This transfer window is like the Wild West
(BUT IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE!)
THANK heavens the Premier League clubs went to all the trouble of cutting the transfer window short next summer. Now we will never have disruption once the season has started — unless next January is like this one, of course.
Then it will be the Wild West again, as it has been for the last three weeks. As of close of office hours yesterday there had been 60 transfer deals conducted by Premier League clubs alone this January, involving every participant, bar Swansea.
Most were small scale demotions to lower leagues, or loans, but Southampton have lost their best defender, Liverpool their best midfield player, Arsenal their best striker, Everton a rising star.
West Bromwich Albion still do not know whether Jonny Evans will be playing for or against them by February, while uncertainty spreads from Bournemouth to Newcastle.
The point of the truncated summer window was to increase stability once the league programme was underway — but, typically, clubs are bored with that by January. They want action. They want to buy their way out of trouble, or buy their way into contention. They want to plug gaps or cut out dead wood — and if the frenzy is approaching a peak now, imagine how bad it will be in 12 months when clubs have had even less time to achieve balance in August? So what is the new plan? Incredibly a one-week January window in which to get business completed — as if Premier League owners would behave, if only they had less time to go daft. It is suggested a shorter
winter trading period will be up for discussion at the Premier league annual meeting in June — with all the same problems that might yet be an issue this summer.
europe’s windows will not close so clubs could be forced to sell, but would no longer be able to buy.
Barcelona could have delayed on Philippe coutinho and tried to undermine a potential champions league opponent, liverpool, by taking him late.
AnD considering leicester had all summer to get Adrien silva over the line and failed, why would less time be conducive to more clear-headed negotiation?
imagine the havoc the agent Mino Raiola could have wreaked inserting his client henrikh Mkhitaryan into the Alexis sanchez deal, had it been taking place against a less forgiving clock?
There have been 14 deals on Merseyside alone this January, plus seven by Arsenal. And this needs less time to be conducted sensibly?
David Moyes, the West ham manager, even said all business could be tied up in one day if the clubs gathered in a giant meeting room. Yet that would be true, even with the current set-up. The deals could be done in a day, if there was the will. There could be a moratorium on buying on the night of January 1 if the clubs agreed.
could they be trusted? Of course not. clubs are meant to act in good faith over poaching managers during the season, but that did not stop everton making multiple attempts to prise Marco silva from Watford. Why would it be any different with players?
West Brom manager Alan Pardew did not dismiss the idea of selling evans this January, but wished for the deal to be completed early so he would have time to line up replacements. And yet, with little more than a week to go, he remains in the dark about the future.
if football clubs really hated mid- season turmoil they could outlaw transfers altogether with a sincere handshake.
The game doesn’t actually need more rules, just greater self-control. Yet when has it ever had the heart for that?