At £198m have we reached the level of unsustainable that Levy has been talking about, or is this juts simply the financial elite in the game becoming more and more apart from everyone else?
I believe it's something else entirely that few people seem to talk about.
It's unsustainable so long as such a club is expected to be self-supporting, absolutely. But Levy is increasingly the outlier; he sensibly believes that the business model should make sense in and of itself. There are only a couple of clubs whose internal revenue streams allow for such spending, and PSG is not one of them.
The petro-clubs and Chinese consortiums are playing a different game in my opinion. Russian and Arab owners probably aren't investing in clubs because they think it's a good and profitable business to get involved in, but because it serves several valuable and unique functions that aren't immediately apparent to Western businessmen.
Being a Russian, Middle Eastern, or even Chinese oligarch is a dangerous, high-stakes game, and these owners are perfectly aware of those stakes. Political purges and internal power struggles are common, and owning a football club seems to conveniently legitimize ill-gotten gains, and provides an enormous "rainy day" asset and safe-haven. They're investing abroad because their own countries are unstable and if it all falls apart they won't maintain any of the benefit of that investment anyways. To that effect, Chinese capital controls are very strict, and wealthy Chinese have to go to extreme lengths to funnel their money out of China, but conveniently buying businesses abroad is encouraged as a means of spreading influence and power.
If Roman Abramovich was purged by Putin tomorrow and his Russian assets confiscated then he would still have Chelsea, and the British Government would doubtlessly protect his interest. How much do you think he could fetch in selling Chelsea? The Forbes list currently values Chelsea at $1.85 billion.
If there was revolution in the U.A.E. and Sheikh Mansour found himself a Royal in exile, Forbes lists Man City as being worth $2 billion.
It's glorified money-washing, with millions of eager fans desperate to defend your ability to do so.
If I'm wrong, then all of this craters at some point and Tottenham Hotspur is left standing. If I'm right though, then we'll see spending continue to grow, because that's the whole point of it.