Bielsa’s arrival shows Championship clout
IT’S a strange sensation when you are abroad and the season kicks off.
That’s the situation I found myself in a couple of weeks ago when I was on holiday in Spain. The goals are flying in left, right and centre, but you are not a part of it.
However, one thing it does do is give you a different perspective. I bought a copy of Spanish daily sports paper Marca and read a double page article on English football.
The main thrust was about the Premier League and whether it has gone crazy with the amount of money being splashed out to sign players.
It appears Spanish football has two different views on the actions of English clubs. One is the fear that their best players will be snapped up – and indeed a number of Spaniards have moved here this summer, no doubt attracted by eye-watering salaries.
The second is the hope, often well founded, that English clubs will spend silly money on their players. The feeling is that there is one price for the English – and another for the rest of Europe.
The article also mentioned the Championship. It said that the spending ‘virus’ also appeared to have been passed on to our second tier clubs.
It stated that Championship clubs had spent 178 million euros in the window and that made it the sixth highest spending league in the whole of Europe.
Sometimes when you are at home in the football bubble, you can take things for granted. It’s easy to overlook just how powerful the Championship is.
For starters, you’ve got former European Cup winners in Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa. Ipswich were UEFA Cup winners and Middlesbrough finalists. You’ve got the two massive Sheffield clubs – United and Wednesday.
We’ve lost Wolves this season, but gained West Brom. Cardiff have gone, but we’ve got Swansea. There’s Derby County, Middlesbrough, Norwich – the list goes on.
And I haven’t even mentioned Leeds United. Realistically, could a second tier club in any other country attract a manager of the stature of Marcelo Bielsa? It is highly unlikely.
But the Argentinian clearly knew how big a club Leeds were before deciding to take the reins. He can see the potential, the might of the Yorkshire giants. And he definitely seems to be awakening them.
As for La Liga, the coaches were delighted when the transfer window closed here and they still had the bulk of their best players ahead of the new season.
Anomaly
But it also highlighted an anomaly. While English clubs could no longer go out and buy players, foreign clubs could come and buy our players (if their wallets are big enough). That’s because the window across the majority of Europe closes at the end of this month. English managers used to complain about losing their top players after the season had started when the window shut here at the end of August, so that’s been sorted to a large extent. But it’s not entirely satisfactory when the rest of Europe is doing something different.
Perhaps the new transfer window system here has encouraged some of our top clubs to hang on to their young players until near the end of this month just in case there are European raids.
Accrington Stanley manager John Coleman told The FLP this week about having to wait to get the nod from Premier League clubs to sign their players on loan deals.
The whole transfer window situation is not entirely resolved. EFL clubs had until August 9 to make permanent signings, but can make loan signings until the end of this month.
It means there is a loophole where clubs can sign a player on an initial loan with an agreement in place to make it permanent in January. You can’t blame the clubs for taking advantage
THE cosmopolitan in nature of the players in Brentford’s the EFL was highlighted at Southend United 4-2 victory Cup in midweek. in the Carabao were Marcus The Bees’ goalscorers Said Benrahma Forss, Julian Jeanvier, from Mokotjo. They hail and Kamohelo Africa Algeria and South Finland, France, respectively. O’Connor, Michael It’s hardly Kevin and Paul Evans, Dobson, Lloyd Owusu the Bees keep winning, is it?! But if the to mind. fans aren’t likely ■