Premier League set to announce record £4.4bn TV rights deal
"It's fantastic," enthused Jorge Mendes.
The world's most powerful agent was coming to the end of an interview he'd granted me at his favourite luxury Lisbon hotel.
His assistant was getting frustrated, frantically signalling to him off-camera to wrap up our conversation.
It was the evening of transfer deadline day earlier this month, and Mendes had people to see, clients to call, a dinner to attend.
His three phones, each registered in a different country, had been buzzing and vibrating almost constantly for the duration of our 40-minute chat.
But before being ushered out by his bodyguard, Mendes had something else he wanted to tell me.
The rising cost of Premier League rights
2011-13: £1.77bn
2014-16: £3bn
2017-19: £4.4bn (predicted)
"The way you put matches on at midday to suit the Asian market. We should do this in Spain. It's fantastic," he purred in admiration.
"The Premier League is doing a brilliant job. You have clubs at the bottom of the league earning £80m a season. That's what the very top clubs in Portugal earn."
I had put it to Mendes that football's ability to generate ever more value could not go on forever. That the TV money that had turned him into a multi-millionaire must soon reach a limit.
The Portuguese laughed. He was having none of it.
"Listen, football is the number one sport in the world," he insisted. "You have others like Formula 1 and NBA, but football is number one. People ask if we've reached a limit. They'll be asking the same thing in three years from now."
ყლით პირში ლა ლიგას.
· 
ინგლისური ფეხბურთის ფანკლუბი, Three Lions
