work, so far there have been no direct talks. Digger hears the reason for that may be that Bhatia is preparing a fresh bid to take over QPR. He did not return a call yesterday but watch this space.

Is it you there, Robbie?



Robbie Williams: from (disputed) king of pop to kingmaker of Port Vale. The future of the Vale Park board is now in the hands of the on-off Take That superstar. For Williams is the largest single shareholder in Vale after previously handing over a £250,000 subsidy to keep the club afloat. At a recent EGM he handed over the proxy for his votes to the North London Valiants, who – with the weight of Williams's equity behind them – forced the co-option of Mark Sims as a Vale director. Now the board wants to confirm that this is what Williams really wants through his lawyers. Williams is currently on tour with Take That and if Digger's unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with his "people" over the past few days are any guide, getting the necessary confirmations will not be easy.