Jason Burt Closing the transfer window early has backfired badly
I supported moving the deadline to before the big kick-off, but it looks like a costly mistake because top leagues in Europe did not follow suit
Last August, I wrote that closing the transfer window early was a “no-brainer”; that common sense had prevailed; that even if – as it transpired – the decision was taken unilaterally, it was the right one.
I was wrong. Very wrong – not in terms of the sentiment, but in terms of going it alone, and in terms of hoping that it would concentrate minds at Premier League clubs to get their business done early. How naive.
Stopping the buying and selling of players before a ball is kicked is an honourable idea. It makes complete sporting sense. But not if you are the only major league to do it; not when it prevents you from being able to buy players when Spain, Germany, France and Italy can trade for three more weeks until Aug 31, and can still try to sign players from England.
The vast majority of deals involve buying and selling from overseas, where clubs have therefore been handed a significant advantage because time is running out in England. Premiums – even bigger than usual – are being demanded.
The Premier League transfer window closes at 5pm on Thursday – just under 27 hours before the first game on Friday evening – after 14 of the 20 clubs voted for it last year. As with all Premier League rule changes it needed a two-thirds majority, and it got it, just. Manchester United, Manchester City – despite both their managers being in favour of the early closure – Crystal Palace, Watford and Swansea City voting against it, while Burnley abstained.
At the time, Watford warned it was a mad decision, one that would place the Premier League at a distinct disadvantage against the rest of Europe in competition for players.
The Football League followed suit with the deadline, but gave itself a significant get-out: players, including those from the Premier League, could be signed on loan, with a permanent agreement to be activated on Jan 1. Therefore its clubs can trade throughout August.
When the Premier League decision was made, other European leagues made noises that they would also close their window early. Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said he hoped the window would close across Europe on July 31. Others queued to say it was a good idea. That has not happened – not yet anyway. It may still end up being the case but, for now, England has gone it alone and decided to make things even more difficult for itself by doing it in a World Cup year, when the time available to do deals is reduced even further; when players are more elusive after being in Russia and then on holiday, and when those Premier League premiums are hiked even further.
It can be called the Yerry Mina effect. Barcelona bought the defender in January for £10.5million. He played just six times, and it became clear he was struggling with the step up from Palmeiras in Brazil to Barcelona.
Mina went to the World Cup with Colombia, though, and stood out with some swashbuckling performances. He played well, scored against England, and now Barcelona’s thoughts of loaning him out or selling him on if they can recoup the fee have grown into a potential healthy profit – especially once Manchester United showed an interest. Everton remain his mostly likely Premier League destination, but they do not want to pay the £30million now being quoted. Even so, Everton still need a centre-half and the clock is ticking.
Barcelona have the luxury of knowing that while, after signing Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal they have too many non-eu players and have to shed two, they still have until Aug 31 to move Mina on if a deal cannot be struck on their terms with an English club. Barcelona can afford to wait, and they know that Premier League clubs have the money and that they tend to panic.
Closing the transfer window early, therefore, did not get to the core of the problem, which is that too many clubs are chaotic in their planning and indecisive in their moves.
That accusation cannot be levelled at Liverpool, West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers or Fulham – whose business has been all the more impressive because they have had even less time after being promoted via the play-offs – but there are enough miscreants.
My hope was a stupid one: that a condensed window would not only concentrate minds, but would also remove the mad scramble by players and agents pushing for moves, or clubs pushing them out of the door, with injuries sometimes being feigned, after the competition has kicked off. Instead, prices, fees and wages have spiralled even further. More than £1 billion of business has been done and yet it feels like it has been a “quiet” window.
There is no rational reason why deadline day should matter, of course. Most organised clubs, and especially those in Europe, do not buy then anyway, and if anything it has become a television construct to whip up interest and almost goad clubs into action.
But instead of deciding to close the window early on their own, the Premier League clubs should have reached a gentlemen’s agreement not to trade among themselves once the season started. At the same time, they could have lobbied Uefa to introduce a Europe-wide agreed date to close the window early.
Going it alone has not worked and another unwanted repercussion will be the January hangover, when clubs will try to remedy the mistakes made this summer or clear up the business they failed to conclude now. It could make that transfer window even more frantic which, again, cannot have been the intention.
Everton do not want to pay the £30m being quoted for Yerry Mina, but Barca can afford to wait